Merry Christmas.

One year of chainsaw dueling -- that's what Epic Games is celebrating this holiday season, and a nice Gears of War 2 playlist changeup is rolling out for your enjoyment.

Starting right now, players can rack up triple XP in Horde Mode and multiplayer. Plus, all public Horde matches are automatically bumped to Hardcore difficulty, and playlists are being tweaked so that you can find your favorite game more easily. To top it all off, "tactical mode" is available in all game modes, limiting ammo and increasing damage.

The special event lasts until November 16th, so get your Horde on asap!

Source: Link

Sports games are inherently cooperative, providing a focus on teamwork and communication. But it's rare to find games that cater to that strength, instead the focus is on the competitive nature. Today we examine NBA Live 10 from EA Sports and what it offers to co-op NBA basketball fans.

"Ain't no candy here, ugly!"

Sounds like Epic is *ahem* GEARING up for a fun Halloween.  The Gears of War 2 "All Hallow's Eve" event begins Friday morning, and will likely keep you glued to your Xbox 360 all weekend.  The fifth title update for the game is available today, fixing some bugs and exploits.  This weekend, XP earned in competitive multiplayer (the tricks) and Horde mode (the treats) will be doubled, allowing you to earn those achievements and the respect of your peers just that much faster.

Horde mode won't be the same ol' thing, though.  How does "more Boomers" strike you? 

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Game Name: League of Legends: Clash of Fates
Co-Op: Yes
Co-Op Type/Multiplayer Type: Competitive co-op in the vein of DotA
Publisher/Developer: Riot Games
Release Date: Oct. 6, 2009

We sat down yesterday with Steven Snow, Vice President of Productions for Riot Games, to talk about their free upcoming release, League of Legends: Clash of Fates.  Gamers who are familiar with the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients: Allstars (or DotA: Allstars as it’s also known) are likely to feel right at home with Legends as it uses the same style of play.  What’s more, the designer for DotA: Allstars, Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, and the creator of the fansite that was the official support base for it, Steve “Pendragon” Mescon, are both involved with the making of this game and it definitely shows.

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A few tidbits of news are still trickling in from last week's GamesCom.  Jay Wilson, designer for Diablo 3, told Joystiq that parental controls will be in the game.  In addition, the game will be edited for violence for release in some regions.

We're going to have to be able to turn off blood, change the color and things like that, because you can't have red blood in some regions, regions that we would very much like to sell the game in.

Presumably, the parental controls would allow for users to do the same on their own copies of Diablo 3.  I am a huge fan of games that allow me to tone down the violence so I can enjoy them with my children, so this is great news for me.  No word yet if the different varieties of blood will include rainbow, pink polka dot, or tutti fruiti as of press time.

Source: Link

Online retailer Amazon.com is listing a September 1st ship date for Gears of War 2: Game of the Year Edition.  Retailing for $40, and available for $37, the game packs Gear 2 and all of the DLC content onto one fine disc.  

That gets you a two player co-op campaign, 19 maps for 5 player co-op Horde mode, and the additional Dark Corners 2 player co-op campaign chapter.  Suckers, er, I mean early adopters, paid almost $100 for all of that content.  If you've waited on Gears 2, now is your chance to hop on the Cole train!

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It's raining blood, hallelujah it's raining blood! Amen!

The latest class for upcoming co-op blockbuster Diablo III has been revealed.  The Monk joins Barbarian, Witch Doctor, and Wizard to take down Diablo's minions.  Gotta love the nice nod to the monk class inclusion in the expansion for the first Diablo, Hellfire.  The monk is pretty good with a bo staff, so you might want one in your co-op gang.  Two more words: reflecting fireballs.  Woot!

A glorious twelve minutes of monk gameplay footage comes your way via 1UP.  I really hope this game still comes out in 2010, don't you?

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Still more news from Gamescom today, this time, a couple of hands on previews of Diablo III. 1UP and Kotaku both had some time with the demo, and shared their impressions.  While the actual content was the same, the previewers chose different classes, barbarian and wizard, respectively.  This gives us a bit of insight into the differences between the classes.  The barbarian was able to wade headlong through waves of enemies, while the wizard was more effective luring them out a couple at a time.

Some details about new enemies were included as well.  A dust devil of sorts was particularly interesting, having a knockback attack that also stuns.  Giant wasps that spawned tiny minions to attack players look like fun, as well.  Both previews mention the atmosphere, which still feels like Diablo.  The game looks to be doing everything right, and coupled with the news of Starcraft 2's lack of a co-op campaign, I have a new most anticipated Blizzard game.  How about you?

Source: Link

Yeah, you know these guys love Horde mode too.

You've probably been busy revisiting Gears of War 2 lately, given the new update and "All Fronts" map pack released recently.  As is becoming more and more common lately, there are a bundle of additional achievements with the DLC.  The new achievements raise the maximum you can earn up to a whopping 1750 gamerscore points.  Playing through "Road to Ruin", the bonus chapter, in co-op will net you 50 points, plus an additional 25 if you replay it in the opposite style (stealth vs. guns blazing).  The majority of the remaining achievements are all related to perennial favorite Horde mode!  The achievements are tied to specific maps from the new content, and also to your multiplayer level, which, you'll recall, you can now earn XP for in Horde mode.  Look us up if you're online and trying to get these new cheevies!

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As we previewed last week, the Gears of War DLC  is now available to download.  The content comes in two flavors.  

The first is called All Fronts, and is a 1600  pack that contains all previous map packs and content as well as new 7 new multiplayer maps including favorites from Gears of War 1 and Gears of War for Windows.  That means in total you'll have 19 new maps for use in Horde mode and multiplayer.  There's also the addition of the "Road to Ruin" story based content which is playable in two player co-op.

The second flavor is called Dark Corners, a 1200  pack that contains only the 7 new maps and the "Road to Ruin" content.

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