Gears of War 2 is out (95% avg score)

[Asher]

That's why I'm wondering WTF he's talking about.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
My roommate is now playing Gears 2 obsessively.

I tried the first game and didn't really get into it. My brother has it and tried to get me to like it. He said it's a much more cerebral shooter than most and so a gamer chick would be more apt to enjoy it than other games.

I don't see what the fuss is about. The game is third person, which automatically loses it points in my book if you're supposed to be doing shooting. I couldn't buy into the storyline and I didn't find the characters compelling at all. It uses the "recharging life bar" mechanic which I first saw in Call of Duty and which I took an immediate dislike to. Everything in the game takes insane amounts of damage to kill, and most of the combats I took part in were "enemy wave" type of fights. Both of these elements move the game away from a tactical thinker's firefight and more towards a generic brute force game.

That said, some things about it were really cool, and I hope more games will incorporate them:

Cover is very important. You can't march into the battlefield and waste the enemies.

Running is something to do in sustained bursts, rather than the normal mode of movement. Most FPSes have an optional walk button, if they have it at all. But here running is frantic and you sacrifice accuracy for speed, which I liked.

A lot of obstacles give context-sensitive maneuvers, like vaulting over a barrier or jumping from one side of the door to the other.

The reloading "sweet spot" mechanic is nifty.



All in all, for me this was a game that brought a few quirky new ideas to the table, but didn't introduce a compelling story or characters and didn't do themselves any credit with the insistence on a third person view. It's one of the things that I can see why people find it intriguing, but I don't understand why everybody's saying it's one of the best games out there.

Because it's one of the best games out there.

You've already pointed out some good features, but to come back on the things you didn't like:

The third person views fits very well with the style of gameplay in my view. First person would not work at all well with the cover mechanic.

Recharging life bars: first, get over it already.

Second, it does actually fit pretty well with Gears given that to die you actually have to be outflanked/outmaneouvred to such an extent that you take a lot of damage quite quickly. Avoiding this requires good positioning, good use of cover & teammates, and an awareness of the battlefield.

People taking a lot of damage to kill. Again this fits - it's much better given the game concept to have a smaller amount of tough enemies. This isn't Serious Sam.

The waves: long firefights where you get pushed back by an enemy onslaught are awesome. These make the game more tactical, not less. It's precisely in these fights you have to make the best use of cover and terrain.

And the good stuff you said is good too. All in all, Gears is my favourite console shooter, and I'll snap up GoW2 as soon as I get a minute.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher
That's why I'm wondering WTF he's talking about.

Have you put the toys back in the pram yet?

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike


Have you put the toys back in the pram yet?

"pram" is such a gay word. Seriously.

And no, I haven't played Fallout 3 since that one time.

I have better games to play.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by DrSpike

Recharging life bars: first, get over it already.

Like I said, it's good in games where there's so much fire coming in that a "hit points" system would really detract from the fun. But Bioshock, Fallout 3, and Metroid Prime 3 all prove that FPSes work fine with the non-recharging hit point style.

Bear in mind that those three games are not at all squad based, so combats tend to be smaller and thus the hit point loss is more easily a reflection of the player's skill. As I said, I can see the recharging hp being handy in a squad based game... but then again I don't personally go for those sorts of games myself.

The Gears storyline I just couldn't get into. This is a puzzle to me because I had no difficulty getting into Undying, Thief, System Shock, and Cthulhu... and all of them are pretty outlandish.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Asher
"pram" is such a gay word. Seriously.

So at the end of Fallout were you really looking forward to pushing a Liberty Pram all the way into DC?

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia


Like I said, it's good in games where there's so much fire coming in that a "hit points" system would really detract from the fun.

You mean like in Gears. So you're agreeing with me.

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia


The Gears storyline I just couldn't get into. This is a puzzle to me because I had no difficulty getting into Undying, Thief, System Shock, and Cthulhu... and all of them are pretty outlandish.

Personally I think for a game like Gears the story doesn't matter, because it's about the action. But since you've wisely chosen not to disagree with my arguments above I've decided to let this go.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Yes to both points. I guess it comes down to me basically not liking the game for what it is. But still respecting it's a good game and others seem to like it very well.

[RGBVideo]

Originally posted by DrSpike


That's funny, because he threw a tantrum at Fallout 3 when he died in an annoying manner, and said he wasn't going to play it any more.

Hahaha, yeah sure, Asher gave FO3 an honest try

It's annoying, I ended up buying Fallout 3 because of his advertising without realizing that my system couldn't run it

[Asher]

Which advertising did I do for Fallout 3?

[El_Cid]

Originally posted by VJ

Hahaha, yeah sure, Asher gave FO3 an honest try

It's annoying, I ended up buying Fallout 3 because of his advertising without realizing that my system couldn't run it

Asher wants all of us to buy the latest hardware to play the latest games, all of the time.
I mean you cant actualy be enjoying gaming unless you have a huge LCDTV thing with 1080dpi on your wall and a 360 and uber spec PC. Good games are all about the hardware - eveyone knows that?




(in other words dont believe the hype)

[Asher]

1080dpi

I don't want you to do anything but **** off. Seriously. I'd prefer you ***** didn't play games so I wouldn't have to deal with your stupidity.