gears of war 2

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Arriving in retail stores on July 28th is the Gears of War 2 All Fronts Collection: a compilation of all the multiplayer maps that have been released so far along with a new set called “Dark Corners”. It’ll sell for $20.

What’s really got me stoked about this however is that the All Fronts Collection will include “Road to Ruin”, a new campaign chapter that can be played solo or co-op.

Hey, Epic Games and Microsoft: a lot of us out here are very excited to hear this, and few things would make us happier than to have some more one-player friendly content for Gears of War 2 headed our way. Not dissin’ the multiplayer aspect at all, but the Gears of War universe is a very rich one and we would love to explore more of it at our own pace, instead of having to “duck and cover ...

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Our friend Greg at Music4Games.net passed along the terrific news that Gears of War 2 has won “Best Sound in a Video Game Production” at the Third Annual ELAN Awards. ELAN is the Canadian Awards for the Electronic and the Animated Arts.

At the ceremony, hosted by SpongeBob Squarepants‘ Bob Kenny, Gears of War 2 was honored for its audio engineering, which included a full-length score composed by Steve Jablonsky (who has also composed Transformers and its upcoming sequel, Desperate Housewives and many other films, games and television projects).

Congrats to audio director Mike Larson, composer Steve Jablonsky, sound designers Jamey Scott and Joey Kuras, and everyone at Epic Games on your win!

And for a complete list of winners at this year’s ELAN Awards, mash down here....

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All kinds of good stuff coming out of New York Comic-Con tonight for Gears of War fans. Joshua Ortega, the writer of Gears of War 2, heavily suggested that a PREQUEL to the original game is in the works: one that would deal with the events of E-Day. That was the day, 14 years before the first game takes place, when the Locust Horde burst out of the underworld and began their genocidal war against the humans of Sera. So that’s potentially ten years worth of story that players might be able to experience and fight through. And if we’re able to play as Marcus Fenix then I guess that could mean his tale as a COG soldier right up to the day he chose to abandon his post and try to rescue his father: the action that ultimately sent Marcus to prison.

“You will not be disappointed

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A little over two weeks ago we started a contest on this blog. The spoils? Three copies of the Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack CD… personally signed to the winners by composer Steve Jablonsky (the creative force behind the musical scores for Transformers, Desperate Housewives and a wazoo-load of other movies and television shows and other stuff). But in order to be eligible to win one of ’em, entrants were asked to send in a picture of themselves doing their best impersonation of any character from established Gears of War canon. Not a “costume contest” so much as that this was about conveying character and heart.

So we were giving away three Steve Jablonsky-signed copies of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack… and this was an easy contest to judge ‘cuz three is exactly the amount of entries that came in! So the following three ...

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Just a friendly reminder that there are now five days remaining to enter the contest to win one of three copies of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack, signed by composer Steve Jablonsky (who has also composed the scores for Transformers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and ABC’s Desperate Housewives in addition to a ton of other good stuff).

By the way, these copies will be personally signed by Steve Jablonsky to the winners! So if you’re name is “Barney Spepple” and you win one of ’em, your copy will be signed something like “To Barney…” etc.

How do you enter again? Well, here are the rules once more…

1. E-mail your entry to theknightshift@gmail.com with GEARS OF WAR 2 SOUNDTRACK CONTEST in the subject line. GEARS OF WAR 2 SOUNDTRACK CONTEST has to be in the subject line.

2. Include the following information in your entry:

–

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There’s been resounding agreement across the board that Gears of War 2 is the must-play video game of 2008. The sequel to Epic Games’ 2006 smash hit original is impressing people all over the place with its groundbreaking combo of technical achievement, poignant storytelling, and the hope and heroism and humor that’s come to be expected from the Gears of War franchise.

And just as the game is being hailed as a mighty accomplishment, so too is the amazing orchestral score by Steve Jablonsky getting raves for being a profound work of art in and of itself! I’ve talked to several people who’ve bought Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack since it came out last week and without fail, each of ’em have told me that they have felt seriously moved by Jablonsky’s music. And if you’re a longtime reader of this blog then y’all know how I went a ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Today marks the release of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack, featuring the score that Steve Jablonsky composed for Epic’s already mega-selling game. Last week I won the single-player campaign and a few days later an advance copy of the CD arrived in the mail. I’ve been listening to it non-stop ever since! It’s also now a proud addition to my iPod, and I had it blaring out of my car’s stereo on the way to and back from rehearsal for Oliver Twist last night.

Okay, so for a proper review…

Many of y’all know how this very blog ended up the focal point for the drive and petition to see a release of Jablonsky’s score for the movie Transformers and I was honored to be able to write up the first review anywhere of that soundtrack. So pretty much everyone knows that I’m a huge fan of ...

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WOW!!!

Gotta give it up for the crew at Epic Games.

This is certainly a remarkable time for the art of video games. And that is exactly what Gears of War 2 is: art of the highest caliber.

Everything about it is just darned perfect. And there’s one scene in particular in the game… you’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve played it already… that is absolutely heartbreaking. For that bit of music alone, Steve Jablonsky deserves beaucoups of awards.

I thought it was at least twice as good as the original Gears of War, and that one got tons of play already at the Knight Casa.

Okay so anyone who’s played it and waited through the credits: is he still alive?!? And what is he talking about?

And did anyone else think that the lab facility segment of the game asked a lot of questions that ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

In line at the local GameStop, waiting to get Gears of War 2.

I figure that if I’ve done midnight premieres of the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, “midnight madness” sales of new Star Wars toys and midnight launches of the last three Harry Potter books, I might as well add doing something nutty for a video game to the list.

Okay, me go play now…...

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Music composer extraordinaire Steve Jablonsky (who among many credits also does the music for Desperate Housewives and did the score for last year’s hit movie Transformers, which longtime readers will remember this very blog going more than a little crazy about) gets interviewed by Music 4 Games about his work on Gears of War 2, due out next week.

Here’s some of what Jablonsky has to say about working with Epic, Cliff Bleszinski and music director Mike Larson (who also gets interviewed) on the second chapter of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad’s war against the Locust Horde…

For Gears 2, the guys at Epic wanted every aspect of the game to be bigger, darker, and crunchier than the original game. And I guess they had heard some of these qualities in my film scores. I love writing for orchestra and choir, but I also love experimenting with electronics

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