Gears of War - Impressions?
polycounter lvl 18
Played coop for about 5 hours last night. Going from casual to Hardcore is like night and day with the enemy AI. Casual they are kind of smart, Hardcore which is what we played on, they act like a team forcing you to go from cover to cover. Battles were lasting about 10-20 minutes usually in big areas.
The AI Friendly Bots seem a bit retarded in a firefight they run ahead and don't heal other players or AI bots. You're forced to heal them and immediately seek cover. The random chatter is pretty funny.
The Beserker was awesome, I have never been so pumped to get the frak out of a tight room. Rodie run definitely saved my ass a lot of time last night. Some amazing firefights last night I'm pumped for more Gears tonight.
We spent a good deal of time looking at the normal mapping and FXs. Using the chainsaw to cut enemies has never felt so goood!
I really like how you can be playing single player and someone can join in anytime for coop. Thats a much needed feature in all games. The path system to choose your direction was a great idea also.
Thanks Everyone at Epic Games for an outstanding game, so far
The AI Friendly Bots seem a bit retarded in a firefight they run ahead and don't heal other players or AI bots. You're forced to heal them and immediately seek cover. The random chatter is pretty funny.
The Beserker was awesome, I have never been so pumped to get the frak out of a tight room. Rodie run definitely saved my ass a lot of time last night. Some amazing firefights last night I'm pumped for more Gears tonight.
We spent a good deal of time looking at the normal mapping and FXs. Using the chainsaw to cut enemies has never felt so goood!
I really like how you can be playing single player and someone can join in anytime for coop. Thats a much needed feature in all games. The path system to choose your direction was a great idea also.
Thanks Everyone at Epic Games for an outstanding game, so far
Replies
plus it has Terry Tate!!!!!! and you must play it on hardcore.
The physics are terrible, especially the ragdoll stuff. I guess you can thank PhysX for that. I think Epic would be better off writing their own physics engine.
I can't stand the blood. Such great art in the game and then you have extremely 'cartoony' blood effects.
Epic pulls off the illusion that you're destroying things really good, but in reality, almost nothing is destructable.
Other than that, I think the game is pretty cool. I'm going to enjoy it at least.
My friend didn't like the blood, said it was too cartoony, I like the blood splatter on the camera
Screw you guys my copy's not showing up 'til tomorrow
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My Xbox 360 has to be shipped away for repairs, broke the night before release.
Echoing some other folks: what happened with the blood effect? It looks bizarre. Like the alpha channel is broken or something.
Personal taste here I guess: I'm not a total fan of the human facial work to be honest, sorry. I guess a certain style was being sought after but they just feel a little cartoony to me. Slightly out of place in an otherwise very realistically realised world.
The environments are truly astounding to behold. Our whole team was stood around watching the game just now with slack jaws.
Clearly there is some downsizing in texture sizes from the early pc shots and to me the character lighting is somewhat less sophisticated than it seemed before. There are plenty of times when a character is up against a wall that his lighting and shadowing doesn't seem that well integrated with the world at all, and it makes me wonder in fact what is quite so advanced with the U3 lighting model over previous engines? But perhaps I need to see a bit more of the game before really commenting. Of course the downsizing of some textures for a console is to be expected.
Probably the best looking game I've ever seen on a console all in all.
FedEx f'd something up, and Gamestop didn't get their shipment today like they were supposed to. Bastards.
Daz - I gotta disagree about the heads, I think they fit the game more than making the heads too realistic. But I understand that's u're personal taste
The game really reminds me of the movie Predator, with the super huge macho guys walkin around with huge guns!
It's definitely best xbox360 game of the year! I just wish going into cover could be customized.
However, I didnt own the game, just looked at the gametrailer vids.
From the visual appreance, therefore I can tell:
-The assets look really good
-Gameplay looks solid.
-Liked many of the locations displayed
My critics:
-The graphics got really downsized
-The engine seems to have some obvious problems with mipmapping / LODing. I thought that looked weird.
-The Depth of View looks unbelievable, like a gaussian blur layer linked to the distance.
-The Voice acting was horrible.
-Why the hell is everybody bulky in this universe?!
-The Lighting model looks really inconsistent and a lot of locations I seen looked very diffuse.
-Am I the only one who doesnt like cliffy B? He is so annoying to watch on these promovids...
Besides that, cool game, my two cents, no pun intended...
-Why the hell is everybody bulky in this universe?!
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The bulky man look is just epic's style. It's like the androgynous man look used by Square for FFXII.
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-Am I the only one who doesnt like cliffy B? He is so annoying to watch on these promovids...
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No, you are one of many here that dislike him. Honestly, I don't mind him that much. I mean, He's got a sense of charisma, there's nothing wrong with that.
I would really love to play this game, although I know it won't be happening for quite some time.
-the graphics looked better than I thought they would!
-mipmapping looks nicely polished!
-you guys did a great job with the depth of view, very believably done!
-the voice acting was sweet!
-I love how bulky everyone is!
-The lighting is great!
-I don't know who cliffyB is, but I'm certain he's quite the upstanding citizen
my favorite shit:
-oh the textures, oh.. uh! AH!! yeah..
-the machine gun bullet decals
-those cement blocks! and crumbly cement - wow, those stairs? mad.
-movement! camera, avatar abilities, these cover mechanics.. nice, nice!
very cool game. i would have loved to have been apart of this - great work epic guys.
2 Words.
FUCKING BAD ASS.
Hot shit, man.
Okay, see, there's a difference between "Next-gen" and "good-looking" games.
THis is good looking, and very "Next-gen"
I love the gore. I can't help but want to kill every enemy I see with a curb stomp, or shot gun.
Good job epic. I love you. Finally, my bleak days have been enlightened.
r.
Note, this is not a rant about the game itself, as I haven't even had a chance to play it yet.. this is a rant for the fact I paid extra for 'bonus material'... and I feel like I got ripped off. Where's the absolutely gorgeous concept art I saw online way back when? Maybe a GoW-style limited-number dog-tag would have been nice.
r.
the art is really inspiring too especially on the environments (though everything is at a really high standard), the lighting and attention to detail is really impressive.
congrats to all the team
If I say this is the best looking game, I would lie. This is the most f...... stuning game ever. I just like everything about gow. I haven't played it much but what I saw was awesome. Congratz everyone at Epic. This is just gorgeous
game.
what I like:
-the atmosphere in the game
-cool lightning and those nice volume effects
-the skybox and background areas have so much depth
-smart use of color maps with detail normal map when you get close to a walls. It seems it distorts the color map, which has nice effect.
-characters are awesome looking. So much detailes. I saw some good use of normal maps on them.
-THe faked DOF with blured distance is nice thouch. It makes everything so soft.
-I realy liked the decal normal map over cover stones. They have alot of depth.
-The gameplay is very nice. Fast paced action and some nice flaking from the NPC side. I got some realy nice moments there.
-Chainsaw. OMG totaly owns when used properly.
-Custscenes. Very filmlike.
-music is great
-sounds
What I dont like:
-Sometimes enemys are unaware of a player.
-The friendly NPC is in your line of fire
-A wired cpecular effect in the third or second map when you come out of hallway which is dark.
-Some of the textures are to low res. Which kind of breaks the illusion.
-why is there no shadows in the objects. It breaks the illusion of enviroment.
overall very good game. Keep it up Epic you have my full support. I cant wait to play UT 2007.I am a huge fan of UT2004.
Um.. you guys didn't put your best foot forward with the first bit of the game, I must say. I'm in it a ways now and for the most part enjoying it.. but yah, that first experience definitely has me a tad disappointed. For "training levels" it felt more like torture at times.
Right now I'm playing through it co-op with my roommate on hardcore, just got to chapter 4 after a good 5 hour play session. It took a little getting used to, but we've got the cover system down pretty good. Just give it some time flaagan, give her a little love and she'll do whatever you want.
Can't wait to beat it and play through it again on the next hardest level. Bloody well done Epic!
I couldn't even force myself to finish the ingame videos because the gameplay looked so frumpy.
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I haven't played the game but the gameplay looked awesome to me in those videos.
Environment stands above everything else in my eyes. Characters feel kind of generic. Those big round things on their armor look like speakers and sometimes I think they might be blasting Disco while charging into battle... maybe the aliens are oversensitive to bass?
Gun fight is very intense; I run out of ammo alot; the Boomers' gun mysteriously shrink in size when the player picks it up. Occasionally AI teammates would shoot at the ground while they're in cover. Enemy AI seems pretty darn good.
I only play a couple hours at a time, more than that things start to get repetitive. I'm just not a FPS person, espeically on the console. But this one played alot btter than the other ones I've played.
Coop mode is excellent. much more enjoyable than co-op over the net or deathmatch
Definitely a milestone game in 360 game library.
Spark
Finally played it last night and it's lovely. Co-op is the bestest.
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After whining like a little girl for two days...
I beleive the limited edition strategy guide comes with a larger higher quality version of the art book.
r.
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It's actually a much more in-depth art book with the LE strat guide.
Frank the Avenger
I'm just not a FPS person, espeically on the console. But this one played alot btter than the other ones I've played.
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Just to be pedantic, it's not. It's 3rd person.
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I beleive the limited edition strategy guide comes with a larger higher quality version of the art book.
r.
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It's actually a much more in-depth art book with the LE strat guide.
Frank the Avenger
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Doesn't change the fact that I paid $10 extra for an altoids tin and a kiddie sized flipbook. (And yes, I know I'm carrying on about this, but 'extra goodies' is stuff I look forward to paying extra for... when they're actually worth it.)
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I'm just not a FPS person, espeically on the console. But this one played alot btter than the other ones I've played.
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Just to be pedantic, it's not. It's 3rd person.
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Yeah you're right. I tend to bunch 1st/3rd shooters into FPS even though they're different on some aspects, especially on consoles since they all feel pretty much the same to me.
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I beleive the limited edition strategy guide comes with a larger higher quality version of the art book.
r.
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It's actually a much more in-depth art book with the LE strat guide.
Frank the Avenger
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Doesn't change the fact that I paid $10 extra for an altoids tin and a kiddie sized flipbook. (And yes, I know I'm carrying on about this, but 'extra goodies' is stuff I look forward to paying extra for... when they're actually worth it.)
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Isn't there a DVD as well? The DVD alone is worth $10.
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I'm just not a FPS person, espeically on the console. But this one played alot btter than the other ones I've played.
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Just to be pedantic, it's not. It's 3rd person.
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it's 1st AND 3rd, Mr Pedant (when you're holding in the left trigger to aim, the camera zooms into a 1st-person-esque view)
Co-op is great fun and really helps take the pressure off the hardcore setting
Isn't there a DVD as well? The DVD alone is worth $10.
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Nah, the extra DVD was not all that interesting. Though the mural was badass...even if they never did show a close up...or even a full still shot, pfft. I almost wanted to vomit when I was given the information about CliffyB and his girlfriend breaking up and then getting back together, then showing them kiss. Don't get me wrong, that's all fine and well...if I'm a 16 yr. old girl watching MTV, but I'm not...so I don't give a shit. :] And yeah, the art book was really weak compared to other art books I've gotten with collector's editions. BUT, it was only $10 extra; which is alot cheaper than what I've paid for other collector's editions.
As far as the game is concerned, brilliant work, kudos to Epic on this one. The level design was superb! The character design, especially the Locust...sexy. I loved the cover combat system, I think it was implemented well and it feels very intuitive once you get use to it. My girl and I beat it on Hardcore straight through from the time we brought it home, and we're casually doing Insane now. Best Co-op experience I've ever had with a game. I would liked to have seen more boss battles, there were really only two total. The rest were more of a mini-boss. One of the few story holes that really got me was the whole Jack thing. It was never introduced and suddenly appeared when needed, made no sense. Though the multiplayer offers something new with the whole cover combat system, I would have enjoyed some sort of 'defend the base' or 'capture the point' multiplayer mode.
I'm still very impressed with the game as a whole. Enjoyable experience! Now hurry up and give me Gears of War II! :]
With all of that said Gears really disappoints me in the game play and game mechanics department. Now I dont have to much of a problem with repetitive game play or the linear environments since some of the best games I ever played had repetitive game play (Okami) but after five hours or so it felt like the game doesnt hit any true highs or smack me in the face with awesome moments. Playing Gears was like listening to an album whos tempo changed for maybe one or two tracks, the really awesome scenarios are few and far between at best which is a shame because Gears like Call of Duty 2 is an on the rails shooter and that game through me from one intense moment to another and it forced me to switch up my game play mechanics from time to time. Playing Gears I never really felt any of that, I felt like I was being pushed from one scenario fighting the same guys to another scenario fighting the same guys albeit in different uniforms but only in a more decked out setting, because of this it feels more like running and ducking in a pretty digital Hollywood set than participating and living in a digital immersive world. The one thing games of this nature needs is things that really break up the monotony much like Halo, Halo 2, or Half life 2, did, yes theres a pretty cool driving sequences but it feels tacked on.
Of course the biggest downer for me was the game play mechanics, I absolutely think that the pop & stop nature of the game could have been really awesome had the aiming of your gun been tighter. I dont know if its just me but aiming in Gears feels like an off balanced chore and not really intuitive or precise at all. Theres something about controlling your character and camera at the same time that just doesnt work for me, it would have been great if you could go into your over the shoulder perspective and then have the camera lock automatically, this way it would have been much easier and enjoyable to aim through your reticule (Rainbow Six Vegas does this nicely). Also shooting in the third person perspective is pretty much a waste of time since you cant aim precisely, Gears almost forces you to get shot while shooting and this sort of thing takes me out of the game completely and have me doing way more left brain right brain thinking than I would like to do given the nature of the game design. I admire where Cliff was going with the A button doing most of the game play functions but something has to give when it obstructs your play mechanics. I was fighting the walls in Gears as much as I was fighting the Locusts and to me this spelled disaster on many occasions, this could easily have been remedied with mapping the run function to another button. The funny thing is this game feels like it needs to be played with a mouse & keyboard even though it was designed for a console, I think this is due to the fact that Epics roots are firmly planted in the PC gamming world, as opposed to say Capcom whos got some sweet 3p shooter controls down with Lost Planet. Now Im sure this game will sell 360s and most 360 owners will want to see what all the hype is about (rent before you buy) but for me Gears just didnt feel fun and no matter how beautiful the graphics are will never replace pure addictive game play. I hope Epic will refine what theyve started with Gears in the sure to be announced sequel because I think they have a bigger better story to tell and Game to make in years to come.
Later,
Back to playing Final Fantasy 12!
Marcus Dublin
Artist Kaos Studios