Get the Gears of War Annex Trailer off WP (54mb)

Blending the best of tactical action games with the best of survival horror titles, "Gears of War" is the first game developed by Epic Games exclusively for Microsoft Game Studios and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. "Gears of War" thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet.

In this third-person tactical shooter, gamers live and breathe the role of Marcus Fenix. A disgraced former war hero, Marcus seeks personal redemption as he leads his fire team against an onslaught of merciless warrior fiends. Gamers immerse themselves in an experience so intensely emotional and gut-wrenching that playing will be like controlling a blockbuster action movie.

In Annex, you win by keeping control over key map locations, or objectives, long enough to collect a winning number of points. Every map has two to five identified objectives available for capture, with one objective active at a time. Objectives are based on map weapon-spawn locations and have a potential value of 60 points toward either team’s score. Teams collect those points by maintaining ownership of an objective until all its 60 points have been distributed. Every second that a team controls an objective, the team gets one point. When an objective falls to zero points, the next objective is selected at random.

On the HUD, the current objective appears below the team scores at top left. This indicator contains several pieces of relevant information. The weapon icon inside the circle indicates which weapon-spawn location is being used as the objective. The compass along the outer edge of the circle shows the relative direction to the objective. The number inside the circle indicates how many points remain at that objective and the background icon color indicates which team currently controls it. No color means the objective awaits capture, a red icon means the Locust hold the objective and a blue icon means the COG hold it. When the icon in the indicator circle fills, the corresponding team's score also changes color, the team begins collecting points from the objective, and the point value of the objective drops.

On the map, a projected ring marks the physical location and boundaries of the objective in the world. The ring's color indicates the current captor: White means neutral, blue COG, and red Locust. To capture an objective, players must stand inside the glowing ring uncontested for a short period of time. How long depends on how many teammates stand in the ring at once. One player can capture an objective in eight seconds, two players in four seconds, three players in two seconds, and four players in one second. Once a team takes an objective, they are not required to remain inside of the ring to maintain ownership. The captured objective's points drain until an opposing team member enters the ring, or until its points fall to zero.

Round scores can be set as low as 120 points or as high as 480 points. The first team to reach the target score wins the round.

Respawns:

Unlike previous Gears of War multiplayer game modes, Annex allows players to respawn back into the current round after they've been eliminated. Respawns happen in 15 second waves. This means players can get back into fight after as little as 1 second or as long as 15 seconds. Any teammates that died during that time will respawn together to continue fighting as a team. The introduction of infinite respawns means that kills in Annex don't count towards any of the kill-based achievements like "Seriously..." or "The Nuge".

Options:

• Selected Map: Which map or series of maps to use.
• Number of Rounds: Number of rounds required to win the match.
• Bleed-out Duration: Amount of time before a player dies while DBNO.
• Round Score: Number of points required to win a round.
• Friendly Fire: In a player match, determines whether teammates can damage each other.
• Private Slots: In a player match, number of player slots reserved for friend invites.
• Weapons Swapped: In a player match, lets the person who sets up the match determine whether weapons that appear in the maps are replaced or removed.

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