Source: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/884/884154p1.html

Gears of War 2 Multiplayer Hands-On

Like a Fenix from the flames, Marcus raises the meatflag as we blow the lid off GOW2's multiplayer.

by Andrew Stanton, IGN UK

UK, June 25, 2008 - "This is where the magic happens." For some reason this truism rattled unshakably around my head like beans in a tin can over the entire day spent at Epic Games. We'd been flown to the US to be the first journalists in the world to get hands on with Gears of War 2 multiplayer. My strange mantra was often a reminding prompt – there's absolutely nothing cool whatsoever about Epic's HQ.

Based in the beautiful, but nothingy backwoods of Cary, North Carolina (Wiki it: there's lashings of green, wide roads and naff all else), it's a bland, beige building nestling amongst similarly uninspiring science park real estate. But the mantra also came back as a whooping endorsement when we finally picked up a controller and the fragging began.

Some flavour: Epic truly is indistinguishable from just about every other developer we've visited. Two storey, science park monochrome blahchitecture. A reception bristling with heavy, crystal blob game of the year awards and life-size character figure detritus. The desks of the developer staff are strewn with comic book, anime and geek movie vinyl figures. There's a kitchen creaking at the seams with free sugar and caffeine-rich snacks – the ADHD-inspiring engine room. A rank of arcade machines line up next to the most pristine gym I've ever seen in my life (make of that what you will) and positively cathedral-like, gargantuan loos, with magazine racks of game mag serving as "inspirational" reading. It's tidier than most, but that's no great endorsement. And they knew we were coming, so nagging had probably ensued.

Gears 2 promises to be "bigger, better and more badass", plus now it also includes flamethrowers.

Bungie previewed an unreleased Halo 3 map in San Diego this weekend at an MLG event. It's named Cold Storage and is a remake of Chill Out from Halo 3.

This will certainly get the attention of old school Halo fanboys who have long been crying out for smaller slayer maps. Chill Out is certainly a good pick.

What other classic Halo maps would you like to see in Halo 3?

MLG is hosting an image gallery of the map: http://www.mlgpro.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=152

Some YouTube shakey cam footage of gameplay on Cold Storage:

Rock Band has received some great DLC recently. You can see all Rock Band DLC printed in order of release here.

First is the Disturbed pack. Perfect Insanity and Indestructible are particularly good:

Indestructible:

Perfect Insanity:

Click "read more" for videos of all my recommended recent DLC.