With the recent release of Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution, there’s been some desire from the Borderlands community for a level cap increase. Currently in certification, the 1.41 patch will be available in early November and feature a variety of updates:

• Level cap increase of 8 levels
  • That means that all Borderlands players will now be able to achieve a new maximum level of 58.
• Owners of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx can achieve an increase to a maximum level of 69.
• End game players that have completed play-through #2 will see enemies scale to the new levels up to the new level cap.
  • That means that if you’ve completed everything, you can play through the game again and again at a challenging level in order to find better and better loot.
• Item drops (with the exception of COM Decks) will also scale with higher level enemies to the new level cap.
  • That means that this Title Update features the highest level weapons to date.
• Other fixes, including DLC4 Achievement/Trophy glitches that have affected some users will be corrected to properly award players for obtaining these achievements no matter which order they were completed in.

With the highly anticipated DLC pack—Undead Nightmare—set to come out tomorrow, Rockstar has released a title update for the game.

Noteworthy changes and fixes include:

• Friendly Free Roam now available for those that wish to play with player-vs-player killing disabled
• Markers in preparation for Land Grab in Free Roam, which will be available next week with the installation of Undead Nightmare DLC
• Fix for issues with Days Passed being reset
• Fix for co-op achievements not advancing after passing into legend
• Fix for players griefing by voting each other out of the game in Poker and Liar’s Dice
• Permanent clientside unlock for Redemption and Damnation characters (can use them on System Link without Internet connection)
• Poker and Grand Prix Leaderboards fixed to correct information displayed

[via Rockstar]

A month late from the originally planned September release, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is finally getting co-op eligibility. It’s set to come out on October 27th.

Also, expect to see the first DLC released soon too. The first DLC will be a free download.

If you didn’t download it, check out our review and make sure to download it. It was one of the strongest releases over the summer and it deserves a place on your hard drive.

[via Joystiq]

Uber Entertainment’s Monday Night Combat has received a massive title update. Available now, the update encompassed dozens of updates and changes for gameplay, connectivity, specific classes, and more. For those who haven’t purchased the game yet, the title update also increases the demo length to 60 minutes. To ‘celebrate’ the update, Uber is also giving away several copies of the game on their Twitter account throughout the week.

See below for the full list of updates and changes.

Trial Game

• Extended trial time to 60 minutes from 30.

Connectivity and Multiplayer:

• Reworked the way we handle parties in the pregame lobby to avoid splitting them up.
• Fixed several issues where host migration would fail immediately.
• Decreased wait time after a successful host migration.
• Lobbies will now host migrate and not kick you back to the main menu.
• If the host leaves during the end of match sequence, the host will migrate and players will return back to the lobby and not the main menu.
• Optimized the time it takes to migrate hosts, shortening the time to migrate.
• Improved weapon hit detection in high lag situations.
• Fixed endorsements being incorrect after a host migration.
• Fixed getting into private matches without an invite.

General Gameplay:

• Fixed players being able to damage the Moneyball’s shields.
• Fixed visual effects staying on the player after the effect has worn off.
• Reduced the amount of increased damage the Moneyball takes in Overtime, thus reducing the effectiveness of “Juice rushing”.
• Fixed Ringouts, Headshots and Grapple Kills not giving the proper amount of money. Balanced Ringout money to reflect the change. Message now displays correct total amount of money earned.
• New “You Win!”/”You Lose!” UI for the end of a match.
• Fixed juice benefits ending early if the player grapples during juice.
• Fixed juice bar getting stuck full.
• Fixed deploying on or near active jump pads.
• Fixed controller sensitivity of 10 not saving.
• Fixed messaging for kill streaks. Ultra and Uber streaks will now be named properly when popping up above your reticle.
• Fixed an instance of the player’s skill pick UI going away unexpectedly.
• Fixed an issue with bots walking by enemy turrets and bots without engaging them.
• Fixed upgrading a turret that has been hacked to the opposing team.
• Fixed turret collision not going away after being destroyed.

• Normalized time between a grapple miss and the ability to grapple again for all grapples. The biggest change is the Assassin not having as big of a penalty for a missed grapple.
• Fixed the "Team Leader" and "Team Player" highlights from being reversed.
• Fixed players being able to mute themselves.
• Fixed idle kicking when standing still but still looking around and/or shooting.
• Fixed players who cheat and hack their profiles from being able to apply multiple gold endorsements.
• Optimized main menu ticker for players with large friends lists.
• Fixed HUD showing Moneyball shields as up during over time even though they are down.
• Reduced announcer talking for kill streaks to help reduce the repetition of announcements.
• Various performance optimizations.
• Fixed players being able to switch weapons while in a grapple.

Support:

• Reworked Support’s bot aura so that it doesn’t make the Jackbot appear overhealed.
• Fixed Support’s Firebase skill from recharging while the Support is dead but the Firebase skill exists.
• Fixed being able to use the Heal/Hurt gun while taunting.
• Fixed some instances of the Support’s Firebase not appearing when thrown.
• Fixed Heal/Hurt gun not being affected by rate of fire endorsements and reduced it’s overall healing/hurting ability to compensate for the change.
• Fixed Supports being able to use their Hack skill through walls.
• Fixed Supports being able to throw their Firebases through the wall.
• Fixed Air Strikes sometimes damaging enemies under cover.
• Supports can now only Hack enemy turrets at Hack level 3.
• Increased the time to Hack enemy turrets.
• Decreased duration of Hack on a turret for levels 1 and 2.

Assassin:

• Fixed Assassins from being able to get permanent sprint and super speed.
• Fixed Assassins getting a double smoke bomb allowing them to jump higher than intended.
• Fixed Assassins being able to cloak during a grapple.
• Fixed Assassins from being able to use her smoke bomb during a lunge.
• Retuned damage done by dagger after a lunge.
• Fixed Scramblers and Traps from draining the Sword and Shruiken Launcher alternate fire grapple.

Tank:

• Tank’s Jet Gun alternate fire damage is now reduced depending on the percentage of ammo left in the clip. Increased the full clip damage to compensate.

Assault:

• Fixed an exploit involving the Assault’s Fly.
• Fixed Assault’s bomb audio lingering after bomb is gone.

Monday Night Combat Live Update System:

• Pregame Lobby is now 45 seconds.
• Min Number of Players to start Crossfire is now 6.
• Increased player bot spawning from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

http://uberent.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2370

Gears of War 2 is getting another title update soon, according to the folks at Epic and their GoW2 Forum. Along with a collection of bug and glitch patches, they’re also adding a new Social matchmaking option aimed towards more casual players.

Social Matches will enable gamers to leave early without an XP penalty and join in the middle of a session, two features which are currently absent. Among other features, it also moves on immediately to the next map instead of going through another matchmaking process.

Epic is also planning a sale on their All Fronts Collection to coincide with the update, as their Social Match setting will require players to own it. Hit the link below for more patch details and the official forum post.

[Epic Games Forum: Gears of War 2]

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).

The changes are listed after the jump.

GENERAL
- When using the Living Roster, users can now play standard Quick Games with players who are injured in real life.
- The Dunk Off trophy should now be unlocking when the requirements have been achieved.
- The Upcoming Matchups and Rebounding Leaders overlays should no longer obstruct the camera during NBA Today/My Player play.
- The camera will no longer cut away to the nosebleed cam mid-free throw during NBA Today/My Player play.
- The ‘On-Ball Defense’ column should now properly perform ascending/descending sorts

GAMEPLAY
- Further tuned the assist logic such that the CPU should be more diligent in handing out assists to players.
- Pass accuracy has been toned down for passes out of a double team, passes out of contact shots, and non-inbound full court passes.
- Addressed a rare occurrence where the referee would hold on to the ball and not pass it to the shooter during free throw shooting situations.
- CPU players are now much more selective when choosing to pass the ball while attacking the basket.
- Offensive rebounds are now much tougher to grab following missed free throws.
- When played locked, the CPU will no longer throw a full court pass following a missed shot due to the user rapidly pressing the ‘Y’ button for the rebound.

ONLINE
- Corrected an issue that was causing online NBA Today games to disconnect when a user with his/her console set to North America was playing an opponent who had their console set to Europe/Asia.
- Fixed a Team-Up divergence that occurred when users would rapidly press the ‘Start’ button during the loading screen.
- Addressed a crash in leagues that would occur when the league was using an out of date roster.
- Addressed a divergence in leagues that would occur when the league was using a custom roster and/or had a league size larger than 12 users.
- Fixed a rare occurrence where some users would experience a crash during the ‘Connecting to Host’ dialog.
- Improved connection times when attempting to connect to an opponent.
- Fixed a rare hang on the ‘Closing Match’ dialog that appears at the conclusion of a Team-Up game.

MY PLAYER
- Users who are currently in the Playoffs time period of their seasons will no longer be disconnected from Pick-Up games after the first made basket of the game.
- Addressed an issue where users would occasionally hang (often after winning the Finals MVP) when advancing past the end of the season.
- Found and addressed an instance where cloned players were still being created when users chose to change teams following the Summer Circuit.
- The NBA 2K Insider will no longer incorrectly tell the user he has an important decision to make when a decision doesn’t need to be made.
- Fixed an issue that was causing incorrect game results to be posted to the Standings when the user chose to participate in a drill immediately after a played game.
- Decreased steal success when playing My Player Pick-Up games.
- Addressed an issue that would cause the Finals celebration to occur after the third win of a series when the user finished that game on the bench.

ASSOCIATION
- Users are now able to sign free agents during the season once the player re-signing deadline has passed.
- ‘Recent Games’ scores will no longer be erased when exiting from practice.
- The commentators will no longer refer to players as having scored 0 points when that is not appropriate.
- CPU teams will now trade amongst themselves during 30-team Associations when the user has automated the Player Trading task for all of the teams.
- Fixed an issue that was causing the game to report incorrect ages for 2K Share Draft Class prospects. The prospects will no longer retire after their first season in the league.
- Addressed a rare issue where players would have some of their attributes jump to 99 when they had low morale and/or were on a team with poor team chemistry.
- Addressed a case where players would not show up on the roster once they were signed by a team.
- In Season mode, users are now able to sign players from the free agent list.
- In Season mode, users are now able to trade players without needing to follow salary cap guidelines.

So, I was initially under the impression that the Krogan on the Mass Effect 2 box art was Wrex, from the first go around. However, it has recently been revealed that you are getting a brand new team mate named Grunt.  Like all the other Krogan’s, expect an over zealous, violent warrior.  Perfect fit for a squad embarking on a ‘suicide mission’.

Wrex was my personal favorite squad mate from Mass Effect, so it’s disappointing to know that he won’t be making a return (still holding out hope that they will be bringing him back).  I had him on pretty much every single mission, so I’m hoping that Grunt is equally reliable.  From the trailer below, you can see that he retains all of the same aggressive, skull bashing Krogan tendencies.

Thane is a character in Mass Effect 2. He is a drell assassin, rumored to be the most skilled in the galaxy.^[1] Unlike most assassins, who prefer to shoot their targets with a sniper rifle, Thane likes to go up close and kill his target personally.

Even though the actual heavyweight division sucks right now, it’s nice to see the current best heavyweights added.  I’m also glad they added De La Hoya to the roster.  Not so I can play as him, but so I can recreate moments like the one below.