Re: Gears Of War - Initial Impressions (MP)

On Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:57:11 -0800 (PST), Blig Merk
<blig_murk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Got it when it came out. The graphics are kind of a mixed bag. The
modeling detail of the characters and the buildings are very
impressive but there are a lot of places where you can tell the
backdrop is 2D. It plays really well on my 8800GTS at 1920 by 1200:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k72/bligmerk/gow.jpg

Have to agree with the Windows Live, didn't even try the free trial.
Only Micro$hit would come up with the idea of a closed, subscription
network to be able to play MP on PC. They are trying to push it in
other areas and it sounds like it is going to be flatter than C-sharp.

The game is pretty good but it does get really repetitious. It
basically was the first to make cover shooting a key part of the game.
Being first at that, all the maps are almost completely designed
around this feature. So, the formula gets pretty familiar after
awhile. Get a checkpoint, enter another area...hmmmm, lots of barriers
and furniture and columns to hide behind...yep, another wave of
attacks. The grenade is really annoying. It has a long chain on it and
you have to loop-de-loop it like a sling to throw it. Naturally, you
have to pop out of cover to do that. There isn't any jumping, just
vaulting over barriers and the characters have this slow lumbering
movement, probably to go along with their really oversized armor. The
blood is kind of amusing at first but starts to look ridiculous after
awhile. It isn't a great game but it was pretty good.

Well this thread was really to discuss the MP element in GoW, I don't
know why threadjackers feel the need to throw their Microsoft rant
into the mix for self indulgence but since you brought it up I will
address it then attempt to get the thread back on track. Not sure how
clever you were feeling after the C-sharp comment, but it has been an
enormously successful language and Java stuff is getting ported to it
in droves. I don't want to get off on a language debate because it's
been done elsewhere and I frankly don't care, if MS went out of biz
tomorrow I would simply go back to doing Java work or one of the other
10 programming languages I'm experienced in. In the meantime I find
C# to be an excellent language which is evolving as a technology much
faster than Java and has grown in adoption at a faster rate, now
surpassing the usage of Java according to many unbiased surveys I've
read.

Most of my problems with this game have to do with the fact its a
console port. I see Windows Live as Microsofts version of Steam (only
not as good). There are some items, such as global stats,
achievements, etc which I don't necessarily care for but I can also
say that since Steam showed the world how to properly handle the
social aspect of online gaming, (I'm talking about the way it handles
friends / contacts, etc), it has definately made an impact on how I
play online games, made it much easier for me to play with the folks I
want to play with and to meet new folks to play with (thus eliminating
the smacktard factor of online gaming). So, if MS's intention is to
evolve Windows Live into something of the quality and calibur of
Steam, then I really wouldn't mind to use it but I don't think it is
quite there yet.

The game doesn't require you to pay anything to play, so I'm not sure
what single-player fans are complaining about. My beef was that the
multiplayer is set up so that there are free servers and paid servers
and that I only have access to the free ones. It seemed to me the
server browser was bringing back a small list, but after closer
inspection I realized that what is doing is bringing back the optimal
list of servers (excluding higher ping servers, preventing me from
joining servers that would result in a bad experience, both for myself
and potentially others).. So it's a paired-down list similar to what I
would see in other games if I eliminated unplayable pings, etc. I'm
sure this is a strategy holdover from consoles and I'm not sure its a
bad idea at all.

I don't think I could justify paying $50/year (aka 4 bucks a month)
for the premium service until there are at least 2-3 games which use
it that I play regularly. In the meantime I will just play on the
free version of Live, no big deal.






.

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