does anyone know if the code for the copy of gears of war 1 that came with this game is needed for any online activation for Judgement? If not, I will probably give it away here on dvdtalk like I did Crysis 1...

It's only for downloading Gears 1. There's no online pass functionality with this game.

Just beat the campaign. About 5-6 hours. I haven't started the Aftermath yet which does add a little more to the story. Fun game but I wished it would have lasted longer.

I played a lot of Survial last night and it's just brutal especially hardcore. Everyone I played with said they have yet hit Level 10. Most said they only have reached level 6 or 7. We hit level 9 twice last night with the same group and frankly it was sheer luck.

We came to the conclusion that all Locusts carry grenades and can basically toss them every which way possible....carrying a gun, back turned, downed, on the other side of the map, blown up...didn't matter. it's safe to say why bother with a Medic half the time when about 75% of the deaths is due to grenades. And another thing...the blast radius of Tickers has almost doubled.

I will have to agree with all of this. It also feels sort of claustrophobic, for lack of a better word. Gears 3 just felt more spread out, which I liked.

The best part is that grenades get stuck to you if they hit you.

Don't get me wrong...I like the overall concept, it's just that I've never been killed so much before by grenades. Last night I've never seen so many times where at least three of us were taken out at once. You have about 2 seonds to move when you hear that ticking sound. If you're close by...forget it.

And also the Mauler....something we spooted was how fast he took you out. When he starts to swing, he only moves his arm up half way and then Bam!...you're gone and just like the Tickers and grenades you can get hit just being in the area.

We did have fun and there was more "communication" than normal as to asking for ammo, needing fences mending or help on one side or another. of course some tried to play just like it was GOW3 and the entire session was a lost cause. If one wants to be a lone wolf then everyone will pay the price.

I agree. All the above is my experience too. And it is funny, cause although my team and I are always getting our tails kicked by wave 6 or so on hardcore I just keep signing back up. I'm at level 25 now but I wonder once everyone on the team is level 50 we might just make it to wave 10? It's definitely a challenge, but I guess it should be.

I dunno...played Survial (that's the right word to use for sure) again last night and hit Level 9 once...but just like before it's almost like the AI knows and takes out the generator with one swipe even while it's showing at around 35%. I finf it funny...not really...that in the medals hitting Level 10 is a slight challenge but must be normal because of the amount of stars getting it. Still haven't found anyone hitting 10 yet.

I know one thing..on the medals; getting them will be a huge challenge because in Survial, unlike Horde you are set with a particular weapon and cannot pickup or swap. So getting the weapon medals will be tough unless you really play a lot of Overrun or campaign.

For whatever reason, the campaign in this game just isn't holding my interest.

game is awesome. love Survival [highest wave completed was 7] it's so addicting and Domination is so much better than King Of The Hill. Weapon switching and grenade one button . Overrun didn't really like, playing as cog is fun but switching to locust u get your ass handed quickly.

A friend of mine joine me the other day and he said if you want to beat Survial the only way is a private party and reduce the difficulty to either casual or normal. With just us two and AI Bots filling in we beat two maps on "casual". There is a chevo for beating all three and making it to Level 10. Even at casual it was bit of a challenge but not nearly like Hardcore...what a difference especially getting killed about 90% of the time with grenades.

Also we both taked about beating it on hardcore and said the ideal makeup would be (4) Engineers and (1) Soldier...two engineers on each side and the soldier providing ammo to both teams and backup.. The Engineers would have to time their turrents so one would be out almost all the time while double team the fence repairs. Throw in the Soldier with the grenade launcher at critical points, it's possible but only with the right team.

I like the single player gameplay okay, but I don't like how it's broken up into arenas where you clear out a section and move on. It doesn't make for a cohesive campaign. Especially after playing Tomb Raider, which, as opposed to this, had a great sense of forward momentum, that's severely lacking in this game. The other Gears games had that too.

Played a bit of MP last week, needed some time to adjust to the changes. And of course it was a gnasher fest. That was on Tuesday, or Wednesday?, so I don't know if that have changed. It was Free For All.

Most of the time I've played campaign. Playing hardcore, of course, I thought it was kind of easy. But I'm enabling classified missions, so it's getting interesting in some parts. Basically I haven't been able to pass any time sensitive mission LOL! I get close in some though. But I can see it will be a pain in the ass completing them in Insane. Unless someone finds a shortcut or a glitch of course.

But yeah, campaign is not as interesting as any of the previous games.

I didn't like the timed missions as it didn't let me explore every area of the map for cog tags. I also don't see a reason to go back and play the game without the declassified missions. Does it actually change the story? I thought there was supposed to be different mission choices that would add replayability.

I went back and started an insane campaign. The declassified missions are the same. I've been skipping the timed missions though as there were a few cogs I missed on my first play through. Its definitely tougher on insane but I'm plowing through.

Finished the campaign on hardcore over the weekend. I did almost every declassified mission; here are a few notes:

- Timed missions: Not enough time to explore and get cog tags, and AI is not that 'helpful' at a high difficulty level when it comes to strategy / cooperation to get through the level in time

- Decreased Visibility: These were cool - and was a great way to get chain saw ribbons & achievements

- Limited to certain weapons: These were fun, and I got exposure to using guns I would normally pass on. However, it pissed me off that I would lose the guns that I had at the start of the mission. I would have fully loaded oneshots, lancers, mazukas and they would take them away at the start of the mission, and would not give them back to you when you completed the board.

This pissed me off and penalized me for planning ahead and exploring the boards to get good weapons and ammo.

-There was a board near the end of the game where the declassified mission would send 2 waves of 5 ragers charging at you.. too hard for me to get past with AI - they would not start shooting until it was too late. I had to restart that mission and do it normal.

Looking forward to playing aftermath

Anyone want to go through the Survival maps on casual to get the achievement? I tried doing it by myself but the ai is useless and i only got to wave 8. I am usually on after 9PM EST.

I should be back on tonight around 7:30-8 and if my friends are not on I'll do it. I just need one of the maps to complete the chevo. As I mentioned two of us with three AI bots did it without any problems except the idiot AI Soldier wouldn't drop ammo when needed or throw way out somewhere. Just send a friends request...

I tried it myself on the estate map and got to wave 10 but got the beat down on that wave. I would like to do it with a few people too. I'm not always on in the evenings but would like to help or get helped when I can. What's your gamertag?

Your Gamertag looks familiar, I think I might have played some survival with you the other night. I'll send you a friend request and hopefully we can do some survival together. I'd like to find a group I trust to do some overrun.

How long is aftermath? I beat the campaign last night and am debating if I want to play it again on insane.

Hey

I must apologize for not getting back with you last night. The moment I signed on two of my friends were on and sent a invite to finish the campaign. I did see your message but three times I was going to send a response but I couldn't break away from the campaign. Getting three of us together is rough and when it happens we just play. All three of us are in different time zones so when it happens it takes priority.

I'll send a friends request and one to Barth as well. I'll be on again tonight and if my friends ar not on then we can tackle Survial on Private or standard. If they are on we'll probably do parts of the campaign for the challenges or the rest of the COG tags.

A little under an hour.

Hey Krayzie, I hope you did well last night. Sorry we couldn't hook up but at least there wasn't a shortage of folks and didn't have to rely on AI Bots.

We actually got four of us which usually happens on Friday...none of us are in the same time zone. We've played together for awhile going back to Gears 1. We did the Survival on Casual and had zero problems. Actually made it to Wave 10 with the second hole intact twice. We'll try the "normal" mode next. Not sure on Hardcore...even the best player out of our bunch got frustrated doing random matches. Maybe with four or five that actually know their roles may make it.