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Title Update 6 for Gears of War 2 is now available on XboxLIVE, adding Social matchmaking among other things.

Starting today, Title Update 6 gives a new reason for “Gears of War” fans to load up their Lancers and rev their chainsaws. The title update, available today on Xbox LIVE, introduces a new public multiplayer match feature called Social Matches that allows you to jump in or out of games without disruptions, including Horde mode matches. Social matchmaking also lets your party join a match already in progress or start a new match if there are no suitable matches to be found.

Social matching is open to anyone who owns all four downloadable map packs, available as a single download by purchasing the “All Fronts Collection,” now at the new discounted price of 800 Microsoft Points or bundled free with the “Gears of War 2: Game of the Year Edition” for $29.99 ESRP. Those looking for specific map packs to round out their collection will also find individual map packs on Xbox LIVE Marketplace at a new lower price as well.

To celebrate the new title update, Epic and Microsoft have also announced a Triple Experience Weekend on Xbox LIVE. Starting tomorrow, Thursday, May 27, at 9:00 AM EDT, fans can earn triple experience in any “Gears of War 2” multiplayer mode on Xbox LIVE. The Triple XP weekend will run until Tuesday, June 1 at 9:00 AM EDT.

Quality and RuneStorm have become synonymous over the years. We've seen The Crucible for UT3 and Ballistic Weapons and JunkWars for UT2004, but now the team is busy porting their UT3 The Crucible stuff to the Unreal Development Kit. RuneStorm's Arn Richert explains:

Some new features include the Lightmass enhanced maps and an expansive Gore system.We'd also like to stress that this is only a Port of our Crucible UT3, and that it still needs work. Due to the MSUC, the design around the Crucible was changed to accomodate various categories.

Plans are to then produce the original The Crucible as it was initially designed. No word on what form that will take. You can keep up with their development via their Facebook page and the RuneStorm website.

Epic has announced the immediate release of the May 2010 beta for their popular Unreal Development Kit. Notable enhancements include making Steam the default online distribution platform as well as the default for server browsing and matchmaking, completion of the Scaleform GFx integration with samples, 64-bit editor binaries and much more.

You can download the 762 MB installer from FileWorks now!

Also, here is a video of Scaleform GFx in action

Global Agenda has a temporary 25% price reduction making it $29.99 (US) until May 31st. 71% at Metacritic.

This Unreal Engine powered MMO offers free play with an optional subscription that adds a few more areas and goodies.

The latest Steam title to hit the Mac is none other than Killing Floor (BU review). It also happens to be a Steamplay title, meaning that a single purchase will allow you to play it on either the Mac or Windows platforms.

Best of all, it's on sale for a limited time for 33% off ($13.39). It's a game I've logged over 390 hours on, so I can safely say the price to potential play time is quite high. Check it out!

Grab your gear, it's time to head to the Pacific Theater! Rising Storm, the expansion to Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad, has been announced and is slated for a 2011 release. The expansion will be co-developed by an All-Star group from the community talent pool and Tripwire. At the official site linked above you can find a few visualization and engine test shots.

As you'll also note below, experienced individuals should inquire with Tripwire about contributing their talents to the effort.

Tripwire Interactive are pleased to announce the development of the Rising Storm expansion for Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad. Rising Storm will cover the famous island-hopping campaigns in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945 as the US Army and Marine Corps fight it out with the Imperial Japanese Army and Special Naval Landing Forces. Featuring some of the most brutal fighting in the Pacific theater, players will be able to experience beach assaults, jungle fighting, close quarters cave fighting and more across Corregidor, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and many other historic locations. The player will be able to take the part of either side – American or Japanese – playing through the Campaign Mode alone or with friends, or battle it out online in full player versus player multi-player.

Rising Storm will be created in a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a mod team and a professional game development studio. The Rising Storm team will be made up of the best developers from the Red Orchestra modding community and the mod community at large. This “All-Star” mod team will be will be sponsored by Tripwire Interactive, with the potential to earn real money for their work. “We’re very excited about this new concept in game development,” said John Gibson, President of Tripwire Interactive. “We’ve always been impressed with the quality of work coming out of the mod teams for our games. We decided that we wanted to try this experiment where we would work closely with a mod team, give them early access to the development tools, and give them an opportunity to make some real money from their work. As the lines between developers and modders blur, we feel this type of synergy could be a great thing for the games industry.”

The Rising Storm team is recruiting now for more developers, preferably with suitable skills in UE3. For more information on the opportunity for developers, visit the website at: http://www.risingstormgame.com. You can be part of the team that brings Red Orchestra’s tactical FPS gameplay to the Pacific – AND earn some money while doing it.

Korean developer AniPark announces a pair of new games for which it has licensed Unreal Engine 3. The first is a MMORPG and the second is a follow-up to its number one online baseball game MaguMagu.

CARY, N.C., May 17, 2010 - Korea-based Anipark, developer of the number one Korean online baseball game, "MaguMagu," today announced it has entered an agreement to license Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for its next two titles - a next-generation online baseball game and new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for PC.

Anipark's new casual baseball game builds on the success of the studio's critically acclaimed "MaguMagu," which is based on real world data for more than 1,000 athletes from eight professional baseball teams of the official Korea Baseball Organization. The highly anticipated sequel will build on "MaguMagu" records data including batting averages, homeruns, wins and losses and more to deliver realistic, 3D baseball gameplay for players of all ages.

"We selected Unreal Engine 3 for our baseball game because of its ability to handle massive amounts of integrated data easily and efficiently," said Kwon Min Kwan, development director at Anipark. "There was no question that Unreal Engine 3 was the right choice. We know the Unreal Engine team has the right tools and support to help us realize our vision for our next titles."

In addition to its new online baseball game, Anipark is also developing its next MMORPG with Unreal Engine 3. The title under development will follow the release of Anipark's first MMORPG, "Project A3," known for its fast, movie-like camera work, dramatic battle scenes and high-impact visuals.

"We're always excited when developers choose Unreal Engine 3 for the sequel of a popular game," said Ray Park, territory manager of Epic Games Korea. "Anipark established themselves as an industry leader early on, with the development of the first casual 3D online Korean baseball game and the release of the first adult-targeted MMORPG in Korea with "Project A3." We all look forward to seeing what new ground Anipark will break in developing these two new games."

Rod Fergusson has posted a whole slew of improvements, balances and fixes for Gears of War 2 in the latest title update.

• Improvements: Title Update 6 makes these new improvements:
• Adds a new public multiplayer match option called Social Xbox LIVE (aka player matches), open to anyone who owns all downloadable maps (that is, All Fronts Collection). We’ll be having a promotion that will dramatically reduce the cost of the All Fronts Collection.
  • You can join Social Matches in progress and can quit any time without penalty, although players who quit a match early don’t receive earned experience (XP) from that match.
  • Social matchmaking lets your party join a match in progress. If a match is not found, your party hosts a new match, filling any empty player slots with bots.
  • Social Matches automatically cycle to the next map without further matchmaking.
  • Teams are rebalanced between matches based on XP level without splitting parties.
  • If you quit, your spot is taken by a bot until a new player joins the match. That new player can join while the match is in progress.
  • If you join a match in progress, you are assigned a team based on XP level and party size.
  • If you join a match in progress, you replace a bot at the earliest opportunity: at the first bot’s death for respawning game types (for example, Annex) and at round completion for Warzone, Execution, and Wingman.
  • Social leaderboards become part of the War Journal.
• Renames Public Matches to Ranked Xbox LIVE Matches to differentiate these from Social Xbox LIVE Matches, and adds some improvements to these matches.
  • Improved host selection using bandwidth testing and previous hosting data has been added.
  • Before the match begins, teams are balanced based on XP without splitting parties.
• Renames Private Matches to Custom Xbox LIVE Matches and makes these matches invite-only.
• Adds the ability to join Horde sessions that are in progress.
  • In Social Horde, you can join a session in progress through matchmaking and you are able to continue your session from the last wave you failed without starting over.
  • In Ranked Horde, you can join a session in progress only through invites.
  • If you join a session in progress, at the end of the session you receive the score you achieved during the time you spent in the session.
• Improves the precision of weapon selection using the D-pad.
• Improves client-side hit detection for ballistic weapons.

Exploit Fixes: Title Update 6 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances

• Execution rules could be ignored when using certain weapon types.
• On the Subway map, you could get outside of the playable environment by sliding into cover and rolling between a train car and the side of tracks.
• On the Blood Drive map, you could get outside of the playable environment in various locations.
• Players could grief other players on Submission, Annex, King of the Hill, and Guardian games by preventing the objective from being completed while racking up experience. Title Update 6 adds match time limits to each of these game types to prevent this practice.

General Fixes: Title Update 6 fixes these other issues as well

• An issue that could cause your profile to be overwritten, erasing XP level, and achievement progress.
• An issue that could cause a campaign save slot to be overwritten if you previously chose to continue without saving and then signed in.

Balancing: Title Update 6 makes these balancing changes

• Changes the Gnasher Shotgun pellet pattern to increase hit consistency.
• Changes the Guardian game type to select the leader based upon XP level (highest to lowest).