Emergence Day was supposed to be a celebration. A celebration of chainsaws, headshots, and curb stomping. It looks like it was a celebration of something else entirely: cheating. Remember the hubbub about not having friends in ranked matches of Gears? It looks like it was all for naught, as getting into ranked matches with your friends is easy as hell. All you have to do is host a game and your friends find your name in the host list. So, in pursuit of points and prizes, there were plenty of stacked teams yesterday. Gamer Andy tells of a particularly nefarious exploit using 5 people. "But GOW uses teams of four," you say, and right you are. The fifth person is actually on the opposite team, a saboteur for whatever clan is trying to rise to the top of the leaderboards.
That not cheatery enough for you? How about the fact that the host has the power to start the match at any time, whether all members have clicked "Ready" or not? This makes it easy to stack games with uneven teams of 4v3 or even 4v2. Easy, ranked pickings for anyone.
But wait, there's more. Another nasty exploit can be employed during execution matches. In execution, players can only be killed via curb stomp or execution. After a predetermined amount of "bleed out" time, a downed player will simply revive. So, cheaters start by stacking a 4v3 game, execute 2 opposing players, and leave a third alive. The third player is then shot down, but not executed. Why? Because downing a player is worth more points than executing them. Once the player revives, cheaters shoot him down again, wait for him to revive, rinse, repeat. This continues for the duration of the round. This also leaves the victims with an unfortunate choice: quit a ranked match and risk negative feedback from cheaters, or stay and endure fruitless minutes of death and rebirth.
We'd like to believe that all this cheating was merely for the sake of winning some of the Emergence Day prizes, but we know better. Sure, cheaters may have hoped for a prize, but they would have cheated regardless. The unfortunate truth is that some people are just jerks (especially Pod 6).
A lot of these problems could be solved simply by tweaking the lobby system -- not displaying host names, not letting hosts force start matches, etc. Hopefully, this will be addressed in the upcoming patch. Has anyone experienced these exploits online?
The RoboBlitz contest train keeps a-rollin' along. Now, before we get started with today's contest, it's time to announce Friday's winner. And the winner of a women's large T-shirt is ... Jack Lukic for his Green Eggs and Ham inspired quote:
"Look a box,
inside is a fox!"
Congratulations, Jack. Now for today's contest. RoboBlitz has cool robots. We like robots. We're betting that you like robots, too. So, today we'd like you to make one. No, you don't actually have to build one -- this isn't BattleBots. Just leave a comment about your dream robot. Give it a name and describe what it does. The winner will receive a large men's RoboBlitz T-shirt. Also, we know some of you have been holding out for XL sizes. Well, fear not, for they are coming. We still have a men's and women's XL to give away. In the meantime, start dreaming up robots.
Update: This contest is now closed. Please click here to see the winner and enter the latest contest.
It's been a very long wait, but the day has finally arrived. By now you've had your copy of Gears of War for a few days, put in some multiplayer time, dabbled a little in the campaign, and mastered the art of the cover system. Hopefully you had a good nights rest, put on extra deodorant, bought some eye drops, and fed your hamster, because you've been summoned to play 24 hours of Gears of War on Xbox Live. Don't fret for you are strong, the locusts are no match for you ... it's November 12th and Emergence Day 2006 has arrived. Jump online, win some cool prizes, download exclusive content and most importantly kick the Epic development team's ass. Sera needs you soldier, get to it!
Microsoft continues to assail us with images and descriptions of the games in Fuzion Frenzy 2. You may remember from our last batch of screens that FF2's games are divided among different planets, each with its own theme. This week's shots come from the water themed planet, Moisture, and the casino themed planet, Amuseth. The game pictured above is Over the Falls, which requires players to push the appropriate button to jump to the next log, or else get swept (you guessed it) over the falls. See more images and game descriptions after the break.
Okay, first thing's first: yesterday's winner is (drum roll) Beezer, for his comment, "Just turn a glass full of water around! Pretty impressive, isn't it ?" That's something pretty fun you can do with physics, I guess .... Anyway, on to day 2 of our fabulous contest. Today's contest is for the ladies (or anyone who wants a woman's shirt anyway). The shirt to be given away is a large women's T-shirt. This one is a lovely sky blue with dark blue collar and sleeve cuffs, and Blitz in the middle. It's oh so attractive and the boys will just love it. So, let's see, we need a contest. Ooh, ooh, I know! RoboBlitz has a catchy hip hop theme song, so let's do something in the spirit of song. To enter today's contest, all you have to do is leave a comment that rhymes. By the way, that means you will have to use at least two whole words. Get rhyming and good luck. Our (random) winner and our next contest will be announced on Monday.
Update: This contest is now closed, to see the winner, click here.
General contest stuff: Only one entry per person. Winners will be contacted via email in order to obtain shipping information. This contest is open to residents of the United States only.
If you we able to focus at all when you opened your copy of Gears of War, you may have noticed a flier advertising a multiplayer demo for Lost Planet. The card merely reminds you to "Check out Xbox Live Marketplace for new multiplayer demo!" and does not bother with specific dates. Enter Capcom with this announcement: the Lost Planet multiplayer demo will arrive on November 23rd, an obscure American holiday we call Thanksgiving, during which we collectively ingest thousands of turkeys. Some of us even eat the giblets ... *shudder.* The multiplayer demo supports 16 players online, and should give eager gamers a chance to see what Lost Planet has to offer.
Also, in a move probably inspired by Dead Rising's phenomenal demo-to-sale conversion rate, retailers will begin taking pre-orders for the game starting the next day, cleverly dubbed "White Friday" by Capcom. Should you opt for the now obligatory collector's edition, you will be given access to a new map, which will available to the regular edition schmucks for free by summer 2007. And, if that wasn't enough Lost Planet for you, expect to see trailers for the game before this holiday season's biggest movies like Casino Royale.
The revelation of the extra map's availability answers some questions we raised about the collector's edition. Basically, you're paying ten extra dollars for a metal case, art book, and early access to a free map. Is that worth it? Is anyone still planning on getting the collector's edition?
Many people are understandably upset that they can't play ranked matches of Gears of War with their friends. After all, Halo 2 spoiled us on this feature, and most assumed it would be standard on a game as big as Gears. Unfortunately, thanks to the workings of the TrueSkill system, ranked friends matches are a no-no. Don't resign yourself to this grisly fate just yet, though. Numerous sites around the net are latching on to a few choice words from Epic's Mark Rein, featured on Gamer Andy. When asked about the current matchmaking system, Rein had this to say:
"Yeah, Microsoft came to us and said there would be a lot of cheaters if we did it that way so for right now this is how it is. In the future we might roll out some additional functionality."
Could ranked friends matches be in the cards? We hope so. If non-ranked matches is all we'll ever be able to play with our friends -- in Gears or any other game -- will it change your feelings about Xbox Live?
GameTrailers has released a new video of Small Arms, one of the most anticipated games on Xbox Live Arcade. The video shows an entire round of play and gives a great overall impression of what it will be like to play the game. What we love most is how much noise each character makes. We especially like hearing the characters scream when they're on fire. Nice touch, Gastronaut. Now how about actually releasing the game? Let's say, oh, next week? See the video after the break.
We invited our readers to playGOW together this week, encouraging them to check out our leaderboard and make friends. Many of you were disappointed that the leaderboard was full (they only allow 100 people per board), so we decided it was time to add another leaderboard and expand our community. Introducing the Xbox 360 Fanboy Leaderboard Mark II. It's just like the other one, except it features our would be mascot created by Alan Fowle for last month's Luminescontest (pictured on the right). If you couldn't make it onto our first board, head over to MGC and register. If you've already registered for the first one, there's no need to register for the second. Before you go, we need a name for our mascot (assuming Alan is okay with us using it). Allow me to make the first suggestion: Button Face. See? You can do better than that, right?
File this one under "They took it down so it must be true." According to 1UP, a 2D version of Team17's Worms series is coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Furthermore, it's actually complete and awaiting certification from Microsoft. To prove their assertions, 1UP posted a link to the Team17 forums, supposedly confirming the game's existence. It went a little something like this:
"Plans for announcements are being discussed with MS next week, hold tight. The game is in final certification stages btw, yes it's pretty much all finished apart from any last bugs they find. MS has a schedule of releases and we'll soon find out how we fit into that"
It looks like someone spoke too soon (and presumably outside of NDA), as the post has since been, ahem, altered. It now reads,
"Tom has a small todger."
So, is Worms coming to XBLA? Probably. Will it come out this year? We don't know for sure, but we'd say not, considering MS has a pretty solid lineup, um, lined up. Worms would definitely fit on XBLA. The gameplay is simple yet addictive, and it's turn based, so you won't have to deal with nasty lag. Anybody else up for some Worms on XBLA?
The image above contains two screenshots from an online co-op game of Contra. The picture on the left was taken by one player, and the picture on the right was taken by the other ... at the same time. In the words of Wired Game|Life, "XBLA Contra Co-Op Play Is F**ked Up" They're not the only ones who noticed either: IGN seems to be having the same problem. We haven't replicated the problem here at Fanboy Towers, simply because we've been too busy playing Gears to pay for Contra. Has anyone else out there experienced this problem? If you wanted Contra for the online co-op, you may want to wait for Konami to fix this problem before you pay for the full version.
Joystiq recently got their grubby little hands on the new Xbox 360 Wireless headset. Just to be nice to the Youtube generation, they've done away with the need for silly printed words and have created a video review of the device. For the record, I didn't really want one of these. I didn't really see the point. But now ... now I want one with a furious passion. Still, there are a few things to consider. One, this headset uses proprietary wireless technology (read: not Bluetooth), so you'll only be using it for your 360 (why, oh why can't someone make a Blutooth adapter?). Second, seeing how it wraps around the ear, I'm not sure how comfortable it would be for those of us who wear glasses. Three, it retails for $59.99 (though it can be found for less). Ouch. Still, it is a sexy little piece of kit. Anybody out there pick one up yet? What do you think?
Some of you may recall that I was a little jealous of the RoboBlitz shirt that Naked Sky gave to Gamertag Radio's Godfree. It looks like Naked Sky's Tian Mu (who we interviewed yesterday) was listening, because he sent us not one, not two, but five T-shirts to give away. We have three men's shirts and two just for the ladies. Starting today, we'll give one away every day. What do you have to do to win? Well, we're not sure, but we'll think of something new every day.
Today's T-shirt is a men's large. Bearing a picture of Blitz the robot on the front, and the RoboBlitz title smartly emblazoned on the right sleeve. RoboBlitz is all about physics, so if you'd like to have this shirt as your very own (your preciousssss), all you have to do is tell us something fun you can do with physics. You know, things like kicking a ball, using a lever, or curb stomping a Locust. So, think something up, leave it in the comments, and we'll choose a winner completely at random. If you don't win today, just come back tomorrow. And if you don't win tomorrow ... well, then you'll have to come back Monday, but still, that's an awesome shirt, right? Get to it and good luck.
Update: This contest is now closed, and we are on to Day 2. Check out our new contest here.
General contest stuff: Only one entry per person. Winners will be contacted via email in order to obtain shipping information. This contest is open to residents of the United States only.
The other day a select few Xbox Live users were contacted by Microsoft for a little survey fun. And yes I agree with you, normally surveys are yawn inducing, but this survey was extra special as it revealed new products and ideas Microsoft has been planning. Xbox Live users were asked their opinion on various new products including an arcade joystick, a mini keyboard that connects to your controller, a premium black controller, a web browser, and a rundown of various pricing options for new content and media. I know I'd love to get my hands on that sexy black controller, but which of these new products would you like to see hit retail?
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?
Emergence Day was supposed to be a celebration. A celebration of chainsaws, headshots, and curb stomping. It looks like it was a celebration of something else entirely: cheating. Remember the hubbub about not having friends in ranked matches of Gears? It looks like it was all for naught, as getting into ranked matches with your friends is easy as hell. All you have to do is host a game and your friends find your name in the host list. So, in pursuit of points and prizes, there were plenty of stacked teams yesterday. Gamer Andy tells of a particularly nefarious exploit using 5 people. "But GOW uses teams of four," you say, and right you are. The fifth person is actually on the opposite team, a saboteur for whatever clan is trying to rise to the top of the leaderboards.
We invited our readers to 
File this one under "They took it down so it must be true." According to 1UP, a 2D version of Team17's Worms series is coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Furthermore, it's actually complete and awaiting certification from Microsoft. To prove their assertions, 1UP posted a link to the Team17 forums, supposedly confirming the game's existence. It went a little something like this:
The other day a select few Xbox Live users were contacted by Microsoft for a little survey fun. And yes I agree with you, normally surveys are yawn inducing, but this survey was extra special as it revealed new products and ideas Microsoft has been planning. Xbox Live users were asked their opinion on various new products including an arcade joystick, a mini keyboard that connects to your controller, a premium black controller, a web browser, and a rundown of various pricing options for new content and media. I know I'd love to get my hands on that sexy black controller, but which of these new products would you like to see hit retail?
