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Gears of War: That's My Kinda Shit!
Whiniest Man On Earth
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
A quick C&P of a summary:
. . . Gears of War blends tactical action with survival horror and thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. Lead war hero Marcus Fenix and his fire team as they face the onslaught of merciless warrior fiends. A revolutionary tactical combat system and breathtaking, high-definition visuals from the Unreal Engine 3 immerse you in a horrifying story of war and survival. A.I. teammates are indiscernable from human players. Voice recognition and real-time lip synching heighten the experience. The battlefield is a lethal place. To survive, suppress your enemy with blindfire, take cover in interactive environments, or use weapons and teammates to outwit your foes.
..Going a bit beyond the summary, Gears of War was originally a tech demo started out by EPIC to demostrate the UE3 engine. Back in 2004(?) they officially announced the title and so far, it has been in development for about a few years, and its major debut began in 2005 and it's being called the "PS3 killer" by GameFAQers everywhere, but they're stupid. Either way, the game looks really cool.
One of the features of Gears is the "stop-and-pop gameplay", similar to Kill.Switch where the way to stay alive is not running head-in with a shotgun and blasting everything away, but to move cover to cover, use blind-fire, and kick ass while hiding behind a big ass block of concrete.
Another neat tid-bit is that cover is totally distructible (well, not everything, because the developers do not exactly want you to blow up everything), which means that you can hide behind cover and it will slowly chip and break apart and with every explosion and gunshot, and will be completly modified geometery, which adds to the realism/awesome factor.
Syndalis made an awesome post about Gears:
syndalis wrote:Okay guys, I posted this over at 360arcadians, but you probably will want to read this as well.syndalis wrote:So, Gears of War.
I showed up at my local ebgames around 5:30pm, and grabbed my preordered copy of Phoenix Wright. I took that out to my car and played it until about 8:00pm. At that point, I checked and saw that nobody was in the eb yet, so I grabbed some greek food, then walked over and did the wait. I posted the message from my cellphone that I was there, for whoever asked.
Then, folks in black shirts with Gears logos on them started heading in, and the entire army of local geekdom descended from the rafters. The store went from 5 layabouts to 30+ folks in less then three minutes.
One of the black shirts walked in with a Lowes Paper Grocery bag... with a fucking devkit in it. It was nondescript, sure. But I had a hard time coping with that much condensed (and expensive) awesome being casually toted around in a paper sack.
Anywho, he hooked it up to the small in-store HD display that they use for 360 demos, and booted it up.
click either thumbnail for a larger shot
The four guys in Gears shirts introduced themselves, and said they had a little game coming out soon called Gears of War. He asked the store jockey to kill all the lights, warned the father who brought his two kids that this will be the equivalent of an R-rated movie WRT diologue and violence, and selected gears off of the devkit console menu.
Unlike most stores who only got to see a video of the 1st half of Level 2, We watched a playthrough of the e3 level, which segues into the Joystiq level, which was then followed by about 10 more minutes of pure awesome. Okay, a few things I noticed right away.
- The videos we have seen on the internet are shit. Sure, it gives you an idea of what is going on, and lets you get a feel for it, but compared to actually seeing it live and in HD... they are shit. The level of graphical artistry in this game is fucking amazing. Every little trick that impressed you in Perfect Dark Zero (brick walls, sheen, etc.) are executed WORLDS better here, because not only is their effect more polished, its subtle and believable.
- The cover functionality couldn't be easier. I was right behind the guy playing, as was able to watch his hands throughout the game. All the neat tricks involving cover, from running past it, jumping over it, slamming into it... its all done with the left stick and the a button. It might very well be one of the easiest mechanics ever for something so seemingly complex.
- The chainsaw will never get old. Ever. He probably sawed about 8-10 baddies over the course of the demo, and every time he did it, the crowd responded with grunts, laughter... whatever.
- SOME cover is destructable. The concrete cover, while it will take bullet holes (and look like its being chipped away at), it will not fall. When asked, the devs said that there IS destructable cover throughout the game, but its usually made of wood, or furniture. Later he demoed this by fucking up a couch, Rick James style.
- The branching paths are fucking AMAZING. At one point during the demo, they made it to a point where one guy has to choose left and the other has to choose right. When you do so, each of you (both in Co-Op and singleplayer) will go down a corridor that you cannot cross over from. You are given another AI buddy (unnamed powerarmor soldier) who you can revive when he falls, and will assist in battles. You can usually see your buddy through windows and other obstructions, but you cannot walk where he does. However, these paths are designed so that you have to work together to get through them. A man with a turret could be on one side of the path, firing into the other, for instance. Taking him out clears the path for your friend to continue through.
- The Friendly AI is some of the best I have seen in a game. It's esentially GRAW++ when playing singleplayer, as there is 1-3 allies with you at any given time, who will offer cover fire, help you flank, and will be generally great allies that you don't need to issue commands to. It is as if the entire process regarding friendly AIs has been streamlined down to just being fun, and taking all the tedium out.
- The ragdoll physics are god. Not good, god. I mentioned it when I saw it in action (after chainsawing a dude, he started kicking his corpse around the map), and the guy playing the game thanked me, and said he was the ragdoll guy at epic. After the game was over, I asked him what changed between ut2k4 and this, because in 2k4, ragdolls were so overstated that it was almost humorous. His answer was, oddly enough, PhysX (Ageia). Essentially, they were able to add "muscles" and "tension" to the models using that, so that when they die, they don't appear weightless. Also, their engine allows them to roll animations INTO the physics process, so you get this great middle ground of awesome death animations, and realistic settling of the body afterwards.
- This game follows the Halo 2 damage model. There are no health packs, and there is no "health" per se. As you get shot, the gears of war symbo begins to come into view on the middle of the screen, becoming darker and darker the more you get shot. Don't find cover and don't avoid getting shot long enough, and you drop. Considering the Stop and Pop mechanics of the game, if you play the game they way they designed you to, you probably won't die much in Casual mode.
- Casual mode was still pretty damn busy on-screen. I asked about the last difficulty (insane, if I recall correctly), and none of them there had beaten it. I asked if anyone in Epic had and he wasn't sure. Apparently, Co-Op will be the only way to fly for that last difficulty, and both dudes will need to be experts.
- Speaking of Co-Op, local Splitscreen co-op is in as well.
I could keep going on. I was completely blown away with what I watched. The environments and texturing made the scenes look as if they were from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within WRT quality. The character models are cheesy, but you can tell its on purpose. The writing/storytelling is awesome, in a Samuel L. Jackson, Chuck Norris I'M A FUCKING MAN kind of way, and the fact thats its built on this incredibly deep plot is just fucking amazing. I was laughing and grinning through most of the diologue.
Okay, I took some pics of the game, but I am not going to post them becuase they are terrible. You have the Joystiq videos up there to see some of what was shown.
All in all, and this is something I personally rarely do,
EVERYONE FUCKING BUY THIS GAME. IT IS LITERALLY SOMETHING UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU HAVE PLAYED BEFORE. IT IS A UNIQUE REWARDING AND FUN EXPERIENCE.
Just do it.
It also features 4 versus 4 (Gears vs Locust Horse) Team Deathmatch (and more) with (confirmed, not final) 2 player co-operative play over system link/splitscreen and Xbox Live.
It will be hard-locked at 30 Frames Per Second
You will also be able to lead a squad of four (including the player.) They will be able to take care of themselves, or the player can tell them what to do.
It has a health system akin to CoD2 and Halo. If enough damage is dealt to you, a skull will flash on the screen (as seen on the Collecters Edition shot) warning you of low health. This is to make cover more vital to the gameplay.
Its release date will be November 7th for the USA, November 17th for Europe, and December 30th for Japan, but only about 300 people will buy it there.
Gamespot and IGN Multiplayer hands-on
X05 Demostration. Reccomended watch.
Jesper Kyd (Hitman Blood Money) will be directing the music
Eric Nylund is doing the story
John DiMaggio is the voice of Marcus Pheonix (main character)
It will retail for 59.99 U.S Dollars.
Collector's Edition:
A limited collector's edition will be released alongside the standard edition. The collector's edition will include an art book titled "Destroyed Beauty" and a bonus DVD that includes the MTV Special "The Race to E3" which aired this summer, as well as an hour plus long "Making Of" documentary. It will be shipped in a metal case and is expected to retail for $69.95 USD. That costs almost as much as a PS3 and Super Mario RPG. Damn that game was good.
Blatantly stolen from Neo Rasa!
Who blatantly stole it from Sanius!
Whiniest Man On Earth on
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Posts
edit: invite me for game ons damn it
I'm swimming in that same direction. It helps that there are achievements for beating the game on all difficulties and as Dom.
If they patch out all of the stupid in Ranked matches and add clan support I'm pretty certain I'll keep it forever and ever.
does this game have motion control?
Third'd, but I was always going to keep it forever, since it's the reason I bought a 360. If they fix the ranking system it will be absolutely perfect.
it would be sooo much better on the wii
Im usually not much of a graphics person, I like to stay in the gameplay over graphics clique, but this game would be impossible on the Wii. And no, no motion control... it is on the 360 after all...
How many members does that clique have?
They were all lined up in a fire fight when my team mates, I snuck around and chopped all them bitches up one after another
sweet glory it was awesome
A lot. Good graphics are nice, but only when coupled with great gameplay. You could have the most lifelike visuals in the world, but if the game played like shit, It doesn't mean anything.
I know but you wrote gameplay over fun, not graphics, which i thought was funny.
On a serious note the game came out today over in the UK and i have to say it is brilliant, not very far through it but im already getting better and pulling off cool moves. rushing from cover to cover really makes you feel bad ass.
Oh, damn, the time I decide to stop lurking and become active here I make a typo. Gameplay over graphics was the intended message.
I feel sorry for you guys in the UK, having to wait for an extra week, and I thought the one day wait was hell.
At least it gives something to do while we wait for our Wii's
Damn you cruel world! DAMN YOUUUUU!
Hehe. You play on Live yet? It's hella fun online.
Pitch Black influences are fine by me as its one of my favorite films.
Just the pacing, action and that uber final battle really was a brilliant payoff.
Working my way through insane now.
Other than that, I hope you all die a lot. I don't have my Xbox 360 back yet.
I'll kill you all when I get it back. This is the best Xbox 360 game thus far, methinks, even better than my previous favorite Dead or Alive Xtreme 2.
[spoiler:8caa388986]Kidding, kidding...Dead Rising was my previous favorite.[/spoiler:8caa388986]
yeah, i can't wait for the fucking spinoff: Gears of War Racing: Clunky vehicles oh shits look out kryll god this is fucking stupid.
:arrow:
No seriously
:arrow:
The vehicle feels just right I think. It isn't supposed to work when the UV beam is on, and then the kryll add some challenge. The whole of Act 2 was great though. Not quite full-game material, but fun nonetheless.
well done.
thank god it was only a few minutes
i thought the vehicle scene was tacked on and in no way fun. It doesn't make any sense either. Christ, a goddamn dome light inside the car would have saved us from the scary scary kryll.
We have that technology today, even. Kryll attack?!!? Just open your goddamn door with the keys in.
Yeah, good point, I guess some badass cinematic would have done the job just as well, with none of the headache.
`
Marcus Fenix is played by John DiMaggio, not Steven Jay Blum. Making this the one video game he's not in this year.
I was being rhetorical, my sig, after all, does show me playing GoW.
Seriously though... this whole 'gameplay over graphics' thing goes way too deep. When you talk to really hardcore Wii fans it doesn't matter until it does matter.
Let me explain.
Exite Truck. Looks like trash, sorry but it does. Defense? "graphics don't matter it's fun".
Someone brings up Wii is 'a low res console'. Cue Zelda defense. Because it looks great.
So if it's ok to say you like a game because it plays well (gameplay), why does it seem to be taboo when someone complains about a game that plays well having shitty graphics?
I just get tired of taking a beating all over thine internets from people just as old as I am (30s) stuck in "SNES graphics are good enough for me" mode as long as it doesn't play like Daikatana.
If it costs over $30 I expect a level of attention to be focused on making the game look like it was made by someone with an art degree.
One question though: is there a split-screen online multiplayer?
What in the holy fuck does your post have to do with Gears of War, a game that excels in both graphics and gameplay?
:arrow:, please.
Using this thread as a soapbox for your stupid rhetoric is obnoxious.
yes, i think so
something about hitting "y" in the title screen? i don't know. Yes, you can do it, though i think you need two live accounts.
And Act 5 > * when it comes to artistic design.
T-Nation blog
That's pretty much the accepted way of continuing locked megathreads, though credit should be given, I agree.
wasn't act 5 just the train?
it was very pretty, but i dunno about artistic
and your insulting tone is carrying over from every other thread I see you bitching about this and that in, so maybe you need a fucking chill pill
all I did was type some words on a forum, don't be a cunt
nah, you can log on as a guest
You're a cunt. This is not the place for your anti-Wii rhetoric. If you really are 30+, act your fucking age instead of like a childish twerp. If you want to complain about the Wii, don't be a pussy and spooge your nonsense all over a thread completely unrelated to the Wii...man up and go post your opinions in the appropriate thread. This is an on-topic forum now and your posts are just off-topic trolling nonsense.
i'm going to go play some gears now efore i go out drinking for the night
woo woo
hop on the train, baby
I'm doing neither tonight, thanks to lack of a functioning Xbox 360 and lack of money for alcohol.
sounds like you need to stop sucking so much
it isn't hard
just takes a 360 and some money.
- 360 is in for repair.
- Money is set aside for the Wii, probably. I'm still undecided.