Gaming Update

New Gears 2 patch - VP of Epic Games, Mark Rein announced an new update for Gears 2 that will fix online exploits such as fixing 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. They're also going to make several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience, like 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. For all you achievement hunters, achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increased frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and some new Achievements for DLC are being added. And for those who are having some shotgun problems, the update 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. They don't have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January.


Bioshock=Star Wars?- In an interview with MCV, Global President of 2K Christoph Hartmann said "Bioshock has the potential to emulate the Star Wars series – and that the publisher might even create five sequels to the 2007 smash hit. Some of the mega-franchises we talk about only lasted ten years because companies took five years to ship a game. Look at Duke Nukem. It’s been a great franchise for 20 years, because it seems like it’s been in development for 20 years. “For Bioshock, because it’s so story driven, the question obviously arises: how long can you do it without turning into The Matrix? The first Matrix was great, the second one was weird and the third one, you thought: ‘Who [making this] is on crack and who isn’t?’. But, then again, look at Star Wars. It’s a fight between good and evil, just like Bioshock. If we spin it the right way and get the right twist of innovation, we can make six parts of it, as Star Wars did. But we have to be careful not to cash in. I won’t name the company, but there was a great racing game years ago. They brought it back year-on-year. If you look at the scores, it’s hard to believe what they’ve done to it. It’s upsetting, actually.”

Bioshock 2: Sea Of Dreams is due to come out on Xbox 360 and PS3 this year.


Xbox Live Sales- Thanks to the Xbox 360 Arcade's low price, 360 sales were 28 million units sold and 17 million Xbox live users online. The Xbox live revenue hit $1 billion.