Gears of War FAQ

[Madfish]

This FAQ is now largely out of date - I'll do some work to improve things... but do we still need a GOW1 FAQ??

Well, it's about time we get a nice fat juicy (and er sticky) FAQ about Gears of War on these forums. It'll be very useful as things start heating up over the next few months coming up to release - and indeed perhaps even beyond. I'll kick off - post anything you'd like me to add to this main body; and enjoy! In addition to this FAQ, check out Havoc's FAQ on the Official XBOX GOW forum - he focuses more on the story and background, it's good stuff.

Please note : I won't be updating this FAQ with post-release information and fixes until about the 19th November, once the dust has settled on the UK release. I'll be steering clear of the forums post US release to prevent spoilers!

1.0 - Release Dates and DEMO
EVERYONE and their DOG should now know that they game is being release for distribution on 7th November 2006 in the US. This means the game will be in STORES in the US for 12th November (yes, a Sunday) with suitable fan fares and smashing of drums. There is speculation it may appear a few days earlier than the 12th in overly-zealous stores who receive it early. Start buttering up your store managers now!

Demo
There will be no demo prior to release. Lets face it, this is going to sell like a hot cakes, so it's unlikely a demo post release will be needed for a number of months. In addition, the team do not have the available man power to fashion a demo and the full game. You want a demo now? Then we won't see the full release until next year, and it'll be all your fault!.

European release - The friday of the same week, on 17th November 2006. The Collector Edition will be coming to the UK (confirmed by Mark Rein) but I think retailers are being hesitant until their suppliers say so. Keep looking on Amazon etc...

Australian release - I could be entirely wrong, but I believe its a week later on the 24th November.

2.0 - Features
Some of the exciting twirly bits we can drum up excitement to the non-GOWing philistines out there.

Co-op Play
You'll be able to play through the single player campaign with another buddy (2 players, for those who can't count). Significantly, your pal can join you even if you are already playing a "single player" game - he comes on line, you fire of an invite and BAM in he comes and controls Dom (Agent Smith like). Consequently Dom Santiago will always be with you in the campaign. Note this differs from other co-op games which tend to simply "clone" the lead character. Co-Op (as will other multiplayer modes) will be available split screen, system link (akak LAN) or through Live.

Cover system
The primary game play mechanic, Gears implements a cover system allowing various complex activities. The design direction gives the cover system a very visceral "meaty" feel; shoulders slam against walls, bits fly off under fire etc - making it far improved over any fore runners (GRAW for example). Gameplay treats the cover such that you will almost use it as a character would in a platform game - popping from cover to cover to advance through a zone whilst under fire. Other elements such as dynamic cover and destroyable cover will keep things varied.

Active Reload
An optional mini-game based on reloading click timing can either improve your weapons damage temporarilly or - if done badly - jam your weapon for a second. Jamming is also accompanied by a curse / noise - making it a tactical queue to your enemies and allies alike! It will work like so; you press the RB to begin reloading - somewhere during the reload process (marked by a vertical bar moving across the ammo indicator, left to right) the ammo indicator will flash for a fraction of a second - hit the RB again to receive the bonus (decreased reload time and increased damage). The damage affect will last to the end of the current clip, or for X seconds (ie you if your out of combat for a while the bonus is lost). The muzzle flash will include a blue heat edge to it to indicate the extra power. Every consecutive time you attempt active reload it becomes harder to time correctly.
Source from this post by CliffyB.

Advanced AI
It's not just a case of popping out of cover and shooting. Those evil locusts will out flank you, retreat, aid each other, shout insults and the fricking rest. It's going to be awesome. Those who've played UT2004 at LANs with bots filling the ranks won't be surprised here - Epic is well accomplished at some of the best AI in the business (god damn fanboi).

Chainsaw
We've all seen it. The human "Lancer" comes with a chainsaw esq blade under the barrel. Get in close enough to an enemy and hold "B" to engage the attack.

• Chainsawing can be interrupted by allies if you're taken down - this has to take place before the animation is X time through
• They have made chainsawing more difficult since E3 2006 (where it was first debuted).
  
  • The chainsaw must be started up before hitting the enemy.
  • Getting shot (even by a single bullet) while using the chainsaw will make you stumble / stall the chainsaw
• The chainsawing animation is set to the front (face to face). Cliffy has confirmed the locust will twist around to face you (more intimate).
• The chainsaw can be revved without any target by pressing B, including plumes of fumes from the weapon. Awesome.

Mark Rein has recently inferred there maybe some additional weapons in the single player campaign that have not been discussed to this stage! No further information available, and he might have been pulling Arcanes leg.

Mature Content
Lots of blood, lots of swearing, with kick a$$ dialogue! Volumetric blood and blood splats on the "camera" will ensure a gore-tastic experience! It has been confirmed however that there is an option to turn off "Extreme" content - blood become sparks, and gibs are removed - which works in MP and SP.
Source for blood splat on "camera" post here by CliffyB

Emersive "better than hollywood crap(tm)" story
Years in the making, the story will be kick ass. We don't know many details, and I won't go into it here. The lads at Epic have poured there very souls into this baby (Cliffy being the main originator, so expect some f&*ked up stuff! ). Professional voice over add to the stories weight.

3.0 - Technology
Engine
Gears of War is utilising the most recent (since they wrote it!) Unreal 3.0 engine. Mark Rein has said GOW will be the main showcase for what the engine can really do!

Loading times
The Unreal 3.0 engine allows for streaming of level data - in a similar way to how the Halo series deals with level progression. Epic do not want us to see loading screens. Thanks to multithreading (below) this shouldn't even be noticeable as we play through the single player campaign without a loading screen.

Frame rates
During the 1UPYOURS pod cast, Lee attempted to pin down CliffyB for some frame rates, sighting the sometimes chopping rate in the E3 demos. The engine has since been optimised and significantly configured to perform multi-threading (more than one process at once) giving good performance boosts. Quite how much remains to be seen, but the target is to have a steady 30 fps (60 fps just ain't gonna happen).

Decal and body stay
Decals (bullets holes, blood splats) will remain for relatively short periods of time, certainly based on the E3 demo. In a similar way, bodies appear to vanish reasonably quickly, though again the E3 demo indicated this may be out of view. These are unfortunate facts, but a necassary trade off to ensure good frames per second and available video resource when they're needed. Fufu has confirmed that the engine needs to "clean" away bodies to maintain framerates, however it does its hardest to ensure it happens of screen wherever possible.

V-Sync
The game will have VSync enabled. However, this will be a dynamic VSYNC implementation which will allow the game to remove VSYNC if the frames drop due to heavy load in order to raise frame rates. This will be extremely rare and will not be noticeable except by new born babies or ninja's.

Ragdoll and physics
The game will feature ragdoll physics, including gibbing and movement / damage to corpses on the ground (for example, you can push around bodies on the ground by walking over them).

4.0 - Single Player Campaign
The single player campaign will be broken into 5 acts, each with mutliple chapters. All acts can be played 2 player co-op at anytime. Play time has been estimated at 10 hours, based on IGN's closed door preview at the TGS. [Source : http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/734/734793p1.html]

5.0 - Multiplayer
Split Screen
Split screen will be available, but no more than 2 per TV / XBOX 360. split screen can be used in system link games, however it has not been confirmed if they can play across LIVE in this way. [Source : http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/734/734793p1.html]

System Link
System link has been confirmed in this post here. Good work SE7N! Of course... didn't they need system link support for all the MP demo's they've been doing?

Co-Op
You will not be able to team kill whilst playing co-op through the multiplayer campaign. Co-op will be available via system link, split screen or XBOX live (see Features above). Only two players can play co-op at once.

PvP
Excuse the MMO term! Currently only Team Deathmatch on small maps has been confirmed (technically, last man standing). Maximum of 4v4 players will create intimate shoot outs on the well designed maps. Epic has said GoW is being developed with a 70% / 30% balance to single player campaign (and co-op!) / multiplayer development time.

Communications
There has been no confirmation of how communications will be handled in multiplayer matches. The use of lip sync (still strictly unconfirmed by Epic in these forums) would infer communication is mainly "local" and therefore can be heard by the enemy. No information of whether voice masking will be on by default for Locust players or if private team channels will be implemented.

Maps
10 Maps have been confirmed at this time.

Canals - A level in which the player runs around, feet in water, underneath a small mini-bridge. the torquebow is in the middle.
Clocktower - (No information yet)
Escalation - series of terraces; one team starts at the top, the other at the bottom; bottom team aided by sniper pick-up
Gridlock - narrow street with bombed out cars for cover (playable at E3)
Fuel Depot - warehouse bases; cargo crates for cover; exploding fuel silos.
Mansion - "haunted house"; destructible cover; choke points: courtyard and foyer
Mausoleum - circular; a series of rings, the outer being a graveyard; design lends itself to match draws
Roof Tops - (No information yet - the return of Morphius?
Tyro Station - watch out for the bullet train
War Machine - (No information yet)

Character Customization / Skins
Colour or other customization will not be possible - however you can select your player model (locust or COG based on your side) at the beginning of each round with the bumpers. Currently confirmed models are;

COG

• Minh Young Kim
• Col. Hoffman
• Marcus Fenix
• Augustus Cole
• Damon Baird
• Dom Santiago
• Carmine.

Locust

• Theron Guard
• Drone.
• Trokia gunner
• Theron sentinel

Respawning
There will be no respawning during multiplayer at launch. Due to its impact to the cover dynamic, this is unlikely to be available.

Game types
The following game types have been confirmed at this point (thanks to DFS).

• Warzone: 4v4 Elimination (aka Team Deathmatch with no respawns)
• Assasination: Your team needs to kill the opposing team's leader. Only the team leader can pick up the special weapons around the map. The highest ranking player on the side will be selected as the leader. The leader model for the CoG will be General Hoffman - for the locust it will be Grom.
• Execution : Players cannot be killed by normal ranged damage while DBNO. They will also not "bleed out". In order to kill a DBNO player you need to get close to them and finish them with a curb stomp, the chainsaw or a gun to the head. Awesome.

Epic are being quite quiet about multiplayer; that could mean they have some surprises or that it's going to remain quite limited game type wise. Unfortunately bots will not play a part of multiplayer on release - the hope is they may be available as part of the downloadable content strategy.


Clan Support
Mark Rein has confirmed there will be no clan support on release. Don't be so surprised here - remember that Clan support needs a database infrastructure for it to work, and that takes time and money to setup. This will be mitigated by the low game sizes (4v4); it will be relatively easy to hook up with 4 friends. In addition, there is some speculation (a big RUMOR on that one) that XBOX LIVE may be modified at a later time to support clans natively.

Game Preparation Mechanics (Lobbies)
There will be two types of match; Ranked and non-Ranked. For none ranked matches, you can create either a all public match (which will be filled by people searching for games) a public match with private slots, or an all private match. For example, if I want to play with me and 2 other buddies, I set up a public match with 2 reserved private slots and send invites to my pals. They join, filling the private slots; public players fill the remaining slots. Me and my private slots will remain in the same games, round on round, game on game (no need to re-invite). Second hand info here from a JoeGraf post, should be accurate.
In ranked matches you will not be able to designate who you play with or against - this is a requirement of Truskill, used by Epic for ladder rankings.

Death mechanic
There will be no traditional health bar, rather a red omen that appears indicating you are close to death. There is limited regenration, but details are sketchy. Once you do get taken down you will not immediately die - rather you will enter a "Down but not out" mode for approximately 10 seconds (Rod quotes 20 seconds at E3). During this time an Allie can bring you back into the fight or an enemy can finish you off with normal damage, a "curb stomp" to the head (press X for CurbStomp), the chainsaw or a gun to the head at close range . The dying player needs to press A to keep his heart pumping during this period! Head shots, gibbing or chainsawing will kill the player instantly, bypassing DBNO.

Ranking
Rank points will be available through damage caused, chainsaw kills, grenade tags, number of team mate revives etc.

6.0 - Controls and Camera
Preferences for stick orientation (pull down to look up, or push up to look up) are set in the game itself when you first take control of Marcus - Dom asks you to look at a torch to check your sense - however you choose to look at the torch will set the preferences! (In the words of Marcus - "Nice!"). You can also change the sensitivity of your sticks within the option menus (turn speed etc), as well as "Southpaw" Configurations (ie switching which stick does what).

• R-stick - Look
• L-stick - Move
• A - Cover / Roadie-run (For getting in and out of cover and Roadie-running)
• B - Melee (Hold to rev the chainsaw)
• Y - Point-of-interest-indicator
• X - 'Action'-button (Reviving team mates, curbstomping locust and probably opening doors and picking up ammo)
• R-trigger - Fire
• L-trigger - Aim (Where it get's slightly zoomed in)
• RB - Reload (and "Active Reload" mini-game).
• LB - Objective / Squad status.
• Directional pad - Change weapons.

Thanks to jackrubyn for the list!
Theres also a screeny of the control summary hand out from the E3 multiplayer sessions here

I *think* (great factual grounding then) you will only be able to hold 2 weapons + pistol during all play types. This has been a proven mechanic in many games to date. An added thing for Gears is the unused weapon will be visible on your back (ok a few other titles like PlanetSide have done this already).

Camera
Gears features an innovative camera which helps convey the games blockbuster atmosphere. In most circumstances the camera is in a third person "Resident Evil 4" position however it changes under various conditions, for example.

• Roadie Running - Pressing the "all move" key without any cover and pushing forwards will get the character the hunker down and run - half crouched - forwards. The camera moves back to behind the character and shake convincingly. This obscuring of the view is intentional to emulate your characters "head down" and thus limited visibility in this stance.
• Aiming - Pressing the left trigger will zoom the camera to immediately beside your characters head and introduces the aiming reticule. The camera is steady, allowing you to aim well. Note, this also partially raises you over cover (and importantly, its your head!). The side of your head the camera sits is based on which side of the cover you are; cover to your left, the camera will be to your right etc. It's unclear if the default side (when shooting over cover) can be altered in options.

[Madfish]

7.0 - Weapons
Characters will be able to carry 4 weapons at any one time; 1 pistol, 1 grenade type and two large (rifle / carbine) weapons (1 in hand, one on the back).

Thanks to M005E and Unreal Havoc for the info
There are at least 13 split into 3 categories of weapons - Coalition ones - usually shiny and higher tech; and Locust ones - lower tech, cobbled together; and finally Stranded ones - old military issue leftovers. Here's the weapons we know of so far;

• COG weapons: Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Lancer (assault rifle with chainsaw bayonet), Longshot (sniper rifle), Snub pistol, Frag Grenades, Smoke Grenades, Flash Grenades, Hammer of Dawn (laser guided orbital platform weapon, as in the E3 trailer - in some multiplayer maps!), Gatling gun (may only be on the King Raven, unclear if it will be free wielding!).
• Locust weapons: Hammerburst (assault rifle), Boomshot (aka rocket launcher), Torque bow (Crossbow that shoots grenades that explode on impact).
• Unconfirmed weapons: Flamethrower

You can melee with most weapons, including grenades (which can get stuck to the enemies head) [confirmation here].

8.0 - Game play
Achievements
Achievements have been released! Rather than list them here, check out this link for a full run down.

Will there be head shots?
Oh yeah baby. Check out this! It looks like in single player - depending on game mode - locusts will go down with a single head shot once their helmet is removed. In multiplayer, it will take "several" shots to drop another player (I'm guessing 2-3) unless already damaged by team mates. Hitting the head with a normal weapon will also cause more damage, so it's always the best option.

Campaign Difficulty level
There will be three levels of difficulty in the final game; Casual (Easy), Hardcore (Normal) and Insane (DEATH TO ALL GROUND WALKERS!).

Death
There is no traditional health bar - when you're near death the crimson omen (ok, a cog) appears in front of you (certainly based on the E3 mp build). A screen is here. Once you buy the farm, the screen goes red as you drop - screen shot here. During multiplayer games the dying player needs to press A to keep his heart pumping during this period to maintain a "down by not out" state, allowing buddies to come and revive them.

Crouching, Prone and Jumping
Cliffy has confirmed there is no jumping (who the hell jumps in combat?) and free standing crouching - remember that "crouching" is included in the taking cover activity. No one in the right mind would crouch in combat without being behind cover. There is also no prone (head shots anyone?).

Hitting body locations
It looks like that if you hit a locust in campaign mode in the legs, theres a chance you'll knock him down or slow his charge. Hit him in the head and you'll cause more damage. It also appears chainsaw damage will vary based on the how they were standing.

NPC spawning
Locusts will spawn out of "spawn holes" in the ground - this was shown in the X06 floor demonstration by CliffyB. These can be "closed" by dropping down a grenade, thus ending the spawning.

Content Control
It has been confirmed there is an option to turn off blood and gibbs in single player and multiplayer, however this is unlikely to affect the vocal content (which is mild anyway IMHO!).

9.0 - Downloadable Content
Mark Rein and Cliffy have confirmed there will be strong Downloadable content post release; chiefly patches and extension to the mutiplayer vs modes. Epic have sighted their previous support of UT products to support this; however there has been no clarification on the cost (if any) of these expansions across Xbox Marketplace. Pre-release content has not be discussed at this point - indeed Epic haven't really started to think about it, so be happy to start posting idea's! (probably more valuable once we've played it!).

10.0 - Rumour control / Feature graveyard
Lip Syncing on live
It has been confirmed by Mark Rein that there will be no lip syncing of LIVE player chat - only lipsyncing of scripted / voiced cut scenes and one liners (including screams from the characters etc).

Voice Controlled NPC squadies
It appears voice control for NPC squad mates was dropped from the game in order to hit the release date - either that or some journalists were over zealous with the facts!

Demo
Once again, there will be no demo until; 1) the team have time and 2) sales of GoW drop enough to warrant a demo! Let's face it, every 360 owner is going to own this game come christmas.

11.0 - Connection Issues
Losing Connection

The main reason that people lose connections in multiplayer is because either they or the host have their NAT (firewall) set up incorrectly to work on Xbox Live. To see if you have this issue, go to the System Settings blade in the dashboard and choose Network Settings. From there choose to Test Xbox Live Connection. If your NAT returns "strict" or "moderate" then that is likely your problem. To work correctly on Live you want that test to return "open". To acheive this you simply have to port forward a specific set of ports to your 360 as detailed by this Microsoft support bulletin:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908874

Sometimes "OPEN" can also be misleading. In my own [Madfish] experience my Belkin router also had a Firewall on by default which was dropping the port 88 traffic from LIVE as a DOS attack; I had to turn off the firewall (you're still protected by NAT unless you have lots of ports forwarded to a PC!). Try setting your XBOX with a static IP in the same range as your router and configure the router to use the XBOX's IP as the DMZ host. That means any unknown traffic into your router from the internet automatically gets forwarded to your XBOX. It's fairly last resort, but seems to work 9/10 on routers not on the XBOX compatibility list. There is a great unofficial site with a detailed set of instructions to setting up port forwarding here.

If you still have connections dropping after that you may have a problem with your internal network (bad cabling or poor wireless connection?) or your ISP may be managing your network traffic. Contact your ISP and make sure they are unrestricted, in particular on port 88 (TCP) and port 3074 (TCP and UDP). If you still have no joy, take your XBOX around to a friends house who works and see how you get on with his connection. If he has the same ISP and it works, its your home network. If he has another ISP and it works, it could be your ISP.

Unable to Connect to Host

Unfortunately, this error message is not really giving you the whole story as usually it simply means "Server is now full". What is actually happening is that between the time that the query for hosts was sent and the list was displayed, some of the servers have filled up. This is especially true of Quickmatch and of any host that is displayed with a greater player count than "4/8". In the short term, the best way to avoid this is to use Custom Match and only select servers that display "1/8" player count as that will increase your chances of joining before it's full.

[Madfish]

And another!

[M005E]

weapons
There are at least 13 split into 3 categories of weapons - Coalition ones - usually shiny and higher tech - Locust ones - lower tech, cobbled together - and Stranded ones - old military issue leftovers. Here's the weapons I know of so far, COG weapons: Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Lancer (assault rifle with chainsaw bayonet), Longshot (sniper rifle)Snub pistol, Frag Grenades, Smoke Grenades, Flash Grenades. Locust weapons: Hammerburst, Boomshot (basically the equivalent of a brute shot, except when shot, the one grenade splits into multiple grenades), Torque bow (Crossbow that shoots remotely detonated arrows). Unknown faction but confirmed weapons: Hammer of Dawn (basically satellite controlled laser), Gatling Gun. Unconfirmed weapons: Flamethrower

credits to Unreal Havoc

[soda]

very nice FAQ

[Madfish]

heh cheers. I'm off to bed, but I'll add any modifications or additions you guys post tomorrow AM.

[ExiLeD MaLiCe]

If the no respawning in MP is true then the only gametype would be team lastman standing

[Madfish]

Anyone have anything else I can add? I'm deliberately living off the story and characters stuff - just answers to common questions mostly around features and game mechanics.

[Cornballer]

Nice work, Madfish.

[Hooligunn]

Nice one Madfish, you should rename it "Reasons to buy Gears"

[Chris.]

ummm.

You should add that EBGames/Gamestop/Etc WILL have the game before the 12th, Most likely on the 8th.

[Koric101]

ummm.

You should add that EBGames/Gamestop/Etc WILL have the game before the 12th, Most likely on the 8th.

Ya, ship date is the 7th so if EB and Gamestop want to they can have it as soon as there trucks can get it to the stores.

[BEALbeal 485]

very nice this should be stickyed

[CliffyB]

Not entirely accurate... but solid.

[Madfish]

Not entirely accurate... but solid.

Bah, who gave you the right... oh no wait...

Anything you want to correct which is not under NDA send me a PM Cliffy.

[Slicer]

nice FAQ. Sticky please

[Madfish]

Heh, nice one Slicer, you appear to have the power!

[Urbani666]

Yes this is something we needed on here, when we need to correct someone about something , just refer them to this thread and Bam!!!!!

[jackrubyn]

Damn, if I knew I was going to be quoted on a Sticky FAQ, I would have put a lot more effort into the control scheme. I wrote that thing in like 20 seconds. Didn't even bother Googling stuff to verify it.

[Flak]

Stickied for you Madfish, now get to working on that accuracy.

[Madfish]

Damn, if I knew I was going to be quoted on a Sticky FAQ, I would have put a lot more effort into the control scheme. I wrote that thing in like 20 seconds. Didn't even bother Googling stuff to verify it.

I'll reformat it for you dude!

[jackrubyn]

* R-stick - Look
* L-stick - Move
* A - All Move (For getting in and out of cover and Roadie-running)
* B - Melee (Hold to rev the chainsaw)
* Y - Point-of-interest-indicator
* X - Action button (Reviving team mates, curbstomping locust and probably opening doors and picking up ammo)
* R-trigger - Fire
* L-trigger - Aim (Where it gets slightly zoomed in)
* RB - Reload (and "Active Reload" mini-game)
* LB - Objective / Squad status
* Directional pad - Change weapons

Use that one instead, Madfish.

[Madfish]

Update Jack.

Anyone else got anything to add or correction let me know here or send me a PM. You'll be credited the change (as long as its useful). Provide evidence where you can.

[VaporXX91]

I sure as heck hope there's more than just Team Deathmatch for multiplayer. I also hope there is at least 2 player split screen offline for lan parties. Would suck if my 4 guy college apartment all had to run out to buy 360s and copies of the game just to play against one another.

I hope we get some options in multiplayer too as far as customizing the gametypes and such.


nice information though.

I also hope that control configurations are customizable. If I can, I will ASAP change that D-pad from switching weapons over to the Y button. I prefer cycling through weapons back and forth. I dont' ever want to take my left thumb off the stick during battle.

[cakemonkey]

ya, and you can boot people, or curb stomp them, where the heck is mark, tell him to get his finger out of his nose and answer some stupid questions we ask a thousand times, =)

[cakemonkey]

woops, I think i just called mike "mark",too bad he not on to say so, ha ha ha

[owninglegend]

Nice job Madfish.

[Madfish]

Updated with various stuff, including the new screenies / gif of the sniper gun head shot.

[El Hatton]

Awesome work Madfish!

[Madfish]

Added X for curbstomping and the confirmation of System Link.

[Urbani666]

Nice dude, very nice, Oh no , today is my first day of school, oh well...at school time goes by really fast so gears will come sooner.

[owninglegend]

Nice dude, very nice, Oh no , today is my first day of school, oh well...at school time goes by really fast so gears will come sooner.

Ah that sucks,my school started like 4 weeks ago.

[Madfish]

Added:

* Locusts can be knocked over if you shoot em in the legs.
* the fact you can free rev the chainsaw.
* Some examples of what death looks / feels like (when your on the receiving end).

And some other bits I've forgotted since.

Cliffy, feel free to use this as your design document

[giantfoodmonster]

Don't forget that in technology section about the framerates being improved due to a multi-threaded render that takes advantage of the xbox 360s cores.

[Madfish]

Don't forget that in technology section about the framerates being improved due to a multi-threaded render that takes advantage of the xbox 360s cores.

Yeah, I'll clarify that the multi-threading isn't just single processor multi-threading.

[Daly]

Will there be a UK release of the limited edition version? Not seen it on pre order anywhere?

[Madfish]

Welcome to the forum!- I'll update about that. It's ment to be according to Mark Rein, but indeed I've seen it nowhere on Amazon, Play.com etc. I even emailed Amazon, they usefully said they didn't know but they'd investigate (store in the small tin filing system at their feet more like).

[Daly]

cheers mate, really hope we get it. should looker killer in a tin box.

[Urbani666]

yeah , I hope us canadians get it as well , I dont know what I would do without it, i would love to watch the making of the game and have the destroyed beauty book.

[Unreal Havoc]

weapons
There are at least 13 split into 3 categories of weapons - Coalition ones - usually shiny and higher tech - Locust ones - lower tech, cobbled together - and Stranded ones - old military issue leftovers. Here's the weapons I know of so far, COG weapons: Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Lancer (assault rifle with chainsaw bayonet), Longshot (sniper rifle)Snub pistol, Frag Grenades, Smoke Grenades, Flash Grenades. Locust weapons: Hammerburst, Boomshot (basically the equivalent of a brute shot, except when shot, the one grenade splits into multiple grenades), Torque bow (Crossbow that shoots remotely detonated arrows). Unknown faction but confirmed weapons: Hammer of Dawn (basically satellite controlled laser), Gatling Gun. Unconfirmed weapons: Flamethrower

credits to Unreal Havoc

Thanks for the credits but this list has now been updated since, here it is for your FAQ:

How many weapons are in Gears of War?
There are at least 15 split into 3 categories of weapons - Coalition ones - usually shiny and higher tech - Locust ones - lower tech, cobbled together - and Stranded ones - old military issue leftovers. Here's the weapons I know of so far, COG weapons: Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Lancer (assault rifle with chainsaw bayonet), Longshot (sniper rifle)Snub pistol, Frag Grenades, Smoke Grenades, Flash Grenades. Locust weapons: Hammerburst, Boomshot (basically the equivalent of a brute shot, except when shot, the one grenade splits into multiple grenades), Bologrenade, Torque bow (Crossbow that shoots remotely detonated arrows). Unknown faction but confirmed weapons: Hammer of Dawn (basically satellite controlled laser), Gatling Gun, Gnasher. Unconfirmed weapons: Flamethrower

If anyone would like to read my FAQ on Gears of War feel free to visit either of the following links:

http://www.mfbb.net/demonsofwar/demo...-about239.html

http://forums.xbox.com/5624476/ShowPost.aspx

Note: My FAQ not be 100% accurate, I just used the majority of information that I found at various Gears of War related forums and articles to create it. If anyone finds anything that is inaccurate please let me know by PM here at Xbox.com, or at the Demons of War forum. Please include links, thanks.

Good job here Madfish, if you wish to use anything else from my FAQ feel free to.