Here's a brief rundown on the number of Cog Tags you'll find in each ACT of Gears of War. There are thirty Cog Tags in all—collect more to earn special achievements.

When looking for Cog Tags, try to spot the red Gears of War logos plastered on the walls. This icon lets you know you're in a room that has a set of Cog Tags. For more details on the specific locations of the Cog Tags, consult the Walkthrough portion of this guide and look for the icon pictured right.

Chapter
# of Cog Tags

ACT 1
12

ACT 2
6

ACT 3
6

ACT 4
3

ACT 5
3

 

Name
Description

Prison Breakout
Complete tutorial level on any skill level

Completed Act 1 on Casual
Complete Act 1 on Casual Difficulty

Completed Act 2 on Casual
Complete Act 2 on Casual Difficulty

Completed Act 3 on Casual
Complete Act 3 on Casual Difficulty

Completed Act 4 on Casual
Complete Act 4 on Casual Difficulty

Completed Act 5 on Casual
Complete Act 5 on Casual Difficulty

Mercenary
Complete all acts on Casual Difficulty

Completed Act 1 on Hardcore
Complete Act 1 on Hardcore Difficulty

Completed Act 2 on Hardcore
Complete Act 2 on Hardcore Difficulty

Completed Act 3 on Hardcore
Complete Act 3 on Hardcore Difficulty

Comlpeted Act 4 on Hardcore
Complete Act 4 on Hardcore Difficulty

Completed Act 5 on Hardcore
Complete Act 5 on Hardcore Difficulty

Soldier
Complete all acts on Hardcore Difficulty

Completed Act 1 on Insane
Complete Act 1 on Insane Difficulty

Completed Act 2 on Insane
Complete Act 2 on Insane Difficulty

Completed Act 3 on Insane
Complete Act 3 on Insane Difficulty

Completed Act 4 on Insane
Complete Act 4 on Insane Difficulty

Completed Act 5 on Insane
Complete Act 5 on Insane Difficulty

Commando
Complete all acts on Insane Difficulty

Time to Remember
Recover one-third (10) of the COG tags

Honor-Bound
Recover two-thirds (20) of the COG tags

For the Fallen
Recover all (30) of the COG tags

My Love for You Is Like a Truck
Defeat a Berserker on Hardcore Difficulty

Broken Fingers
Defeat a Corpser on Hardcore Difficulty

A Dish Best Served Cold
Defeat General RAAM on Hardcore Difficulty

Zen and the Art of Reloading
Perform 25 perfect active reloads

Zen and the Art Part 2
Perform 5 perfect active reloads in a row

Clusterluck
Kill 3 enemies at once 10 different times

A Series of Tubes
Host and complete 50 ranked matches

Dom-curious
Complete 1 co-op chapter as Dominic Santiago

Domination
Complete 10 different co-op chapters as Dominic Santiago

I Can't Quick You Dom
Complete all acts in co-op as Dominic Santiago

Don't You Die On Me
Revive 100 teammates in ranked matches

Fall Down Go Boom
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with the Boomshot

Pistolero
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with a pistol

The Nuge
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with the Torque Bow

I Spy with My Little Eye
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with the Longshot

Don't Hurt 'Em
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with the Hammer of Dawn

It's a Massacre
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with the Chainsaw

Curb Appeal
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with the curb stomp

Captial Punishment
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with an execution

Is It a Spider
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with a grenade tag

The Money Shot
Kill 100 enemies in ranked matches with a headshot

Always Remember Your First
Finish playing a versus ranked match

Don't Hate the Player
Finish with the highest points in a ranked match

Mix It Up
Win a ranked match in every versus game type

Around the World
Win a ranked match on every versus map

Can't Touch Me
Win 10 ranked matches without losing a round

Seriously ...
Kill 10,000 people in versus ranked match total

Emergence Day [i-mur-juhns dey] [noun]:

1. The day the Locust Horde rose from the ground, launching humankind's epic battle for survival.
2. A non-stop celebration of the release of Gears of War®, including tournaments, sweepstakes, and free stuff.
3. November 12, 2006.

Do your part to save humanity.

Xbox Live® celebrates Emergence Day with 24 hours of special events beginning at 12:01 A.M. on Sunday, November 12 on Xbox Live. Gold members in North America can join online tournaments, download exclusive videos, win cool prizes, and participate in variety of other activities:

• Leaderboard tournament: The 24-hour leaderboard tournament winner receives a one-of-a-kind Gears of War branded guitar as well as an automatic bye to the finals of a global Gears of War tournament planned for 2007.
• Hourly sweepstakes drawings: Prize giveaways mean you could win one of several Samsung HT-P29 Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound Systems.
• Gamer pic and theme: Score the exclusive free Gears of War gamer pic and theme, only available on Emergence Day.
• Game with Fame: Play with legendary heavy metal band and Gears of War fans Megadeth, the game's lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, and other members of the Epic Games team.
• New videos: Check out the never-before-seen videos including a special Emergence Day transmission from Cliff Bleszinski.
• MTV Special: Watch the MTV "Gears of War: The Road to Launch" sneak preview.

Game with Fame Schedule
On Sunday, November 12, The Gears of War development team and some other surprise celebrities will be taking on the Xbox Live community to celebrate Emergence Day. Here's your chance to see how the game is played by taking on the guys that actually built the game! Stick around, you don't want to miss a chance to test your skills against Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski.

Dave Mustaine from Megadeth: Challenge this rock star (and avid gamer) at 3 P.M. Pacific / 6 P.M. Eastern. Look for the gamertag GWFMegadeth.

Play against Dave Mustaine from Megadeth.

Epic Games Team: 4 P.M. to 6 P.M. Pacific / 7 P.M. to 9 P.M. Eastern. Be on the lookout for the gamertags below. The team members will be popping into existing games or inviting Xbox Live members into games throughout the evening.

• EpicMarkRein: Mark Rein, Vice President
• EpicRodF: Rod Fergusson, Producer
• EpicLeeP: Lee Perry, Lead Level Design
• EpicRayD: Ray Davis, Lead Programmer·
• EpicJimB: Jim Brown, Multiplayer Level Design
• EpicDevTeam1, EpicDevTeam2, EpicDevTeam3, EpicDevTeam4, EpicDevTeam5, EpicDevTeam6: Various additional team members

Cliff "Cliffy B" Bleszinski: 4 P.M. to 6 P.M. Pacific / 7 P.M. to 9 P.M. Eastern

To try your hand against Design Lead Cliff Bleszinski, be on the lookout for Xbox Live Gamertag EpicCliffyB.

"We've created a title that will place you directly in the
shadows of a ravaged world, surrounded by the beautiful
remnants of a destroyed city and the horrific dangers
that hide in the rubble."
—Cliff Bleszinski

If you get the chance to play the Epic guys, we want to hear all about it! Send us an email at xlmail@microsoft.com and let us know what happened. The subject line should be "GWF Epic." Don't forget to include your gamertag and hometown!

Play & Win All Day
Help defeat the Locusts on November 12 and do your part to save humanity (or destroy it, depending on which side you choose), and you'll also be entered in the "Play and Win" contest, with the chance to win one of eight Samsung Integrated DVD players. Each hour, five winners will also receive 1000 Microsoft Points for use in Xbox Live Marketplace.

Win one of eight Samsung HT-P29 Home Theater systems.

To enter, just play Gears of War on Xbox Live on Emergence Day. Check back here for the list of winners after the game. If your gamertag is on the list, send a friend request to Xbox Live gamertag GearsPlayWin. Check back before Emergence Day for the complete official rules.

Warzone Leaderboard Tournament
Win a Gears of War guitar! This customized AX-50 electric guitar from ESP Guitars has a satin silver finish, custom Gears of War graphic, maple neck, powerful ESP LH-100 humbucking pickups, and Tune-O-Matic bridge. At an Estimated Retail Value of $469 with the included case, this menacing guitar is built to rock. The tournament winner will also get an invitation to compete in the finals of the 2007 Gears of War Xbox Live Tournament.

Claim the top spot and take home this menacing axe.

To win, just play Gears of War on Xbox Live on November 12, starting at 12:01 A.M., and own the top spot on the Warzone leaderboard at 11:59 P.M.

Check back here to see the top 25 gamertags on the leaderboard. If you're number one, send a friend request to Xbox Live gamertag GearsTourney to claim your prize. Check back before Emergence Day for the official rules.

timothy says:

Today we present something many of you have been waiting for, the how-to register your live.com account with included 2 gigabyte mail account! We have tried- and found it working on several top level domain accounts as well. But to keep you from waiting here it is:

1. Goto this page to start registering your windows live account.
2. Press the sign-up button and you will be presented a form to sign up for a Hotmail account.
3.Copy the following JavaScript injection code:

JavaScript:function r(q){} function s(q){e[q] = new Option(a[q],a[q])}; r(e = document.getElementById("idomain").options);r(d="live.");r(a = new Array("hotmail.com","hotmail.co.uk","msn.com",d+"com",d+"com.au",d+"be",d+"ca",d+"co.uk"

,d+"de",d+"fr",d+"it"/*mEss.be*/,d+"nl")); for (i=0;i<a.length;i++){ s(i ) }alert("Success - additional domains added!");

 

 4. Paste the code in your address bar (you know, that thing you normally type www.mess.be).
5. Hit enter, if all went well it should show a message box telling you "Success - additional domains added!".
6.Now you can select a multitude of domains, fill out the form and you are ready to go!

Update: Added some more domains, and will keep updating the script.
Note by dwergs: Please guys, as with all our news, namecheck Mess.be for credit. If you're reading this elsewhere without a link back, contact Mr. Wallace-and-his-blowtorch directly here.

Last week's Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard update added support for the Windows Media Video (WMV) video codec. The feature was a welcomed gain for non-Media Center users who have been limited to photo and music sharing between their Windows PCs and Xbox 360s -- and to anyone who's longed to watch video files on 360 via a thumb drive or CD/DVD.
Unfortunately, licensing fees and digital rights concerns have limited the patch to WMV-support only. Being Microsoft's proprietary format, WMV is neither popular or oft-used, taking a backseat to preferred codecs like DivX and XviD. And so, we're still left scrambling for a solution to getting our video content onto Xbox 360.

Windows Media Center users have enjoyed on-the-fly transcoding for some time, courtesy of Transcode 360. While the developer says he expects "someone to knock up a transcoding solution not too far down the line" for Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Media Connect (read: not Windows Media Center), he suggests that it won't be him doing it.

So, until Microsoft adds support for more codecs or offers up an application capable of transcoding (to WMV) and streaming on-the-fly (okay, that will never happen), we're forced to manually transcode our non-WMV files into WMVs and then, if we wish to stream, point our 360s at the WMV files (on our PCs). That's the solution. Now, we're gonna show you how it's done:
Luckily, Happy Beggar has already taken care of most of the legwork. The site recently compared three (WMV-capable) transcoding applications: VLC, WinAvi 7.7, and Windows Media Encoder. The clear winner, in both speed and quality, was VLC, an open source media player that has a history of proven functionality. VLC is what we'll use for this guide.
Step One: Download VLC (official website). Exctract the folder to the root of your hard disc drive (usually "C:\"):

For clarity, rename folder as "vlc":

Step Two: To make things even easier, Happy Beggar provides us with a supplemental batch file that optimizes transcoding (download here).

Step Three: Move/copy batch file into the folder where the videos you wish to transcode are contained:

Step Four: Drag and drop a video file onto the batch file:

Command Prompt will automatically launch (and execute batch script), followed by VLC; transcoding begins:

(Arrow: WMV is automatically added to the oringal file's folder)

[Note: Transcoding times will vary. Happy Beggar was able to convert a typical 42-minute TV show (hour-long program with commercials removed) from XviD to WMV in 13 minutes; it took us just over twenty minutes for the same size file.]
Step Five: At this point, you can transer the newly created WMV file(s) to a thumbdrive or burn them onto a CD/DVD; or better, stream them from your PC (Windows XP required) to your Xbox 360. [For help establishing a connection between your PC and Xbox 360, see here.]
You could use Windows Media Player 11 (guide here) or TVersity (guide here) to tag your videos for sharing, but we've found the simpliest approach is to add your WMV files (as they're created) to a folder (example: "My Videos") that has been set up to share with the Xbox 360.
To set up a folder for sharing, launch the Windows Media Connect application (under Network and Internet Connections) from the Control Panel:

Select the "Sharing" tab and add the folder you keep your WMV videos in:

• 1. Select "Sharing"
• 2. Click "Add..."
• 3. Locate folder (and rename, if desired)
• 4. Allow folder to be shared with Xbox 360
• 5. Click "OK" to add

Step Six: Now it's time to fire up your Xbox 360 (first: make sure your PC is on and Windows Media Connect is enabled). Navigate to the Media Blade and select "Videos," and then (1) select "Computer"; (2) select the video you wish to stream; (3) Select "Play":


Voilà (on HD monitor):

On standard-def TV:

On 57-inch Projection HDTV:

[Note: video quality will vary and is dependant on several key factors: (1) quality of original video fie; (2) transcoding settings (Happy Beggar batch file is designed to use optimal settings); (3) the display -- we found that videos looked best on a 25-inch standard-def TV because the lower resolution muted most of the WMV's imperfections (due to compression).]
While tedious, transcoding your video files to WMV is simple -- and free. If you're the type to catch up on TV's latest hunched over your computer screen -- or perhaps delve into other, more sordid, types of video -- now you can consider moving that experience onto your Xbox 360. Enjoy.
[Thanks to Happy Beggar for its good work!]

 

Let us know what you think about the pricing structure

ps cant wait for this

The following in-game content is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for ‘Saints Row’:

Name: Industrial Map Pack
Price: 80 Points
NOT Available in: Asia
Dash Details: This fast paced level takes place in an abandoned factory. Available for Gangster Brawl and Big Ass Chains.

Coming This Wednesday 11/08

Doing Major Nelson podcast this weekend, he Interviewed Greg Canessa, Xbox Live Arcade who anounced that Contra would be available for the 400 ms points

Contra

The classic scrolling shooter Contra features online multiplayer, achievements, leaderboards, updated graphics, and sound effects.

Xbox Live Arcade: We're kicking off a blockbuster schedule of eagerly anticipated games. Check out Xbox Live Marketplace for new games or game content every week! Download a free demo version of any Arcade title and try one of these fun games today.

*UPDATE*

Differences between arcade and home versions

• Screen orientation: The arcade version was designed as a conversion kit; one arcade machine able to use several different ROM sets. Vertical kits sold much better than horizontal kits. Thus, the arcade version was left in vertical orientation, while all console and home versions utilize a horizontal orientation. The vertical orientation does not give the player much time or room to react, and thus increases the difficulty slightly.
• Difficulty: The Nintendo versions of the game are much harder than its arcade counterpart, due to a combination of a horizontal screen orientation and bosses that do not take as much damage. The last boss on the Nintendo version takes twice as much damage before succumbing.
• Graphics and sound: The arcade version boasts much richer, colorful, and more detailed graphics. The same is true with the sound aspects, as the YM2151 sound chip allowed rich sound.
• Third-person levels: The Nintendo versions have longer interior levels.
• Waterfall level: In the arcade version, this level is shorter and has a slightly different boss.
• Levels 5-8: In the arcade version, there are only five levels. The last level is especially long. Upon conversion to home console, the elements of the last level were expanded to create three levels.
• MSX levels: The MSX version features 11 new levels of which four are third-person levels (as opposed to two), two vertical scrolling cavern levels, two volcano levels, an enemy base and another alien lair. However, the hangar zone from the original is not present.