Free new Gears of War content coming next week!

I'm not even a big Gears fan. I have steadfastly noted I was dissapointed with it. However for whatever reason the two new levels suddenly brought back to me how great the graphics are, so I posted about it.

I am now kind of excited about Gears 2 I must say, as well. Though I hope for plenty of improvements, not least I want to fight Brumak.

And yeah, I'll stand by that current graphics (RELEASED games) dont get any better than Gears.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
back on topic :rolleyes:

Update
A Gears of War update should start pushing through the system at some point tomorrow, Tuesday January 9, 2007 prior to the two new multiplayer maps being available on Xbox Live Marketplace on Wednesday January 10, 2007. The maps, plus an introductory video featuring Gears designer Cliff Bleszinski, are free thanks to the kind sponsorship by the Discovery Channel's Future Weapons series which launches next Monday January 15th, 2007. Be sure to check out the show to see some really cool firepower. I expect game designers all across the country will be watching that series very carefully looking for ideas for their future games

Here is a list of what was addressed in this update:

• Fixed aspect ratio distortion when using VGA cable with 4:3 displays at resolutions higher than 640x480
• Fixed voice issue with new players joining Player Match games in progress
• Players can now get the Achievement for "Dish Best Served Cold" when using Troika turret to kill RAAM
• Fixed rare situation where host could loop countdown and never start match
• Fixed rare situation where players could get stuck after chainsawing in multiplayer
• Reduced Grenade Tag melee distance
• Enabled “Strict†NAT check on host to prevent possible connection issues
• Optimized server browser queries to return results more quickly and prevent scroll bars from hiding quality of service icons
• Reduced number of possible revives in Execution to match Warzone
• Removed host name from Ranked match server browser
• Disabled security cameras in Ranked matches
• Ranked matches now require balanced teams (3v3 or 4v4)
• Increased penalty for quitting a Ranked match to -50 points
• Added additional cheat detection code
• Additional housekeeping updates
Click to expand...
Two New GoW Maps FREE

* Raven Down: A Raven Helicopter has gone down in the middle of a large scale battle with the omnipresent Locust Horde. Gears have taken out the Seeder and gamers join Delta Forces moving into the crash site from all angles to search for survivors.

* Old Bones: In an attempt to eradicate any traces of human history and culture, the Locust Horde has emerged under Sera’s Capitaline Museums and has begun to destroy them brick by brick. Each gamer’s mission is to help the Delta Force recapture the museums before all remnants of humankind’s existence are obliterated.
Click to expand...
 
It would be interesting to start a thread on what "locked" means, but I think it is a semantic that is illdefined. Is GOW locked at 30fps? Yes, Yes, and No. Yes, as it won't spike up to 60fps (i.e. locked to peak at 30fps). Is it stable at 30fps? For the most part, Yes. Is it always 30fps? No.

If we consider "locked" as absolutely NEVER dropping a frame from the sequenced framerate (tearing would be another factor) that I dare say very, very few modern games are locked in at a set framerate. I cannot think of the last 3D game with good graphics that was absolutely stable under every circumstance.

Which makes me think locked may be kind of redundant outside of maybe discussing the target framerate. Maybe terms like "stable 30fps" or "mostly stable 60fps" etc would best, but even then it can be subjective to a degree. Different eyes and all.
 
Hardknock said:
I'm guessing we can expect Heavenly Sword to be silky smooth with no framedrops hopefully? :)
Click to expand...

this is doable, HS is a lot simple compared to gow when I look to envirorments, models, shadows from what I see in his last videos, I don't think nAo and his team will have problems to do it smooth for the launch date
GOW is a whole different game, it's the best graphics ever made (until crysis arrive ND), it run on an engine that is not made for the 360 (it's a porting from the UE3 PC in a year of time) and the result it's however really awesome


I don't think that we'll see mark rein or cliffy b. bashing Heavenly Sword trying to find invisible defects in any of the forum boards, keep it fair, devs

and this is a Gears of War thread, please try to avoid more comparison with other games, keep it clean from FB please, you know how much some persons are sensitive to their favourite system ;)
 
MasterDisaster said:
this is doable, HS is a lot simple compared to gow when I look to envirorments, models, shadows from what I see in his last videos, I don't think nAo and his team will have problems to do it smooth for the launch date
GOW is a whole different game, it's the best graphics ever made (until crysis arrive ND), it run on an engine that is not made for the 360 (it's a porting from the UE3 PC in a year of time) and the result it's however really awesome


I don't think that we'll see mark rein or cliffy b. bashing Heavenly Sword trying to find invisible defects in any of the forum boards, keep it fair, devs

and this is a Gears of War thread, please try to avoid more comparison with other games, keep it clean from FB please, you know how much some persons are sensitive to their favourite system ;)
Click to expand...

So you just compared the games in the beginning of your post, but said not to compare the games at the end of the post? :LOL: ok.

But anyways, yeah... those two new maps look sweet. :D
 
I played both maps today with my friend. I didn't care for the library level, whatever its name was. Raven Down was interesting. We took a look around the map, noted a couple things, and then noted how crappy the trees looked. I take it they either didn't care about how simple they looked, or didn't have time and wanted to get the maps out. After a few minutes the exploration turned into smoke grenade tagging my friend, only to be explosive-granade tagged back. It's alright, though, as I made sure to stick close :p. Ended up going a couple rounds on there, and I have to say I had fun, despite not really caring for MP. I'd say I liked it better than some of the other maps, since it was almost elegant in its simplicity. A couple areas yielded excellent places to lancer my friend from or pop out and grenade tag my 'im. Explosively delicious.

Bolding Mine
MasterDisaster said:
this is doable, HS is a lot simple compared to gow when I look to envirorments, models, shadows from what I see in his last videos, I don't think nAo and his team will have problems to do it smooth for the launch date
Click to expand...
I'm becoming convinced that, even if one is in the industry, it can at times be very, very difficult to measure the technical accomplishments of a game engine from screenshots and a few short clips, especially when they're from Work In Progress builds and of "average" areas. What would that mean for people who've never worked with any of it?

GOW is a whole different game, it's the best graphics ever made (until crysis arrive ND), it run on an engine that is not made for the 360 (it's a porting from the UE3 PC in a year of time) and the result it's however really awesome
Click to expand...
One might even take such a fact to mean that, just perhaps (regardless of how good the game "looks"), said game does not have the best graphics ever made, from a technical POV.
I don't think that we'll see mark rein or cliffy b. bashing Heavenly Sword trying to find invisible defects in any of the forum boards, keep it fair, devs

and this is a Gears of War thread, please try to avoid more comparison with other games, keep it clean from FB please, you know how much some persons are sensitive to their favourite system ;)
Click to expand...
Oh, how very true, how very true. I think most of us here do, in actuality. ;)
I believe we all occasionally have that biased suggestion pop into the back of our minds. I hope we all try to cast aside all that stuff, though, and attempt to remain as objective as possible. Degree of success, of course, depends on the individual.

One might even call it being "dominate of one's biases." :)lol: )
 
TurnDragoZeroV2G said:
I played both maps today with my friend. I didn't care for the library level, whatever its name was. Raven Down was interesting. We took a look around the map, noted a couple things, and then noted how crappy the trees looked. I take it they either didn't care about how simple they looked, or didn't have time and wanted to get the maps out. After a few minutes the exploration turned into smoke grenade tagging my friend, only to be explosive-granade tagged back. It's alright, though, as I made sure to stick close :p. Ended up going a couple rounds on there, and I have to say I had fun, despite not really caring for MP. I'd say I liked it better than some of the other maps, since it was almost elegant in its simplicity. A couple areas yielded excellent places to lancer my friend from or pop out and grenade tag my 'im. Explosively delicious.
Click to expand...

I have found both new levels to be entertaining. I will have to say that I enjoyed Old Bones more then Raven Down.

The courtyard in front of the museum screams for some nice battles. I felt a little to cramped in Raven down.

My guess is you have your settings on 'vibrant'? And come on, if you are stuck staring at trees, you deserved to get tagged! :)

Oh and...Free=Good. Please send along some more free updates/maps!
 
AntShaw said:
But, you didn't answer the other question...You using 'vibrant' as your video setting? While it makes everything 'brighter' i find the game looses some of its 'crispness' with using this setting.
Click to expand...

I have played with vibrant before, but it's been default since I got my Xbox back.
 
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