A 36 year old man in Detroit thinks it's okay to go around beating the crap out of a 15 year kid so he can get his hands on a video game. The man, Deion, was waiting in line at Gamestop to purchase Gears of War when the manager announced that they were running out of copies. So, logically he decided to push his way to the front of the line, have a confrontation, and proceeded to pummel a poor 15 year old kid for his copy of the game. The guy was arrested and the kid was taken to the hospital for his injuries. As for punishment, who's up for letting that kid have a chance to chainsaw old Deion in half?
Reports are coming to Xbox 360 Fanboy that many of our readers on the East coast are having trouble getting a copy of Gears of War. Readers report of showing up the morning of November 8th -- as instructed by EB/GameStop -- only to be turned away. Reader Mark FitzGerald sends this unfortunate message:
"The shipments were supposed to come in 11/7/06. Upon not arriving a pre-recorded message was sent to everyone's phone who made a pre-order telling them they could pick it up 11/08/06 at 10:30 a.m. EST sharp. Upon arriving this morning at many locations customers were surprised to learn shipments were "delayed" until the afternoon. but again at about 3:00 p.m. EST, calls were sent again to pre-order customers telling them due to a shipping error, the game again would not be available until 11/09/06 at 10:30 a.m. EST. They are giving a five dollar refund to all those who pre-ordered"
Other readers write in with similar shipping error stories. How about your neck of the woods? Does your local store complain of shipping problems? If so, were you offered any kind of refund or discount once the game finally shows up?
360-Deals has a list of some of the Gears of War deals available right now. If you've been patient enough to wait for your copy (or you were strapped for cash yesterday), you can get some decent deals.
Amazon.com - $59.99 Free shipping and No tax in most states
Fry's - $52.80 with Free shipping
Buy.com - $48.39 Shipped! using Google Checkout $10 off coupon during checkout
Overstock.com - $54.45 using 10% off coupon (must add non media item to order)
Target.com - 10% off plus Free 1 Month Gold Card with Regular Edition or Free 3 Month Gold Card w/ Limited Edition
BestBuy.com - Free Shipping and $20 off Xbox LIVE Gold 12 Month Kit
FamilyVideo.com - $44.99 plus shipping using coupon code
CircuitCity.com - Free faceplate with purchase
360-Deals also had a listing for the Asian version of Gears of War, but so far it has not been confirmed as region free. In other words, you're better off sticking with the US version. Anyone out there get a better deal or better bonuses?
Ever wonder what it would be like to be Cliff Bleszinski's brother? Do you find yourself caught up in all the Gears of War excitement and want to know where all the cool Gears fans hangout online? Well, Tyler Bleszinski is that guy who carries the label of "Cliffy B's brother" and he's on a mission to create the best Gears of War community online. Tyler has broken out from being the other brother and created one of the best Gears of War community sites on the net, GearHeads of War. I sit down for a friendly conversation about the launch of Gears of War, what special treatment he receives for being Cliffy's brother, why he created his fansite and where it's community is headed. You're formally invited to an interview with the brainchild of GearHeads of War, Tyler Bleszinski ...
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, announcing the 360 Fanboy Gears of War Play-a-thon. I'll be picking up the game this afternoon and playing the eff out of it. I can only assume that the other X360F bloggers will be picking it up in short order as well. By now, I'm sure you all know that multiplayer GOW is where it's at, so I ask you all to check out the offficial X360F leaderboard at MGC and find someone to play with, whether it be co-op or versus. If you'd like to play a few rounds with little old me, send a friend request to SenseiRAM (I know, I know, number 70 on the leaderboard). And since the leaderboard only holds 100 people, anyone who isn't listed can feel free to share their Gamertags here. So, go find a buddy an rev up that chainsaw, power your way through the campaign, or lay down some punishment in multiplayer.
Once we've all gotten a chance to play and get the hang of setting up custom games (if possible), we'll try and set up an X360F multiplayer frag fest later this month. Have fun and we'll see you on Live!
The day has finally come, and embargoed Gears of War reviews are pouring onto the internet. In case you were wondering, Gears of War is apparently the best damned thing since the discovery of fire. The reviews so far are universally good, with an average rating of 95 on Metacritic.
1UP (10/10) "...you really need to play this visual and visceral masterpiece for yourself. When you do, you'll find plenty of minor problems, just like I did...but you can always find reasons not to give a game a 10."
Gamespot (9.6/10) "Gears of War is a game that capitalizes on all of the promises made by the next generation of gaming. It looks more than a few steps beyond what consoles have been doing to this point, and the gameplay is supremely fulfilling from start to finish in all of its various modes. While there have certainly been plenty of similar shooters before it, the game's great weapons, amazing graphics, and absolutely thrilling action make it stand out from the pack in a big, big way."
IGN (9.4/10) "Even with the minor faults, Gears of War is easily a contender for game of the year. The graphics, sound and presentation are nearly unparalleled. The gameplay is phenomenal and you'd be hard pressed to find a more complete package. Gears of War has shown what Xbox 360 is capable of. Now it remains to be seen what other developers can do to keep up."
It should be noted that all of these reviews point to problems in the game. Most notably, they mention flawed enemy and squad AI, occasionally cumbersome controls, and very shallow multiplayer options, and yet, these universally acknowledged flaws are not enough to dip the score below 90%. We try to keep effusive, glowing praise out of our metareviews, but this game looks like it's shaping up to be the killer app it was always meant to be. Anyone lucky enough to get their copy yet? Tell us what you think.
With all the hoopla surrounding Gears of War's matchmaking system we've been led to believe that come Emergence Day we won't get to play ranked games with our friends on Xbox Live. Well, that's only partially true. The smart folks over at Microsoft's Applied Games Group try to explain the TueSkill matchmaking system that Gears implements for ranked multiplayer sessions. They state that the TrueSkill system doesn't allow you to play ranked games against your friends due to the possibility of intentionally throwing a game to increase anther's rank. (That makes sense, keep going.) The other dark side of the coin is that the system doesn't allow you to "party up" with your friends either, due to them wanting to keep TrueSkill valid and completely random. (That kinda sucks, anything else?) The bright spot in all of this is that the TrueSkill system doesn't prevent you from playing alongside your friends, since you'll share the same outcome as them, but it's all up to chance of the TrueSkill system that you'll actually be paired with your buddy. Hopefully this clears up some of the mystery surrounding the matchmaking in Gears of War ... or maybe I just made you all the more confused.
Update: Ok, after analyzing this more thoroughly it looks like Gears of War's rank isn't based solely off of your win/lose ratio, but takes into account numerous individual stats. So, the TrueSkill ranking system looks at players individually and not as a team, hence why you can't party with a buddy in ranked games. Thanks BenzMoney for your insight, but the outcome is still the same no matter who you want to point your finger at ... you can't play ranked matches of Gears of War with your friends in one party. Also, I fixed that evil spelling error and I love how you're keeping the new guy on his toes!
Let's see . . . games shipping this week . . . let's have a look. Hmmmm, we've got World Championship Poker: All In. Not bad, not bad. Let's see what else, Viva Piñata, ooh that's a pretty big one. And, oh, there's Call of Duty 3 and Project 8, those are huge games, too. We've got History Channel Civil War and Blitz: the League, those might be pretty good. Anything else? Let's see . . . nope. No, that's it, nothing else. Oh wait, there's another one here at the bottom. Um . . . Gears of . . . what is it, War? Is that it? Is that a game about Richard Gere? If it is, they spelled his name wrong.
If you haven't already reserved your copy of Gears of War, Target is offering 3 months of Live Gold with a pre-order of the Gears of War collector's edition. Effectively, this means the collector's edition will net you the collector's tin, bonus DVD, art book, and 3 months of Live for 10 extra bones. Not too shabby. The offer expires November 8th, so get it while the gettin's good. If you weren't planning on the collector's edition before, will 3 months of Live sweeten the pot?
Chris over at Gearheads of War posted a YouTube link of Megadeth's performance of their new Gears of War song from the Six Flags gaming session a few days back. I don't believe this is a video of the entire song and of course it's YouTube quality, but I can't make out a word of it. Actually, it sounds like a lot of electric guitar and screaming... but maybe that kind of music tickles your fancy. Anyway, it's Sunday and you're bored so go check out the vid already.
The creative genius' behind Gears of War have a little program they call Unreal Engine 3, have you heard? Well it looks like Digimask and their face mapping software is officially a part of the Unreal Engine. Digimask is the same company that incorporated face mapping technology using the Xbox Live Vision camera into World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions and Rainbow Six Vegas. You just can't help but to speculate whether or not our beloved Gears of War (which utilizes the Unreal Engine) will incorporate the new face mapping technology through a future auto update. Though the more I think about it, I highly doubt we'll see this happen because that would totally mess up the feng shui Cliffy B has painstakingly worked to achieve in Gears. We can always hope that we'll see some Digimask face mapping in the uber-hyped, Xbox 360 exclusive, Unreal Engine based game: Jazz the Jackrabbit 4.
Some lucky bastard named lamerla racked up four Gears of War achievements on Thursday according to his profile at Xbox.com. Anybody with a retail copy in hand start spilling your guts -- before we spill yours next week.
Sure, Gears of War makes a great videogame, but it makes an even better lunchbox. Joystiq got their hands on the first images of the impending tidal wave of Gears merchandise (all of these are made by Mad Catz). The image above is in fact not a lunchbox, but rather a "console crate," presumably for hauling your 360 to Gears of War LAN parties. It looks like there will actually be 4 different faceplates, with 3 of them exclusive to different stores. See each faceplate after the break.
We posted a link to some Gears of Warmultiplayer videos last night. Little did we know that Microsoft would soon ask GameTrailers to take them down. Understandably, many of our readers were disappointed. Lucky for them, nothing can stop the might of the YouTube generation. An enterprising young soul seems to have uploaded one of the videos for all the internet to see. Even better, this video was undecidedly one of our favorites. As a public service, we have embedded the video after the break. You'd best watch it while the watching is good. Enjoy!
This is just getting ridiculous. In a twisted version of a Klondike Bar commercial, some guy is so crazy about Gears of War, he got a tattoo. Like, a really real tattoo. The grisly design depicts a red gear emblazoned with a skull tearing its way through his flesh. According to Major Nelson (it's his Flickr account) this guy was actually flown in by MTV, claiming to be the most hardcore Gears fan alive. Let's hope the game lives up to its reputation, because this guy's arm depends on it! It's not like he'll be able to turn that thing into a heart with "MOM" in the center if the game turns out to be crap.
Have any of you gotten a GOW tatoo? Done anything else crazy in anticipation of the game?
Reports are coming to Xbox 360 Fanboy that many of our readers on the East coast are having trouble getting a copy of 
Ever wonder what it would be like to be Cliff Bleszinski's brother? Do you find yourself caught up in all the Gears of War excitement and want to know where all the cool 
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, announcing the 360 Fanboy Gears of War Play-a-thon. I'll be picking up the game this afternoon and playing the eff out of it. I can only assume that the other X360F bloggers will be picking it up in short order as well. By now, I'm sure you all know that multiplayer GOW is where it's at, so I ask you all to check out the offficial X360F leaderboard at MGC and find someone to play with, whether it be co-op or versus. If you'd like to play a few rounds with little old me, send a friend request to SenseiRAM (I know, I know, number 70 on the leaderboard). And since the leaderboard only holds 100 people, anyone who isn't listed can feel free to share their Gamertags here. So, go find a buddy an rev up that chainsaw, power your way through the campaign, or lay down some punishment in multiplayer.
The day has finally come, and embargoed Gears of War reviews are pouring onto the internet. In case you were wondering, Gears of War is apparently the best damned thing since the discovery of fire. The reviews so far are universally good, with an average rating of 95 on Metacritic.
With all the hoopla surrounding Gears of War's matchmaking system we've been led to believe that come Emergence Day we won't get to play ranked games with our friends on Xbox Live. Well, that's only partially true. The smart folks over at Microsoft's Applied Games Group try to explain the TueSkill matchmaking system that Gears implements for ranked multiplayer sessions. They state that the TrueSkill system doesn't allow you to play ranked games against your friends due to the possibility of intentionally throwing a game to increase anther's rank. (That makes sense, keep going.) The other dark side of the coin is that the system doesn't allow you to "party up" with your friends either, due to them wanting to keep TrueSkill valid and completely random. (That kinda sucks, anything else?) The bright spot in all of this is that the TrueSkill system doesn't prevent you from playing alongside your friends, since you'll share the same outcome as them, but it's all up to chance of the TrueSkill system that you'll actually be paired with your buddy. Hopefully this clears up some of the mystery surrounding the matchmaking in Gears of War ... or maybe I just made you all the more confused.
The creative genius' behind 
This is just getting ridiculous. In a twisted version of a Klondike Bar commercial, some guy is so crazy about Gears of War, he got a tattoo. Like, a really real tattoo. The grisly design depicts a red gear emblazoned with a skull tearing its way through his flesh. According to Major Nelson (it's his Flickr account) this guy was actually flown in by MTV, claiming to be the most hardcore Gears fan alive. Let's hope the game lives up to its reputation, because this guy's arm depends on it! It's not like he'll be able to turn that thing into a heart with "MOM" in the center if the game turns out to be crap.
