A week ago today, Good Game Media had the fortune to be invited to an event off the docks where the barges park in East Vancouver. This event was a chance for EPIC Games, Gears of War, Xbox, and gamer fans across the board to get together and see what all the hype for this game was all about. It was only 6 months ago when they mentioned that the game would be delayed, and for some people it was followed by anger and still others had no idea what was going on. So what is a GEARS experience, and why was this event a big deal?
(Don’t want to read? Scroll down for the video)
To start off, Gears of War is a game that EPIC Games put together and pitched to Microsoft. This idea although accepted in general, had some bugs to work out, as per Mr. Gates and his thoughts of what a flagship game should hold. That bug, the symbol of the whole game, was mentioned by Cliffy B. (in a behind the scenes DVD feature for the first game) as “Putting the chainsaw on the gun was like matching chocolate and peanut butter”. The long and short of it was that by Cliffy putting the “Lancer” weapon into the game, it became an instant iconic hit and has caused HOURS upon HOURS of fun for gamers in both single player modes and Horde (multiplayer) mode. There is a full detailed story to the primary heroes Marcus and Dom, but if you don’t know those yet, I suggest you pick up Gears of War 1 and 2 as they are still fantastic games that hold up.
So when a game this large does not need to spend time to remind people it is coming soon, what was the pre-launch all about? Well if you go to a midnight launch, you generally wait around, the game comes out, you rush home and you play online against your friends through a TV or monitor. This way by attending the FREE event, you had a chance to play the game early, but also see your team mates and work together in a close area. If you were like Daniel Irving of GearCon, you followed the Gears forums and saw that there were a series of challenges from online games, text messages, bar codes to scan, and eventually you ended up at a butcher shop where you picked up your package of “Locust Meat” (it was plastic). This package came with a VIP ticket giving you the date, time, and address of the launch, and also granted you early access to do everything.
The event started off with your group getting the layout of what was to come. Then to be a COG, you have to have your tattoo, so the team was airbrushed their cog tag tattoo. After that we had the pleasure to witness chainsaw art in action as a rather large wooden skull and COG was carved out by the expert wielding a chainsaw like Jason in Friday the 13th. Next, you cannot have a BBQ with your fellow squad members without having some Locust meat. This looked to be beef on skewers, but for desert there were grasshoppers in different flavours. I personally did not have one, but I am told it is like having popcorn. Second last before the gaming experience you carried on to the green screen where they had a Gears 2 Lancer, and a Gears 3 Lancer and you were able to take single or group pictures, choose a background and have them printed on the spot. It was funny that I never saw one person waiting to attack the Locust, it was always a dog eat dog… or cog eat cog world.
You had your war paint, you were fed, you got your game face on and now with the smoke machines pumping, the lights strobing, you walked down a ramp to a barge where 20 TV’s and Xbox’s await, loaded and ready to go with Gears of War 3 where the lucky fans were able to play Horde mode in groups of 5. New weapons, skins, maps, and an extremely new smooth experience beyond what any fan could hope for. Horde mode created a world of energy as the barge moved from side to side in the Vancouver Harbor, fans young and old had a sneak peak of where they would be spending hours online, getting achievements, points and cash as they save up for upgrades and more. The video that you will find here was a quick blast through a six hour event that saw over 300 fans meet up with one another, and frag with one another. Hope you enjoy it, and we look forward to seeing you at midnight launches world wide, and online on XBOX LIVE.
^GG
