Cool, i hope we get some SP DLC soon that would be great.

Playing on Insane alone is almost impossible...it's real fun with a buddy though :)

Playing on Insane alone is almost impossible...it's real fun with a buddy though :)

And yes, Dom can get really annoying. Thankfully, he at least tries to crawl to you.

WOW you guys must be really good, i'm finding it really hard on Hardcore :(

Yeah Hardcore isn't so bad. I played through the campaign solo on hardcore. You just have to be mindful of where the locust are and be careful when popping your little head out to shoot em. Patience is key.

Gears of War 2 Title Update 3—March 24, 2009

A culmination of the tireless efforts of the Gears team and mounds of player feedback, this latest Gears 2 update is our biggest yet. Title Update 3 contains a bounty of additions ranging from new features and achievements to exploit fixes and matchmaking tweaks, with highlights below:

* New experience-based ranking system: The new system gives you 100 levels of player experience, gained through scoring in Public matches. The game still uses TrueSkill to set up the most competitive matches possible, but skill ranks are now hidden. Players who quit matches early see their experience docked as a penalty.

* Public Match autobalancing: Bots now automatically join a Public Match to fill any slots left vacant by players who quit early or disconnect.

* Improvements: You get region preference for matchmaking, improved standby detection, playlist optimization, plus nine new achievements—six of which require the Snowblind Map Pack—worth a total of 250 points.

* Exploit fixes: Title Update 3 eliminates the ability to mantle greater distances by swapping weapons during cover slide and to melee attack through walls while holding an enemy weapon, plus adding many more fixes.

* General fixes: These include more reliable chainsaw interruption detection, improved headshot detection for certain character model heads, improved flag AI in Submission games, plus other fixes.

* Balancing: Title Update 3 makes changes to Subway weapon spawns for greater balance, reductions to smoke-grenade stun duration, an increase to the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels, and several other balance revisions.

Of course, that’s just some of what’s in store for players in Title Update 3. For the complete skinny, be sure to check out the complete patch notes.


Snowblind Map Pack—March 31, 2009

Don’t worry, that rush of cold up your back is just the Snowblind Map Pack, a winter-themed batch of four new Gears of War 2 maps bound to crank up the heat on your multiplayer and Horde matches. The four maps are:

* Grind Yard, a massive industrial complex with low bunkers and high sniping positions.

* Under Hill, which takes players through snowbound tunnels and beyond.

* Courtyard, a wide-open battle royale.

* The popular Gears 1 map Fuel Depot, back with a blast of winter courtesy of Mother Nature, aka Epic Games.

Phew! That’s a hell of a lot of new content for one community blog post—all that typing got me winded. But it should be plenty to keep Gearheads everywhere busy for some time. The Gears team is always on the lookout for ways to improve your game, so keep your eyes on gearsofwar.com for more updates, and expect more on the Snowblind Map Pack in the very near future!

Microsoft just confirmed that the Gears of War 2 Snowblind Map Pack will release on March 31.

Gears of War 2 Title Update 3 Detailed Released Today - March 24th

The following fixes and improvements are included in Title Update 3.

Improvements
Title Update 3 makes these new improvements:

* Adds 100 levels of player experience that you can gain based on your score in Public matches. The game still uses Trueskill for matchmaking to find the most competitive matches, but the skill rank is now hidden. The new level of experience appears next to your gamertag, with levels 1 through 99 displayed as numbers and level 100 displayed as an icon. The game normalizes experience based on match type so that players earn an equivalent amount of experience across all modes.
* Adds an experience penalty for players quitting before a match is complete.
* Adds bots automatically to a Public Match if players quit and cause unbalanced teams. This ability has always existed in Private Matches if the bot count is set higher than zero.
* Optimizes playlists to only have two modes per playlist. Ties are decided by random selection.
* Adds the ability for teams to talk to each other between rounds in a Private Match.
* Adds the ability to save Public and Private Horde high scores after each complete wave, in case the host loses connection before failing or completing all fifty waves.
* Makes minor changes to general bandwidth usage.
* Adds region preference to matchmaking.
* Improves standby detection.
* Adds nine new achievements worth 250 points. Progress toward them starts after Title Update 3 is applied. Six of the new achievements require the Snowblind Map Pack, a set of four new maps to be released soon. The nine new achievements:

o "Rookie Gear" (10 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 5 (Public only).
o "Seasoned Gear" (20 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 15 (Public only).
o "Battle-Tested Gear" (30 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 25 (Public only).
o "Battle-Hardened Gear" (50 points): Reach level 50 and play a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).
o "Veteran Gear" (75 points): Reach level 100 and win a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).
o "Never Eat Red Snow" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Snowblind Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty).
o "Icy Dead People" (25 points): Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty).
o "Frigid Body Dynamics" (5 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).
o "The Weather Outside Is Lethal" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).


Exploit Fixes
Title Update 3 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

* A player could swap from a pistol to a two-handed weapon during a cover slide and then mantle greater distances.
* Players could kill themselves in Wingman to avoid giving their opponents more points. Now, suicides and team killing will reduce team score.
* A player holding a meatshield could melee through some walls.
* A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a shield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol.
* A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a meatshield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol.
* A player could prevent planted shields from being picked up by other players.
* Players could launch themselves into the air with a smoke grenade while mantling.


General Fixes
Title Update 3 fixes these other issues as well:

* An issue that caused chainsaw interruption when a player is shot to be less reliable in some body positions than in others.
* An issue where a third player could join a Public Wingman party lobby and remove another player from the game.
* An issue in Submission games where occasionally the meatflag would immediately run back to the spawn point after being dropped.
* An issue where players that were knocked down but not out (DBNO) while planting the Boomshield would appear to be standing.
* An elevation-based issue where the detection for a headshot might not align properly with certain character model heads.
* An issue that could cause Wingman teammates to have different character models.
* Additional miscellaneous bug fixes.


Balancing
Title Update 3 makes these balancing changes:

* Reduces stun duration of smoke grenades. Currently, characters always start to get up after 2 seconds.
* Gives melee the same delay after roadie running that shooting received in Title Update 2.
* Removes spawn protection from the Horde in Horde mode.
* Increased the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels so that players with Lancers equipped won't be sawn from the side without a duel.
* Reduces the delay before a player can climb up after entering low cover.
* Makes minor changes to weapon spawns on the Subway map to provide greater balance.

I'm hoping for some kind of singleplayer DLC announcement at GDC. Imagine how awesome it'd be to have a short 'Pendulum Wars' campaign, so you can experience what happens to Marcus and co.

Interesting to see Variety expecting no Gears of War-2 level announcements at GDC. They are wrong. Stay tuned.