Sorry for the strong language but I needed to say that and get it off my chest.
 
I decided to try Gears again after I saw that TU6 was coming out, player matches were added, and it was triple xp weekend for memorial day.  Now I hadn't played Gears for a while, since maybe the 3rd or 4th patch when the All Fronts package came out, but it seems as if nothing has changed at all, despite this new (final?) fix-all patch.  It feels like the update did jack shit.  Weapon-wise, it made the shotgun better, which is something this game didn't need.  Now the game just devolves into blind-firing shotties while rolling in a circle that much quicker.   But that is not even my main gripe.  
 
Two words-- Host Advantage.  The host still has a ridiculous advantage when it comes to actually playing, despite the patch notes saying it would fix this.  It picks the worst person to be host and the lackluster connection causes the game to lag, except for him, which leads to him dominating while I helplessly watch as my shotgun pellets seem to do nothing, all while he rolls in and gibs me in one shot.  This is incredibly frustrating and the user experience suffers as a result, unless you're host of course.  The client side hit detection (whatever that means) was supposed to be improved so this wouldn't happen, but again it feels like no change took place.  I really wanted to get back into Gears multiplayer but I can't help but to feel like none of the problems have been fixed since November 2008.  Gears is still an incredibly inconsistent and therefore maddeningly frustrating multiplayer experience.  All I can hope for now is that Epic learns from all this and fixes its netcode in time for Gears 3 and makes that functional at launch.  And so ends my bitching.

Idunno, the three hours I played today alongside the two were pretty fun. Sure the host still has a pretty big advantage, but it doesn't turn it into an unplayable mess. I don't want to be that person, but sounds like you need to get better.

Dude host advantage is a thing that can hurt Gears, and always has. But you are most likely one of those people that claim every time they die that the person who killed you is the host. Trust me I'm a very good Gears player. It is my best online game. I dominate. People cry. Women cheer. But I tried to play after 6 months off a few weeks ago and was dying a lot. I have about a 2.5-3.0 in the playlists and was basically going even every game. You are going to die, it isn't the host, its the rust. A few days and you will find a groove.

There is always host advantage in every game, and people exaggerate it in Gears because of the 1v1 encounters the game play consists of.  Every time the other guy kills you it's "OMG U HAVE HORRIBLE HOST"!, when 90% of the time the dude didn't even have it.  I'm not saying the networking doesn't have it's problems (at launch it was down right broken) but a large amount of the host complaints are unwarranted.  I have a friend that blames host ALL THE TIME when someone out BR's him in Halo 3, and I laugh on the inside every time he does it.  
 
The problem with Gears 2 is that they took away the player created lobbies and put in a half-assed Halo 3 matchmaking system.  I had more fun with the first one because I found a group of fun people.  We would play for hours at a time and could give host to the best guy.  The shotgun in that game was awesome, and in Gears 2 they took its balls away and turned it into a quick-aiming piece of junk.  Hopefully that boost helps it.  I also hate the wall grenades...it just isn't Gears and ruined the flow of the game.      

They did something to counter act the lag issues that ended up making it worse. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but I think that after TU6 the game is even more broken than before.

I hate MP in Gears. its one of my favorite franchises, but I think the MP is one of the most unenjoyable experiences I've ever played.

" I hate MP in Gears. its one of my favorite franchises, but I think the MP is one of the most unenjoyable experiences I've ever played. "

It seems no amount of fixing can make Gears 2's MP any good. And they improved the shotgun? It already beats out most weapons by default anyway, so whatever.

" @Burns098356GX said:

" I hate MP in Gears. its one of my favorite franchises, but I think the MP is one of the most unenjoyable experiences I've ever played. "

At least on the competitive multiplayer aspect, I am pretty much with you. I hate playing other players. Mostly because it's just a bunch of dive-rolling around and hoping for an insta-kill. And the game has never played tightly enough for me to really enjoy playing against other live people.   I love Horde and stuff, but yeah, never dug the multiplayer.  "

" @MAN_FLANNEL: in every game that doesnt have a dedicated servers, ie pc games "

I'm excited to find out who else he hates before he goes back to an exciting evening of injecting horse testosterone directly into his pituitary gland.

Don't feed the troll!

Not gunna lie, if I didn't have Gears 2 in storage right now, I'll probably be playing it now. I liked it, and I never really cried about OMG HOST~! SHOTTY~! I just stuck to objective based games, since that seems to be way more fun than the Deathmatch games.

I really only play Gears of War games for the SP and Horde mode.

" There is always host advantage in every game, and people exaggerate it in Gears because of the 1v1 encounters the game play consists of.  Every time the other guy kills you it's "OMG U HAVE HORRIBLE HOST"!, when 90% of the time the dude didn't even have it.  I'm not saying the networking doesn't have it's problems (at launch it was down right broken) but a large amount of the host complaints are unwarranted.  I have a friend that blames host ALL THE TIME when someone out BR's him in Halo 3, and I laugh on the inside every time he does it.    The problem with Gears 2 is that they took away the player created lobbies and put in a half-assed Halo 3 matchmaking system.  I had more fun with the first one because I found a group of fun people.  We would play for hours at a time and could give host to the best guy.  The shotgun in that game was awesome, and in Gears 2 they took its balls away and turned it into a quick-aiming piece of junk.  Hopefully that boost helps it.  I also hate the wall grenades...it just isn't Gears and ruined the flow of the game.       "

I never found the game to be particularly busted after title update six. However, I will say that there are still a couple of balancing issues that remain in the game. (Though it's nowhere near as bad as Modern Warfare 2 in terms of balancing issues.)

I LOVED gears 1's MP gears 2's fucking sucked. 
 
host advantage is just part of gears online you and your team need to work out strategies to deal with it. Its part of the game.

"I LOVED gears 1's MP gears 2's fucking sucked.  host advantage is just part of gears online you and your team need to work out strategies to deal with it. Its part of the game. "