In order to refrain from spoilers another little piggy sent us the list of multiplayer maps and a couple of snaps, in case you are one of those who loves whispering Marcus Fenix into someone’s ears then its time to get those chainsaw’s outta here.

The Multiplayer Maps are after the break:

Avalanche
Blood drive
Day One
Hail
Jacinto
Pavilion
River
Ruins
Security
Stasis

Here are a couple of Character Screenies to keep all of ya satiated till November 7^th although we are pretty sure a torrent of the game will hit the web in another couple of days.

And links to all the other images we were able to get are here :

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Possibly one of the best racing games in recent times, with its whole anything goes attitude, this game was fun! A lot of fun in fact, and a lot of my life was whiled away with this one. And admittedly, we live in a connected world, and racing with your friends over the internet is great true, but honestly, the joy of a console is still the social aspect of the game. Sitting with a friend in your room, playing the game together in the same place, screaming at each other, cursing, passing a beer around…

This is particularly true when dealing with racing games. I mean, sure, a shooter you might not want your idiot cousin peeking at your screen while you try and snipe, but a racer or a brawler? Offline multiplayer is an essential component!

The build we were fiddling with was only 80 per cent of the final product, and seemed to be pretty much what the first game was, but with a lot of lush new environments to play around in, and some rather more explosive settings to challenge the old hands at the game too.

F’rinstance, one of the stages we got to try out was called Wildfire, which is set around a volcano, with lava and pockets of fire, and when you get too close and try and use your boost, the damage it does runs up a lot faster, while running through misting tunnels will cool down your vehicle quickly.

Gears of War is a great franchise first and foremost for Xbox 360, and therefore we’re focusing on that platform for Gears of War 2. We’ve decided we’re not going to do a PC version this time around.

The PC edition of Gears had some bugs, later addressed in a patch; however, like hardcore gamers, Bleszinski no doubt realised the futility of releasing a PC GeOW 2 if it wasn’t going to be as a perfect as the XBox 360 one. It’s certainly a tough decision for any designer to take, second only to killing a game’s production mid-way, but Cliffy certainly deserves some credit for making sure the 360 version lives up to and surpasses the lofty expectations of Epic and fans around the world.

The full interview reveals quite a bit about unlockable characters in Gears 2; however, just a few days ago, Destructoid posted a “leaked” achievements list for the game. The list has since been taken down since, the site was “contacted by Microsoft, who politely asked that [they] take down the Achievements because the list [they had] is apparently not the finalized version; a few changes will be made. [They] expect to have an update on the list within the next 24 hours.”

48 hours later and still no list, but fortunately, Official Xbox 360 Magazine took the liberty of posting the full list on their site. Nothing has been officially confirmed as of yet but recent events with Microsoft and Destructoid would any achievement hating gamer go “Jinkies!” Please note that the full list has been published here, as there’s no telling if Microsoft will clamp down on OXM as well.

• Green as Grass (10) – Train the rook (any difficulty)
• It’s A Trap! (10) – Story progression in Chapter 2
• Escort Service (10) – Story progression in Chapter 3
• Girl About Town (10) – Story progression in Chapter 4
• That Sinking Feeling (10) – Story progression in Chapter 5
• Freebaird! (10) – Story progression in Chapter 6
• Heartbroken (10) – Story progression in Chapter 7
• Longitude and Attitude (10) – Story progression in Chapter 8
• Tanks For The Memories (10) – Story progression in Chapter 9
• Water Sports (10) – Story progression in Chapter 10
• Saved Maria (10) – Story progression in Chapter 11
• Be Vewwy Vewwy Quiet (10) – Story progression in Chapter 12 (passive)
• We’re Hunting Rabbit (10) – Story progression in Chapter 12 (aggressive)
• Wrapped In Beacon (10) – Story progression in Chapter 13
• Have Fun Storming The Castle (10) – Story progression in Chapter 14
• And The Horse You Rode In On (10) – Story progression in Chapter 15
• They Just Keep Coming (10) – Story progression in Chapter 16
• Brumak Rodeo (10) – Story progression in Chapter 17
• Does This Look Infected To You? (10) – Story progression in Chapter 18
• Reservist (25) – Complete all campaign acts on Casual difficulty
• Non-Commissioned Officer (50) – Complete all campaign acts on Normal difficulty
• Commissioned Officer (75) – Complete all campaign acts on Hardcore difficulty
• Commander (150) – Complete all campaign acts on Insane difficulty
• Tourist (5) – Recover 5 Collectibles (any difficulty)
• Pack Rat (15) – Recover 20 Collectibles (any difficulty)
• Completionist (30) – Recover all 43 Collectibles (any difficulty)
• Dom-Curious (10) – Complete one chapter in co-op on any difficulty
• Domination (30) – Complete ten chapters in co-op on any difficulty
• I Can’t Quit You, Dom (50) – Complete all acts in co-op on any difficulty
• Crossed Swords (10) – Win a Chainsaw Duel
• Ain’t Too Proud To Beg (10) – Crawl to a teammate and be revived
• Pound of Flesh (10) – Use a meat shield to absorb a killing blow
• DIY Turret (10) – Use a cover-mounted Gatling gun to kill three enemies without dismounting
• Shock and Awe (10) – Use the mortar to kill three enemies with a single shot
• Said The Spider To The Fly (10) – Kill an enemy with a planted grenade
• Blowed Up Real Good (10) – Kill three enemies with a single grenade tag
• Shake and Bake (10) – Kill three enemies with the flamethrower without reloading
• Variety is the Spice of Death (30) – Kill an enemy with every weapon in the game
• Multi-Talented Executioner (30) – Execute a downed enemy with every weapon in the game
  Seriously 2.0 (50) – Kill 100,000 enemies, total, across all modes
• Photojournalist (10) – Submit a spectator photo
• It Takes Two (10) – Win Wingman with both team members alive
• The Old Ball and Chain (10) – Capture a Meat Flag in a winning match of Meat Flag
• It’s Good To Be The King (10) – Finish a winning round of Assassination as the leader
• You Go Ahead, I’ll Be Fine (10) – Collect all the rings value in a winning round of KOTH
• Back To Basic (20) – Complete Multiplayer Training Grounds
• Can Do It All (30) – Win a match of every multiplayer game type
• Around The World (30) – Win one match on each of the 12 MP maps
• Survived To Five (20) – Entire team must survive the first five waves of Horde (any difficulty)
• Survived To Ten (30) – Entire team must survive the first ten waves of Horde (any difficulty)

In a recent interview with Joystiq, lead designer Cliff Bleszinski stated that additional content would be released, “very soon within the [Gears of War 2] launch time frame.” Assurance, you ask? Downloadable content (DLC) for the game is being developed side-by-side along with the actual game at this point. Hopefully, they won’t skip on graphics quality. Don’t they know some gamers have the eyes of a hawk these days (can’t say how intelligent aforementioned hawk really is)?

DLC will be “multiplayer map focused”, according to Bleszinski. This could mean new gameplay modes and co-op features, along with new maps, which is surprising considering the number of additional features announced already. As of yet, no price frame has been announced for the content, but that just means you can get a head start on donating blood for a good cause (and cold, hard cash).

Source: QJ.Net

Seen yesterday on Salon, this article is the sort of thing which goes to show just how much good games bring into this world. Salon, my favourite non-game related place on the internet, has always had interesting articles on entertainment and technology as well, and with this piece here, they’ve found something that shows us the redeeming power of videogames, and the good they bring into the world.

In the article, Rachel Shukert talks about how she and her husband had all but lost touch because of his obsessive gaming (yes, sometimes that happens too…) and how all this changed recently, when the couple brought home a copy of Rock Band, and made music all night long.

It rekindled their marriage and made them closer than before, which is fantastic, congratulations you guys, and it also brings me back to my routine gripe against most games these days – the whole joy of consoles was that we could actually sit with our friends in the same room and play with each other.

It’s great the Xbox Live and PSN let me game with anyone anywhere in the world, but really, honestly, while it’s cool and all that, it’s a lot more fun sometimes to play with the person you’re sharing the couch with. And it’s not just about going head to head like say CoD offers.

We want more local multiplayer, we want more split-screen, we want more co-op games, without having to buy two gaming set ups to place in the same bloody room just so you can sell two copies of the same bloody game, one for each of us!

The state of gaming has undergone a major change over the last five years, and the single player component has dwindled greatly in importance over time. This is nowhere more true than in action games, and while some, like Call of Duty still provide a strong and polished single player campaign, for most such games now even the campaign mode is a multiplayer experience, with co-op being some of the most fun there is.

Army of Two is a good fit in this modern world, because if you’re playing the game by yourself, then you’re doing it wrong. There have been a lot of sites reviewing the game which have given it a lower score than it really deserves because the single player mode doesn’t really deliver as much fun as the rest of the game, but the point is, with a name like that, what were you thinking of, going it alone?

The campaign has you following two mercenaries, Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem, who’re sent off to blow up military installations and assassinate terrorists. You’re mercenaries and it’s not about the God or country here – you’re after the money here, and the somewhat sophomoric dialogue (and the air guitar after a slaughter) are there to reinforce the point.

You’re dumped right into the heat in the missions, and the game is really just about blasting your way through each level. Though if you’re playing the game single-player, then you’re just blasting your way through each level alone, because your team AI is more than a little useless. It makes the strangest decisions at times, regarding cover, and particularly if you’ve been downed.

One interesting feature though is the aggro system – if you’re shooting more, you’re being more aggressive, so you’re going to draw more of the enemy fire. The system actually works a little too well – if your partner is giving you enough cover fire, and you keep your finger off the trigger, you can waltz around the enemies without their caring, though admittedly, the moment you open fire this changes.

The story of Army of Two is of course just there to provide an excuse for all the shooting and it provides enough to keep you going, without really mattering in the slightest. Which isn’t really all that shocking – we are talking about a game which lets you pimp out guns.

Though the game’s weapon upgrades are actually pretty cool. You basically get to custom fit your guns with new stocks, barrels, add on armor, all of which affect the weapon’s performance, not just the damage and accuracy but also the aggro.

So for instance, a pimped out, gold plated AK generates more aggro than a regular AK, while being the same gun in every other way…

The game is good looking, and sounds good too. It’s right up there with most of today’s top line shooters. But the level design on the whole is very limited and repetitive.

If you’re looking for a good single player shooter, and you’ve already played the other biggies, then go for it. The co-op and multiplayer for this game on the other hand are more than just a little fun. With co-op in particular, EA has formed a very good gameplay concept and one which hopefully will be continued.