Epic Gamers: arCtyC’s Gears 3 Sensitivity Guide

Did you ever wonder what control scheme and sensitivity settings competitive players use in Gears of War 3?

A few months after Gears of War 3 was released, Epic Gamer and forum member arCtyC created a comprehensive controller sensitivity settings guide.

ArCtyC recently updated the guide to reflect the higher sensitivity settings introduced in a title update. He also discusses the alternate control scheme in the post. The following is just an excerpt; you can see the full guide on the Gears of War 3 Forums.

Example:

Default Control Scheme

Press “A” to Take Cover
Press “A” to Mantle and hold to continue to roadie run

Alternate Control Scheme

Press “A” to Take Cover
Press “A” to Mantle off of cover
Press “X” to continue to roadie run

All-in-all I think that the Alternate Control Scheme is better for evading and wall bouncing once you have become acclimated to the scheme. The Alternate scheme could be perfected if the Mantle was assigned to the “X” button which would create the same number of button presses as the Default control scheme.”

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Posted by Flak May 10, 2012

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Epic Moms: Part Three

We put the call out to the community for them to let us know about their favorite Epic Moms and we received and overwhelming response! I am amazed at how many Epic Moms there are out there. We want to thank everyone for their responses and we wish we could feature all of you!

Britters has two boys, aged eight and four. She has been playing gears for five years after watching her significant other play for a few months. She gets online to play after everyone is in bed and plays with her squad at least four times a week. She also collects the action figures, has a few of the weapon replicas and most of the novels and graphic novels. She also has a modified version of Marcus’ tattoo on her arm.

Sviolet has three toddlers! She has a son and twin daughters. Violet plays Gears of War 3 to relax after a long day at work and taking care of her children.

“Joe Play” and “DaddysWrath3″ told us that “CrazyGamerMom” is no only ‘sick’ with the chainsaw, she plays with her three gamer sons and is considered mom to the over 20 members of her squad, the “Name Brand Dork Squad.” She works over 50 hours a week and does her best to “Gear it up with her Dorks online.”

MURDAxADDICTION says, “My wife is an EPIC MOM. Not only does she work a Full-Time job and oPlays Gears religiously, she is also the mother of our five beautiful children, three daughters and two sons. By the way, she is so EPIC that she agreed to name our sons Dominic Santiago & Marcus Fenix (First and Middle names) EPIC!”

Zena, aka HollyZ is the mother of three boys and is expecting a girl in a few months. Her kids love that she plays games, but they are particularly proud of her Gears of War 3 skills. She is a self-proclaimed “Queen of the Hill.”

Chrisbjones tells us his Fiancée Lea is definitely an Epic Mom! She is currently on maternity leave expecting to soon deliver a baby girl. The couple met online in an Unreal Tournament forum. Chris says that Lea’s Gears of War collection has grown to Epic proportions. She also plays Gears of War 3 every day and has completed all three games in the series on insane.

Epic Gamer and forum member DizzyRules had this to say about his loving wife. “My wife Barbara is an Epic mom. We had our daughter last January and even though we both work when I get home she let’s me play Gears for a couple hours a day. She also plays for me if I’m making dinner. If that’s not enough, she’s also bought me the Gears game, cog tags, gears controller and always keeps an eye out for the rare action figures. She’s awesome and she honestly loves Gears as much as I do. We even hum the tune to our daughter Leila, that’s no joke!”

“PurpleMoonQueen” is a 56 year old Epic Mom and has two sons in their 30s. They have taught her everything she knows and enjoys in Gears 3 and she also plays other shooters! She says, “Since Gears 3 came out last September, I have logged thousands of hours – building brain synapses, meeting folks all over the world, releasing lots of energy through the running/killing/yelling of the games.” She has just completed her third re-up! One of her favorite GearsWeekend events is the “Bang Bang” event.

Check out THIS post on the Epic Forums to read about more Epic Moms!

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Posted by Flak May 10, 2012

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Gears Weekend: Torque Bow Tag

Those aren’t fireflies you see twinkling in the distance, it’s the glow from the arrow of the Torque Bow! Keeping your head about you will be difficult this weekend as the Torque Bow Tag event in Gears of War 3 will be running. If you don’t see the change, please restart your console. You will then be able to choose the Torque Bow Tag playlist in Team Deathmatch. The event ends Monday morning at 9:00 AM Eastern.

Let us know what you think and share your stories in the comments below. For fans on Twitter, join in on the Gears of War 3 and Torque Bow tag conversation by using the hashtag #GearsWeekend to let us know what you think and which event you would like for next weekend!

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Posted by Flak May 10, 2012

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ClashMob Tips from the Makers of Infinity Blade II – Part Two

If you’ve been keeping up with ClashMob events, you know that some of them can get pretty tough. Here are some more developer tips to keep you dodging and parrying your way to victory in your next ClashMob!

Remember if you’ve got tips of your own, please post them here, on our Facebook page or tweet to @InfinityBlade with the hashtag #IBTips, and you could be featured in a future fan tips article!

With parry challenges it is best to use dual or light weapons as they have a better reaction time. Don’t waste time attacking the enemy during a break, hit him once, wait for him to recover, then start parrying again (same with dodge challenges).

During kill the titan challenges, learn to sneak a ‘scratch’ attack in after every parry to increase the overall amount of damage, while still being able to obtain a parry break. Also, always go with a heavy weapons so you can deal as much damage as possible

Due to the time limit on some ClashMobs, try to get as many parry breaks as possible to get stab points that will do extra damage, and then continue on when they get dizzy with slashes and combos.

On treasure challenges, try to pick up tightly grouped bags as quickly as possible and leave the others alone. New gold bags will spawn a few seconds after you stop picking up bags. Picking up that one extra bag resets the timer and could cost you even more bags

When doing any Parry challenge and the enemy becomes dizzy, attack him to bring him out of the dizzy state faster so you can get more parries. If you wait without attacking, more time will come off the timer and you’ll lose potential parries.

Be sure to have one of each class of weapon in your inventory (sword and shield, two hand, and heavy) to be ready for any type of challenge.

Use Dual weapons for the Stab challenge. Damage doesn’t matter and you will be able to get 40+ stabs with dual weapons rather than 18 stabs with light sword.

Don’t worry about your health, exhausted dodges, or broken blocks. Achieve the objective at all costs, since the costs go away once you’re back in SP.

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Posted by PixelK1tty May 09, 2012

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Epic Moms Part Two: Kim Harvey

In the second of our “Epic Mom” series, we interview Epic Mom and cosplayer Kim Harvey. Kim is married to cosplayer and Gears of War fan, Dale Harvey.

Flak: How long have you been playing Gears of War?

Kim Harvey: I started by watching my then boyfriend rage and scream at the screen while he was playing gears of war 2. It looked quite brutal and fun so I asked to play and he almost broke his hand trying to quickly give me a controller! I’ve been playing campaign and horde mode with him ever since.

F: When did you start playing video games?

KH: My roots go way back. I started on pinball and was addicted and then moved on to the 2600, Duck hunt, Mario, Super Mario ( a personal favorite!) and Zelda. I don’t get to play as much now, but I still play gears when I can with my husband and comment on Grayson Hunt’s hair in Bulletstorm. Marvel vs. Capcom 3, NCAA Football and Madden are favorites. I beat Dale in a Madden tournament held right before the opening of the new Cowboys stadium!

F: How did you and Dale meet?

KH: I saw some of his artwork and I was drawn to it. I wanted to find out more so I stated talking to him and saw that he was crazy! The Mohawk should have given it away, but strangely I didn’t run away screaming. It didn’t take me long to be captivated by his sense of humor. The rest is history.

F: Could you tell us about your Queen Myrrah cosplay?

KH: The first time I saw Queen Myrrah, I decided I had to have that helmet! My husband worked with a very talented artist from Australia to make it happen. Between the two of them and all their effort they made it possible! My husband worked on the remainder of the armor pieces for about a month before PAX East. I can only take credit for helping with the painting of the armor. We are currently working on modifications and additions for the next con.

Dale Harvey: ” I will love her a much as I can for as long as she will let me. She is an amazing mother, and I wouldn’t want to do any of the cosplays that I do if she were not with me.”

: Dale Harvey Cosplay

: Kim Harvey Cosplay

: Dale Harvey Cosplay

: Dale Harvey Cosplay

: Dale and Kim Harvey

: Kim Harvey cosplay

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Posted by Flak May 09, 2012

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Epic Games 20th Anniversary Soundtrack Launches!

As part of our ongoing 20th Anniversary celebration, we’re giving away 20 Epic tracks from our past 20 years of amazing games!

We’ve hand-picked 20 tracks, some of which have never been released before and remastered them just for the occasion! To download the tracks, visit the 20th Anniversary Soundtrack page here and click on the titles to download each track. Don’t forget to grab the bonus track, the-never-before-released, “Cole Train Rap” from Gears of War!

Download now and rock out to some epic tunes with us!

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Posted by PixelK1tty May 09, 2012

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Epic Moms: Part One

We put the call out to the community for them to let us know about their favorite Epic Moms and we received and overwhelming response! There really are a lot of Epic Moms out there. We’ll be featuring more Epic Moms through the week.

Erica “Deathtrap” Plowman met her husband Jim aka “Tao Devil” in a Gears of War game. She caught his attention by killing him with friendly fire! Erica has completed every Gears of War game on insane! She has also played Bulletstorm and Shadow Complex.

Fast forward to the present day, where Erica and Jim are married, still play Gears of War 3 together every day, have two beautiful children and a cat named General RAAM. You can read more about their story HERE

Diana Del Castillo has been a gamer since she was four years old. Her and her boyfriend had to by another Xbox so they could play Gears of War together and now even their son has his on console and Gears of war memorabilia.

Forum member and Epic Gamer “Brash Smurf“ told is about his wife and gamer girl, “GodessDawn.” Dawn maintains a 1.2 KD in Gears of War Team Deathmatch while holding office in the local Parent/Teachers Organization. She also teaches for the “Headstart” program, is a member of her local VFW and is very active in fundraising. She has been playing the Gears of War series since Gears of War

NI Locust from the forums told us that his mom is the best woman in his life. Although she knows nothing about gaming, she knows her son well enough to get him a Gears of War board game and Gears of War headset for Christmas. NI tells us his mom is also very tough and has made it through several operations, including a ten hour cancer operation. We wish NI and his mom the best!

Lftdaporch tells us, “My wife, who is the mother of my beautiful nine year old daughter is a gamer. She has completed all 3 gears campaigns, has received almost all of the achievements for Gears of War 2 and is a blue Re-up 41 on Gears of War 3. She is very active in the Gears Twitterverse and the Gears of War Facebook group and she goes by the name xgearheadmomx. She has also asked for a NECA Retro Lancer for Mother’s Day! She is the best.”

We’ll be featuring more Epic Moms throughout the week. Thank you for sharing your stories about your favorite Epic Moms!

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Posted by Flak May 08, 2012

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Vote for Your Favorite GearsWeekend Event on Facebook!

We asked you on the Epic Games forums and on Twitter to tell us your favorite #GearsWeekend events and we received quite a few responses! We’re taking the three top requested events, and putting them up for vote on Facebook. Now is your chance to choose what you want to play this coming #GearsWeekend .

Stay Frosty – No shotguns and players start with the Hammerburst, Snub and one Frag Grenade. There are no pick ups other than limited damage frag grenades. No DBNO.

Raven Down 24/7 – A special Execution playlist that will take ten rounds to win. The weapon load-out will be Gnashers and the special one shot Snub that pops heads.

Torque Bow Tag – Torque Bow only playlist.

Head on over to Facebook and vote for your favorite! If you don’t see your favorite this week, be sure to vote again next week on the Epic Forums or on Twitter using the #GearsWeekend hashtags.

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Posted by Flak May 08, 2012

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Looking for Epic Moms!

To celebrate Mother’s day, we’re going to be recognizing Epic Moms from our community. Who is your Epic Mom? She could be a Mom who plays Gears of War or one of our other games, a mom who watches the kids so you can play your favorite Epic Games, or a mom who makes it possible for you to play.

Let us know who your Epic Mom is and why you think we should recognize her in the comments below or in this post on the Epic Forums.

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Posted by Flak May 07, 2012

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The Connection Between Two Sisters and Gears of War

Sisters to the End

Sisters Alice Mary Herden and Tara Tomlin have had a rough couple of years. They do have a lot to celebrate, though. While Tara has recently completed chemotherapy treatments for cancer, she must still endure Herceptin infusions every three weeks, which the sisters call “Lambent juice.” As a stroke survivor, Alice has had to confront her own medical issues, including mild cognitive impairment. She was unable to throw a ball and recognize colors at one point. Fortunately, that is no longer the case.

Separated by a handful of states in the southern US, the sisters play the Gears of War series of games together online to stay connected and feel closer to one another.

Alice says, “I do play almost every day, one reason because it is fun and the other reason is that it is challenging. Though, most importantly, I can play with Tara, and my nephews, as well as talk to them while we are playing. And, if a Grenadier knocks Tara out, I can slam that thing to the ground and punch it out, while yelling, ‘Don’t you ever, ever touch my little sister again.’ Epic!”

Alice believes that playing Gears has improved her recovery and quickened her relearning of physical tasks. “I used to test myself and try to pick up the saltshaker on the stove, and Don (my husband) would test me on doing other tasks as well. It was difficult for me. After playing Gears of War 3 for a couple of weeks, though, the process of reaching and grabbing the saltshaker or any other task felt normal.”

While Alice’s professional skill set includes writing, photography and publishing an independent magazine, she has taken up 3D modeling as an interest as well. Her newest artwork and short story can be found at her Sisters to the End blog , which is inspired by Tara, overcoming life’s biggest challenges and surviving in the Gears of War universe.

Alice shares her passions through her publishing label, Green-Fly Media. The latest issue of her magazine includes her and Tara’s experiences related to Gears as well as interviews with Epic. You can see the full story in the April 2012 issue of Green-Fly Media magazine.