Microsoft announced that Gears of War 2, one of the most critically acclaimed action games of 2008, will be getting its own Game of the Year edition

Set for release on September 1 for $39.99, this new edition includes the All Fronts Collection (including all 19 extra multiplayer maps), the Road to Ruin campaign chapter, and every achievement totaling 1750 Gamerscore points.

The Xbox 360 is due a dashboard update tomorrow, which is to include the previously-reported Gears of War style armor for your Live avatar…

1Up reports that leading Japanese games magazine Famitsu has heaped high praise and a score of 38 out of 40 on Gears of War 2, which was recently released in the land of the rising sun.

For Famitsu, the real darling of the week was Microsoft’s Japanese release of Gears of War 2, which touches down over there July 30. “The fun, just like the violence, is even more dangerous than the previous game,” wrote one reviewer. “Every stage in campaign mode has a different objective; the story is fascinating, and you play right through to the end without every feeling the pace slow down. With Horde and other additions to multiplayer, I think I’m going to have yet more sleepless nights ahead of me.”

For those of you that are unaware. Microsoft and Epic Games released today the Dark Corners Multiplayer Map Pack, which features 7 new Gears of War 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, “Road to Ruin,” from the Gears of War 2 campaign. Available for 1,200 Microsoft Points, the Dark Corners Multiplayer Map Pack is the largest expansion for Gears of War 2 yet, and brings with it 13 new Achievements worth 325 additional Gamerscore points.

Earlier today, we told you about the Gears of War 2 : All Fronts Collection making its way onto Xbox Live several days before its official release and at half the price. Epic Games has issued the following statement regarding the leak:

The All Fronts DLC was leaked for 800 MS points last night around 1 a.m. (U.S. Central). When users attempted to download it, they received an error message.

At this time, you cannot download the maps. But for some reason, those who bought them right away are playing them RIGHT NOW.

If you attempt to download them now you will receive an error message. Those of you who received the first error before MS was alerted, can re-download them fine.

Over the weekend, TeamXbox contacted Epic Games to find out more about the supposed matchmaking issues users reported in different forums. Several users claimed after the Memorial Day weekend in which Epic Games ran the “Old School” event, Gears of War 2 started to experience issues with Matchmaking similar to those that affected the game right after launch. This time, it’s not Epic Games’ fault:

Our investigations have shown that the reported issue has to do with a very small minority of players with very poor network connections. When they attempt to host a matchmaking party, they are not able to find matches due to their high network latency. We could increase the ping threshold to allow these players to host but it would have an overall negative effect on the global Gears 2 community as they would begin finding games with greater latency. So while this isn’t ideal for a tiny minority of players, it is much better overall for the majority of players. For the players that have this issue, the easiest answer is simply to join another player’s matchmaking party instead of trying to host one themselves.

In terms of when this began, we’ve been making continuous optimizations to the matchmaking experience, and the perceived timing of recent changes with the “Old School” weekend is purely coincidental.

Rod Fergusson
Executive Producer, Epic Games

Despite a recent flurry of rumors suggesting a PC port of Gears of War 2 before the end of the year, Epic Games apparently has no plans to bring the Xbox 360 hit to any other platforms. Gamespy contacted Epic’s PR guru Dana Cowley who informed them that..

- We have no plans for a PC version of Gears of War 2. …

which makes it clear that we won’t be seeing a PC port anytime soon.

With the recent trend of blockbuster games being packaged together (Game of the Year Bundle), it seemed that EPIC’s blockbuster Gears of War series was missing out on its very own package. Well fear not Gears of War fans, as Microsoft Australia have just announced a special ‘Gears of War’ bundle to be released on the 4th of June to participating retailers.

The limited edition Gears of War bundle will include an Xbox 360 Pro console, accompanied by both Gears of War 1 & 2, in a swanky looking blood red box. Though the press release clearly states an Australian release date, it is highly likely that this promotion will include all other major territories.

[Source]

During a recent podcast by Major Nelson, it is revealed that Microsoft has a bigger punishment for cheaters than just wiping their scores. Stephen Toulouse, Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement, stated that the cheaters will also be branded — for life.

When talking about the resetting of gamerscore’s, Stephen stated “I’m going to admit that the bar is a little bit higher than that, because we are a little bit conservative. The other thing it does is reset your gamerscore, but it also puts a tag that you’ve been caught cheating on your gamercard. That’s a pretty big Scarlet Letter.”

So the moral of the story? Don’t cheat unless you want a tag saying you’re a cheater for the rest of your gamer life.

Source: Major Nelson’s Podcast

The latest batch of classic 360 games to join Microsoft’s Xbox Platinum Hits includes the original Gears of War. The platinum version of Gears will include all the DLC available for the game on Xbox Live.

Named “Game of the Year” by over 30 media outlets, Gears of War is the definitive third-person shooter and one of the most popular Xbox 360® games in history. Gears of War: Platinum Hits comes complete with every map pack, game mode and Achievement ever released on Xbox LIVE.