WBX: Gears 2 Game Crazy Launch in full effect

WBX: WinBreak Exclusive
After our special report yesterday, Special Events reporter ButtonMasher79 decided to follow up to see how the launch went. She followed up with a few pictures, as well as the following report.

A full 100 people were expected and received for the Gears2 launch party at Game Crazy in Lakewood, CA. Gaming began at 9pm with a LAN-style player vs. player tournament with a total of four systems operating simultaneously. Customers were adding funds to their accounts so the transactions would flow smoothly and quickly. “The turnout is what we expected, it’s great for a weeknight and we’ll get more coming in tomorrow,” said Store Director Stephanie Armstrong. Game trivia, balloons, and giveaways peppered the evening and proved entertaining for all.

Down the street, GameStop had closed their doors and posted a sign that read “midnight launch tonight.” There were about thirty people waiting in the 55 degree ocean-cooled air in their fold-out chairs on the dark sidewalk.

A 20-minute drive from Lakewood is Universal CityWalk where a GameStop hosting Major Nelson and representatives from Microsoft. GameCrazy customer and editor-in-chief of BreakingTheGame.com Andrew Carr (pictured above with store manager Stephanie Armstrong) said he preferred this venue because he wouldn’t be guaranteed access to the dignitaries and thought that this location would be “a lot more fun.”

District manager Juan Rodriguez was working the sales floor and offering the strategy guide for 20% off with purchase of the game. “We overcame a lot of challenges to get here tonight but we’re glad to be here now,” he said, having arrived from the airport with the copies in-hand at 11:15PM. The existing copies will probably sell out by tomorrow at noon but the store anticipates replenishment as soon as Saturday.

Sara Culver, Special Events Reporter for WinBreak.com

You can view a few more pictures in the Gears 2 Lakewood Launch photo album.

WBX: Gears 2 Launch @ LA Game Crazy almost ruined!

In the darkness of a Federal Express warehouse, a crime affecting LA area gamers is alleged to have occurred. “I awoke to a call from my district manager saying all my Gears of War 2 copies had been stolen,” said Stephanie Armstrong, Game Crazy Store Director in Lakewood, California. Investigation is pending with Federal Express and law enforcement but it appears likely that a warehouse worker has absconded with the property. “We wondered why we didn’t get the shipment yesterday, but some companies will only ship overnight for delivery on release day.” She says this is sometimes done to maintain street date.

An anonymous source has indicated that he purchased a copy of Gears2 at a 7-Eleven convenience store. “They didn’t scan my game, they just scanned a generic bar code they had on a piece of paper and took my money.” The bar code is a unique product identifier that would electronically reflect the date and time that particular product was being sold, “by using a generic code it would be possible to circumvent the street date and the store can just scan them all out after midnight,” said the buyer.

Juan Rodriguez, District Manger for the LA Market, Game Crazy intends to pick up an emergency shipment at the airport this evening to make copies available for customers at the midnight launch. No word on the Collectors Edition copies yet but Game Crazy will do their best to make things right for their customers despite the malicious acts of a third party criminal.

Sara Culver, ButtonMasher79 and LA Special Event Reporter for WinBreak.com.

Gears of War 2 ViDoc #1: "Touch the Sound" – download it here!


Yesterday saw limited release of some Gears of War 2 promotional videos! “Touch the Sound” is the first in a series of ViDocs – and this one, of course, dealing directly with the sounds in the game. I’m quite excited to see it, myself!

Here is the official press release:
Today, Microsoft releases “Touch the Sound,” the first in a series of video documentaries that showcase the development of “Gears of War 2.”

“Touch the Sound” features interviews with Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski, senior producer Rod Fergusson and “Gears of War 2” soundtrack composer Steve Jablonsky (composer of the “Transformers” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” soundtracks). They describe the impact of the rich variety of audio in “Gears of War 2,” from the sound design to the voice acting and musical score.

Additional video documentaries will follow in the coming weeks, leading up to the worldwide November 7th launch of “Gears of War 2,” the Xbox 360 exclusive sequel to the 5 million selling “Gears of War.”

Then fun part is that I was given the opportunity to download multiple versions of these videos – some had improper capitalization (the “I” in the word “VIdeo”), and misspellings, and the other video package was corrected. True, this could be simple typographical error, or a drunk employee, but the fundamental difference is that one package is 4MB Larger, and is rated by the ESRB. One claims it is “No ESRPB” – whatever that may mean!

Any way, knowing my audience, why waste time with the ESRB rated crap, eh? I haven’t watched them, but knowing CliffyB (I will continue to use that name), these non ESRB ones will contain Not-Safe-For-Work (NSFW) language, and copious amounts of gore. Maybe there’s just no ESRB tag at the beginning of the video? Like I said, I haven’t had a chance to watch and compare. But for now, here are your links:
WMV Download in 480P (78.5 MB)
WMV Download in 720P (283 MB)

Keep in mind, this isn’t “Touch the Sound,” the documentary about Evelyn Glennie, the deaf percussionist. 😉

Slow in the wake of GDC? Let's catch up…

I admit, my posting has been a bit lacking after GDC. I have been crushed with work, and various technical problems with hardware at home (seems like everything from my laptop to my cell phone turned on me this week!). But that’s no reason for you to suffer, is it? This post is going to be a bit more editorial in fashion, just trying to cover a broad range of topics.

X3F: Misguided April Fool’s looks foolish?
So, after this weeks fiasco of Ask X3F (Xbox 360 Fanboy), there has been a small community backlash. It seems it’s a bit early for April Foolery. Many people found humor in the moment, but a lot of others were disgusted when Dustin hijacked the segment and intentionally tainted the image of many X3F’ers. “My Ask X3F hijacking is going to be rude, crude and so very un-helpful (is that even a word?),” he wrote. A user by the name of Graham even commented “X3F lost a lot of credibility when David Dreger left.” His comment was voted down, but I can’t help but think that, no matter how light and humorous the intention was, that a “professional blog” (if there is such a thing?) such as one under the umbrella of Joystiq should never intetionally “ruffle feathers” like this.

Gears of War 2: Where’ve you been all my life?
People have been suggesting that Gears 2 feels “rushed.” Well, fear not. Much like the first Gears, portions of the game are being “contracted out” to partner developer teams (certain multiplayer game types, map designs, etc… [side note: man I wish Psyonix would get a better webmaster!]).

CliffyB’s announcement that the first game was “a set up” to introduce you to the Gears universe is quite believable. While Gears 2 may feel rushed, if it were planned quite a while ahead, it could potentially live up to all things expected of it. Remember, the engine may have changed, and they may update a few textures and what have you, but for the most part, the game is built. It’s running on the same hardware, which they’ve already pushed the limits of once, expecting them to do so again is maybe expecting too much. Still, with some fine tuned mechanics and an even more involved story line, we are entitled to expect a lot from Gears 2!

LucasArts: Thank you.
Yes, we all know about Force Unleashed, but I would like to bring to your attention another LucasArts game that was recently announced and completely overlooked, Fracture. The story line is a little rough, but should prove to entertain. The game has the graphics and the setting that makes you feel like you are early in the history of the Mass Effect universe. And with their new “terrain deformation” mechanic, I think this game is going to be extremely entertaining. Oh, and incase there isn’t enough linkage today, here’s just one more for Fracture.