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Gears of War 3


Sly Reflex
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So I've spent a bit of time with this now, enough to give some impressions on it. Bear in mind this is a beta some some stuff wont be like this in the final game.

Graphically it's very nice. Light sources are independent, and because of that so are the shadows. It all looks great and if the full game has similar attention to detail. Character models look well weathered and by the looks of things have all new animations for everything. Soundbites from each COG are mostly new, but a lot of sound assets have been reused from the previous 2 games. It sounds like all of Cole's quotes have just been copied and pasted into this beta. However, all the others have had context sensitive shout outs that fit the style of the game. Crass and funny, each set of will endear you to at least one of the characters when you finally get your hands on either the beta or the full game.

Controls have been revamped, this time around your player feels a bit faster than back in the previous games. There's been a bit of tinkering which will throw you off when you first start player, but so far I can see the improvement. I dunno whether you guys have seen it before in other games, but some of them make you hold the button down while a ring fills up around the button to perform whatever action. This is used in GoW3 for very specific actions, like picking up weapons, ammo and performing executions. This means that you are no longer picking stuff up by accident when trying to revive people. It's a small alteration, but it really helps in those situations, and it adds to the game by making you think whether you really want to pick one of those power weapons up. I have no idea if bigger weapons have bigger times for picking up, it's not something I could really test because the game moves so fast.

The maps seem decent enough, the stand out being the Shopping Mall and the Thrashball stadium. For some reason they decided that that the Market and Trenches were locked out for today and the maps that were available were locked into Team deathmatch. You probably don't need me to explain what TDM is. You have a set amount of lives, and when they have expired people no longer spawn. It's been done before and no doubt it will be seen again in future games. If it aint broke, don't fix it etc. I did notice that during my time playing that out of the two maps in rotation today, the fighting always took place in the same few places on the map. Anyone who has played Gears competitively will know that both teams will rush towards specific power weapons and fight for them until a victor is found. It's the same here, and I'm sure that it would be much more interesting if that in select games the central weapons move on a space so that teams are either fighting over a different weapon each round or fighting in a different area for the weapon the team wants. From what I've seen map wise, Horde mode is going to be really difficult, because even the areas that you could back yourself into are going to get hard to defend against eventually.

The game itself moves really fast. It isn't the breakneck speed of Gears 1, but it's still really quick. In other game modes where lives are not a factor, it basically turns into CoD. You die fast, but you are back in the action almost instantly. The limited spawn games are a more considered fair, you'll notice that when you play one team will run to either a power weapon place or a bit on the map that's easily defended which can be frustrating if you are on the outside, but when you flip the coin and end up defending a space you soon realise that it isn't as easy as you would think, more akin to plugging leaks in a sinking ship with limited amounts of plugs. The main frustrating part of the online is that some people are ridiculously good at the game, and it isn't like Battlefield where an opposition team can use tactics to snuff out superior skill. I've seen 1 person take out 4 people alone, and even I myself have taken 3 people out one after the other like it was nothing. It seems that skill will get you everywhere, and if you are not skilled you're in for an arse fucking all night. It was the same for previous Gears games and nothing has changed here.

Similar to Halo: Reach and BC2 (and I think CoD), each event in game gives you ribbons which equate to getting a set amount of XP. Get killed 1st in the game? Have some XP. Get shot in the head the most? Have some XP. Spend the most time in cover? Have some XP. There are so many ribbons that practically everything you do in game doles out XP. Some of them are decent bundles of XP, some are more consolation XP for being shit. Whatever though, if you play online chances are you're gonna get fucking loads of these ribbons.

Weapons wise there has been a bit of a shake up.

The Lancer is the longest ranged auto rifle and it's seen a bit of a nerf. If you move while firing the cross hairs open right up, and anything more than bursts of fire do the same. The chainsaw animation has been changed slightly so you can no longer bring the saw up right away. While it leads to more considered chainsawing, it's a bit of a nerf too far and I expect Gears signature weapons to receive a serious buff when the game finally hits the shelves. It's just not very good.

The Gnasher shotgun is overpowered as usual. Its effective range is a bit long, and in Lancer Vs Gnasher fights where the Lancer should come of triumphant, the Gnasher takes the win. It shouldn't be like that, and I doubt that any tweaks will be done to rectify this.

The Hammerburst is where most players will lay their loyalties if this makes it to retail. In previous games it was a bit wank. In this one it is a beast. It has stupid stopping power and is fucking frightening at all distances, from zoomed in, iron sighted and sprayed from the hip. If it wasn't for people trying to unlock the gold retro lancer, the beta would be full of these.

The Retro Lancer is a decent weapon if you like to get in close and just spray and hope. I had some reasonable games with it and if you are facing off against someone trying to shotgun you chances are if they fuck up a few shots you'll down them with this. It's fucking garbage at anything more than 10 meters away though. The recoil is horrible. The recoil is horrible on all the fully automatic assault rifles. It has an awesomely easy execution which will no doubt be classed as noobish as chainsawing people in the 1st two games.

The Sawed off is a bit of a redundant luxury if I'm being honest. You get 1 shot, you need to be pretty much touching to get the kill, and it takes fucking forever to reload. If you fuck up, you are basically dead. If there is someone near when you get the kill, you are dead. I don't think we'll see many of these when the game comes out for the simple reason that the normally shotty is so fucking powerful there is no need to pack this unless you you plan on taking the piss. They should boost the power of this gun and narrow its sweep, and nerf the Gnasher to balance them so that both guns are a valid choice when it comes to brass tacks.

The grenades all have a purpose now. Smokes now make players caught in the blast flinch and lower their weapon, inks incapacitate and poison (and look graphically awesome), frags are the same, and the new firebomb works similar to the ink, although damage over time happens if you get hit by it or walk through the fire. The way you throw has been changed slightly as well, but I can't put my finger on what they have done.

There is a grenade gun which burrows under the ground to get people behind cover. It's just a bit annoying if I'm being honest. I guess it has it's place but I'm hoping it isn't place on many maps. It detracts the point of being in cover, which for a cover shooter is a bit fucking stupid. It feels a bit cheesy to use as well, like you don't really deserve the kills you get from using it because it's a bit cheap.

The Torque, Longshot, Mortar, Mulcher, Flamethrower, Boomshot and pistols remain relatively untouched.

Other new things I've notioced is the ability to revife yourself if you manage to not get executed while on the floor. When two enemies are on the same bit of cover either side, you can jump the cover and jump on their heads, which can result in them being knocked down or even downed. It's perfect for getting shotgun kills even if you are a bit shit with them, as they are literally helpless while you fill them full of lead.

The executions are pretty sweet. I wont spoil them as you really need to just discover them yourself, but yeah, some of them are ridiculously OTT. Every weapon has one too, even the shit you wouldn't expect to have an elaborate execution kill will have one. Crazy.

I think I covered everything there. If you have any questions, just ask and I'll try to answer them. Also, sorry for the long post. I wasn't really expecting it to be so bloody big.

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That burst pistol is actually fully automatic now instead of a 4 burst. Doesn't really alter how you use it though. It looks like people are finally starting to abuse the sawed off as well, which is a bit of a shame. I'm hoping it's people just trying to level it up to unlock the execution for it.

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Fucking hell, I approached using the sawed off as instructed in the video and it's insane. I spent most of the night double gibbing people with it like it was nothing. It's so easy to take advantage of it when you know how that online is full of people using it. You would have to be a clown to miss as well, the width of the spread takes the piss. It's basically a 180* sweep in front of you.

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Had this email from GAME.

Unfortunately Microsoft have been unable to send us enough

BETA codes for the launch of the Gears of War 3 BETA.

We are currently awaiting the next shipment of codes which

is due to arrive early next week.

As soon as they arrive we will despatch them to you.

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

I was under the impression they were emailed out. Fuck yoooooooooooooooou, etc.

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Had this email from GAME.

Unfortunately Microsoft have been unable to send us enough

BETA codes for the launch of the Gears of War 3 BETA.

We are currently awaiting the next shipment of codes which

is due to arrive early next week.

As soon as they arrive we will despatch them to you.

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

I was under the impression they were emailed out. Fuck yoooooooooooooooou, etc.

I got this too and I pre-ordered ages ago. Fuckers.

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Had a few games with Haggar and other GTM drop-outs earlier.

Only played Team Deathmatch but I think I saw all the maps there currently are.

I honestly couldn't tell any real differences from Gears 2 in how it handled but the things I noticed that were different were stuff like holding the button instead of just pressing it to pick up ammo.

I did alright, mostly I was bottom but occasionally I held my own and once I was top of the leaderboard. :mellow:

Gonna have to dig through it whenever I've got the time until it runs out on the 15th of May.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Have you ever fantasised running around as Marcus or Dom in Gears of War with heads the size of beach balls? No? Really? I thought that was every man’s dream... Regardless of whether it is or not, for this weekend only, players can jump into the Gears of War 3 beta and play with big headed characters.

The big head mode, which is also available in the final shipped game this September, allows players to play with characters that have heads four-times the size of their original heads. To top it all off, they all have high-pitched voices as well! Marcus doesn’t seem so gruff now!

In addition to the more playful mode supra, gamers may notice the “Player's Choice” option today as well, allowing them to delve into CTL, Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill, and mix it up, rather than sticking to one match type.

Video here.

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