***Official Gears of War 2 thread***

[Kabob]

Hrm, at the rate I'm going at I'll be quitting out of like 75% of games...

 

[Kabob]

Froze --> Double post, sowwy.

 

[blurredvision]

I've only played Horde a few times with friends, and haven't experienced any issues. One of my friends was kicked off Saturday night a couple of times, and he had to reboot his console to get back on, but that's the extent of it. No lag or anything, smooth as butter.

 

[Kabob]

Horde always seems to run fine, it's the verses modes that kill me.

 

[purbeast0]

While I know live was botched a decent amount of time over the weekend (kicked offline Friday while watching a movie and could not get back on), I was experiencing this "taking forever to find a game" in the matchmaking quite a bit this weekend.

seems to always be when you go in w/out a full party for the game type. When I went in by myself or 1 other guy, it was taking forever to find a game, to the point we gave up. But when we switched to wingman, we found one immediately. Then when we tried the Elimination playlist w/5 of us, we found games immediately.

then another time we tried to play elimination with 3 of us and we were jumping into games w/in 30 seconds.

so i dunno wtf is up w/the mm system if epic fixed it quietly or what, or if they will put out a patch when they do. the more i play multi, the glitchier i find this game to be. regardless i can't get enough of it.

 

[spidey07]

Played Horde multiplayer with a good friend of mine just now and had 5 people on levels 45-50. First time GOW multiplayer.

THAT my friends is some serious fun.

 

[Queasy]

Epic on the multiplayer issues.

Hi all,

We're aware that some folks are experiencing longer-than-ideal wait times while using the skill-based Public matchmaking in Gears 2 multiplayer. We're working on some solutions but it's a complicated issue as there isn't any one problem; it's a combination of factors. Clearly, scale is one of them as we've had millions of successful matches played online so far, however a small percentage of players are having issues, which is unacceptable. We're working closely with Microsoft to address the matchmaking issues, I promise you that it is our #1 priority, and we hope to have an update soon.

In the meantime, I would like to suggest some workarounds:

If you're experiencing long delays (longer than 2 minutes) or you're seeing your matchmaking search restarting over and over again, please try a different playlist as that indicates a possible population issue with the currently selected one.

The problem seems to be heightened for parties of 1 and parties of 4 so please try to invite at least one friend into your party before matchmaking. And of course the fastest way to play is to have a full 5 person party before looking for a match since you won't have to find any teammates beforehand. Fortunately our new "What's Up" feature makes finding Friends who're playing Gears 2 online easier.

Also, after a match, if you'd like to continue to play with the 9 people you just played with, simply press Y to look at the previous match stats and press X to invite them all to your party so you can continue to play in a Private match if they accept. Private matches, while not arbitrated, gives you the flexibility to set exactly which map and mode you want to play along with customizing other aspects of the game.

And as always, please ensure that your router is set correctly so that your NAT is considered "Open" by Xbox LIVE as "Moderate" and "Strict" NATs make Xbox LIVE matchmaking more difficult. There are many guides available online to walk you through the process of correctly configuring your router for Xbox LIVE so I won't go into the specific details here.

Also, in case you're curious, a few interesting facts about Gears 2 multiplayer so far:

* Almost 3 million multiplayer matches (excluding Private) have been played.
* Almost 1 million screenshot photos have been uploaded to gearsofwar.com
* The most popular multiplayer mode is Horde.
* The most popular multiplayer map across all modes is River.
* The most lethal weapon is the Gnasher shotgun with almost 29% of all kills.

Again, I apologize for any issues you may be having and I hope the above workarounds give you a better experience until we are able to correct the issues we're seeing.

Thanks,

Rod.

 

[tatteredpotato]

I did notice the 1 and 4 person parties took substantially longer to find team mates.

 

[Kabob]

I'm glad Epic is at least admitting that there's a problem, although the only one they're directly addressing with that statement is the matchmaking problems. There's a ton of other problems that need a fix.

 

[Queasy]

MTV Multiplayer has an interview with Bleszinski on the driving sequences.

Multiplayer: How do you approach driving sequences? When you?re making a game that people are purchasing for something other than driving sequences, how do you approach something like that and make sure it feels good and not like something that doesn?t fit at all?

Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Games: The game, yes, is a shooter, but it?s a game that alternates between the player feeling scared and vulnerable but then also having that swing back and feeling empowerment. It?s kind of like a turret. You approach an enemy that?s on a turret and you feel scared. You manage to find a way to flank him and then you finally get the turret and it spawns 400 enemies and now you have this massive moment of empowerment.

With vehicles it?s the same thing, where you want to have the player ? he?s been dealing with cover this entire time, it takes almost a clip per locust on medium to hard difficulty level ? and then to get to a point where you?re on a tank and one shot takes out eight or 10 of them using the crowd system. You?re power-sliding through them and it?s like ?Screw you!?

At the risk or being accused of putting out spoilers...again, I won't post the rest. Click through for more.

 

[Kabob]

Originally posted by: Queasy
* The most lethal weapon is the Gnasher shotgun with almost 29% of all kills.

I have trouble believing this. Seems like 99.9% of the time the chainsaw owns the shotgun, only time I see the shotgun being used alot if when the host of a game runs around hitting all the laggy people...

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: kabob983

Originally posted by: Queasy
* The most lethal weapon is the Gnasher shotgun with almost 29% of all kills.

I have trouble believing this. Seems like 99.9% of the time the chainsaw owns the shotgun, only time I see the shotgun being used alot if when the host of a game runs around hitting all the laggy people...

I don't have a problem believing this. In the few multiplayer matches I played before having to return GOW2 to Blockbuster, it seemed like a large number of teammates and opponents would run around with shotguns unless they were able to pick up a weapon like the sniper rifle, torque bow, or mortar on the map.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: kabob983

Originally posted by: Queasy
* The most lethal weapon is the Gnasher shotgun with almost 29% of all kills.

I have trouble believing this. Seems like 99.9% of the time the chainsaw owns the shotgun, only time I see the shotgun being used alot if when the host of a game runs around hitting all the laggy people...

I don't have a problem believing this. In the few multiplayer matches I played before having to return GOW2 to Blockbuster, it seemed like a large number of teammates and opponents would run around with shotguns unless they were able to pick up a weapon like the sniper rifle, torque bow, or mortar on the map.

yea i agree.

but for me, i tend to always lose these shotgun/chainsaw battles, regardless which end of it i'm on lol. i just need to practice it more.

 

[tatteredpotato]

I try to use the Hammerburst unless several guys are coming at me at once.

 

[Queasy]

Another MTV Multiplayer Interview. This time about the decisions behind the boss battles for GoW2. Spoilers

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Another MTV Multiplayer Interview. This time about the decisions behind the boss battles for GoW2. Spoilers

There were boss battles in Gears 2?? Could've fooled me...... :shocked:

 

[Kabob]

Is it just me or are all the problems with this game making it lose it's luster MUCH faster than it should? I was still hooked like a fish to the first game three months after I got it, two weeks after this game's released and I don't really feel like playing it...

If they'd fix it I'd be more inclinded to get excited but as it sits I'm disgruntled.

Maybe when I get back from Thanksgiving vacation they'll have patched it.

 

[TallBill]

Multiplayer can be fucking terrible. Depends on the map/mode I guess. Gonna wait for the story mode to play co-op.

Getting stuck in a terribly laggy game is terrible.
Playing on a map where the other team gets mortars/boom shot 100% of the time is terrible.
Trying to melee someone is pointless, it never works for me.
This game just has terrible multiplayer strategy.
Matchmaking is a farce too.

 

[Dessert Tears]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Playing on a map where the other team gets mortars/boom shot 100% of the time is terrible.

The weapon pick-ups are generally symmetric. Rivers has the Longshot and Torque Bow on opposite sides, but they appear to be considered equivalent. If the other team is getting the premium weapons consistently, it's your team's fault. At least the match ends quickly. I do agree that "run to the premium weapons as fast as possible" gets old fast.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Flatscan

Originally posted by: TallBill
Playing on a map where the other team gets mortars/boom shot 100% of the time is terrible.

The weapon pick-ups are generally symmetric. Rivers has the Longshot and Torque Bow on opposite sides, but they appear to be considered equivalent. If the other team is getting the premium weapons consistently, it's your team's fault. At least the match ends quickly. I do agree that "run to the premium weapons as fast as possible" gets old fast.

Well this is what I'm referring to. I don't wanna sprint to the middle to see who wins, this isn't a racing game.

 

[TallBill]

Haha, single player mode is terrible. There horribly boring and mundane "challenges" to pass. What a waste of time.

 

[PimpJuice]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Multiplayer can be fucking terrible. Depends on the map/mode I guess. Gonna wait for the story mode to play co-op.

Getting stuck in a terribly laggy game is terrible.
Playing on a map where the other team gets mortars/boom shot 100% of the time is terrible.
Trying to melee someone is pointless, it never works for me.
This game just has terrible multiplayer strategy.
Matchmaking is a farce too.

Originally posted by: TallBill
Haha, single player mode is terrible. There horribly boring and mundane "challenges" to pass. What a waste of time.

complain much?

This game is not that much different from Gears 1.....what did you really expect from SP/MP.

the game is FAR from 'terrible' considering the other crap that gets released.

 

[Xed]

Finally Epic posts something.

A brief status report on the next Gears2 title update
Happy New Year!

First of all I hope all of you had a safe and happy holiday season.

As I mentioned before the break we?ve been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2. This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don?t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we?ll let you know.

We?re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we?ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.

We?re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.

We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we?re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.

This is just a very small list of some of the things that will be in the next title update but one more item which has been talked about a lot in our forums deserves a special call out...

About that shotgun...

We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. ?laggy?) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We?ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.

So there?s a brief status report on the next title update. At some point I expect we?ll post a more detailed list but I assure you we?re working hard to get this out the door and once it?s done we?ll start working on the next update. We?ll try to do a better job keeping you informed of our progress on future updates and we?ll try to be a little more active in the forums once this update is released.

Source

 

[purbeast0]

well that is good at least. i haven't played gears2 in weeks, and i just had 11 days off of work in a row!

 

[Kabob]

So they're finally addressing problems that should have been fixed before the game was released...yay.

I'm worried about the "enhanced penalties for quitting" statement, the only time's I quit a match early is it the game was so laggy it was unplayable, which has happened more than once...