Gears of War Impressions Roundup

As excited as folks got at the Halo 3 trailer, the 360 game I've enjoyed seeing coverage of at this year's E3 is Epic's Gears of War. From GameSpy's hands-on piece: "While many third-person shooters are run 'n gun affairs, Epic likes to say that the emphasis in Gears of War is on a 'stop 'n pop' style of play. This means that, rather than running directly into the action, players are better off using cover to proceed across the war zone. Using said cover is a breeze in Gears, thanks largely to the 'All button,' which is mapped to the Xbox 360's A button. Once you're facing cover, a quick press of the A button will slam you into place, out of harm's way, and pressing it again will pull you away." More impressions below if you Read More.

Comments

read more

[Anonymous Coward]

*looks around for the "Read More" link but only sees the related stories links*

You'd think that a slashdot editor would know how his own site works by now...

Re:read more (duh)

[Scorpion265]

He ment the articles below.... *slap*

ahem..

[cluke]

While many third-person shooters are run 'n gun affairs, Epic likes to say that the emphasis in Gears of War is on a 'stop 'n pop' style of play.

Hmm, they are bringing in some stealth elements, eh? How very revolutionary.
The only other FPS I can think of that incorporates this sort of thing is... every damn one in the last 3 years! Nothing I love more in games than having to be careful.

Re:ahem..

[SilentChris]

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      if Contains(SoundBite, "revolutionary"){
            GivePosterCookie();
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      else{
            SmackPosterForReadingTooMuchIntoArticle();
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MS and Epic know what they have here, dude. It's not a revolutionary leap over anything. It seems (at least from reading the press reaction) that it's a solid shooter.

Remember, Microsoft is the same company that pitched Halo as "Combat Evolved", not "combat so new it just came out of the womb". It's a solid shooter to hold people off while Bungie wraps up Halo 3 -- nothing more.

Re:ahem..

[RingDev]

I caught some live playing footage of the game on G4's E3 coverage, it actually looked pretty nice, if it comes out on PC, I may check it out.

-Rick

Re:ahem..

[the dark hero]

Stop-n-pop doesn't spell stealth. Emphasizing the fact that you need to take cover in a game seems like you need to be pretty careful .

Re:ahem..

[MaestroSartori]

Of course, it's not an FPS. "Third Person Shooter" kind of gives that away... ;)

It actually looks fairly reminiscent of Killswitch, which I never picked up for PS2 but apparently it was ok. This looks a bit more polished though, so if I do get a 360 I'll probably give it a go. My PC will never be able to handle it... :(

Re:ahem..

[Cheapy]

It's an odd definition of "stealth" you have where taking cover is encompassed by it.

"Stealth" means acting in a covert way. It does not mean taking cover. Taking cover is a smart thing to do, but is in no way "stealth."

Cover Problems

[MBraynard]

Part of the problem with cover in another game that uses it this way (Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter) is that you can only take cover in places where the system has already decided as being cover.

This was even more pronounced in another incredibly fun game, Star Wars: Republican Commando.

Another issue I noticed in GRAW was that getting in and out of cover was sluggish and that your agility to aim while in cover was much different from when you were not in cover.

Re:Cover Problems

[gEvil (beta)]

...and that your agility to aim while in cover was much different from when you were not in cover.

Huh, imagine that.

Re:Cover Problems

[MBraynard]

No, really. Moving your gun ten degrees to the left should not take twice as long just because you are in cover.

Re:Cover Problems

[Winterblink]

GRAW's 'sluggishness' was based more on the realism of getting in and out of cover as a guy wrapped in 60 pounds of gear and not being able to move like an acrobat. It's not really a detriment to the gameplay, just one of many things to consider when approaching situations in that game (like real life fighting, I'd imagine).

Re:Cover Problems

[theSpaceCow]

Wait. Republican Commando?

Is this a George-Bush-in-a-flightsuit mod that I wasn't aware of? Are the Geonosians replaced by Democrats? Budget-reform advocates? Civil liberties?

"Fixer! Slice that warrant requirement for searches! Sev, keep Barack Obama at bay while I revive Social Security!"

(Note that I don't actually have Karma to burn... I just like to live dangerously.)

Re:Cover Problems

[MBraynard]

Wait. Republican Commando?

It was actually a low-grade troll. Thanks for the snack.

Re:Cover Problems

[bigman2003]

It would if you had your body pressed against the wall...which is what you are doing in Ghost Recon.

Re:Cover Problems

[MBraynard]

No, actually, having done it in real life, I assure you it is not.

It looks nice but,

[Tibor the Hun]

It has nothing on Quake Wars in terms of fun teamplay.
Seeing as how many people have broadband nowdays, playing FPSes against AI is not the same as what it used to be.

For all the gimmics they throw at you, the gameplay is still linear.
Give me class-based, objective-based, online teamplay over eye candy any day.

Re:It looks nice but,

[CaymanIslandCarpedie]

It has nothing on Quake Wars in terms of fun teamplay.

Is this based on your hours hands on teamplay in this as of yet unreleased game or more "OMG!!! QW rocks!!! Everything else SUX!!!"?

Re:It looks nice but,

[Tibor the Hun]

oh, shit, you're absolutely right. make that based on wolf ET.

Not that I don't love Epic...

[Anonymous Coward]

...but hitting a button to duck/hide behind cover?

This was a primary mode of gameplay in Metal Gear Solid, waaaaay back on PS. I guess the revolutionary part was to couple this with a FPS, rather then an overhead 3rd person stealth/shooter....

This is truely Revolution-ary, or should I say, Wiii, fun games...

D'oh

Re:Not that I don't love Epic...

[Anonymous Coward]

Where does it say this feature is revolutionary. It doesn't. Where does it say it's a FPS? It doesn't because it's third person. This writeup is to set GoW apart from the regular Unreal UT and to show off Unreal Engine 3 on the Xbox 360.

Repetitive

[keldog42]

Initially I was very excited about GoW, but after seeing the gameplay footage (from Cliffy B), I worry that this game will get old, fast. The pop and shoot mechanic is nice, but it looks like the game will just be 1) Run to cover 2) Duck behind/beside cover 3) Lean out and shoot 4) Leap over/leave cover 5) Rinse 6) Repeat The game is beautiful and I hope that there is more to the action the the pop and shoot gimick.