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    Gears of War

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Nov 07, 2006

    Gears of War is a tactical cover-based sci-fi shooter from Epic Games. The player controls Marcus Fenix, a COG soldier who fights the Locust aliens defending their home planet from the encroaching Human invaders.

    9 years later & Gears of War still proves to be a bloody good time

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    Yummylee

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    Edited By Yummylee

    Gears of War: Ultimate Edition arrived on thursday and I then proceeded to complete it in one single sitting, with the occasional break for me to grab another can of pepsi max or to fuel me up with a quick bowl of cereal.

    I played it in coop on Hardcore mode with fellow GB user @gunstarred and to put it simply I had an awful lot of fun. Gears of War as a series is always effective at providing some really engaging cooperative experiences, and the original is no different. While the original Gears is much less set-piece-y than its successors, the core gameplay in itself still makes the simple act of being dropped into a wide open environment with waist-high stacks of cover to maneuver around with creepy snake/lizard/rock monsters to kill incredibly fun. Plus, it's not like it doesn't mix it up here and there, either. The part where you have to travel throughout the krill-infested streets, carefully sticking to the light to avoid an instantaneous devouring from a murder of demon crows, can get to be rather nerve-wracking and makes for a great change of pace to the rest of the game. The part where you're huddled inside a minecart while trying to kill the lambent wretches before they drop on to you like an explosive rock makes for another highlight, too. But truth be told most of the game does involve the somewhat 'mundane' act of the aforementioned combat arenas. And yet that never got in the way of how fantastic the gameplay is and only serves to prove how well put together it all is to be able to carry so much of the game. The weapons feel powerful to wield, from the awesome feedback of turning a locust into ''nothing but bits'' with a boomshot, to chainsawing another in half with the Lancer's chainsaw. Gears of War also undoubtedly has some of the most gruesomely satisfying headshots in all of gaming. The enemy AI is pretty dumb, but they get by with sheer aggression and force of numbers, which in some certain scenarios resulted in me and my coop partner having to put our heads together to strategise and work things out. Getting through that opera house combat arena after taking what was maybe like 15 attempts made for an incredibly satisfying victory.

    The 'Ultimate Edition' re-release has made a few adjustments to allow it to more closely resemble the latter Gears games, though they admittedly didn't take it quite far enough. While moving about still feels intuitive, there's most definitely a certain degree of clunk to it all. Getting around cover can sometimes prove to be a little more cumbersome than it should, especially in relation to the buttery smooth controls of Gears 3. Little things like not being able to vault over cover to stun an enemy should one be on the other side stand out as well. Spotting enemies even in the campaign and being able to switch weapons mid roadie run is certainly welcome, but why must you still run out of breath after roadie running for so long? Why can't I stick grenades onto surfaces to act as proximity mines? There's no denying that more could have been done, though despite my misgivings in that regard I still came away immensely enjoying my time with Gears of War, even when put against multiple past completions throughout the years.

    Graphically it's not quite to the standards of new games being released in 2015, but it's still a vast improvement from how it originally looked. The character models in particular look much more human this time around, with the new and improved textures of certain characters like Cole and Baird in particular finally elevating them from resembling a pair of mutant corpses. The environments too carry a lot of atmosphere to them, most importantly the segments set during night time like the krill-infested streets and the abandoned factory that's drenched in rain. Though to be fair rain at night makes most of everything look evocative and moody, but it works all the same! The cutscenes are what was clearly given the most attention, as they all look stunning to watch in motion, with really solid animation, facial expressions, and lip syncing.

    I do really wish they could have added a Horde mode or something, though. With only the multiplayer left once the campaign's done and dusted, it's a little tougher to find reasons to stick in. I've most definitely had much higher success with this MP offering than I ever did with, say, Gears 3, but it still involves a lot of frustration as I'm shotgunned from side to side like an ever gibbing ragdoll by players that have clearly been playing the MP of these games for a really long time. Even the 'social' modes don't fair that much better, despite their intended function of pairing you with other, more casual-minded players. Unfortunately as is expected what it's clearly resulted in is top-level players using it as an opportunity to thrash newer players for the sake of their ego. There is the occasional match where I end up at the top of the match results, but still, it's ever so demoralising to have most matches result in the exact same Gnasher shotgun duels with so many other weapons being virtually ignored in relation. The Lancer in particular simply takes far too many bullets to down an enemy player and it's no wonder most tend to rely on the pistol instead as a result.

    Nonetheless! I shan't let all of that get in the way of the awesome time I had blasting through the campaign. I'll likely want to give it another run eventually on Insane mode, if not just for the sake of playing through it again. It still makes for a really fun time, especially in coop - which is honestly the way to play if I'm being honest. You don't get very many shooters quite like this anymore - shooters that are confident enough in their gameplay that moving you from combat arena to the next is enough to suffice the majority of your game. It often feels as if big budget always have to try and wow you with epic, high-octane action constantly filling the screen, and it's a welcome change of pace to play a game that primarily rests on the laurels of its gameplay to keep you playing to the end. RAAM is still a pitifully easy end boss fight, though, but then he's still more fun to fight than Queen Myra in Gears 3!

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    colourful_hippie

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    #1  Edited By colourful_hippie

    I don't know, I think I feel the same way Jeff does about this game. From what little I've played of the campaign it just makes me realize how much it has aged. I wouldn't be bothered so much by the repetitive shoot-outs if the mechanics were more tighter like they were in Gears 3. Campaign probably would be more fun to me with coop but the multiplayer was why I got this thing besides getting the 4 free games. Multiplayer being at 60 fps is a treat and goes a long way towards making me forgive the less precise controls and mechanics but it's been fun rediscovering the many good maps the game has.

    For those with a serious interest in Gears multiplayer (you know who you are because you're also aware of it being shotgun central) my Gamertag is Big Daddy Afro

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    Yummylee

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    @colourful_hippie: I've always been aware that Gears multiplayer is primarily nothing but Gnashers... but it's seemingly always been that way, and I had hoped that the original Gears MP might have allowed a little more variety of playstyle beyond everybody engaging in Gnasher duels given that the controls are a little stodgier. It's poor form for a multiplayer component to pretty much force everybody to largely play the same way. Sure, there's power weapons you can race to, but from my experience everybody settles on the Gnasher. Far as I can tell you can't even use the Hammerburst in the multiplayer?

    It's why I really enjoyed Judgment's multiplayer for the time, because it not only made ranged weaponry more effective but was also generally more accessible for players less experienced with the series multiplayer as a whole. Ultimate Edition however seems to only cater to those that are already really bloody good at these games.

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    colourful_hippie

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    @yummylee: Hammerburst is a pick-up weapon on few maps and is underrated. You can down people so fast with 3-4 bursts, but yeah I do find weird now how central the gnasher is in a game where mobility didn't become a bigger factor till Gears 3 and more so Judgment. You just have to keep in mind the behavior of a shotgunner in these games. Their goal is close the gap between them and you immediately but more specifically they will shotgun you while flanking you. Almost all unwanted deaths from a shotgun for me have come from out of the blue flank attacks otherwise I'm just dying from a shotgun duel gone bad or rushing out there and getting hit by concentrated Lancer fire.

    And power weapons, mainly the boomshot and snipe, are still important to winning

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    csl316

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    That's the campaign I've beaten the most, due to its simple and fun nature. Later games got bigger and more impressive, but the first was my favorite to just play.

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    egg

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    Did they fix the control scheme this time? Or did they let us map map A button or melee to left bumper?

    Oh who am I kidding of course they didn't. :p

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    ArbitraryWater

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    Despite being exclusively a 360 (and Wii, I guess) owner for most of the last console generation I've actually never played a ton of Gears. I can respect those games and acknowledge that they are incredibly polished and well-made, but they've never really resonated with me on a personal level. Something about the bullet sponge nature of the enemies or the aesthetic, I imagine. Still a good write-up, even if I couldn't tell you a lot about what actually happens in that first Gears game without some prodding.

    Did you ever finish "Zombi not U"? I'd be interested in hearing about that.

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    GunstarRed

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    Hit the tank.

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    Sepulturafanboy89

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    So the lambent have been in the games since the first one I though they introduce them in the third game?

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    Yummylee

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    @yummylee: Hammerburst is a pick-up weapon on few maps and is underrated. You can down people so fast with 3-4 bursts, but yeah I do find weird now how central the gnasher is in a game where mobility didn't become a bigger factor till Gears 3 and more so Judgment. You just have to keep in mind the behavior of a shotgunner in these games. Their goal is close the gap between them and you immediately but more specifically they will shotgun you while flanking you. Almost all unwanted deaths from a shotgun for me have come from out of the blue flank attacks otherwise I'm just dying from a shotgun duel gone bad or rushing out there and getting hit by concentrated Lancer fire.

    And power weapons, mainly the boomshot and snipe, are still important to winning

    I enjoyed the Hammerburst a great deal in the campaign over the Lancer, so I kept wondering how you could use it in the multiplayer. Wish I could have it as my default ranged weapon of choice, but alas. Thanks for the tips anywhoo. I've always wanted to get good at these games, which is why I keep pressing on even after getting slaughtered each time I try, but at a certain point it starts to feel as if the skill ceiling is simply too high for me.

    Oh well, I've always been competent at Uncharted multiplayer at least so there'll be Uncharted 4 next year for me to sink my teeth into a competitive shooter if this doesn't work out.

    @csl316 said:

    That's the campaign I've beaten the most, due to its simple and fun nature. Later games got bigger and more impressive, but the first was my favorite to just play.

    I think Gears 3 might be the one I've played the most thanks to its Arcade mode. Plus because it's four-player it's more appealing to just drop into a game with randoms.

    Despite being exclusively a 360 (and Wii, I guess) owner for most of the last console generation I've actually never played a ton of Gears. I can respect those games and acknowledge that they are incredibly polished and well-made, but they've never really resonated with me on a personal level. Something about the bullet sponge nature of the enemies or the aesthetic, I imagine. Still a good write-up, even if I couldn't tell you a lot about what actually happens in that first Gears game without some prodding.

    Did you ever finish "Zombi not U"? I'd be interested in hearing about that.

    I don't know why but I've found myself surprisingly engaged with the personality of these games. Despite being ''bro'' to the point of parody in some cases, I've slowly but surely grown an attachment to the cast of characters and find a lot of the dialogue to be dumb, but still entertaining and even sort of endearing in a weird way. I've also always loved how meaty the art style is because of how everybody looks like an action figure. The bullet spongey-ness of the enemies has never been a problem for me either, which is undoubtedly a testament to how fun the weapons are to shoot even if you're not always immediately destroying whatever it is you're shooting.

    And I have completed Zombi! Am also trying to write up something about it, but it's taking me a fair while... This here was pretty hastily put together and doesn't have any images or videos and isn't formatted like how I usually do it. Zombi, however, I'm doing up like a 'proper' blog for lack of a better term, which tends to take me a lot longer... For all the blogs I do, writing doesn't usually come to me naturally and it can take a lot of me sitting there staring at the screen waiting for the words to come to me.

    Hit the tank.

    Shoot the tank.

    So the lambent have been in the games since the first one I though they introduce them in the third game?

    Yup, but only wretches. Plus they'll still only chase after you even if the Locust are nearby, so there's no AI on AI violence, either. I don't think there are common lambent enemies in Gears 2, but I do know that it ends with you riding a brumak that then succumbs to the effects of the emulsion you're trampling all over. So even though it didn't take till Gears 3 for the lambent to take centre stage, there's been plenty of foreshadowing!

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    Buddy900

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    The ultimate edition is fine but on the multiplayer side im not a huge fan of some of the changes from the original. For example weapons on the maps have been changed. The hammer of dawn and boltoc have been swapped for the snub. I understand the need to try to balance the game for new people but dont change the way some maps are played. On fuel depot there use to be a rush for the sniper and the hammer but now no one rushes for the snub and it hurts the map flow. Also it use to be that all maps were playable on every game mode but that isnt the case here. Im close to lvl 20 and still have yet to play some key maps. I still dont understand why everyone is complaining about how the game plays this isnt gears 3 stop trying to force the original to be the 3rd. Yeah i understand the multiplayer isnt perfect but for those of us who have played since 06 its what we have come to love

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    musubi

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    Glad you seem to enjoy it. Personally though I think I fall with Gerstmann on this. Gears to me was a franchise I REALLY REALLY liked from like 2006-2011 after Gears 3 I felt like I had had enough of gears and had enough closure that I was cool with never returning to that universe. I can respect what Gears did for the industry in terms of being a very influential game but I just don't think it holds up itself.

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