Gears 2 slips further down the Xbox Live charts

by Dustin Burg on Dec 17th 2008 9:00AM

Marcus Fenix and crew aren't going to be happy to hear this; Gears of War 2 has slipped even further down the most played games on Xbox Live charts. Gulp ...

For the week of December 8th, Halo 3 has again claimed the number one spot, followed by World at War, CoD4 then Gears 2. Yes sir, a fourth place spot for team Epic. There is a chance Gears 2 could climb the ranks heading into next week with the release of the new Combustible DLC. Then again, with all the controversy surrounding its timing and price, we wouldn't bet on it. As far as Arcade titles go, Street Fighter 2 remains top dog, followed by A Kingdom for Keflings, Banjo-Kazooie, then everyone's favorite, UNO.

Sorry Marcus, just be sure to keep your manly chin up. Aight?

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Tags: bungie, bungie-studios, epic, epic-games, gears-of-war-2, gow2, halo-3, xbox-live

Reader Comments (80)

Niiiiiiiiiiicccccccccceeeeeeeeee!

You deserve this Epic, for screwing everyone who paid $60+ for this glitched trainwreck and then had the audacity to ask for more cash 5 weeks later before you fixed a single gameplay glitch and misfire.

Agreed; they've become so greedy. First they have the flashback map pack, which decreases resale value and forces people who want all of a game to buy a new copy.
Now they expect us to shell out another ten on maps that were clearly in development before the title released and should've been free. Overall I've lost a lot of respect for team epic.

Just goes to show Epic won't get away with not supporting there multiplayer all the time. They got away with it the first time (barely) but not this time. I'm not playing it anymore until they fix it. Although we'll probably be waiting years between updates like they did with Gears 1.

Amen. I beat horde mode. Then I tried the matchmaking for a few days (after the "update").Holy $*^% what broken multiplayer.
Sold on ebay while they're still advertising it :) I almost felt guilty for selling it to the poor sucker.
Maybe they'll patch it by the time I see it in a "BARGAIN BIN" somewhere.

Sadly even if they fixed the cheating glitches and the unfortunate glitches I don't think people will come back to Gears 2.

I refuse to pay for this DLC map pack! 5 weeks after the game launches is crazy. I guess I'll go buy COD5 and forget about Gears if this is how they treat their customers.

Plus those 3 maps are only like 79mb...meaning they are already on the disc and the "content" is just an "access granted" code.

A 79 mb access code? You're fucking crazy.

Ryan: No.

108KB - unlock key

79MB - real DLC

"A 79 mb access code? You're fucking crazy."

I'll second that. It's great when people prove they know not what they speak of.

Everybody'll be playing CoD5 when Best Buy is selling it for 34.99 next week.

Gee, I wonder why it keeps slipping ... could it have anything to do with the fact that the online match play is STILL horked even after the "patch" and that if you do get into the match, they seem to be populated mostly by ignorant pre-teen sounding pin heads (even Halo 3 was never consistently this bad with idiots yelling at each other).

Hmm, Looks like the amount of people having problems with matchmaking isn't such a small percentage of people after all, huh Epic?

Ive gone back to playing CoD4 because I just cant take the crap on gears anymore, its practically unplayable due to the lag and if it doesnt lag odds are someone is glitching in the game so it just not fun anyway, after playing CoD4 again you realize how friggin awful the gears matchmaking is.

Seconded. I put COD4 back in and am playing happily. Forgotten how amazingly fun that multiplayer is, especially in comparison to weaker offerings...

I traded COD4 in towards Gears 2 :(

One of the biggest mistakes of my life, no doubt.

Its not just the matchmaking that is jacked up (they seemed to have fixed most of those problems with the patch) The problem is the lack of consistency within the play. The Lancer is useless because someone has as good of a range with a shotgun from far back. People can bull rush you while you are unloading a shotgun clip on you and still the chainsaw kill. Epic has A LOT of work to do!

And as already has been said. Why are they trying to sell us more maps (and wasting their time making more maps) when the game itself still doesn't work.

Multiplayer issues aside, the campaign was one of the best in years.

Agreed. Campaign was Flantabulous.
I just wish Horde was more like this at 1:49.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa1-91h8ELA

Obviously you'd be IN the crowd rather than just shooting it.

Looks good on you EPIC!!!! And 800 ms points for 3 new maps when the current multiplayer is broken!!! EPIC FAIL!!!!! You guys deserve a full page banner on failblog.

ENJOY, now back to COD.

I'm in New Zealand, and my multiplayer issues are minimal. I don't understand what everyone is complaining about.

Get over it. Gears 2 is a great game and you are all missing out on it!

I'm sure it has nothing to do with stuff like this:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IK1SbOWONpM

Wait, that's the opposite of what I meant.

WOW. I think the one comment on youtube said it best "fake walls in a cover based game." I gave up on GOW2 last week & went back to Lost Planet. I can handle the lag on it.

Multiplayers not as bad as people make out. I just wish they'd sort out the lobby. It's ridiculous to have to find new players after each match.

Not a surprise to me... Gears 2 online is HORRIBLE!!! All the matchmaking issues, the insane amount of lag, etc... I'm glad people are finally starting to wake up and going back to playing other multiplayer games that are actually worth playing. Should've fixed your shit sooner EPIC!!!

"Should've fixed your shit sooner EPIC!!!"

Epic doesn't care if they top live. Its not like they make a dime each time someone plays another round on live.They've already made millions selling a broken game and are looking for a bonus with DLC $$$$$$$.

Sell your DLC while you can Epic. Sell it while some people still care.

I'm pretty sure Epic does care about where they place on LIVE. How can you sell DLC when people are not playing your game? You think they'd be satisfied by selling the game and that's it? Naw man the real money is in the DLC. Why do you think new maps are coming so soon? They see the writing on the wall.

The fact that Halo 3 can still own on LIVE is proof positive that if you do it right, people will play. Not only that but Bungie can still make a ton of money off DLC.

"How can you sell DLC when people are not playing your game?"

My point exactly. They have to sell the DLC while people are still playing. BUT over three million copies were sold worldwide within the first month of its release. Those three or four million are gonna be interested for only so long. See? Even if no one plays this game on live next year the game is already a financial success and so will be this overpriced DLC.

Haha, remember when Epic was against Microsoft for wanting to charge for maps?

I rented the game a few times and really enjoyed Campaign and Horde til I beat them, now I have no need to get this game at 60 bucks.

I totally agree with NatePete. The game is just on the whole inconsistent. Games are still so laggy and with a game like COD4 running and looking as good as it does Epic cannot tell me that they can't make the networking client to figure out which person in the game has the best connection and give that person the host. This is just one more reason Microsoft needs dedicated servers for it's first party games. What else am I paying $60.00 a year for

I wouldn't be surprised if Gears 1 eventually passes Gears 2 on this list when all the release hype for Gears 2 eventually dies down.

I think it's pretty clear now that EPIC does zero testing online. I can pretty much see how this goes:

"Check it out dudes, we fixed host advantage and all the lag because we don't see any of it anymore when we test the game out over our office LAN. And matchmaking is super spiffy and quick on our internal network."

castle crashers anyone?

Remember the article about Cliffy B saying that Beta Testing are like one night stands?

Now it looks like nobody wants to fuck that game knowing its got problems.

And it looks like CoD5 is doing pretty damn good in 2nd. They must of fixed those bugs sometime during beta testing? maybe??

This just goes to show how important solid networking code and good weapon balance is. Halo is not only a finely tuned competitive experience (with every weapon having its advantages AND disadvantages), but its matchmaking and networking performance is miles beyond even COD4, and especially Gears.

So even though Halo 3 didn't dominate its console the way Halo 2 did, we see now over a year after its release that it still tops the Xbox Live list. Bungie knows what they are doing.

Hal2Master you hit the problem on the head! My biggest complaint about Gears 2 is the fact that there is no weapons balance (that and the fact that I can shoot a guy four times point blank without hi going down, then he can buck me and im instantly downed)

This game has so much potential that its not reaching.

I'll concede miles ahead of Gears, but COD4? That game, and Halo 3, are comparable with ease of multiplayer matchmaking imo.

Oh yeah, believe me I am not hating on COD4. I love that game, and it's easily second best in the matchmaking arena.

Still though, I just run into problems less often in Halo. Also, Halo comes with fantastic community involvement (forge, saved films, etc) and an awesome web site. This combined with a more finely tuned weapon balance give it the edge over COD4, IMO.

not surprised either. probably trading in my copy for store credit at Gamestop before the week is over.

I wouldn't trade it in @ GameStop. They rip you off! Sell it on Ebay! Especially with all the pre-Xmas stuff.

ya, my friends and I were huge Gear heads... and then we played Matchmaking..... after that, we tried playing with AI... not fun. now I'm playing Left 4 Dead.

lol...

WTF? Quit pimping your site. It's f'ugly and useless anyways.

i still have Fallout 3 to finish only a third of the way in) and Far Cry 2 to finish (only a fifth of the way in), plus a half-dozen maps i'm working on the the FC2 editor.

I'm glad I sold this game, it's nothing more than a cash in on the original, with poor it's online support and now Epic is already trying to shoehorn more cash from unwitting consumers with DLC!

I'm glad I went back to Halo 3, there's always plenty of players and the matchmaking is a god send in comparison, but above all it's both fun and competitive. A worthy XBL #1.

Maybe Epic shouldn't have been so keen to turn it's back on the Unreal franchise.

EPIC pretty much killed Gears MP. Changing the gameplay SO FUCKING MUCH and the slow matchmaking (for some) has caused this. Damn Cliffy, LISTEN TO THE GEARS FANS. TAKE ALL THIS BULLSHIT (wall fragtagging, falling with smoke, lag)AWAY AND GIVE US GEARS 1 TYPE GAMEPLAY YOU FUCKS!

So fucking sad this is...

As much as people complain about sequels being too similar to their originals, I'll be damned if I wouldn't have paid hundreds of dollars to have Gears 2 just be Gears 1 with fixed net code and the new gameplay types (mainly just Guardian and Wingman).

I really think Gears 1's multiplayer being so great was just an accident because it was so rushed. I don't think they ever meant it to be the close quarters, shotty centric game that it was. It ended up accidentally being the most unique (and fun) shooter I've ever played, but now that they had time to put into the MP with Gears 2 they made it what they really envisioned it to be, which is basically the same gameplay style as every other shooter out there rather than the uniqueness of Gears 1.

Uno is on the top five? Everytime I try and play I have a hard time finding a game with 3 other players. Yeah Im not sure about getting the gears maps. 10 bones is a lot for some maps. I'll just stick with the ones i already have.

I have no problem playing a 4 person UNO game at any time. It can be 4 AM on a Sunday morning and 3 more people join me within 2 mins.

Might be worth checking your NAT settings?

I agree, this game is a disaster. I played Gears 1 for 2 years, and while there was lag, you could adjust to it - all while being optimistic that Gears 2 would be lag free (especially after Epic specifically said it would be fixed).

While I feel there are weapon imbalances (partly due to lag making the non-one hit kill weapons useless), Im not too devastated by the changes. The grenade tagging is weak, and smoke grenades and shields cause more trouble than their worth, but its mainly the lag that kills the game.

What really surprises me is the amount of people feeling ripped off for 60 bucks. For me the campaign and the co-op campaign was well worth the price of entry, and horde is awesome.

I wont try to defend epic for the mulitplayer.. its fucked up. But they game was still worth the $60.

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