Gears of War Comments by Tom Bramwell

1. Epic say it's impossible, but devs lie about these things so often who can tell. I think it'll turn up at some point, if not as DLC then in the sequel somehow.

I think they said it was (specifically) too big to be reasonable as DLC... but if they can sell HD TV and movies on the 360, I'm not sure that'll stay true forever.

One of the best games ever. LOVE Gears!

I read that it was more technical reasons.

Like I say tho, how true that is is another matter.

Having played this on the PC, I agree with Tom. It's even better on the PC than the 360 - those extra levels really help fill out the game.

KG

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.ht...

Good article on running gears on a PC - top spec mainly.

And goes on to show (again) why DX 10 is so wank.

@ kangarootoo

but it is the same game at its heart. The mechanics are identical.

The 360 review was written by someone who got over excited about it and was then dissapointed it wasn't the BEST GAME EVER.

The PC review is written after the hype has died down so is more objective. Eurogamer always does this and it shouldn't.

I have to add my 2p to the comments made regarding the controls. I found the whole cover system to be very sluggish.

I have designer type thoughts on why this was the case, but I won't bore people here with them. I also thought the button assignment for the cover system was a mistake. I've said it before but I'll say it again, anyone who has played Rainbow 6: Vegas before playing GEoW is just spoiled for the experience as the RB6 cover system puts shows Gears up for the old school system it is.

@Darren

Agreed - obviously the draw for quite a few was the Unreal Engine 3 being used to satisfy GFX whores (hides head in shame).

Still looks good now, but once the sheen has gone - I'd say that the gameplay even on "Insane" difficulty is nowhere near as intense and satisying as a Call of Duty Game on Veteran.

@jstar

It sounds as though we agree it is a very similar title at its heart, but not identical in all ways.

Surely then we can agree that single point difference measured on a scale on which a single point is smallest division possible, is hardly unacceptable?

Interesting article - it seems to say there is no support for AA unless you run it in DX10 mode (with the large performance hit that brings).

What is it with the Unreal engine and anti-aliasing? Very disappointing.

@ KG

Were you playing with m/kb or a 360 pad, out of interest?

Doesn't the 360 version use AA? I don't recall ever seeing any noticeably bad aliasing when I played it. If the 360 can do AA with (presumably) DX9 then why can't the PC? :?

Dunno, but GRAW and Bioshock had problems with AA on the PC too.

Even though i'd like to try this game out, the thing which stops me is live for windows. A pathetic attempt at re-inventing a multiplayer-platform, -with- different degrees of accounts. Just because of that i hope Gears MP won't be too popular on pc, as Live for Windows doesn't deserve any popularity. :(

OOOOOH, 1 mark better than the 360 version! I'll have to buy it then.

The Brumak section on the 360 was one of the most anticlimactic fights ever and proof it was rushed out for last Xmas.

I thought it was a pretty damn fine, atmospheric yet overly macho game. I hope Epic learn from their mistakes in the first (as few as they were) and produce something excellent that finishes PROPERLY next time. If there is one.

"The Brumak section on the 360 was one of the most anticlimactic fights ever and proof it was rushed out for last Xmas. "

This quote from SquareJawHero helps to explain why I can't remember it. I am going to replay the game though, been a year since I did it and the re-release on PC has me psyched again.

Better than kill.switch then?

Anyone seen it for cheaper than the £25 it's going for at Amazon? Otherwise I'll probably pick up COD4 instead (only £20 at gamestation.co.uk!)

@Cylinder

According to the following handy site,

http://www.best-game-price.co.uk/compare...

Amazon is as cheap as it gets.

Edit: I should mention that Tescos tends to crop up whenever someone posts about a really good price. Argos is one to watch sometimes as well. I think you need to pop into a store to see their deals though.

Thanks for that Kangarootoo!

I could never kill the last boss, so never saw the end.

That made me sad :(

/goes back to playing everything on 'easy'

better than gears then?

If everyone just writes the same thing as the person above them we can get more comments than the Bioshock review!

I hate reading these reviews that don't mention how heavily GoW "borrowed" from Kill.Switch. It's now the "GoW cover system".

I think it's because only us 3 bought kill.switch

Or it's a sinister ploy to re-write history.

As regards AA, you can normally force the Unreal Engined games to use AA via your graphics card control panel or via a utility such as nHancer.

Where did I read that enabling both HD and AA in UE3 is troublesome for less powerful cards so it's disabled by default?

NICE!

/ooc What a game. Visceral, exciting, amazing!

Good review, good score... GEARS FINALLY GETS THE SCORE IT SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN PREVIOUSLY! (ish).

anyway, I don't particularly agree that the mouse/keyboard is better IN THIS CASE, aside from the aiming being more precise you loose a hell of a lot by not plugging in your 360 controller.

Rumble
more pleasing active reload hit (buttons feel more natural)
trigger for firing (better than a mouse button)
analog walking
comfort (sit back)
Feels more designed for the controller and a bit 'light weight' on m/kb

Now i'm a PC zealout and would always prefer m/kb on a FIRST person shooter but Gears isn't an FPS and it's enemies don't run that fast so the controller is fine and those pros make up for it's cons of slightly more fumbling about to get your crosshair over an enemy (which is fun, more like a real gun). Online of course I would use m/kb to keep up with the other players with faster aiming.

In fps the controller is like steering a tank, but on gears it's beautifull done even on PC, plus you get the better gfx on pc (if you have a nice system) and the extra content so what's not to like?

Finished this many times on the 360 but PC version does feel better regardless of what control method you use.

I wish people would understand this game is NOT about a story (go play Bioshock and see how much gameplay fun 'stories' bring you ... yawn).

It's purely about the mechanic of taking cover and killing enemies. It's called 'gameplay' do any of you wet behind the ears spoilt brats understand that term in this 'games must have everything but the kitchen sink' era we live in?

The core gameplay is amazingly addictive/fun and doesn't really get old, as many people have pointed out it's very hard to take other games seriously that don't have the cover system now because they feel clunky by comparision (and yes i'm comparing FPS to Third Person Shooters here for a second).

The fact is not many games have made each and every bullet fired feel like fun, like a worthwhile act, it's usually just waves of fodder and you spray them with heavy ammo and move on, in gears you actually take your time and are involved far more because you have cover options and blindfire/zoom options which are all fluid.

The story or character design isn't the best but it's servicable.

Honestly I wish some of you whingers were back playing games in the 80's where we made the best of what we had instead of attacking every little point in a game that didn't live up to our own idea of 'perfect'.

Gameplay will always be more important than story or graphics in a game, if not then we may as well watch a movie. And while the overall gameplay of gears is dumbed down (compared to for ex HL2 or Crysis) it's still addictive if you accept it for what it is.

Having said this I still rate HL2 and Definitely (from the demo) Crysis over gears, but not really a fair comparison (fps vs tpps).

Now Bioshock on the other hand is a game that does it the wrong way around, it's got a good story, supposed depth and all that but it's core gameplay is as dull as dishwater. Shooting splicers just isn't fun, no matter what you used.. the first time you use a new plasmid it's a novelty after that meh... they are just not fun to interact with and you basically play through that game for the story, in gears you play through it because it feels fun at every battle... that is the key difference in "good game design" versus "fooling the gamer by piling on everything that should be secondary to gameplay".

BTW - for those with GF8 you can get AA to work in GEARS OF WAR on DX9/XP by using the latest NHancer and using compatibility set to 'oblivion' - runs fine with 8xAA on XP @ 1440x900 resolution with EVERYTHING on maxium settings.

Man I returned this game. It still needs patching. Severely. It's very pretty and I like the gameplay BUT for some it loses ALL of the checkpoints now and then. It's a very big thread on the epic forums. The thread is named "All my saves and checkpoints gone."
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.p...

Also this bug, seems to be one of many for the PC version, has been present since release, and NO FIX.

actually i think this game is massively overrated. i find it quite boring and can only play it for about 20 min at a time. it just feels really shallow. sprint, cover, shoot. sprint, cover, shoot. it's basically a rail shooter...with cover. yay.