Gears of War 1 question

So I got an old copy of GOW 1 and started playing through on Casual to get the story while picking up some COG tags. Talk about a step back, looks like old Xbox original graphics compared to #2 and the controls seem clumsier/rougher than the later game even though they are the same.

On to my question: Do you unlock Insane mode like you do on GOW2? I've read posts in several different threads around the 'net that say you can, but also many that say you have to beat it on Hardcore to unlock Insane. So what's the true scoop, oh my wise GOW gamer friends?

It has been so long since I played it I really don't remember. my bad sorry

I have heard a rumor that you can play thru on Hardcore and then just go back and do the last mission on Insane. I can't confirm that but maybe Lone can?

Warrior, the Gears Girl has entered the room, YES, insane has to be unlocked by playing on Hardcore. If you want help let me know. You and I can kick Raam's butt in the end on insane. Turbo and I did it in 2 minutes. There is strategic way of doing it. At this time I am on my PS3 playing inFamous. I am almost done.

Halday, Epic did an update to stop that from happening.

Sounds good to me Lone. After I do my first run through the game and get those COG tags, I'll let you know. I am also doing co-op with my son to get him through the campaign - he was having trouble even with casual, LOL!

What's funny about the update is that on Gears 2 I discovered that you can single-player up to the last checkpoint of a chapter on Casual, then do co-op on Insane from that spot and it will count the entire level completed on Insane. Problem is that you have to know where that last checkpoint is!

If memory serves me, I never beat the game on any level when I played with a friend on Insane and won the whole game. Yes I played through the game on casual but could never take down Raam. I did however open hardcore on all the acts I did complete so when he wanted to play co-op on Insane I was able to join his game. That is INSANE

Yesterday I noticed that Insane is already unlocked on my profile!

My grandson, in 2007, had co-op played with a friend through the campaign, on Casual.

I don't know if the update changed it to only unlock on Hardcore, as Lone has suggested, but obviously it was unlocked by playing Casual in 2007.

Sheesh, finally figured out how to beat that first Berserker while still finding the COG tag in that open courtyard. I can't imagine it on Hardcore or Insane except in co-op. And Raam is going to be a lot harder! I do know what the strategy is supposed to be, when I get there - toss 'nade to move the Kryll, sniper shot to face/head, run away if he gets too close, rinse and repeat while telling Dom to keep the heck away from Raam and/or revive him when he doesn't obey.

Not sure I'm looking forward to Insane on this one...
Question 1: In co-op, is it like Gears 2 where one player can do it on Casual and the other on Insane to make it easier?

I noticed on one of your profiles that Act 5 Hardcore was unlocked AFTER completing the game on Insane, if I remember correctly.
Question 2: Do you HAVE to play through the game on Hardcore AND Insane to get both sets of achievements, or does beating it on Insane get you both?

1) no, unfortunately both players have to play it on Insane. When you know what gives it is not that bad.

2) no again, the person that can play on Insane can invite you in to the coop and when you finish the game both chevos will unlock. This game stacked the dif chevos which is cool.

Great, thanks for the answers. I'm finally in the last act in 'train wreck' for the final few COG tags, then I'll be ready to take on Insane difficulty.

And finally, one (hopefully) last question: Again, on other forums, I found posts that stated you had to beat Raam on Hardcore for that achievement to unlock. Does it unlock if you beat him on Insane?

It's been interesting to get more of the story by playing through this game, especially regarding Marcus Fenix, but I was a little disappointed that more character development wasn't done for others that follow in Gears 2. I guess I'll just have to get the book(s) to get the skinny on everything.

Hehe, yea, the Berserker is a trip isn't she? She is my favorite boss battle of all time. When you figure out what to do, she is actually pretty easy, even on insane.

I will say, insane IS insane, but doable, its not the dying, its the exhaustion lol Ramm is really hard, but having the right weapons for each player is the key, and timing is totally essential. There is another secion I think is really tough. At the mine with the exploding wretches that come at you in the combine room. Angel helped me with that one. But once you figure out what do, all is doable, just really difficult.

Yes, it does unlock.

Character development? Get the Gears of War novel called "Gears of War: Aspho Fields", there is where I fell in love with Marcus and Dom. Goes back to their childhood, when Dom was 8 and Marcus was 10. Love how they met. You also learn that Marcus isn't that cold-hearted killer you may believe. You find he has a need for family and believe he finds it in the right place!! You will also learn of Marcus and Anya's love. More importantantly the relationship between Maria and Dom, simply precious.

LOL, I loved all the different ways you could rid yourself of the Train Berserker! My favorite has to be getting her to rush off the back of the train.

Raam, ugh. Dumb Dom, dumb - I SAID "Cease Fire"... no you go and get yourself knocked down where I can't revive you, sheesh. Lucky for you I killed Raam before you died!

Not sure how all of you finished off Raam, but I tried various combinations of weapons and what worked for me was the Torque Bow and Longshot combination mixed with one insane run to the other end of the train car.

Assault rifle and Torque Bow. Torque produces the light to shew away the krill, the assault rifle pounds his noggin. Both players have one each. In the room before each player obtains one of each. You went to the end of the train? The reavers must have been on a coffee break. lol Anyway you don't even have to leave the first barricade. I will post the vid of me and Turbo on the lone360 website taking Raam down on Insane.

Warrior. I posted the Raam insane boss battle on www.lone360.com . I have to adjust the parameters, however I will do that after I return home this evening. The key to winning insane is: well placed grenades, both players have a lancer and torque bow. Which will spawn in the room before the battle. Just hang out, the weapons and ammo will spawn and max out ammo. The defense against Raam, stay calm...lol...and that was hard for me.

Also and unrelated....I have been playing Prototype and inFamous for the last 2 weeks. I will get some gameplay vids on the site page for others to view. I have to admit, these 2 games have improved my button mashing skills (from complete novice, to attentive noob). I had no choice...lol

Ha, I didn't go all the way to the other end, just to the other barricade where Raam starts out. I'll go check the site for that video. They tend to be really dark on my monitor, but I'll try it out.

EDIT:

Just ran it, but it's kind of jerky for me. Can you put a link for download? It will play smoothly when I run it locally.

I don't have up/download options on the webpage. It's just the one page, about as simple as it gets. If it is jerky, most likely its your streaming speed. I checked it early this morning it ran smooth.

Nah, it's my current computer, an old slug. I spend more on my gaming than I do on computers.

I do have a pretty good laptop that I rarely use and was given to me, but should handle it. I'll charge it up tonight and watch it via that tomorrow.

Played smoothly on the laptop. What's the actual filename of the .swf or .flv file? I can usually grab it if I have that, would like to have a local copy for future reference if it's okay with you.

You two beat him more easily on insane than I did on casual! Don't know what my problem was but any time Raam got close to that barricade he'd toast me, even if I was only blind shooting and still in cover.

That said, I think I'm ready to take on some hardcore Insane challenges - if any of you've got the patience for this lamer gamer, LOL. I always learn a lot when playing with any of you...

I certainly will help you. Still working on inFamous. It's a good game. Has some developer idiocies like all the rest, but still a good game.

File name is 01_raam.flv

Where do you host that file? It's not in the root of the website, so it is either in a subdirectory or hosted somewhere like filefront?

No it is hosted on my server.

I've been bored. Got the Inconceivable achievement really fast on Raven Down, used settings so that each match counted towards THIS! IS! ANNEX!.

Question: For "THIS! IS! ANNEX!", do you have to capture 3 objectives on each round, or just 3 objectives per 3 round match?

If it's the latter, then if you set the options for Raven Down, 120 points and 3 rounds, each round will take about 150 seconds (with load times, etc.) x 3 rounds x 100 matches to equal ~45,000 seconds or 750 minutes or 12 hours 30 minutes.

See, told you I was bored.

I have never played any of the annex modes, so I have no idea.

Just completed "THIS! IS! ANNEX!", that was a trial of patience.

Found out that it actually takes 105 matches to get the cheevo, trust me, I kept count. I checked with several achievement sites and most agreed that many of those type (multi-player) take more than it says.

With the times between rounds, startup and 'loading' to the next match, it actually took me ~15 hours 17 minutes.

Still playing through co-op with my son, when I can get him online. He spends a lot of time with my grandson, which is good, I wouldn't want to take him away from that for anything.

Anytime you're ready for Insane, I'm up for it (he says tentatively, wondering how much dying he'll have to endure).

Warrior, I have completed inFamous and ready to go when you are.

I got on GOW today, and while watching to see if you logged on, started playing it solo on Insane. Boy was I surprised to realize that I had played all the way through to the 2nd from last chapter on Act 2! Not sure I want to ride that kryll highway alone, but then does it change the gameplay if two of us are in the vehicle?

At some point I'll need to co-op through the first two acts as Dom, plus 2 chapters, to get the full game on co-op achievement. I've made it through the rest of the later chapters with my son on Casual, well almost. We are at the very end of Act 4, then will do the 3 chapters in Act 5.

Either you and I can do it from the beginning, or just pick up where I have left off, for the Insane cheevo. I can always do Casual co-op for the ones I am missing as it will go faster.

I will help you. Guess I should let people here know I am not on as much anymore. My mom's health is failing at a steady rate, and we are at my parents house a lot. She has been in and out of the hospital constantly for the past month. So, Warrior don't think I am ignoring you're request by not being on, it means I'm not here.

We can pick up where you left off, why do it twice. I will have to stop and think to rem the "secret" to the kryll ride. We will have to get into sync too. That takes time. To the best of my knowledge I will be on tonight around 8 pm EDT.

Sorry to hear about your mom, we will pray for her. Em and I both lost our mothers within a year of each other, it was really hard to deal with. My mom of cancer and her mom from a heart condition brought on by doctor's messing up prescriptions, we're pretty sure. Her brother is a pharmacist and said they were 'double dosing' on one drug, combined with one from a different doctor that shouldn't have been used with the first. He said the pharmacist should have caught it. Such an unnecessary waste of life, especially since she had re-married the year before - at 86 years old!

Got on this afternoon and beat the "kryll highway" in 2 tries, barely! I actually died AND ran out of fuel right as I hit the end, but it gave me the checkpoint before my death registered, so it went on to the the cutscene and next chapter, yeah for the game glitching...

The final chapter was pretty easy, lots of re-spawning ammo, toss grenades, use longshot, run out to revive Dom or Cole then re-arm. The final bit with the 4 or 5 boomers seemed easier than on Casual, weird, huh?

So now I'm at the beginning of Act 3. I'll either play some more a little later or try to get on around 6 pm Central (8 Eastern?) to hook up with you. It all depends on if the wife wants my attention then or not, gotta have permission to play, LOL!

Hope all is well. I got on at 6:30 (7:30 EDT) played some more, got to Act 3 Chp 2 Eviction where you enter the area with all the carts, whew, way too many lambent wretches to handle on Insane solo. Will definitely need to do that level on co-op! Skipped over To Angry Titan to take out the Corpser for that achievement, way too easy.

Played till about now, 9 pm (10 EDT), and no show. I hope nothing bad has happened with your mom. Will try to hook up later, be well.

Actually if you do the carts by yourself is easier. Just hug a wall - preferably toward the front of the cart. Blind fire if you must. More times than not the lambent wretches will explode behind you causing little or no damage to you.

Um, not that far in the section Angel.

It's two areas before you 'ride' in the carts, just as you enter a large area with 3 rows of stationary carts if front of you and a small room behind you. Just as you enter there's a cutscene that zooms in on a lambent wretch on the steps across the room that is screaming, that's where I was stuck. They come from every direction en masse and I either miss one that is out of my view and blows up next to me or get stuck in a corner or wall.

The next area has some wretches that you clear out, kick a door open and a Locust and Boomer appear in an elevator next to the door. After that, I think, you kill some more wretches after going through the door, reach the cart control room and get to the cart ride.

OH that one I know the secret to that also, want help????

I'd LOVE it at this point. I've done Insane difficulty all the way to this point by myself, but just couldn't seem to get past this one. Maybe I was too tired at the time, but I'd prefer to get through the Insane challenge with a friend.

We'll have to start at the beginning of that chapter as I jumped over to the Angry Titan, as mentioned earlier, to get the Corpser achievement.

It doesn't matter if I play as Dom or Marcus since I've co-op'ed from here on with my son for his first run through the game on Casual. I will need to do a quick run through the first 2 Acts as Dom sometime to get the final 'play as Dom' achievement.

Thanks, Lone, for helping me get through the cart/mining factory and finishing off up through the Theron guards at the pump station.

I continued solo, the next day, from that point all the way to the end of Act 4, Eviction, right up to the last checkpoint. NOW I'm stuck again! Angel (thanks doll) tried to help get me through that, but I think we both got a headache from those blasted Boomers killing us, getting stuck on corners and the timer running out before we could reach the 'APC' vehicle in time.

So this is a cry for help, Lone, to share your wisdom and strategy on how to run through that freaking Eviction/Boomer/'beat the timer' episode of Act 4. Then we can finally get to Act 5, the train, Berserker (just love that gal) and Raam.

Warrior, I am yours baby!!! I will be on after dinner!!

You go girl I know you can do this.
BUT to my surprise "now I know why I like Gears 2 better".
As much as these games are the same they really did make things better in Gears 2.
I only wish I could have done this for you Warrior

Don't worry, be happy!

It was great to chat while we played Angel. I enjoy that as much as gaming together! Not to mention while you were finishing that section of Prototype, I got to learn more about the game. It's always good to learn...

Lone, sorry I missed you, as I mentioned in the xbl message I sent. Maybe we can get hooked up this afternoon/evening. I finally got my phone fixed AND my wife's shower AND my bathroom sink leak AND, well you get the picture, LOL! Ugh, now I just got in the ink for her printer and need to go install that so she can print some work for her students at college. It never ends...

Don't forget clean the windows lol

Nah, I don't do windows. Can't reach 'em from the wheelchair!

BTW, to make it easier to know when you're available, call my toll free # and just tell me! It's 877 USA REV1.

I can never remember the actual #, lol, besides if some number farming software tries to get it by phishing the websites, they won't likely get it in that form.

If I have something I don't want the web bots to read I just make it a jpeg. I do it on my website when I write stories.

Yes it is always good to chat with you. I did finally get by the part that was breaking my butt last night. A good night's sleep is always a good thing. Now where did I put those pills?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Raam is kicking our butts. There was an update to Gears1 the first time I gamed with Warrior. Sometimes my buttons are unresponsive. Really getting annoying...lol

Hang in there Warrior, we WILL get it!!

That "thing" always kicks my but. But I know you can do it.
When the buttons become unresponsive I change the battery pack, you have a 50/50 chance of that fixing it. I only use regular batteries when both packs are on the charger.

Yup, Raam is not behaving like any of the video walkthroughs I've checked out, including Lone's.

Almost all of them show Raam never coming behind that first barrier such that you can just stay there and hammer him. Noooo, now he comes back there almost EVERY time for us! Once or twice he stayed further away, but the Reavers' Torque bow wielders would nail us.

Oh, and Angel, we got that run to the APV on Eviction in two tries, LOL! We did everything the same way you and I did, but on the second try, while Lone was distracting the Boomers, I had a clear path to jump over the barricades on the left, run behind the Boomers to the right side and run full speed all the way, go figure.

Lone, next time we'll swap on the first round and you can do the Torque bow while I do the Lancer. Maybe our skill-sets for those will be a better match?

I had fresh batteries. But I will take your advise Angel, if it happens again. It had never happened before until the update, and Raam boy did not behave as he had before. I think it is time Raam goes to the corner, forever!!

I had a similar problem with Prototype, I got through this one mission with no problem, never dieing. Had to go way back behind and do a catch up because my game said I died 5 times somewhere. I was about ready to chuck the game but decided to give it one more shot. After roaming and picking up things I went back to that mission and ran it like nothing happened.

Why things happen in our games we will never understand. Do one little thing different and every thing changes all the way down the line.
AND Raam always came behind the barrier after us. ALWAYS, but the last time he did that he got a face full of lead. Headless was down but so was the big lug Raam.

Thank you JESUS! (and Shadowrazar419)!

Finally beat down Raam on Insane. It took us around 4 tries. I kept Raam busy while Shadow ran to the left behind the crates as Raam came my way, then Shadow moved past to the next barricade and began pummeling him. That drew Raam's attention and he started moving towards him. We kept Raam moving back and forth until Shadow went down and I had to make a suicide run to the other end and revive him, then we both pounded Raam and just as he reached us - down he went!

One thing I noticed was that if I hit Raam immediately as we came out of the cutscene with the Torque Bow and kept it up, when the Reavers came, Raam had loosed the kryll and they actually attacked the Reavers! That is what kept us alive when moving to the other barricade, fewer Reavers to kill us when we were in the open.

Now I just need to have one of you co-op with me through the first two Acts and maybe one chapter to get my final Dom cheevo.

I need to go help Shadow get the rest of his Insane challenge beaten, I certainly owe him that.

Guess Angel and I weren't good enough..lol

Nah, it was most likely me OR it was just plain dumb luck (which is even more likely).

Yippee Ki-ya, Incestuous Son!

Thanks to Angel I just got my final GOW 1 achievement. I've gotten all but the ranked MP ones for a total of 880 GS.

I'll probably only revisit the game for nostalgia and to help my new best friend Shadowrazar get his achievements, then it's on to GOW 2 and the new DLC. It's due out tonight at midnight, not gonna stay up for that - it can wait until tomorrow.