Gears of War map pack 1 coming Jan 10th.

Thanks to the Discovery Channel, the first map pack for Gears of War will be offered up on Wednesday, Jan, 10. for FREE.

The Gears of War Map Pack #1 will contain two new maps for the versus multiplayer mode. The maps are 'Raven Down' and 'Old Bones.'

Raven Down


Old Bones

Gears of War patch announced

Epic Games announced today it will roll out an update for Gears of War tomorrow, Tuesday January 9, 2007, ahead of the release of the Map Pack 1.

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

Microsoft Exec inadvertantly confirms Gears of War trilogy

Epic games has made it a point not to comment on the future of the franchise, but now Microsoft has let the cat out of the bag.

In an interview with GameDaily, Jeff Bell, the Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business unit at Microsoft, has accidentally confirmed that the publisher plans a trilogy of games set in the Gears of War universe. Speaking on the “Mad World” commercial, Bell said:

"The goal of this ad is to establish Marcus Fenix as the hero of the Gears of War trilogy."

I think that the ending of Gears of War pretty much confirmed that there would be a sequel so this news isn't too surprising. But, the news is interesting nonetheless.

Maximum Moisture

Here's a funny comic from Penny-Arcade. It pretty much speaks for itself.

Gears of War patch in the works.

Ray Davis, Gears of War's Lead Programmer, announced over the weekend that Epic Games is already working on a patch to fix the connection issues Gearheads are experiencing when playing multiplayer. Under his fufu alias, Davis said:

yes, a patch is in the works to address the connection issues as well as several other bugs that have been reported. not sure on an exact eta, but it won't be long...

Hopefully the patch will fix some of the cheating. Let me know if you've encountered cheating or other connection problems. It' sounds like it's widespread.