Lord knows when Sears will stock GoW, damn Sears gift card. :doh: But to get back on topic here, just letting gamers know that there is some GoW content only up today on the XBL marketplace for free.

Oh, SHIT. Thanks for the heads up. =D

Yes, because most people who play a third-person shooter expect Halo.

This isn't really a fair comparison. Perfect Dark Zero gives you the OPTION to use cover, and I capitalize option because it really is optional. Gears of War REQUIRES you use cover. There is NEVER a situation where staying out of cover for more than 2 seconds longer than you need to is a good idea.

I actually like the meatheadedness of the plot. In a way, it's a sendup and a tribute at the same time to totally wacky-ass action movies back in the 80's. Anyone expecting brilliant prose from a shooter game really needs to, you know, play another fucking genre and not pretend that Halo had a plot.

Oblivion played kind of like Halo, but it had enough unique qualities that it was sort of its own game. What the FUCK kind of argument is this? Gears of War may be a third-person shooter with a rather typical weaponset, but its overall gameplay is something that a game has never pulled off with this much actual FUN to it. Sure, kill.switch did it first, but kill.switch also sucked monkey nuts. This is the first game to get it right, and for that it deserves a fucking medal, because it really makes the game a lot more tactical and, by extension, a game where you actually have to THINK both in online and in offline.

Um, what? What similarities does this game have AT ALL with RE4? For one, you couldn't really use cover all that much, for two, enemies went down with a LOT less bullets in RE4, and for three, RE4 threw a lot more enemies at you. RE4's shooting was more about making you screw up by getting freaked out. Gears' shooting is all about setting you up so the enemies can flank you and use other tactics to fuck you over. You're not fighting mindless zombies, you're fighting an army that actually knows what the hell it's doing.

Well, I haven't played the game yet (Euro release is Friday ;_; ) but from various articles and videos, I would say quite alot. From the looks, Gears follows Resi 4 not only with the fixed camera angle which Resi 4 made popular in more recent times, though it certinaly did not invent.

Both Gears and Resi also seem to be about keeping you busy. Both games seem to throw enemies at you in amounts that won't bore you and will keep you moving, although Gears looks like it has less than Resi and more cover.

And cover was in Resi 4 in my opinion, just not the same way as Gears. Remember those parts where 7 or 8 ganados are after you and you think "Shit, i'll duck into this building and reload and take some herbs"? I'd say that's cover. Infact, the game forces this on you, for example, running into the house with the shotgun in the village at the beginning.

Also, Resi influenced Gears with more subtle things, such as pacing. With Resi 4, you play for a few hours around the village and such and you begin to think "ahh, this must be what the whole game is like" but then you move on to the Castle, and then when you are beginning to get used to these surroundings, you arrive at the island. It keeps it fresh. It keeps it moving. From what I read, CliffyB wanted this with Gears, though I don't know if this is true of the game as I haven't been able to get it just yet.

Infact, didn't he say somewhere that both Resi 4 and God of War were the main influences for Gears?

How could you even think to compare the pacing of the game when you haven't even layed it yet? Honestly.

Like Capo said, if you haven't played the game, you can't really comment on the pacing.

And yes, those parts of RE4 are technically places where you use cover, but the only reason you get away with that in RE4 is because most of the enemies in there aren't exactly intelligent. In Gears of War, not only are there practically no doors EVER to hide behind, the fact of the matter is when you take cover you are still very much in danger, especially if you want to shoot something. In RE4 you still just stand out in the open and fire at shit without worry, in Gears you HAVE to be behind cover or else you die. Period.

So people really meant it when they said you couldn't play the game without cover. Interesting.

And as I said, I'm unable say whether Gears had the pacing like Resi, I just said thay CliffyB mentioned it to be one of the things that he saw in Resi 4 and wanted in Gears.

I've beaten the campaign on Hardcore and have spent a good many hours in multiplayer so far. The campaign definitely feels a bit shorter than it should be, but I can't complain because it's awesome gameplay all the way through. The multiplayer in this game is stellar as well. Very unique and not quite like any other shooter I've played.

The guys weren't lying when they said that multiplayer matches really focus on teamwork. I'd say that your odds of winning a match are about 60:40 with teamwork and your own personal skill. Getting flanked 2 on 1 is almost always death. My only complaint right now is that the grenade tagging seems a bit cheap (unlike the chainsaw that has to rev up, there seems to be no buffer time for the placement), though it's true that you have to pick the grenades so it sort of balances out. Other than that, the weapons are pretty well balanced. Though the Boomshot seems a tad weak with only 2 shots (and hard to aim) compared to the Sniper's 11. I think the Torque Bow has the best balance with 6 shots.

I honestly can't wait for those bonus maps!

Dont forget the part where you have to run up to the enemy attempting to blow your head off, and actually put the grenade on him. I think that mechanic is extremely well balanced. It has its perks, and its drawbacks.

I love the games storyline and general feel.

Oh, and Devo

I think the grenades could use a LITTLE bit of tweaking. Overall grenade tagging is neat, but it's far too easy for people to do a roll dodge right up to you and then tag you before you can even turn to aim at the guy. In my opinion they should add some minor delay between the end of the roll dodge and when you can tag to make it a little more balanced.

Also, as a side complaint, I really hate people who try to use the sniper rifle at close range. The sniper rifle is NOT the AWP in CounterStrike, people. Unless you get a headshot it will NOT kill the guy, and the reload takes far too long! I'm sick of watching people try 4 or 5 times to shoot somebody from 10 feet away with the sniper rifle only to eventually get chainsawed during a reload.

I wish this game was set up like Halo 2's online. It seems like a pain to get into a game, and set up teams the way you want them. I especially agree with the having to hide in the middle/cant team join in rank complaint.

A buddy of mine would hop into private chat and tell me a game name to join, and we would both try to find that name. Pain in the ass after awhile.

Id be up for that.

A few days back I ninja joined one of the sessions that Skills, Devo and Moo were doing - I had an ABSOLUTE BLAST.

Nothing funner than to thrash on your fellow GF'ers.

Also Devo is really good. Watch out for her. :P

We were all pretty good, cept Mo0, who's terrible and got a face full of buckshot within the opening 5 seconds of every round.