Ryan King from OXM writes:

"The new achievements for Gears of War 2 have been revealed.

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There are nine new achievements, totalling 250 gamerpoints. Some concern the new ranking system the forthcoming update will tweak, others are tied into the new Snowblind map pack.
The achievements are as follows..."
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Epic Games, Inc., invites interested parties to visit its booth (ES-144 in the expo suite section of Moscone Center's West Hall) next week at the Game Developers Conference, where the latest Unreal Engine 3 engine features will be demonstrated alongside free advanced training sessions for existing users, the introduction of an integrated Massively Multiplayer Online Game back-end environment, and closed door presentations for its prospective customers, evaluators, licensees, members of its Integrated Partners Program and the media.
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The following fixes and improvements are included in Title Update 3
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Gears of War 2 did not have a smooth launch. But at least Epic has been working to answer some of the complaints. A third title update, the biggest to date according to Microsoft's official Gears 2 website, is set for release on March 24. It addresses continued concerns over the matchmaking system, adds a new point system, tosses in nine extra Achievements and puts the kibosh on some notable exploits.
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There's little doubt as to the four key titles that look set to dominate proceedings at this year's ELAN Awards, with Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2 and Fable II all nominated in the majority of the nine categories.

In with a chance of winning seven awards apiece are Valve's zombie shooter Left 4 Dead and Bethesda's dark future RPG Fallout 3, while Epic's FPS sequel Gears of War 2 and Lionhead's fantasy adventure Fable II are both up for six awards.

In fact, of the nine categories - which each contain four nominations - those exact four will battle it out in four, while other prominent titles to be nominated just once include Crysis: Warhead, Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, Call of Duty: World at War and Too Human.

The awards, which also present prizes for the animation and visual effects industries, will take place in April and be hosted by the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, Tom Kenny.

The full list of categories and nominations is as follows:
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For the Gears Of War fans out there, now is your chance to not only scoop up a custom Gears Of War Xbox 360 Pro, but to also be charitable. Clayton Davison of Tech"Know" Podcast is working with Epic Games to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation and is auctioning off the console on Ebay.
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Mention Microsoft as a company that is losing steam quickly in the console race, and you'll be immediately hammered by Xbox 360 owners across the globe. And you won't get much agreement from CGReviews, either. Things look grim, but don't be fooled. Microsoft is preparing to unleash some wicked firepower, and may just stop Sony in its tracks.

Sources have shared with Cam five things that will put your 360 on top of the hype train for 2009. Ready? Read on.
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Epic releases a batch of info on the upcoming title update three for Gears of War 2.
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Gamezine: Instant Action's vice president claims that any game can be played through a web browser, including Gears of War.

Instant Action recently unveiled its new technology platform, which utilises a proprietary plugin to render games at full speed from a web browser.

The technology performs in a similar manner to some already released MMOs, including the upcoming Free Realms, but Instant Action claims that any 3D game can be played on any web browser with their latest technology.
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"Ever since the Playstation 3 got out on the market there have been different comparisons of the two systems. Well, there is nothing wrong with them, but now, graphically, with upcoming titles like Killzone 2 and even Uncharted 2, the Xbox 360 console has nothing to compare with to the PS3."

"Playstation 3 has a big advantage with it's Blu-Ray player, wich have bigger storage on discs and to get true 1080p."
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ThatGamingSite writes: The Guardian relased it's review of Killzone 2 in todays paper. Whilst the reviewer praises the game, his closing comments read: "This is still the Playstation 3's best shooter, even if it is not quite up to the awesome standard of Xbox 360's Gears Of War 2."
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TGR: 1. Could Epic be developing a Gears of War MMO? We all know the Gears of War universe is expanding every day, thanks to the huge success Gears 1 and 2 have received on the Xbox 360 this last couple of years. Gears of War has been a benchmark left by Epic for all shooters to achieve. There have been comics, action figures, and even plans for a movie based on the franchise, and the continued support by Epic for Gears 2 has kept the community alive. Apart from the obvious Gears of War 3, how else can Epic expand the franchise even further? How about an MMO?

2. Could Crysis be coming to consoles soon? If there is one game console gamers envy, it is none other than Crysis. The open-world shooter developed by Crytek Studios is probably the best-looking game so far. The only problem with it is that you need one hell of a rig to play at maximum settings and get the most out of this beast. Ever since its launch, there have been rumors that the game would one day make the jump to home consoles. One said it would be on Xbox 360 only, one said PS3, and another said both.

3. Has Sega pulled the plug on its Aliens RPG? The last few days haven't been the best for Japanese gaming giant, Sega. The company has announced losses across the board, is closing down arcades around the world, and will be cutting quite a few jobs, worldwide, too. We were hoping that the games in development either internally or externally wouldn't be affected, but according to this rumor, we may see some games being axed. The game that's making real noise now is Obsidian Entertainment's Aliens RPG, which is based on the sci-fi horror films of the past.
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Blend Games Writes:

"You may remember a few months ago we reported here on Blend Games that there was an MMO-clone of Gears of War, it was codenamed Project E by Korean MMO developers GameHI. As you know, that game is pretty much strictly staying in the Southeast territories. However, that doesn't mean Epic isn't working on a new Gears of War MMO project of their own."
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Epic VP Mark Rein has told VG247 that there is no "ten-year plan" in place for the Gears of War franchise, despite comments to the contrary made by Gears 2 writer Josh Ortega at Comic Con last weekend.
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'This weekend, during a NYCC held panel on Gears of War, Gears 2 lead writer Joshua Ortega let slip information on plans to extend the Gears franchise ten years, which may result in an Emergence Day prequel.

"You will not be disappointed in the next ten years," revealed Ortega when answering a panel question that asked about a future Gears project being a prequel. "It's a ten-year plan. Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new...'
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Gamasutra writes:

"Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet leads the nominees for the ninth annual Game Developers Choice Awards with seven nominations, organizers have revealed.

Number None's Braid follows closely with five nominations. Among the nominations for LittleBigPlanet is the coveted Game of the Year award.

Other nominees for that category include Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, each of which received a total of four award nominations; Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto IV, which earned a total of three nominations, and Lionhead Studios' Fable 2. Winners will be honored at an awards show taking place during the 2009 Game Developers Conference."
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Recently, on the official Gears of War 2 forums, Rod Fergusson made a topic announcing the possibility of a new ranking system for Gears of War 2. As oppose to the TrueSkill ranking system, this new system would work as a generic ranking format (getting a certain amount of XP, levelling up, next level needing you to obtain a larger amount of XP). Rod says that there will be 99 (!) levels for you to climb up the ranks.
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Rod Ferguson of Epic Games made a post last night explaining what is likely to happen with the ranking system in the near future. Good or bad for Gears fans? You be the judge!
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Danny Cowan from Gamasutra writes:

"Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide.

This week's charts, with data taken from February 5th, 2009, find Halo 3 and Call of Duty: World at War at the top of North America's Xbox 360 software sales charts, while Star Ocean: Second Evolution and Mario Kart DS drive sales on portables.

Data for "Saling The World" comes courtesy of the public sales information on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.co.jp, with sales split out for each platform and territory, and pre-orders disregarded. This results in a true sense of what games are selling worldwide on the real-time updated service, as follows..."
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Gamezine: January's ESPLA sales awards reveal that LittleBigPlanet is still selling well in the UK, with Gears of War 2 finally reaching the massive 600k milestone.

We've been able to follow the sales of LittleBigPlanet in the UK by watching the ESPLA sales awards, which reports on video game life time sales milestones reached in the UK.

LittleBigPlanet has now been awarded the Platinum Award, meaning it has sold at least 300 thousand: it's next award, if it reaches it in the country, will only be achieved when the title sells 600 thousand in the UK alone.
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