Gears 2 stagnant on Xbox Live activity chart despite DLC

by Ross Miller { Dec 24th 2008 at 11:58PM }

That Combustible map pack didn't seem to ignite much passion into Gears of War 2, as the shoe-in for Best Shooter Involving a Chain Saw-infused Rifle Award remains numero quartro on the Xbox Live activity chart for last week. The game was also 4th place the week prior, and 3rd place for two consecutive weeks before that. Far from being a bad position, but it's certainly not dominating the service like its predecessor.

Staying strong at top is Halo 3, followed by the Call of Duty: World at War and CoD4, respectively. The promotional Dash of Destruction managed to take 6th place, and somehow bumped Fallout 3 from 8th to oblivion. Full list after the break.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU's)
1 Halo 3
2 CoD: World at War
3 Call of Duty 4
4 Gears of War 2
5 GTA IV
6 Dash of Destruction
7 Left 4 Dead
8 Madden NFL 09
9 FIFA 09
10 Fable II

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
1 Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
2 Bomberman Live
3 A Kingdom for Keflings
4 Castle Crashers
5 Worms
6 UNO
7 Banjo-Kazooie
8 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
9 Portal: Still Alive
10 Braid

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU's)
1 Halo 2
2 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3 Fable
4 Counter-Strike
5 Conker: Live Reloaded
6 Call of Duty 3
7 Splinter Cell Chaos
8 Battlefield 2: MC
9 Star Wars: Battlefront
10 Doom 3

Top Community Games (Full Versions purchased)
1 Golden Royal Blackjack
2 Snowmans Dilemma
3 Word Soup
4 Weapon of Choice
5 Tower Revolution
6 World Molder
7 Couples Sudoku
8 Petank Party
9 sin(Surfing)
10 Classicard

Tags: call-of-duty, call-of-duty-4, call-of-duty-world-at-war, cod4, codwaw, gears-of-war-2, halo-3, xbox, xbox-live, xbox-live-activity

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

LordVesper007 @ Dec 25th 2008 12:07AM

I'm not sure why anyone should care.

Halo was released first. Hence it got a bigger following. All those other games have garnered followings as well that have taken away from what Gears would have had IF the last COD had been a mediocre title.

But in the end it really doesn't matter to me who's playing what on Live. Just play the games. Leave the fanboy game wars at the door when it comes to the 360. All this Halo vs Gears shit is beyond ridiculous. Both are great games in their own right and it simply comes down to preference. I happen to find Gears 2 to be a lot more enjoyable and realistic than Halo. Therefore I play Gears 2 all the time now.

And I love those new maps.

SeNiLe911 @ Dec 25th 2008 1:38AM

I still play Gears 2 but not sure for how much longer. Depends mostly on Epic getting a patch out ASAP or not and if more people start taking advantage of all the glitches. Seems like there's a new one everyday. This game is riddled with them.

Here are many reasons why Gears is not at #1:

http://x2theg.blogspot.com/2008/12/this-is-compile-of-gears-of-war-2-epic.html

http://x2theg.blogspot.com/2008/12/this-is-compile-of-gears-of-war-2-epic_24.html

The game is broken and needs a HUUUUUGE patch like last month before it's off the Top 10.

Platinum_Skeet @ Dec 25th 2008 11:44AM

The top games are up there because they've good matchmaking systems. If you look at it they're in order from good to bad in how good their matchmaking/lobby system is...

Well except dash of destruction it's the "X" factor because it was free...

Strategy_Panda (The Sandwich Poisoning Crew) @ Dec 25th 2008 1:18PM

Its surprising to see Halo as number one on the charts because it was released a little over two years ago. Typically, games have a much shorter robust multiplayer lifespan on consoles. Halo 3 being holding the number one spot says a lot about how well Bungie designed the game.

CB @ Dec 25th 2008 9:14PM

Wow SeNiLe911, thanks for posting the link to that. I knew Gears 2 had online problems but wow, seeing all that make it to the final release is just terrifying!

Little Big PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Dec 25th 2008 11:09PM

From an art perspective it's pretty much the same but Gears 2 tried to force multiplayer cooperation down our throats in a more tactical and team based way compared to Gears 1. I understand Epic wanted the first Gears to be tactical but it didn't work out that way so they should have let it be. It went from an in your face close range shotgun game to a medium/long range lancer battle. Even if none of the awful glitches made it into the game it still wouldn't be number 1 on XBL because the changes were not necessary and were actually unwelcome.

All they had to do was eliminate the bugs & glitches from the first game and give us new modes and maps. Instead they made unnecessary changes that no one seems to understand or agree with and have thus affected the core gameplay that made the series the best game available on the 360.

My Problems -

*Serious glitches that were never fixed and new ones that are worse (to many for me to list here)*
Awful matchmaking
Overpowered Lancer
Underpowered Shotgun
Tweaked Sniper downing w/active reload compared to Gears 1
Bad level design
New Heavy weapons should only be for Horde and Campaign
Exploding smoke grenades are not consistent
Antiquated menu setup
No unranked matchmaking like in Gears 1
No "ready" button / stupid voting system in pre-game menu
Serious issues with the NXE party system within Gears 2

These are only some of the issues I have with the competitive multiplayer portion of the game and does not include the campaign or Horde mode.

Let me try to make a sports analogy to better get my perspective across. Gears 2 making these changes was akin to the Phoenix Suns trading for Shaquille last year. They had a competitive team and a run and gun system that worked. Now with Shaquille the entire philosophy of the team has to change from one way that was very successful. They may have not won a title but they had a system in place that worked for them. You don't need to do an overhaul of something that isn't completely broken in the first place. If you do make changes make them in ways that upgrade and expand upon what you are already trying to accomplish instead of reinventing the wheel.

Hope that made at least a tiny lick of sense.

joshua @ Dec 25th 2008 12:07AM

That's because multiplayer is broken, and singleplayer is pretty much the same old sh... stuff that everyone played in 2006. I doubt this bothers Epic too much one way or the other, they still got their sales, but this game won't have half the life of the original, and that would be the case even if 2008's library wasn't vastly superior to 2006's.

Jawmuncher @ Dec 25th 2008 11:03AM

But isn't halo 3 just like halo 2?

j.howlett @ Dec 25th 2008 11:05AM

at the top of the chart?

giantenemycrab @ Dec 25th 2008 12:09AM

I think it's a combination of Call Of Duty being just so fun to play and GoW2 being too similar as far as multiplayer goes. Not saying it's not great, but it's really quite similar and it's kind of getting stale. This has been my take at least. Plus, CoD is just so balanced, where as on GoW there's constantly people abusing a particular weapon or glitch or both.

I know personally I played some of the GoW2 MP, and it was fun, but there just wasn't enough there to really keep me coming back.

Ben @ Dec 25th 2008 3:46PM

My problem is that it's NOTHING like Gears 1. Cliffy has said many a time that the multiplayer in Gears wasn't what they intended it to be, however I think it was a pretty brilliant 'accident'.

It riles me that the guys at Epic can be so pigheaded to think they know better than their customers and have tried to change the dynamic of the game so dramatically. In doing so they've just fucked up the game I love.

That and it's glitchy and laggy as hell.

Trent @ Dec 25th 2008 8:26PM

My problem with GOW2 is that it is so wasteful of my time. Even if matchmaking worked *perfectly*, there are still too many stupid countdowns all over the place. Here are my suggestions for getting this game back in shape:

- Remove all the stupid countdowns (especially the 20 second one at the end of a match).

- When I hit BACK during a match and see the stats, I should also see the rules of the current game.

- When voting for a game type, show me the description of the game type BEFORE I vote for it (duh!)

- Keep strangers together after they play a match.

- The D-pad sucks for weapon selection, but I guess there is nothing that can be done about that.

- Create more gametypes where the player has more than one life.

Jim Perry @ Dec 25th 2008 12:10AM

Gears2 is basically more of the same... but broken multiplayer, that has never been right... only 10 max in a game, and they split the audience like most LIVE titles with DLC... the haves and the have nots. DLC is fine, if its affordable enough that a very high percentage of people download it, otherwise, a segment of your audience can't play the DLC, thus splitting up your audience. Not good.

KingOfGods @ Dec 25th 2008 2:12AM

What are you talking about? Why don't you actually pop Gears in your 360. The DLC is a separate play list from the others and doesn't stop anyone w/o the dlc from playing online.

Foetoid @ Dec 25th 2008 4:20AM

True, but its splitting up the people who do and do not have the dlc, on the assumption most people who download the DLC play those downloaded maps more than any other, leaving the people without the DLC to only play against other people who don't have it also.

Austin @ Dec 25th 2008 12:10AM

I mean ill be honest, I HATE Gears Multiplayer, it just isnt fun.

Duke @ Dec 26th 2008 10:39AM

That's how I felt about the first Gears. Whenever I played it I felt more frustrated that anything, and so I moved on to other things. Though, in all fairness, I apparently was pretty bad at it.

Joe @ Dec 25th 2008 12:14AM

That DLC should have been with the game. The game is barely a month old, and they're already charging Gears players 10 bucks for new maps. Just ridiculous. Besides, Halo has a better multiplayer overall.

StarFoxA @ Dec 25th 2008 12:15AM

I play Call of Duty 4 more often because, to be frank, I suck at Gears of War.

jynxycat @ Dec 25th 2008 12:59PM

/signed

ice~ @ Dec 25th 2008 12:24AM

Halo was fun for a while...but to see people STILL PLAYING IT, i mean wow, I have to give them props...Most games get old to me after about a month or two.

And about Gears 2, why do people keep bitching about "broken" multiplayer? After the patch it works just fine for me, the people who are calling it broken probably haven't played it since day one and might as well stfu and go play halo and stop complaining about gears

i6a7n1 @ Dec 25th 2008 4:59AM

I find it hard to believe that you have been playing Gears since day one, as I have been playing it since day one and have experienced pretty much all the brokenness (i know not a word) that this game is accused of having. This game is so glitch ridden right now, and I know people get tired of hearing all the "complaining", but it becomes frustrating when not much awareness is being shown on Epic's part(imo) when there are so many people that loved the first gears and are trying to learn to like gears 2.

343 Guilty Fart @ Dec 25th 2008 11:10PM

I'm surprised that you're surprised that people still play Halo 3. It's my go-to game, I play a few matches a day when I get home from work. I'll be playing it until the next Xbox comes out. Best money I ever spent.

ice~ @ Dec 25th 2008 11:13PM

My go-to game is burnout paradise or Viva Pinata TIP lol. Not halo 3, i just thought it should have died out by now

tmacairjordan87 @ Dec 25th 2008 12:26AM

I finally got Gears 2 today so I'll be up for some Horde mode when I beat the campaign (first couple chapters of Act 1 are brilliant). So if you see this Fenix then send an invite sometime on live.

Foetoid @ Dec 25th 2008 4:22AM

Wow tmac. Late adopter to a game of this calibur? I finished the campaign in split-screen co-op which was awesome fun. Great campaign, far better than Gears 1.

Little Big PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Dec 25th 2008 11:25PM

I won't ruin anything but the last boss was a fucking joke compared to Raam.

Duke @ Dec 26th 2008 10:38AM

I still haven't played through the entire campaign either. I enjoyed some split screen coop with a buddy when he was here for thanksgiving, and haven't touched the game since. I think we got about 1/2 through.

Quattro @ Dec 25th 2008 12:32AM

Maybe its because Gears 2 is a lot like Gears 1.

xtremeholymuffin @ Dec 25th 2008 3:02AM

Right, and Halo 3 was a fucking revolution.

Cal @ Dec 25th 2008 11:31AM

If Gears 2 was more like Gears 1 then it'd be doing better, but instead they fucked with the MP mechanics and then added more glitches

Wiinterfang @ Dec 25th 2008 12:37AM

Halo is cool too, I don't see the problem.

Wiinterfang @ Dec 25th 2008 12:47AM

Arrrg my new awesome avatar won't appear.

(obligatory avatar won't appear comment even if I know it make take several minutes to appear).

slycooper_rocker [anti-panda death murder squadron force five] @ Dec 25th 2008 1:46AM

at least yours appeared the first time. i've tried different ones a bajillion times and none of them ever showed up.

Wiinterfang @ Dec 25th 2008 1:54AM

This is my second one actually :D, but I submitted a new one that just refuses to appear, and I spent 20 minutes on paint doing it =(.

xtremeholymuffin @ Dec 25th 2008 3:04AM

I set up an account on the forum of ateaseweb.com named Burt Reynolds, and for some reason the avatar picture from that site became my Joystiq avatar.......and I'm too lazy to change it....

mr nimblewick @ Dec 25th 2008 10:06PM

I had this problem. The only browser it worked in was firefox. Don't know why, but it wouldn't update from IE, Opera, Google, or Safari.

Wiinterfang @ Dec 25th 2008 10:09PM

Mine's update something and then I have my old avatar back it's really weird.

Sizer @ Dec 25th 2008 12:45AM

I thought GoW2 was pretty fun, and ratcheted up the intensity from GoW well enough. But it was emotionally empty (don't give me that bullshit about Dom's wife, that was so transparent and clumsy that only a teen would be affected). So I started playing Aquaria, and it's an order of magnitude more affecting. At least.

So yeah, for me GoW2 has zero staying power. It's better than Resistance 2 was, but that's about it.

slycooper_rocker [anti-panda death murder squadron force five] @ Dec 25th 2008 1:48AM

resistance disappointed me. the bosses were epic but that's it. the co-op was good for 2 days then it got removed from the top of the games stack and placed in the drawer. cod:waw and lbp are pretty much the only games that are ever in my disc drive with the occasional fallout...

Orionsaint @ Dec 25th 2008 12:53AM

GOOD!!! I hope it goes lower. The fun of Gears is gone. Yep I was proud of being a shotgun whore! It was fun and fun is the most important thing when you play a game. Gears2 took my fun away. So now Gears2 can burn in hell!

Rollins @ Dec 25th 2008 1:02AM

*quatro

I always found that the first GoW's multiplayer grew stale fairly quickly. So I'm not surprised that with matchmaking as broken as it sounds like it is in GoW2 that it's not doing as well.

xtremeholymuffin @ Dec 25th 2008 3:06AM

It's really not that broken at all.

It's mostly just people like you who hear from people who hear from other people, none of whom have actually played the game, that the matchmaking is broken in some way that you can't specify....

Jeff @ Dec 25th 2008 4:39AM

See, I disagree. The shield glitch alone is enough to make the multiplayer too broken to be excused. That's a simple thing to fix (patch it so you can't pick up a new weapon while switching weapons), but they just haven't done it. Plus, the damn shotgun can kill you from way too far away. Screw that stupid gun.

I admit, after that patch, it's easier to find matches than it was before, but I still sometimes have to try way too many times for a top-tier game that's got this many players online at any given time.

CaramelZappa @ Dec 25th 2008 1:10AM

Despite DLC? If anything, the DLC contributed, because it just pissed off more players who wanted the game fix. The game is broken, and thinking anything short of it being fixed is gonna bring the ranks up is ridiculous.

t3kni9e @ Dec 25th 2008 1:17AM

It's because Multiplayer is broken. Notice how it easily grabbed the 1st place then dropped after like 2 weeks? Because people started to realize it was screwed up and went back to other games and alot decided to buy CoD:WaW. They need client side hit detection because without it, it literally leaves the game unplayable. Until it's fixed I won't be playing Gears 2.

Problem is this problem occured in Gears 1, just not as bad and even in Gears 1 it was never fixed, so I doubt they will fix it for Gears 2.