Mailbag is Open!! The Planet Gears of War mailbag is once again open! Feel free to bombard us with your random crap and we'll answer your questions (or suggestions) here on the site! More >
Gears Reviews! Gears of War is out (almost) everywhere, and we've posted our full review of the game to find out the good and bad about the game.
We've also got a selection of fan reviews posted over here, so you can see what the people on the Internet think. And that's always good to know. More >
Massive Assault Net 2 On FilePlanet: Hardcore multiplayer sci-fi battles await on distant planets. Try it!
Epic Games Interviewed We talk to Mark Rein + CliffyB about the past, present and future of Gears.
Gears of War Weapon Guide We look at the fragging potential of each of the weapons in Gears, as well as where you’ll want to use them, and where you won’t.
Beware the locusts. They will come from the ground……stay tuned for alerts!
Today we stand proud amongst the ruins of Sera, beware chosen one for Raam is watching you
The time is almost here. We fight in your domain. 24.12.06. Be prepared
Inhabitants of Sera, we shall complete your annihilation on the above domain. Come and prepare for your final destruction!
We wait for you.
In the meantime, we should know what'll be in the Gears of War pre-Christmas patch sometime soon.
Update: The guys on Xbox 360 Leagues have discovered a website for this viral campaign at TheAboveDomain.com, which features the title "Re-Emergence Day", together with an some concept art and "12-24-06". The domain is registered to a fake company based in the Gears of War universe. The domain was registered on July 2nd 2006, indicating that this campaign was planned a long time in advance.
A video game champion has been crowned as today "Gears of War" made history by becoming the fastest-selling next-gen game of 2006 and the fastest-selling exclusive Xbox game of all time.
Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games Inc. today confirmed that "Gears of War," the Xbox 360-exclusive title, has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide since its release six weeks ago.
"'Gears of War' clearly has won the battle for the title of the must-have game of the year," said Richard Teversham, Director of Platform & Marketing, Home and Entertainment Division EMEA. "Its phenomenal success is one of many reasons why Xbox 360 is the ultimate place to get together with friends to play this Christmas."
"We've always held high hopes for 'Gears of War,' but we never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response from critics and gamers all over the world," said Michael Capps, president, Epic Games. "I can't describe how stoked our team is right now. Our fans can absolutely count on Epic to keep delivering new gameplay through Xbox Live."
In addition to being the must-have video game of the holiday season, "Gears of War" continues to rage on the Xbox Live battlefield as well, with more than 1 million unique gamers engaging in 10 million online gameplay sessions and unlocking an impressive 7 million achievements. On top of being the No. 1 title on Xbox Live, "Gears of War" has driven new members to the network; paid registrations per day have skyrocketed more than 50 percent since the game's launch.
Thursday, 14 December, 2006 – Gears of War News
Gears of War Crowned King of Game Sales, Iron Fist, France, The Hill 15:45 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News According to NPD Group's sales statistics, Gears of War was November 2006's top-selling game on any platform in the US. Two Final Fantasy games also graced the list, XII (PS2) in second place and III (DS) at 13. For the uninitiated, Final Fantasy is a series of games about chocobos and getting randomly attacked walking through forests while controlling a cast of androgynous, jifftastic misfits.
Other notable entries include Zelda on the Wii (3rd), Guitar Hero 2 (4th) and New Super Mario Bros (16th), which is still clinging on to a top-20 place seven months after its release.
No Microtransactions for Gears Content 15:32 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News Kotaku is carrying a story about Epic Games' confirmation that, unlike some games, Gears of War's downloadable content will be completely free (no microtransactions or Microsoft points required).
This is reassuring in a world where the likes of EA, Sony and even Microsoft are using this route to squeeze more money out of gamers (I'm looking at you, Lumines Live), however it shouldn't come as a surprise given Epic's impressive track-record with Unreal Tournament bonus packs.
Gears Patch News 'By End of Week' 11:01 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News A post on the official forums by Epic VP Mark Rein indicates that more information about the contents of the upcoming Gears of War patch should be known by the "end of the week". This doesn't mean the patch itself will be out by the end of the week, just that we should know what bug fixes it'll contain and when it'll be released by then.
In our recent interview, Mark mentions the early holiday shutdown of Microsoft certification (which ironically should have caught these bugs to begin with) as a factor which could affect the patch contents and release date.
Electronic Gaming Monthly, or EGM as it’s more commonly known, is expected to reveal some very interesting industry secrets within its upcoming issue. Amongst the Sony and Nintendo related story’s there are some little gems about Microsoft’s plans for the future.
Apparently Microsoft is planning to alternate between Gears of War and Halo, much like they are doing with PGR and Forza. This means GOW 2 will be released after Halo 3 eventually finds its way onto store shelves and Halo 4 should be unveiled after that. They are obviously hoping that a constant rotation of their 2 major game series will help to ensure that they maintain some dominance over the market.
Monday, 11 December, 2006 – Gears of War News
New Poll: Which Locust would make the best pet? 12:20 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News This week's poll (see right sidebar) asks which of the Locust horde would make the best pet. Perhaps you'd like nothing better than a loveable Brumak to call your own. Or maybe you'd prefer to fly around on your very own Reaver...
Thanks to everyone that voted in last week's poll. Gridlock topped the vote as our readers' favorite map, with Mansion coming in second.
The game was arranged and played by two Gears-loving employees after-hours at a movie theatre. The 360 was hooked up to the auditorium's digital projector and sound system, giving us a decent picture with booming audio.
Gears Scores Four VGA Awards 13:21 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News While blockbuster RPG Oblivion scored the top prize at last night's 2006 VGA Awards, Gears of War came away with an impressive four wins - Best Shooter, Studio of the Year (Epic Games), Best Graphics and Best Multi-Player Game.
In other news, Daedra worship is reportedly becoming increasingly prevalent on the Sumerset Isle.
Gears Tournament At The CPL 21:42 PST | redef | Print News | Mail News The Video Gamers League has announced that they will be holding a series of console-based tournament at this year’s CPL 2006 Championship Finals. Naturally Gears is set to be one of the tournament games and is scheduled to occur December 18 at 10:30 am in Dallas, Texas. For some additional details check out the Video Gamers League website.
Planet Gears of War: In terms of pure hardware horsepower, how much of the 360’s power does Gears use? Are we seeing the limits of what the console’s capable of?
Cliff: The games that leverage the most of any console are always later in the cycle of the system’s life. This is the first Xbox 360 game that Epic Games has shipped. I somehow suspect that future Epic and Unreal Engine titles will be even more beautiful and compelling on the platform.
Mark: I think we pushed the 360 as hard as we knew how to push it during the development of Gears but, even as principle tech development on Gears finished this fall, we’ve already identified areas of improvement and further optimization we can make on Xbox360 so, as Cliff points out, we’ll get better and better throughout the entire generation. We’ve now got the same kind of learning/development curve going on with UT on PlayStation3 as well.
More here, including Brumak, giant spiders and the "umbilical crackpipe".
