Okay i want to make this clear, no i am not missing shots i see the shots hit their target and blood splatters come off the enemy with each hit. But when they should die they don't. I've seen countless situations where it's 3 vs 1 or 2 vs 1 and they guy who's lagging takes 4,5,6 hits and still doesn't die. I've been killed by guys who aren't even facing the right way and i've emptied 3/4 of a lancer clip into somebody charging me and they didn't die either.
Sometimes it's even gone the other way where i've been surrounded by 2-3 guys, they're firing right at me but some how i don't die. And further more very rarely do i play a game and i end up with an even kill to death score, it's either i dominate and i'm MOTM/top 3 or i get destroyed with significantly more deaths.
The fundamentals of Gears are the same in all versions, there is no massive difference between them. You go for power weapons and map control, lancer for range and Gnasher is king up close. Favour the right hand side because all Gears characters are right handed, work together as a team and take advantage of active reloads.
If Gears 1 is so different from Gear 3 then i'm sure people here can list these 'significant' differences.