Just got it last night. Couldn't get the super special sauce edition, but something tells me, I'll be giving away my regular copy, and buying the super special edition as soon as I get more money.
Haven't had a chance to play any of it yet, I'm getting ready to move soon. But it's calling my name right now. I gotta work, but maybe a few minutes of Gears won't hurt...
finished it yesterday on hardcore. The art is amazing as always and the lighting in some spots looked fucking phenominal. maybe im just cold hearted but both the major emotional scenes didnt really move me at all haha, it was just too much of the human sized truck dialogue to make me care really.
I gotta say playing campaign with just bot AI for your teammates can be infuriating. not only does it seem that every enemy targets you exclusiveley for about 80% of the time, but your buddies dont really seem to do shit all other than run across the map and sometimes shoot at enemies, never around to revive you at all or just stand there when you were downed.
I have been playing a ton of the MP and its really polished. I love the changes to trenches and thrashball made since the beta, it really helps the flow.
super awesome work all you epic crew, those art sets for each level look like they took a ton of time to make, so much detail everywhere and most of the shapes flow really nicely into other pieces. cant wait to see what epic is cookin up next
We all know this is garbage however. "Poor" sales can be much better attributed to the fact that the PC version came out a full year after the console counterpart, and when it did come out, it had serious performance issues and the Live! implementation just plain didn't work.
Something that was partially patched for the English language version, but never patched for any other version, which is absolutely brilliant for anyone who might have wanted to pick up multiplayer, considering that it can't be played cross-patch-versions.
Personally, I picked the game up post-certification debacle, and spent over two hours just trying to get the game to run - before giving up on it entirely.
I think we can attribute the low sales of the PC version to:
1) A release date 12 calendar months after the 360 version.
2) The diabolically terrible stability on release.
3) The incomplete GfWL live implementation (people don't like it at the best of times, even less so when it doesn't work at all)
4) The equally shoddy post-release support which further broke the game for existing players.
It's harsh on those involved and the hard work that went into it, but it's unfortunately quite true. That PC port was compounded with issues.
Yeah, that whole thing was pretty stupid. No offense to anyone working at EPIC, we all know you're awesome, and those decisions are made by suits, not artists.
Seriously, though, those quotes are beyond stupid. Ambershee got it right, it's not piracy that caused low sales, it was EVERYTHING else. And for someone as educated in games as Cliff to say those things... Well, it's insulting to people who have enough intelligence to install a video card. It's honestly sounding to ME, like microsoft has brain washed Cliff, into believing all their bullshit. So will we see any other EPIC games on platforms other than the xbox? No telling... And THAT makes me sad
Why would Epic spend money on making a port that has proven to lose money? If they made significant money off of Gear 1 for PC, they'd be outright stupid to not port the 2nd or 3rd ones.
Sorry for PC gamers, but the video games industry is a business. Epic Games is not a charitable non-profit organization that makes games for the good of humanity.
I take Cliffy B's words ver-batim. It's simply a business decision.
Why would Epic spend money on making a port that has proven to lose money? If they made significant money off of Gear 1 for PC, they'd be outright stupid to not port the 2nd or 3rd ones.
Sorry for PC gamers, but the video games industry is a business. Epic Games is not a charitable non-profit organization that makes games for the good of humanity.
I take Cliffy B's words ver-batim. It's simply a business decision.
I just finished the game, awesome and I liked all the fingering that was done in the cut scenes. But why does the queen of the grubs have a human head? I don't get it, did I miss something, shouldn't she look like a grub. Baird kind of acknowledged this, but didn't explain the reason behind it. Anyone know why she has a human head?
If this is the proper end to a trilogy, what's with all the unanswered questions? How the hell does everyone know Myrrah's name despite it never being mentioned aside from by Adam Fenix at the end? Why is she human (the neutron bomb/deus ex machina-cure only leaves human cells alive, not locust or lambent)? And I was unimpressed with Marcus' half-baked revenge kill (You killed Dom! HURR!!!) - wouldn't the smart thing to do in a war of this magnitude is to learn about your enemy? Capturing the queen certainly would be a great way to do so. And how did Adam Fenix find the locust in the first place? Who/what the fuck are the Sires from Gears 2?
In a world apparently having had an 85-year war over Imulsion, no one has ever turned lambent? No other scientists besides Adam Fenix discovered its nature? Come on. I know whoever wrote the script this time around has gotten praises and all, but the story itself has a long way before it can be called a 'conclusion'. Unless this is Epic giving us a sign that we're in for prequelitis (and in a franchise this successful, who could blame 'em?).
Bah, I'm tired of games writers pretending their story is given more depth by the lack of answers. It doesn't give depth, it just makes it poorly thought-out . Of course, all these endless cliffhanger/unfinished endings can be explained by everyone's mad dash to be the next big trilogy/quadrilogy.
Finished the game a couple days ago.
While, overall, the game was great, I felt the same way about the ending.
Here are some random/stupid theories
Myrrah and Adam (or a previous Fenix?) were scientists together, many many years ago. Myrrah taking a more humane and non-violent approach to things, whereas Adam was always the mastermind behind WMDs etc. So Myrrah is actually a human - which is why Adam's machine didn't kill her.
As one of his many failed experiments, Adam created the Locust. Myrrah, for one reason or another, decided the Locust needed some form of leadership/a helping hand, and so wanted to help clean up the mess that Adam made. Maybe some super-soldier experiment? I don't know. Also - Sires are the "prototype" of Locusts during Adam's experiments. Either way, Myrrah felt attached to the Locusts over the years, and her loyalty shifted from humans to grubs.
One of the reasons I feel that way ^ is because of one particular line that the Queen says in the endgame. "Why do you choose who gets to live/die?" "do you not see the similarities between us" [not verbatim].
Then again, maybe I'm just being crazy =D.
Overall, was great fun though.
And Horde 2.0 is fun as hell, though Beast mode feels fairly empty and boring after the first 3 or 4 waves.
And Horde 2.0 is fun as hell, though Beast mode feels fairly empty and boring after the first 3 or 4 waves.
Really? I thought it really picked up toward the end. Though not because it's particularly challenging, but because of the awesome types of enemies you get to play as, like the Berserker. Lots of fun.
As a side not, the biggest complaint I have about this game is the damned waiting times during matchmaking. Am I the only one who misses just picking a game from a list? How is waiting for 20 minutes everytime you want to play while it fails to find suitable matches any better? Certain modes it's not too bad, but for other modes 20-30 minutes is no exaggeration, and that's just awful. I feel like by now matchmaking should have evolved beyond what we experienced in Halo 2.
Yeah Horde is so much better now. Beast is great and I feel that they can take it much further in the future.
Hey Shiniku, you can try inviting a lot of players to your friends list and then you can join one of their games in progress. That helps me because sometimes the loads are long, but now I practise kung fu as I wait
@Shiniku, play Quick Match instead of Ranked. It connects you to a server and then that server just keeps cycling to a new map when the game ends without returning you to the lobby. If someone leaves, a bot takes his spot until a new player joins. It still gives you experience and you level up but it doesn't upload stats to the leaderboard, but do you really care about that?
Played Horde and Team DM for a few hours this evening (had to get those "first week" unlocks). Horde was pretty fun, 'cept we had some never-shuts-the-fuck-up pre-teen on there who was talking and talking and talking the entire time.
@Flaagan, you could just start your own private game or create an empty party to avoid that unless you really wanted voice communication between your team. Unless I'm playing with friends I usually join an empty party to turn off voice.
Also I just noticed that they finally stopped using the same detail normal on every material in the game... Finally.
Went online to get those unlocks, ended up playing a game of Warzone though I wasn't particularly wanting to (not generally a big fan of one life per round, especially when I'm a bit of a noob). Actually ended up enjoying it, the matchmaking seemed to work well as we all seemed about equal.
And I finished a round by pulling someone's arm off and beating the hell out of him with it.
Oh man i realised gears 3 supported 3d, played throught the last bits of the game in 3d... it was glorious. It did feel a bit wierd to watch the crosshair not be in the same depth as the 3d, but the depth you get in the environment is pretty damn awesome
I'm seriously considering picking up an xbox to play this (and some other games of course). How is the multiplayer compared to before? Still rolling and shotgunning?
I'm seriously considering picking up an xbox to play this (and some other games of course). How is the multiplayer compared to before? Still rolling and shotgunning?
Do it!
The multiplayer still has a lot of that. But if your account has never played a gears game you are able to be put into casual matchmaking with a bunch of people who also aren't that good. The multiplayer is very addicting... but I could see how someone who isnt good with the shotgun could be turned off by it.
FINALLY had a chance to play it this weekend with my girlfriends son. It was fun as hell!!! I dropped all doubts in the game about 2 minutes in. It brought me back to when I first played Gears 1, and how blown away by that game I was. It also reminded me why I'm a fan of EPIC to begin with.
[EDIT] Oh, and I bought an Xbox specifically for Gears 1. When I was all done playing it (I didn't have XBL so no online for me), I gave it all to my nephew. No other games compared, so I was done with xbox.
Not sure if I'm the first to mention this, but why is the matchmaking system so god awful? It somehow tops Halo Reach?
I swear Gears 1, I go into a game and seconds I'm playing. Gears 2 was a little more cumbersome, but for some reason we dealt with it. This one, I was sometimes looking for a game for 15-20mins.
As I said before Jacque, Quick Match is a lot faster for the obvious reasons that it has a lot more people playing it than Ranked and it doesn't return you to lobby at the end of a map, it just goes straight to a new map. Unless you truly care what your rank is on the ranked leaderboards then play Quick Match.
@Noodle, if you want to shotgun depends on what modes you play and how you choose to play. If you're playing KOTH for example there's going to be a lot of shotgunning around the point. You could choose to not go for point captures though and just stay back and long range anyone who goes on the point to support your team. If you get into a close range fight though it's definitely going to turn into a shotgun rolling game unless you use a lancer and try to chainsaw which wouldn't go too well against anyone with much experience.
Jacque: Choose Social and play imo. Can't recall the # of games played in social:ranked, but social works ultra quick. If it can't find a suitable game for you quickly, it'll create one with bots that people will filter into. If you have a party, ranked is a little quicker then playing solo to find a match, but solo social is the way to go. Most people here play social games due to its ease. Social is more fun for me imo, at the end of a match it seamlessly travels to the next match & map, with minimal waiting for player travelling & loading.
Ranked is better to level in, but you also will be docked a hefty amount XP for quitting a match early.
Horde and Beast are different monsters. For those two its generally best to form at least a 2 person party, but even solo you can find matches with relative ease.
I joined a match yesterday right at the end and basically picked my loadout, spawned and match ended. I was instantly docked 2000 points. Actually made me level down. Anyone else experience this? I was not too happy.
Jesse, was ut social or ranked? There are xp penalties in ranked - if you leave a game in any way: join a friend while currently in a ranked game, quit a game, lose Internet, etc. It may be a bug - but I guess what happened before that is also important (up to the last time you played). Ie, if you played the night before and had to quit early from a ranked game you will be flagged for an xp dock and will see
That penalty the next time you get xp.
I agree it's frustrating, but I guess for a general rule: if you may have to leave a game at any point it's better to paly social to avoid xp docks from ranked in uncontrollable situations like unreliable Internet, kids, etc.
The differece in power with the pistol between SP and MP is quite annoying. Also, wtf is up with the shotgun in DM? It seems like it randomly does crits - I'll unload a whole set into a guy at close range, still alive, he fires one shot and I'm gibs.
for the shotty, I think shooting from the hip/blindfiring at close range will have a higer chance of gibbing someone than actually aiming with the cross hairs. I find using the crosshairs with the shotty not really usefull at all unless you want to get a headshot.
also, for hoard, what are the other 3 things you can upgrade besides fences decoys and turrets. mine show all 3 as locked right now, DLC?
They aren't DLC, you just have to unlock them. Silverback is unlocked by getting level 7 barriers. Sentries are unlocked by getting level 3 or 4 Decoys.
Ah gears3, the wait was worth it, amazing art, very fun multiplayer, hats off to you guys.
But.. wtf is up wuth the god-awfull-completely -fun-killing-enbossfight? C'mon guys? How the hell could this pass QA as a good fight?
I can't talk about it with spoilers and such, but on hardcore, me and my buddies just want to throw the controllers through our tv's. Normally we love to play gears on insane, but now, forget it, knowing this will be at the end just completely killed any taste for that for me.
I don't get why some people have such a huge problem with the final boss fight. Me and my friend beat it on the first try without dying on hardcore. It was kind of long and repetitive but it wasn't anywhere near impossible.
I don't get why some people have such a huge problem with the final boss fight. Me and my friend beat it on the first try without dying on hardcore. It was kind of long and repetitive but it wasn't anywhere near impossible.
Same only I did it alone on hardcore. It was hard. I mean it felt like I did it over and over again but really it wasn't that bad. I don't back and think it was a pain.
I had an empty torque bow, and a shotgun. Before I realised what I was up against, I had to try and scramble for a Hammerhead before going in for Ammo crates.
I think once you know what you're going up against, and how to actually DO it, then it's so much easier.
Ok.. who's bright idea was it to lock you out of "casual" team dm once you reach a certain level? Now I'm stuck playing with a bunch of people overly obsessed with the game with a tendancy to rage quit.
That's the kiddie pool. It's there to get people used to playing the game without getting owned by overly competitive sharks. Once you graduate, you're chum. BUT you should hopefully be chum that knows how to fight back...
This game rocks so freaking hard. It's been a long time since i played such a polished game and hell, the multiplayer is fanfuckingtastic. I usually shy away from it but it's such a blast that I'm addicted to it. "Just a quick match" turns into "just a few more hours please!!!"
Also, it's easily the best out of the three. Arfgh , Need to go home from work and play more!
EDIT: I grew an extra pair of balls during a particularly bad ass level.
i just got my copy today, i am really excited to play through now hehe i got the epic edition, and holy crap is the box gianormous! i expected a small box, but this one is ridiculously huge. Its a really nice edition tho, i like all the fancy stuff in there, and the statue is pretty cool. i am excited to play this.
Theres a lot of cool stuff in Gears2, I'd say it is worth it. I'm biased of course, but not so much that I'm suggesting you should buy multiple copies of it
I thought gears 2 was pretty awesome. It had better story telling, more color, and the story entertained me the whole way. More than the 1st one. I would play it before the 3rd. But then again, i like playing the games in order for some reason.
Replies
Truth.
I noticed there seems to be a huge boost in facial animation. Really went a long way for those in-game cinematics.
When the helmet was grabbed... That right there was my glee moment.
Like a little school girl I was
Haven't had a chance to play any of it yet, I'm getting ready to move soon. But it's calling my name right now. I gotta work, but maybe a few minutes of Gears won't hurt...
SUX. I would have loved to play that game. Y is it the PC gamers who always get the shaft?
http://m.kotaku.com/5056532/why-no-gears-of-war-2-for-pc-well-piracy-for-one
I gotta say playing campaign with just bot AI for your teammates can be infuriating. not only does it seem that every enemy targets you exclusiveley for about 80% of the time, but your buddies dont really seem to do shit all other than run across the map and sometimes shoot at enemies, never around to revive you at all or just stand there when you were downed.
I have been playing a ton of the MP and its really polished. I love the changes to trenches and thrashball made since the beta, it really helps the flow.
super awesome work all you epic crew, those art sets for each level look like they took a ton of time to make, so much detail everywhere and most of the shapes flow really nicely into other pieces. cant wait to see what epic is cookin up next
We all know this is garbage however. "Poor" sales can be much better attributed to the fact that the PC version came out a full year after the console counterpart, and when it did come out, it had serious performance issues and the Live! implementation just plain didn't work.
Something that was partially patched for the English language version, but never patched for any other version, which is absolutely brilliant for anyone who might have wanted to pick up multiplayer, considering that it can't be played cross-patch-versions.
Personally, I picked the game up post-certification debacle, and spent over two hours just trying to get the game to run - before giving up on it entirely.
I think we can attribute the low sales of the PC version to:
1) A release date 12 calendar months after the 360 version.
2) The diabolically terrible stability on release.
3) The incomplete GfWL live implementation (people don't like it at the best of times, even less so when it doesn't work at all)
4) The equally shoddy post-release support which further broke the game for existing players.
It's harsh on those involved and the hard work that went into it, but it's unfortunately quite true. That PC port was compounded with issues.
Seriously, though, those quotes are beyond stupid. Ambershee got it right, it's not piracy that caused low sales, it was EVERYTHING else. And for someone as educated in games as Cliff to say those things... Well, it's insulting to people who have enough intelligence to install a video card. It's honestly sounding to ME, like microsoft has brain washed Cliff, into believing all their bullshit. So will we see any other EPIC games on platforms other than the xbox? No telling... And THAT makes me sad
Why would Epic spend money on making a port that has proven to lose money? If they made significant money off of Gear 1 for PC, they'd be outright stupid to not port the 2nd or 3rd ones.
Sorry for PC gamers, but the video games industry is a business. Epic Games is not a charitable non-profit organization that makes games for the good of humanity.
I take Cliffy B's words ver-batim. It's simply a business decision.
Bingo.
In a world apparently having had an 85-year war over Imulsion, no one has ever turned lambent? No other scientists besides Adam Fenix discovered its nature? Come on. I know whoever wrote the script this time around has gotten praises and all, but the story itself has a long way before it can be called a 'conclusion'. Unless this is Epic giving us a sign that we're in for prequelitis (and in a franchise this successful, who could blame 'em?).
Bah, I'm tired of games writers pretending their story is given more depth by the lack of answers. It doesn't give depth, it just makes it poorly thought-out . Of course, all these endless cliffhanger/unfinished endings can be explained by everyone's mad dash to be the next big trilogy/quadrilogy.
/end mini-rant.
While, overall, the game was great, I felt the same way about the ending.
Here are some random/stupid theories
As one of his many failed experiments, Adam created the Locust. Myrrah, for one reason or another, decided the Locust needed some form of leadership/a helping hand, and so wanted to help clean up the mess that Adam made. Maybe some super-soldier experiment? I don't know. Also - Sires are the "prototype" of Locusts during Adam's experiments. Either way, Myrrah felt attached to the Locusts over the years, and her loyalty shifted from humans to grubs.
One of the reasons I feel that way ^ is because of one particular line that the Queen says in the endgame. "Why do you choose who gets to live/die?" "do you not see the similarities between us" [not verbatim].
Then again, maybe I'm just being crazy =D.
Overall, was great fun though.
And Horde 2.0 is fun as hell, though Beast mode feels fairly empty and boring after the first 3 or 4 waves.
Really? I thought it really picked up toward the end. Though not because it's particularly challenging, but because of the awesome types of enemies you get to play as, like the Berserker. Lots of fun.
As a side not, the biggest complaint I have about this game is the damned waiting times during matchmaking. Am I the only one who misses just picking a game from a list? How is waiting for 20 minutes everytime you want to play while it fails to find suitable matches any better? Certain modes it's not too bad, but for other modes 20-30 minutes is no exaggeration, and that's just awful. I feel like by now matchmaking should have evolved beyond what we experienced in Halo 2.
Hey Shiniku, you can try inviting a lot of players to your friends list and then you can join one of their games in progress. That helps me because sometimes the loads are long, but now I practise kung fu as I wait
Also I just noticed that they finally stopped using the same detail normal on every material in the game... Finally.
Got a new gamertag and played some dm and horde this weekend!! Wooooo! Don't want to stop playing.
And I finished a round by pulling someone's arm off and beating the hell out of him with it.
Do it!
The multiplayer still has a lot of that. But if your account has never played a gears game you are able to be put into casual matchmaking with a bunch of people who also aren't that good. The multiplayer is very addicting... but I could see how someone who isnt good with the shotgun could be turned off by it.
[EDIT] Oh, and I bought an Xbox specifically for Gears 1. When I was all done playing it (I didn't have XBL so no online for me), I gave it all to my nephew. No other games compared, so I was done with xbox.
I swear Gears 1, I go into a game and seconds I'm playing. Gears 2 was a little more cumbersome, but for some reason we dealt with it. This one, I was sometimes looking for a game for 15-20mins.
@Noodle, if you want to shotgun depends on what modes you play and how you choose to play. If you're playing KOTH for example there's going to be a lot of shotgunning around the point. You could choose to not go for point captures though and just stay back and long range anyone who goes on the point to support your team. If you get into a close range fight though it's definitely going to turn into a shotgun rolling game unless you use a lancer and try to chainsaw which wouldn't go too well against anyone with much experience.
Ranked is better to level in, but you also will be docked a hefty amount XP for quitting a match early.
Horde and Beast are different monsters. For those two its generally best to form at least a 2 person party, but even solo you can find matches with relative ease.
Thank you so much. :poly142:
Seems to work a world better. Never went through more than 2 cycles.
Is this a bug or is this just how it is?
That penalty the next time you get xp.
I agree it's frustrating, but I guess for a general rule: if you may have to leave a game at any point it's better to paly social to avoid xp docks from ranked in uncontrollable situations like unreliable Internet, kids, etc.
also, for hoard, what are the other 3 things you can upgrade besides fences decoys and turrets. mine show all 3 as locked right now, DLC?
Sentry, & Silverback. 5 fortifications in horde!
But.. wtf is up wuth the god-awfull-completely -fun-killing-enbossfight? C'mon guys? How the hell could this pass QA as a good fight?
I can't talk about it with spoilers and such, but on hardcore, me and my buddies just want to throw the controllers through our tv's. Normally we love to play gears on insane, but now, forget it, knowing this will be at the end just completely killed any taste for that for me.
Luckily horde and beast make up for it
Same only I did it alone on hardcore. It was hard. I mean it felt like I did it over and over again but really it wasn't that bad. I don't back and think it was a pain.
I had an empty torque bow, and a shotgun. Before I realised what I was up against, I had to try and scramble for a Hammerhead before going in for Ammo crates.
I think once you know what you're going up against, and how to actually DO it, then it's so much easier.
Also, it's easily the best out of the three. Arfgh , Need to go home from work and play more!
EDIT: I grew an extra pair of balls during a particularly bad ass level.
So far loving this game, great job guys as always