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[Orca]

A little disappointed that the class system makes two player split screen less enjoyable. I play in split with my wife, and she tried sticking with Soldier each time and didn't have much fun. Pretty funny though that she kept chasing around one of the AI trying to resupply them, but they wouldn't pick up ammo even though they had the 'needs ammo' symbol above them.

With only four maps, I don't think we'll be playing this one together all that much.

The campaign looks ridiculous though. Played a bit of the start and really impressed by the look of the place.

 

[Nori Chan]

Me (left) and SouSouRocket (right) at a GoW:J launch event at the Microsoft Store last night.

Still got to finish tomb raider before cracking it open, but can't wait...

That is so amazing.

Did you make your costume yourself?

 

[JB1981]

The demo is free for everyone with gold now. I meant that I literally havent seen a single person take cover. I thought that cover really slowed Gears 2 and 3 down, but this game is just much faster paced. No more hiding in cover and blind firing the gnasher.

no shit i need to download this now

 

[-PXG-]

Cheap design is a good way to describe judgment as a whole.

This.

The map design is very hodge podge. Just random stairs and ramps and easy too many passageways to get lost In. No direction and no rhyme or reason where things are placed. There are no points for stand offs and map control is basically gone.

Everything feels janky. Even the UI stutters. Who decided to use animated 3D models for the stat screens and character select? It's sloppy. The high res 2D images from Gears 3 would have been fine.

Also....LOCUSTS!!! I guess they were too cheap to do the voice overs fir new Locust call outs. That and it would be too hard to implement body skins for them too.

I might write long, detailed write up in a few days, illustrating what's good, what's bad, what had potential and what needs to go.

 

[Future PhaZe]

Body skins so obviously exist as something to put as a bullet point and to hide behind paywalls.

Yo cliffy I see you smiling.

I know you're reading this.

We miss you.

Come back.

 

[-PXG-]

You have time to shoot the guy two-piecing you between the melee and the shot, just like Gears 2 and 3 people. Don't lose to it.

Gnasher is still a one-shot kill up close, it just doesn't have a rifle-life range like it used to because of the slightly-wider spread.

While I'm dropping tips anyways, there is no difference between hipfire and zoomed-in shots now, and the fact that shots come out the center of the screen again like in Gears 1, you have no reason to use the L-trigger at all anymore, nor a reason to missing someone up close while turning.



That's cool man.

Yep. Spread is wider and the same from the hip out hard aimed. The rate of fire is slower though.

Gears 3 had a significant delay for melees and shooting. It's nearly nonexistent now, thus, making the two piece possible again

 

[2San]

You have time to shoot the guy two-piecing you between the melee and the shot, just like Gears 2 and 3 people. Don't lose to it.

Gnasher is still a one-shot kill up close, it just doesn't have a rifle-life range like it used to because of the slightly-wider spread.

While I'm dropping tips anyways, there is no difference between hipfire and zoomed-in shots now, and the fact that shots come out the center of the screen again like in Gears 1, you have no reason to use the L-trigger at all anymore, nor a reason to missing someone up close while turning.

Can you test if you can kill some behind you, since the bullets are coming from the center of the screen? You could in Gears 1.

 

[-PXG-]

CoG vs CoG is confusing. Player callouts are essential to Gears. They serve as a notification to let you know where others are and what they're doing. Now that everyone is human, it's hard to determine who is who. Sure, teammates have their names above their heads...but there lies the problem....

The once simple, minimalistic game is now cluttered with icons and text. Let the art and game speak for itself and tell me what to do. Don't insult my intelligence and undermine an artist's hard work with unsightly, jarring indicators that clog up my screen. It diminishes the immersion, honestly.

Also, it's funny how they want to make this game more casual friendly, yet they make it faster and allow you to spawn with a Gnasher. Yeah....new and casual players are going to get slaughtered, especially since stopping power is gone too.

Epic and PCF...Please. Hire me too playtest your next Gears game. I'm dead serious. I'm sure we could work something out where everyone wins, everyone is happy and things are balanced and presented accordingly

 

[-PXG-]

Just because the bullets go center screen, and because the Gnasher has a big ass spread, does not mean this game is like Gears 1.

Similarities, sure, but overall feel? Not even close.

 

[Robot Pants]

Epic and PCF...Please. Hire me too playtest your next Gears game. I'm dead serious. I'm sure we could work something out where everyone wins, everyone is happy and things are balanced and presented accordingly

Gears is dead man. Especially after judgement.

 

[Papercuts]

Gears is dead man. Especially after judgement.

Based off your last page post, have you even played it?

Judgment is more of a spinoff and personally I'm really enjoying it. If the series survived gears 2 it can pretty much survive hell and back.

 

[Robot Pants]

Judgment is more of a spinoff and personally I'm really enjoying it. If the series survived gears 2 it can pretty much survive hell and back.

That's a very good point.
But really that's when it died in my opinion.

 

[Kydd BlaZe]

Gears is dead man. Especially after judgement.

No Cliffy B, no Rod Ferguson, no Mike Capps...

I'm really concerned with Gears' future. There doesn't seem to be any real direction at the moment.

As much as we admired, and at times loathed Cliffy B, his absence really shows here. Cliffy is Gears, and without him...this series just isn't the same anymore.

 

[Shady859]

Redboxed it on a whim and kept my pre-order sealed. I'm horrible at this game and tend to hate it yet it's fun at the same time. The other MP modes are a improvement over the overrun demo.

Gears 2 was the last time I really played alot of MP GoW past release week.

 

[FroJay]

What the hell is the 2-piece? I keep reading this and I have no fucking idea what people are talking about, and I'm a goddamn Gears veteran!

You aren't a gears vet if you don't know what a two piece is. A two piece is a melee followed by a gnasher blast which is a guaranteed kill. The melee stuns leaving the person open to be finished with the gnasher shot. It was huge in Gears 1.

 

[malfcn]

CoG vs CoG is confusing. Player callouts are essential to Gears. They serve as a notification to let you know where others are and what they're doing. Now that everyone is human, it's hard to determine who is who. Sure, teammates have their names above their heads...but there lies the problem....

That's what I was getting at on a page or two before.
Before if I was COG and I heard some Locust grunt or banter I knew if they were friend or foe. Now with everyone being human the context of those queues are diminished.
And the colors are too subtle to differentiate friend or foe. "Watch out for that Baird!" - Which one? There is a Baird on our team and their team and they look identical. These to me are flaws in design that reduce gameplay enjoyment.

What the hell is the 2-piece? I keep reading this and I have no fucking idea what people are talking about, and I'm a goddamn Gears veteran!

All MP veterans know what the two piece is, been around since the beginning. It even had an 'easter egg" in Gears 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7GYVD7iCcA

 

[OrangeOak]

CoG vs CoG is confusing. Player callouts are essential to Gears. They serve as a notification to let you know where others are and what they're doing. Now that everyone is human, it's hard to determine who is who. Sure, teammates have their names above their heads...but there lies the problem....

The once simple, minimalistic game is now cluttered with icons and text. Let the art and game speak for itself and tell me what to do. Don't insult my intelligence and undermine an artist's hard work with unsightly, jarring indicators that clog up my screen. It diminishes the immersion, honestly.

Also, it's funny how they want to make this game more casual friendly, yet they make it faster and allow you to spawn with a Gnasher. Yeah....new and casual players are going to get slaughtered, especially since stopping power is gone too.

Epic and PCF...Please. Hire me too playtest your next Gears game. I'm dead serious. I'm sure we could work something out where everyone wins, everyone is happy and things are balanced and presented accordingly

Why exactly do you think that they want to make it more casual friendly ?
Isn't fact that they took out stopping power and granade planting and made the whole game faster(plus some other things that are "anty-casual") a confirmation that they don't want to make it more casual friendly ?

 

[Dinosur]

Just so I know I'm not crazy, public/quickmatch Survival is always on Hardcore right? Between incompetent teammates and the squishy generators, I never made it past Wave 4 last night on five separate tries. You can be new and figuring things out, that's perfectly fine. But when everyone is out of ammo, running around the Soldier, and he never throws out his 'nade argggggggghhhh.

FFA was hilariously stupid enough to be fun. Grabbing the HoD on that one rooftop (map names who needs those) and hearing like 6 people start screaming was one of the night's highlights.

 

[bumpkin]

Thanks! No, the costume is COG armor from Nightmare Armor Studios, with some small customizations here and there

But their site says "this suit was used ONLY for marketing purposes and is only available to the game creators". I want one!

 

[jbug617]

Major Nelson posted on his blog that the 2 free maps (Haven and Capitol) will be playable at PAX East.

 

[Foolishfellow]

This may be a stupid question, but in previous Gears games there was a button to show where your teammates are, and it also showed where weapon spawns were located. Has that been removed? Is the beginning of the round (with the overhead map) the only time that weapon spawns are shown?

 

[yankeehater]

This may be a stupid question, but in previous Gears games there was a button to show where your teammates are, and it also showed where weapon spawns were located. Has that been removed? Is the beginning of the round (with the overhead map) the only time that weapon spawns are shown?

Down on the D-pad.

 

[Goodacre0081]

Major Nelson posted on his blog that the 2 free maps (Haven and Capitol) will be playable at PAX East.

do we know if the two are split between MP VS and OverRun or is just two MP VS maps? after 10 hours playing lastnight map fatigue really started to set in.

 

[yankeehater]

do we know if the two are split between MP VS and OverRun or is just two MP VS maps? after 10 hours playing lastnight map fatigue really started to set in.

Well they are packaging them with the execution mode so I think it is safe to think they will be for mp.

 

[REV 09]

A few thoughts:

-Overrun: This is a fun mode and much better than Beast mode from G3. The maps all seem good and a few look amazing for 360. OR really shines when your team knows what to do, so it'll take the community some time to adjust.

-Survival: Haven't played it yet.

-TDM/FFA: It's very fun, but it isn't really Gears. It kinda looks and feels like Gears at first...but there isn't any of that push and pull team work than the prior games had. Map control doesn't matter much. Standoffs don't happen. So, it isn't really Gears. It's still very fun for what it is though. It's very run and gun and you're almost always on the move. The maps are all square shaped with many different interweaving paths. I haven't been 2-pieced yet so i don't have those complaints. Wall bouncing still exists somewhat, but it's less effective since everything is faster by default. The gunplay is MUCH more consistent. I think part of this is due to the removal of the Active Reload damage boost...making fights feel more reliable and allowing the player to judge how many shots do how much damage and whether they should "fight or flee". Dropping from ledges feels amazing and may be the single best addition. Overall, the game is just fluid and fun....but less strategic than the Gears before it. Not bad for a spin-off...(it better be a spin-off).

-Campaign: Only finished Act 1. Looks amazing. Writing is kinda bad, even for Gears. Not much character development or story stuff so far. Again, the game is very fluid and fun, but without the story hooks it's kind of mindless. Declassified stuff is front and center and i don't even know why anyone wouldn't activate them. I thought they were side areas...but they're basically campaign scoring modifiers for upcoming sections. Feels arcadey and fun, but somewhat inconsequential story-wise.

Overall: I'm glad it's not a rehash and this is a good time to try some new ideas with the series. What they have is very fun, but not fully the Gears i love. I would like to see some of these ideas tied into the mainline games, but for now, i'll enjoy Judgment for the mindless fun that it is.

 

[Grisby]

Bout halfway or more through the SP. Wish there were more nighttime levels.

Would love to see a next gen gears. Epic's art style for the surrounding architecture is amazing.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

I love the game but I do have a few issues. When it was initially shown on that live special, they gave us the impression that the declassified missions would be seperate offshoots to help explain the story better but thats really not the case. First off it's just a mission modifier. Secondly its in EVERY. SINGLE. SECTION, and thirdly it doesn't just help you to get 3 stars, you won't get anywhere close to 3 stars (at least on normal) if you don't pick them. Oh, and as far developing the story better... adding "oh yeah, we just had pistols for this bit" isn't giving us a better story at all.

I can tell that PCF wanted to create something that worked in Bulletstorm, but they implemented it much, much better in that game than this. Some sections in Judgement last 2-3 minutes before the usual pausing and star rating. It has completely lost its flow.

On the flip side, as a quick arcade mode points builder, it's great. But no-one should expect anything like the other Gears games.

 

[dokish]

I'm willing to trade the code to download the first Gears of War for 1 month of Xbox Live (US). If anyone is interested, hit me a PM.

 

[Skilotonn]

Can you test if you can kill some behind you, since the bullets are coming from the center of the screen? You could in Gears 1.

Ah yes, good ol' backpackin'!

I won't be able to until Friday, but I'll be testing a bunch of things with a second controller, especially rifles vs Gnasher/Sawed-Off.

 

[NullPointer]

On the flip side, as a quick arcade mode points builder, it's great. But no-one should expect anything like the other Gears games.

Yeah, its definitely an arcade-like campaign. Battles and points w/ story being the very last concern. But unless a story is going to be worth my time I actually prefer this. Its very Left 4 Dead like in structure: Move from point A to point B, take area C and hold it against a few attack waves. Move to point D, etc.

Its a Spartan Ops/Spec Ops mode writ large and formed into the core campaign. I prefer this structure over your bog standard linear shooter campaigns we get these days, with very little to no replayability and over reliance upon scripted set-piece encounters.

 

[MjFrancis]

The Left 4 Dead comparisons are pretty spot on from my experience so far. It's the natural progression of Gears of War 3's Arcade mode for the campaign. The narrative isn't so much about the non-interactive storyline but killing hordes of Locusts in as many gratifying ways as People Can Fly deemed possible - just how Left 4 Dead was about killing hordes of zombies in so many gratifying ways.

 

[-PXG-]

Why exactly do you think that they want to make it more casual friendly ?
Isn't fact that they took out stopping power and granade planting and made the whole game faster(plus some other things that are "anty-casual") a confirmation that they don't want to make it more casual friendly ?

They wanted the game to be accessible to a wider audience, not just seasoned Gnasher players and wallbouncers. They done fucked up. Those who master the Gnasher, wallbouncing and strafing will dominate this game.

 

[ThirdEngine]

Playing Judgment last night oddly makes me want to boot up 3 tonight instead. It feels like you really earn those Gnasher kills in 3 with the stopping power and powerful rifles against you. Dropping dudes repeatedly in Judgment is definitely fun, but that adrenaline rush you get from a tense stand-off or clutch kill is totally missing.

 

[KnockOneOff]

Playing Judgment last night oddly makes me want to boot up 3 tonight instead. It feels like you really earn those Gnasher kills in 3 with the stopping power and powerful rifles against you. Dropping dudes repeatedly in Judgment is definitely fun, but that adrenaline rush you get from a tense stand-off or clutch kill is totally missing.

Definitely judgement puts the devide up against players again, me personally loved gears 1 and judgement but hated gears 2 and 3 yet all 4 titles live in my Xbox upon release

Judgement will be the last title inside my Xbox this gen as gears 1 was my first

 

[Stat Flow]

They wanted the game to be accessible to a wider audience, not just seasoned Gnasher players and wallbouncers. They done fucked up. Those who master the Gnasher, wallbouncing and strafing will dominate this game.

As it should be. This is the 4th Gears game and they got it right. Gnasher or die.

 

[2San]

Ah yes, good ol' backpackin'!

I won't be able to until Friday, but I'll be testing a bunch of things with a second controller, especially rifles vs Gnasher/Sawed-Off.

Alright thanks. I should have the game by then as well, but I have exams coming up and I don't want to load the game up and get tempted to play.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

I'm willing to trade the code to download the first Gears of War for 1 month of Xbox Live (US). If anyone is interested, hit me a PM.

Ill take you up on that

 

[Papercuts]

I love the game but I do have a few issues. When it was initially shown on that live special, they gave us the impression that the declassified missions would be seperate offshoots to help explain the story better but thats really not the case. First off it's just a mission modifier. Secondly its in EVERY. SINGLE. SECTION, and thirdly it doesn't just help you to get 3 stars, you won't get anywhere close to 3 stars (at least on normal) if you don't pick them. Oh, and as far developing the story better... adding "oh yeah, we just had pistols for this bit" isn't giving us a better story at all.

I can tell that PCF wanted to create something that worked in Bulletstorm, but they implemented it much, much better in that game than this. Some sections in Judgement last 2-3 minutes before the usual pausing and star rating. It has completely lost its flow.

On the flip side, as a quick arcade mode points builder, it's great. But no-one should expect anything like the other Gears games.

There's a lot more variety than I expected really. There has been one case of limiting weapons but there have been plenty that mess with vision, fill rooms with gas if you take too long, and make the enemy waves harder to deal with.

Some of them are damned hard too. The poison gas one where the Rager first gets introduced took me awhile. I also saw how varied the spawning got as the enemy waves would change pretty dramatically, on top of the weapon available(longshot/one-shot).

 

[Xamdou]

Did anybody pre-order from Bestbuy? Where do I get my Anya character code?

 

[malfcn]

Did anybody pre-order from Bestbuy? Where do I get my Anya character code?

Check your email. Or Email BBY.

 

[Grisby]

So there's no way to get those skins at the bottom without paying right? Can't find them in any boxes?

As it should be. This is the 4th Gears game and they got it right. Gnasher or die.

No. Don't get me wrong I like the gnasher but Gears 3 balanced it perfectly with the stopping power.

 

[nhlducks35]

Does anyone have a Young Marcus or anything they don't want? I can offer a classic hammerburst...

 

[highrider]

I'm liking the campaign a lot. More entertaining than previous gears, and love the colors used. Nice art direction. Like the mayhem style of play.

 

[Laughlin]

Even though stuff like weapon switching and nades play out faster than they used to, the actual movement and rolling seems MUCH slower than Gears 3 and almost makes me not want to play it.

This is judging from the demo.

 

[malfcn]

When are they announcing what all the DLC is? For Halo they pretty much laid it all.

 

[Goodacre0081]

Even though stuff like weapon switching and nades play out faster than they used to, the actual movement and rolling seems MUCH slower than Gears 3 and almost makes me not want to play it.

This is judging from the demo.

all the bipedal characters in the demo have different movement speeds. can't really judge VS MP from that.

 

[dokish]

What do I do if I wanna play with you guys? Shouldn't a gamertag list be on OP?

Anyway, dokish if you are interested. I have no friends. Grabbed the game today.

 

[JB1981]

Is the base player speed in Overrun the same as Deathmatch? If so this game is stiff and slow compared GoW 3.

 

[Papercuts]

Aww yiss. Got the ribcage skin for the gnasher from a rare box. I like the box system, it would be great if it pulled from the TF2 ideology of giving access to all of the skins through this, even if it's very rare. The pay only skins are a fucking lame move.

Is the base player speed in Overrun the same as Deathmatch? If so this game is stiff and slow compared GoW 3.

No. Grenadier, Cole, and Baird are all fairly slow compared to the other two. I am not sure how the movement speed is directly compared to 3 but it is much faster than the overrun mode.

 

[JB1981]

No. Grenadier, Cole, and Baird are all fairly slow compared to the other two. I am not sure how the movement speed is directly compared to 3 but it is much faster than the overrun mode.

I also mean transitioning in and out of player animations. Like jumping, being able to move quickly or fire a gnasher when coming out of sprint. Did they take omnidirectional movement out of the game? The cover system is very "sticky." In that way, yes, it feels like Gears 1 heh