I just started playing Gears 3, after having recently finished Uncharted 3. And I have to say, in many way it feels like going back in time. I think UC 2 and 3 have made the Gears franchise more or less obsolete in my eyes. Everything from presentation to combat, story and spectacle, and just general polish, the UC series seems to have raised its act whereas Gears feels very similar to what it was back in 06.

The main issue though is the feel of combat. The speed, precision and efficiency in which Drake goes about wasting dudes these days, fluidly moving between ranged and melee combat mixed with just the right amount of stealth and traversal, is so far ahead of where the TPS genre was at the start of this generation. But the guys in Delta squad still clunk about the place, putting round after round into dudes until they just blow up into a soup of blood and pus; whilst both allies and enemies run around aimlessly and often directly into each other so making the combat areas feel overly chaotic, and not in a good way. Melee combat can look cool once you actually pull it off, but its far too cumbersome and slow for my taste, and not at all useful. And the animations are just not up to what I expect from a big budget linear third-person action game.

I feel like the UC series has pretty much perfected TPS combat; I agree with people who think that there is perhaps too much combat in those games and the default difficulty setting is not tuned properly, but I truly believe that the fundamental mechanics are by far superior to anything else out there. Gears still has some charm to it with a few iconic characters and art style, but overall I find it feeling largely outdated compared to its main competitor.

Anyone else feel this way?

Sounds like overreaction to me, but if you feel that way that's awful for you.

I can understand if you feel this way; I was never a fan of Gears, whereas Uncharted just felt more right to me. I haven't touched the latest game's multiplayer yet, just because I was so disappointed with the singleplayer, though.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Sounds like overreaction to me, but if you feel that way that's awful for you.

That did occur to me but I've put some thought into this. When I say I 'just' started playing, I mean a few days ago, so I have had time to contemplate on this. It's not a knee-jerk thing.

No.... No. I think both games are amazing. But, if you are going to play one of those games online, it should be gears. The breadth and depth of content in Gears 3 is pretty amazing. The guns are razor sharp and the dedicated servers have rid the experience of all of the "bullet lag" that the previous games experienced. Gears of War 3 is the better online game. Uncharted 3 is the superior single-player game.

@DexterKid: You saying that UC1 and UC2 made Gears obsolete is just a bit silly.

Perhaps you just love adventuring with some shooting more then Gear's constant battles? I dunno, but your statements are really harsh.

I kind of saw them as different games, though cover did figure in Uncharted 3. As for their worlds, Uncharted by default has more to present with. Also the color schemes, mood and such are really very different. Enemies in Uncharted could be bullet sponges also, and they had less excuse for that then in Gears of War.

If you feel you enjoyed how Uncharted 3 played, well fine.I like some games more than others myself. Uncharted 3 has some roots in adventure. Gears of War was in contrast more of a slog of confrontations with the enemy

I liked both, actually.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

@DexterKid: You saying that UC1 and UC2 made Gears obsolete is just a bit silly.

Perhaps you just love adventuring with some shooting more then Gear's constant battles? I dunno, but your statements are really harsh.

I'm only talking from my own perspective here. And to me, it really feels that way.

@DexterKid: Aight, your opinion, your money and your fun! You won't hear me complaining!

@Aus_azn said:

I can understand if you feel this way; I was never a fan of Gears, whereas Uncharted just felt more right to me. I haven't touched the latest game's multiplayer yet, just because I was so disappointed with the singleplayer, though.

That's the thing though, back in 06/07, I preferred Gears to Uncharted. I felt like Uncharted 1 was a lacking Gears clone, but in a jungle setting, for the most part. And I even liked Gears 2 quite a bit back in the day. But then UC 2 came along and really raised the bar in terms of what I expect from third person action games. I think even Red Dead did some interesting stuff for TPS combat, which raised the standards even more.

@TaliciaDragonsong: Its ok. I don't mind your complaining :P

I suppose I can agree with this argument. I think Uncharted is an overall better game than Gears, but there's no denying Gears' influence on Uncharted and a lot of other Third Person Cover-based shooters. I mean, sure, Killswitch and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter had elements of cover in them, but no one was widely doing that stuff until Gears came out.

So, yeah I agree, but Uncharted seemed influenced by Gears so it's not like it's all original and surpassed it. I also think Gears 3 has a better horde mode (well at least with the base building). Oh, and it has bots and bots are awesome.

Really? I found it the other way, Gears feels so polished and well made. They've perfected their combat system and the shooting feels great. It's miles better than Gears 2. Uncharted 3 was a massive step down from Uncharted 2. For basically all the reasons Patrick mentioned in the podcast. The combat scenarios aren't well thought out, and designed to frustrate, the flanking gets annoying, the massive endless onslaught of enemies in certain rooms is just plain boring. Plus, I played before they fixed the aiming, so the actual combat felt sluggish and unresponsive.

But the games are so vastly different that it's hard to compare. Uncharted incorporates a lot of traversal in it's combat scenarios, while Gears is mostly played from the ground. The pacing is totally different. That verticality is Uncharted's strength but it's used poorly in UC3, and ends up making the combat chaotic and frantic. Gears is slow, but super tactical in comparison. You take your time, and push the line forward, kinda like how real fighting works. But Gears seems more adaptable and forgiving, you can escape from a mistake you made, unlike Uncharted where you're almost always punished by death.

been feeling the same way since UC2... what is most jarring when switching over to gears is i cant stand looking up and something and thinkin oh if only i could climb up there...

@MikkaQ said:

Really? I found it the other way, Gears feels so polished and well made. They've perfected their combat system and the shooting feels great. It's miles better than Gears 2. Uncharted 3 was a massive step down from Uncharted 2. For basically all the reasons Patrick mentioned in the podcast. The combat scenarios aren't well thought out, and designed to frustrate, the flanking gets annoying, the massive endless onslaught of enemies in certain rooms is just plain boring. Plus, I played before they fixed the aiming, so the actual combat felt sluggish and unresponsive.

But the games are so vastly different that it's hard to compare. Uncharted incorporates a lot of traversal in it's combat scenarios, while Gears is mostly played from the ground. The pacing is totally different. But Gears seems more adaptable and forgiving, you can escape from a mistake you made, unlike Uncharted where you're almost always punished by death.

I think a lot of the complaints that people have against UC 3 are down to the difficulty settings. The Gears 3 normal setting is more akin to the easy setting in UC 3, whereas normal in UC 3 gets really difficult in late game. It was the same in UC 1 and 2 too. So knowing this, I played UC 3 on easy and it was just a fun, smooth experience, with the same forgiving feel that you mention.

And like I said, I do agree that the UC games have too much combat in their later chapters.

@DexterKid: Well I have no problem playing any of the gears games on Hardcore, and I've played 1 and 3 on Insane, but with Uncharted 3 I struggle to beat it on normal when I found it a cakewalk in UC1 and 2. It's balance isn't particularly great.

Even on harder difficulties in Gears though I find that you can still recover from a mistake because cover is everywhere and enemies tend not to flank you in weird ways since you have allies to prevent that. Uncharted on normal and above in the later scenarios you're just dead if you make a single slip up. And sometimes you'll just die for things out of your control, luck becomes a huge factor.

@MikkaQ: I found that the enemies don't flank you at all in Gears, really. I think flanking is a pretty cool tactic, and Uncharted made me feel like I was going up against A,I opponents who, at least, knew a good way to defeat me. In Gears I usually found that changing cover and peppering the enemies with rounds and rounds of bullets was the tactic. The only ones that would flank were the tiny enemies who died with 1 melee, and it was more like they were charging at you.

I agree that Uncharted 3 is damn frustrating, but I do like the concept of flanking enemies in a game based around traversal and adventure. It keeps you on your toes and never gives you an easy way out. The difficulty is the thing that made it unbearable at times. Like you said, there shouldn't have been so many enemies in any given combat scenario. Other than that, I really like how the enemies behave in Uncharted more so than in Gears. I guess it's just personal taste.

@huntad: I think that makes some sense that they don't though. Gears seems to be more about creating a warzone, and like I mentioned early, you're clearing enemies while advancing, you push your line forward, like in a war. Extreme flanking situations from behind just don't make much sense since you've already taken hold of that area, you've covered it. While Uncharted gives you open combat scenarios, like that pirate ship graveyard, where they could realistically come at you from anywhere.

I just don't find it fun when they do that since I can't hide anywhere and catch my breath, and think up a plan like I can with Gears. It just adds too many elements of luck to the proceedings. The flanking totally makes sense for uncharted, but they handle it in a frustrating way. The enemies behave fine too. But yeah it's just the sheer numbers that get really annoying in the second half.

Another unrelated thing that bothered me is that they just ditch all the cool exploration of tombs and puzzles after the halfway point, it just becomes relentless combat, and doesn't offer enough recovery time between the crazy scenarios. It just had some pacing problems, versus Uncharted 2 which felt practically perfectly laid out to me.

@MikkaQ: No, I totally agree that Uncharted 3 didn't do it right. It wasn't much fun, but I didn't really have fun with the Gears style of combat either. It just didn't keep my interest. I just think if they pace the combat better in Uncharted, I'd like it more. Oh yeah, and I hated that they went all in with the combat and ditched the puzzles halfway through. Uncharted 2 is a near perfect game when I consider my favorite games of all time.

But yeah, you're totally right that it makes sense that Gears enemies are more stoic and hold ground more so than they flank, but I just don't have as much fun with that style of play.

Sounds like overreaction to me, but if you feel that way that's awful for you.

Uncharted 3 felt like a 3 year old game at best.

Uncharted 2 was leaps and bounds better in almost every department, and probably one of the greatest games of all time (if that phrase even means anything at this stage).

Plus the two aren't very similar, anyway, bar a cover-mechanic. Seems a strange comparison.

Wow really? Comparing two third-person cover based shooters released in the same year is that strange? Ok..

In my opinion, Uncharted's firefights were never the strong point of the franchise. It seems that Naughty Dog are unable to make interesting combat scenarios, and the aiming is often spiffy at best.

Uncharted is based on fluidity and motion, Gears is more deliberate and lumbering. It can be an adjustment, but it's just a different type of game.

@DexterKid: Uncharted 3 is absolutely not a cover-based shooter in the way that Gears is.

I think you meant to make this thread at

gametrailers.com

you should go there to fit in with the sony kiddies.

I feel the opposite way.

I'm personally finding the shooting to be the worst part about Uncharted 3 so far.

Gears has better shooting, not sure how that is going back in time.

Nothing about the way Uncharted plays feels precise or efficient to me. The core mechanics are competent, but nothing more. Granted, Gears isn't precise or efficient either, but it's deliberately trying to go the other direction with it's paced, weighty feel. To me, that makes it's combat better. It has an identity and capitalizes on it thoroughly. Uncharted is just kind of generic, and 3 even launched half broken.

@bwheeeler said:

@DexterKid: Uncharted 3 is absolutely not a cover-based shooter in the way that Gears is.

Wow ok, that's news to me.

@Juicebox said:

I think you meant to make this thread at

gametrailers.com

you should go there to fit in with the sony kiddies.

That's funny because in the last few days on different forums I've been accused of being a PC fanboy and an Xbox fanboy. I wish people would make up their minds about what kind of fanboy I really am, so I know where I stand. Or alternatively people can stop attacking me because they don't agree with my opinions.

But I guess that's too much to ask; and from the general response this thread got, I see I was wrong to make a thread about something that obviously doesn't go along with the popular opinion on this site at the moment.

@DexterKid said:

@bwheeeler said:

@DexterKid: Uncharted 3 is absolutely not a cover-based shooter in the way that Gears is.

Wow ok, that's news to me.

I think he means that Gears central mechanic is cover. It's there to give you this shooting out of a foxhole during war feel. Uncharted has cover but I think people would say it's more about running around the environment to shoot guy. It's like how the new Max Payne game has a cover system, but it's not a cover based shooter it's more about bullet time.

For me I kind of felt the opposite when I played uncharted 3. After playing a month of Gears it felt really weird going to uncharted. I really liked the original beta, but then I played the subway beta and just couldn't get into it. Gears has much better shooting than uncharted 3, also more interesting weapons. I felt like the only way to get good uncharted 3 was to get better guns by leveling up.

As for single player I'd disagree with Patrick, uncharted has pretty good combat scenarios. But the shooting has been off. They apparently fixed it but it's still I didn't like going up against those turrets in the shipyard or the big guy on the boat. I feel like once your out of cover in uncharted everyone can hit you. Speaking of which the cover system in the uncharted games are awful compared to most games. You can't voluntarily duck and what is considered cover is usually only door ways, pillars, and waist high things on the ground.

Winback FTW.

The reason is thus:

Uncharted is for Bitcheeeees

Gears is for Power Men

This is why you like Uncharted more.

You're comparing an action adventure game with elements of TPS, which by all accounts is handled poorly in this 3rd itteration, to a pure third person shooter which is considered one of the best in it's genre this generation. 
 
If Marcus and Co. climbed buildings then it would be a different story. If you can't go back to just a shooting game then I understand, but saying stuff like:

I feel like the UC series has pretty much perfected TPS combat

but I truly believe that the fundamental mechanics are by far superior to anything else out there.

Those games definitely serve very different needs. You can't even truly call Gears multiplayer a "cover shooter" because it has evolved into such a strange gametype. You can pick up Uncharted and with relatively good aim be pretty good at it. Gears takes a lot of time to get into the mechanics. When you play a group or even a single GOOD Gears player online you definitely feel it. They will outmaneuver you 9/10 times. Basically what I'm saying is that despite being third person games that use cover there is nothing similar about them at all.

The shooting in Gears 3 is allot better, the guns sound and feel meatier and pack allot more punch, whereas in UC3 it sounds and feels like you're firing a peashooter, don't get me wrong UC3 is a good game, but I won't say the actual shooting is its strongest part, its by far the weakest, the core shooting in itself is pretty average at best.

But in the end, they're both different games in terms of game play, all because they have a cover mechanic doesn't mean they're the same.

I think gears multiplayer is way better than uncharted but I really love gears multiplayer. Uncharted has better set pieces and they both have equally awful stories.

@Vinny_Says said:

You're comparing an action adventure game with elements of TPS, which by all accounts is handled poorly in this 3rd itteration, to a pure third person shooter which is considered one of the best in it's genre this generation.

If Marcus and Co. climbed buildings then it would be a different story. If you can't go back to just a shooting game then I understand, but saying stuff like:

I feel like the UC series has pretty much perfected TPS combat

but I truly believe that the fundamental mechanics are by far superior to anything else out there.

...just makes me laugh. Fuck popular opinion and all but ridiculous statements are just ridiculous statements in the end; it's not about being right or wrong.

So because you don't agree with my opinion, then my opinion is ridiculous? Ok got it. Thanks for letting me know.

I also prefer Tea to Coffee, how does stand on the ridiculous statement scale?

Also a lot of you guys are bringing up multiplayer, which I didn't mention in my first post. I don't really care about the MP in either game, so I have no opinion of which combat system is better in that environment. But in a SP setting, Uncharted has the much better combat system for me.

@Vinny_Says said:

@DexterKid: no....I don't agree with your opinion because it is ridiculous, not the other way around. If you make a thread don't expect everyone to just agree with you, it's not how it works. These are discussion boards for a reason, if you just wanted to say stuff for the fun of it then you have no reason to be so defensive when everyone's opinion diverges from yours. Preffering tea to coffee, which is an opinion I also share, is not ridiculous at all by the way.

Oh I see. And are you the one who decides which opinions are valid and which ones are ridiculous?

I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I also don't expect someone to have the nerve to tell me that my opinion is wrong. If you don't understand that distinction then we have nothing else to say to each other friend.

I was bored of this genre before it even existed.

I've always founds Gears' combat really really fucking boring. Some people say that they prefer the slower pace and sluggish movement because it makes it more tactical or whatever, but that's bullshit. All the enemies are bullet sponges, online and off, and it's really imprecise. There is absolutely no method or tactics to be found.

But I'll probably be called a hater or whatever this months word is for people who you don't agree with.

@Vinny_Says said:

@DexterKid: I never said your opinion was wrong, how can it be? I find it ridiculous, and for that reason I don't agree with it. Two posts in a row you just keep putting words in my mouth (figuratively of course).

So, one second you can shit all over my post by making attacking statements like ''but ridiculous statements are just ridiculous statements in the end'' ''I don't agree with your opinion because it is ridiculous'' as if they are facts. Then you can turn around and say that you never meant that my opinion was wrong. Seems like there is no point in having a conversation here, cause you are allowed to say whatever you want and then backtrack on it, and whatever I say is just...ridiculous.

Whoa, everyone needs to take a step back here and calm down.  Everyone has their opinion and is entitled to that opinion.  Though this isn't much of a discussion, I just see people getting upset when another person doesn't agree with them and then in turn just insulting that person.
 
Gears is a great game and I imagine Uncharted is great as well.  I have played Uncharted 2 before and if 3 is anything like that it is hard to compare these two games since the only similarity I could actually draw would be that they are TPS.  Regardless, I would attempt to actually have a discussion opposed to just attacking each other.

I find the Gears of War series is miles ahead in combat in comparison to the Uncharted series, in terms of overall pacing and satisfaction of the combat. The more tactical, slower pace of Gears is much preferred to Uncharted's much quicker, and more frantic pace.

@DexterKid:

Well, then since people are accusing you of being a fanboy you must be doing something wrong.

Do people really own 3 consoles? that seems kinda overkill.

Wow, it's definitely the opposite for me. I can't stand UC 3 (multiplayer wise) after playing Gears 3. The general movement is imprecise but I understand that it has to be somewhat loose because you are climbing around and shit unlike in Gears. As for shooting, it's easily more superior than Uncharted, they at least fixed the fucked aiming but I still feel a lot more accurate in Gears. It probably just comes down to personal preference anyways because I just find the movement and aiming to be so fucking smooth and polished in Gears 3.

@AlexW00d said:

I've always founds Gears' combat really really fucking boring. Some people say that they prefer the slower pace and sluggish movement because it makes it more tactical or whatever, but that's bullshit. All the enemies are bullet sponges, online and off, and it's really imprecise. There is absolutely no method or tactics to be found.

But I'll probably be called a hater or whatever this months word is for people who you don't agree with.

Bullet sponges? Sure, but saying that there's "no method or tactics"? Now that right there is some bullshit.