[Dakar V]

If you've played since they introduced the new smokes, nothing major has changed since then.

[Stogieman]

Dark Corners & All Fronts was released today. Is anyone getting it?

[KCrosbie]

I just saw it online today. I'll probably get it. $20 is a good price, especially since I didn't waste it on the previous map packs. Are there new achievements with these?

[Dakar V]

Having the Map Pack as a Players' Choice playlist is an exercise in sado-masochism, but I have to say Horde grew on me quite a bit this weekend. I gained nearly 5 levels.

'Course, that'll change once double xp wears off.

[Stogieman]

When does double XP on Horde end?

[Dakar V]

Tonight.

Edit: Looks like I gained around 100,000 xp this weekend, only 200,000 to go...

[Stogieman]

Figures. I'm not getting the new DLC until Thursday.

[Dakar V]

Meh, I fired this up last night, got stuck on two DC maps on Horde from the get go then turned the xbox right back off.

I'll be around to do the Road to Ruin with you co-op.

[The Final Dakar]

Saw you guys gaming last night. I'll be happy to help you this weekend, but if you guys wait til next, they just announced double xp for it.

[Stogieman]

GEARS 2 HEATS UP LABOR DAY WITH A DOUBLE XP EVENT
posted 8/28/2009
Got plans for this Labor Day weekend? Cancel them, because you’re going to be busy gearing up for battle in a Gears 2 multiplayer double XP event! From September 4 through 8, earn double experience for all games, plus an experience bonus of 500 for the winning team in a Public competitive multiplayer match. Plus, in Horde, matches default to Hardcore difficulty, with every tenth wave populated entirely by Sires. Get ready for action!


Nice, looks like I'll be playing more Gears next week.

[Rumor]

I'll try to be around as well.

[The Final Dakar]

Alright, who's on tomorrow night? stogie gonna even have internet at his new place?

My only goals for the weekend are Gold Rush to 10 and any Snowblind to 50. Other than that I'm up for whatever you guys need.

[Stogieman]

Yeah, the Internet is up and I finally got my TV mounted on the wall. I won't be on tonight because my brother is getting married (Not KCrosbie, the one that works for 2k Sports). I should be on for tomorrow night.

[The Final Dakar]

I won't be on until late Saturday night, if at all.

[Stogieman]

Well, double xp weekend has ended. I was able to boost my rank up to 39, just short of my goal to 40. Would have made it too if I didn't waste so much time trying to get the last remaining map for the Annex achievement (Flood). I think it's safe to say that the only time I'll be playing this game is during double xp weekends. I'm going to try and finish up my COD: WaW campaign achievements before ODST drops on 22nd.

[Stogieman]

For those of you that still care about boosting your rank:

"All Hollows' Eve" Double XP Event - 10/30 to 11/2

Hey all,

To celebrate Halloween and the release of Title Update 5, we figured it was time for another double XP event weekend.

Of course that means starting on the morning of Oct 30th you will recieve double XP in competitive multiplayer and Horde as well as a team winning bonus.

Beyond that though we wanted to mess with the waves in Horde to try and make it appropriately "scary" for Halloween. So while Butchers seemed on target for the theme, they didn't provide enough umph to make it scary. So we thought, what if any of the many Boomers could attack on any wave and when possible, a full Boomer squad consisting of Grinders, Butchers, Flame Boomers and regular Boomshot Boomers could appear and attack all at once. And of course waves 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 would be nothing buy wave after wave of Boomers. Sounds scary and fun to me!

For those of you scoring from home, you may notice that I didn't mention the Maulers (aka the Boomers with exploding flail and shield). That's because for this event we're pulling them out. We figured what is the fun of having a massive Boomer onslaught when you can just plant a shield to block them off. So unless the shield is part of the map, you're on your own!

Have fun and I'll see you online!

Thanks,

Rod.

[Stogieman]

Oh and here's the fix list for Update 5. Nothing special but I did bold the items I thought were important.

TU5 has passed certification and we're now just waiting to hear when it will go live! It may be as early as 5 AM EST on Friday (Oct 23) or as late as 5 AM EST on Monday (Oct 26). Once TU5 has rolled out and fixed our security issue then the leaderboard cleanups will begin.

Here are the official release notes -

Gears of War 2 Title Update 5 Detailed Release Notes

The following fixes and improvements are included in Title Update 5.

Improvements


Title Update 5 makes these new improvements:
Adds the ability to view friendly-planted grenades in Tac/Com.
Removes the cringe caused when a smoke grenade forces a player to drop a meatshield.
Adds bonus points to the winning leader's score in the Guardian game mode if the leader successfully survives the winning round.
Changes the postmatch Invite button to only invite former teammates, so a player can create parties more easily instead of trying to create a Private Match that includes both teams from the former match.
Returns the roadie-run camera movements to the way they were in Gears of War 1 by decreasing the dampening values.
Exploit Fixes


Title Update 5 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:
A player could modify the game's behavior due to a security vulnerability introduced in an earlier title update.
A player could use a turbo controller to artificially maximize their rate of fire.
A player could mantle a planted shield in competitive multiplayer to hide inside geometry or to travel outside of the map. The ability to mantle shields was removed in competitive multiplayer but remains in Horde and Campaign.
Title Update 5 also fixes a number of other, lesser-known exploits.

General Fixes


Title Update 5 fixes these other issues as well:
An issue that contributed to the "sticky walk" problem, where a player's avatar could stutter after the player picks up a weapon.
An issue that could prevent players from hearing the "boom" telegraph from Boomers.
An issue that could cause looping audio to continue playing after the player who triggered that sound is killed.
An issue that could cause multiple names to be highlighted yellow on the scoreboard instead of the name of the player viewing the scoreboard.
An issue that prevented the game from granting the earned experience points from the fiftieth wave of Horde.
An issue that caused players at level 100 to see the "congratulations" message after every match.
Title Update 5 also made additional small bug fixes.

Thanks,

Rod.

Yay! No more turbo controllers. I might win a chainsaw match now.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

For those of you that still care about boosting your rank

Yeah, that be you.

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

Oh and here's the fix list for Update 5. Nothing special but I did bold the items I thought were important.

None of these items are important, because no one plays the game. Last time I checked the forums the air of indifference was mildly startling. Even GoW2 fans don't care anymore.

[sek929]

GoW2 is a lot like Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 for me.

They are games I bought out of respect for the fun I had playing the previous versions, yet bored quickly due to the similarities to the games I already tired of. Not to mention the hideously buggy and unreliable GoW2 matchmaking solidified it in the 'do not want' category.

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Yeah, that be you.

There's no way I'm going to 100% this game thanks to that stupid Veteran Gears achievement. Once I hit rank 50, I'm calling it quits. (This may take me a couple of double xp weekends.)

[Stogieman]

Well I spent a whopping 15 hours this past weekend to get from rank 39 to 50. I even got that elusive Annex achievement. Lucky me. Anyways, does anyone want to help me with my last 2 horde achievements so I can finally put this game to rest? KCrosbie?

[The Final Dakar]

Which ones? I can probably help during the weekend.

[Stogieman]

Thanks but I'll probably have the achievements by then.

Waves 28-50 on Nowhere

Waves 24-30 on All Fathers

[KCrosbie]

I'll help out if you still need it. When I got on last night at 10:45, you had already signed off. Sorry for getting on late.

[Stogieman]

Ok, so I may need your help after all Dakar. No one wants to do horde achievements now that triple xp is on.

Friday, November 6, 9 AM EST, through Monday, November 16, 9 AM EST, Gears of War 2 gamers get a nine-day multiplayer extravaganza. In addition to triple experience throughout the event, players will be able to play in an all-new tactical mode across all multiplayer game types (including Horde). Players can expect two big changes in tactical mode, increased weapon damage and reduced ammo counts, along with a few subtle tweaks such as increasing down-but-not-out health so revives are still possible. Also during the event, Public Horde’s difficulty will be bumped to hardcore, and playlists can include individual game types—meaning you can play exactly what you want, when you want. Prepare for the challenge, and more than ever, remember to take cover!

Gears of war 2 anniversary event annouced triple xp

[The Final Dakar]

...why don't they want to do horde achieves with trip XP?

Anyway, this might be enough to get me to make that final push to 50, so lemme know. Can you help me with 2 of mine?

[Stogieman]

All the boosters I play with just want to continuously play wave 1 on security. No one wants to do waves 28 to 50 on Nowhere.

Yeah, I'll help you with your achieves. How far off are you from 50?

[The Final Dakar]

Example 1a as to why boosters are lame.

I think I'm 48. But that's not what I'm worried about. I need to do the stupid one of the Ice Maps 1-40, and kill 25 Bloodmounts (I might have 8). We're definitely gonna need a third and probably fourth though.

[Stogieman]

Oooh, I need the Bloodmounts achieve too. I can probably get my brother and another friend to join us.

[Stogieman]

So when do you want to meetup for Horde achievements? I'm available pretty much all weekend except Saturday night from 5pm to 10pm PST.

[The Final Dakar]

Saturday during the day, Sunday too, if we have to. sek's supposed to be on during nights, and I think I'm pretty much gonna do Borderlands when he's on.

[Stogieman]

Alright. I'll be on around 10am PST.

[The Final Dakar]

That's fine. Feel free to wait til 11 if you want. If I'm not on, don't panic– I'll probably be checking on my Dahsboard on my MacBook for you.

[The Final Dakar]

Posting this because its hilarious:
Big Fat Gears Of War 2 Update & Cheap 'All Fronts Collection' Incoming - Xbox 360 - Kotaku

Improvements
Title Update 6 makes these new improvements:
Adds the ability to join Horde sessions that are in progress.

Exploit Fixes
Title Update 6 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:
On the Subway map, you could get outside of the playable environment by sliding into cover and rolling between a train car and the side of tracks.
Players could grief other players on Submission, Annex, King of the Hill, and Guardian games by preventing the objective from being completed while racking up experience. Title Update 6 adds match time limits to each of these game types to prevent this practice.

General Fixes
Title Update 6 fixes these other issues as well:
An issue that could cause your profile to be overwritten, erasing XP level, and achievement progress.

Balancing
Title Update 6 makes these balancing changes:
Changes the Gnasher Shotgun pellet pattern to increase hit consistency.

These changes might have been handy, oh, a year ago.

[KCrosbie]

Jesus, they must really want people to continue playing this game. They're offering 8x experience on all game types from July 1-6. Horde mode waves 1-9 will have all tickers and wave 10 will be all boomers.

I may actually have to blow the dust off my disk and play.

[The Final Dakar]

I might be in for a few hours, so long as you faggos don't do the Level 1 - destroy, Level 2 - all die, retry gayness again.

[Stogieman]

This time we'll just do Levels 1 to 9 - Destroy, Level 10 - All Die, retry gayness.

I like having Tickers only for Horde mode. I don't have to rely on you ****ers to complete levels 25 -29 on the All Fathers map. (My last horde achievement for the game.)

I wonder how long it would take me to rank up from level 50 to 100 with 8x XP.

[The Final Dakar]

Too long, I assure you.

I think I need to finish one of those Ice Maps to 50.

[KCrosbie]

I am so down. When do you all wanna hook up? I can get on around 8:15 pacific time any night.

[KCrosbie]

How about friday 8:15 pacific time we all hit it up?

[KCrosbie]

Ok since nobody hooked up on the 8x event, how about this...

20x bonus XP event from July 22-25

Jesus! Come on, we gotta hook up for this!

[Stogieman]

Holy shit. Level 100 may be attainable after all.

[The Final Dakar]

Hey, I tried July 4th weekend, but scumass here had to be a good brother and visit you without his disc. Also you were getting your tip wet in RDR.

[sek929]

Eh, even 20 times XP isn't enough for me to play this game.

[The Final Dakar]

How about for a Klondike bar?

[sek929]

I am intolerant of lactose.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by sek929 

I am intolerant of lactose.

And shitty gameplay.

[Stogieman]

Well I already signed up with a boosting party over at xboxachievements.org. Consider me unavailable for other games between July 22 - 25. We'll see If I can rank up from 50 to 100.

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Eh, even 20 times XP isn't enough for me to play this game.

Yeah. You should exchange if for Burnout Paradise.

[KCrosbie]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Hey, I tried July 4th weekend, but scumass here had to be a good brother and visit you without his disc. Also you were getting your tip wet in RDR.

He was housesitting for our other brother and yes he forgot. I waited for him but he flaked.