Gears of War 3

[GamerMan316]

Epic are saying that it's a public beta so i'd assume we won't have to buy Bulletstorm in February to get Gears 3 Beta, Crackdown/Halo 3 style, which is bloody good news. 

[GamerMan316]

Direct link to the vid I posted, much better quality.

[GamerMan316]

Why Gears of War 3 Multiplayer Rocks (from OXM)
First details on what to expect from the retooled and revamped multiplayer...

It once was king, then it was dethroned.

Gears of War used to dominate Major Nelson's Live Activity charts thanks to its brilliant multiplayer, an insane mix of cover-shooting, third person action and close-range gore. Think paintball with chainsaws for an approximation of the strategy involved.

Then the sequel hit and suffered the worst launch possible. Match-making problems, vacuum chainsaws and overpowered smoke grenades blighted the reputation of Gears of War 2's multiplayer. Even though updates rectified the problem, it couldn't shake its reputation.

So how will Gears of War 3 kick arse right out of the gate? Here are five reasons...


1. Sawn-Off Shotgun

Yes, it's a new shotgun! Gah! Just when you thought you'd heard enough moaning about host shotgun, now you get to hear moaning about host shotguns. Even better! Except... the shotguns work. The old Gnasher shotgun has been balanced by the Sawn-off Shotgun, which offers immense point blank power at the trade-off of almost nothing beyond a few feet.

If you're standing on someone's toes when you fire? Instant death. You don't even need to aim as the hipfire spread is so wide, with Epic's Lee Perry describing it as a '90-degree cone of death'. The result is Gnasher players who usually bounce around are forced to respect the Sawn-Off Shotgun, bringing noobs into the match as veterans are kept at bay. The pathetic damage beyond point-blank range and insane reloading times keep it balanced but more importantly, there can't be any host shotguns complaints because...


2. Dedicated Servers

...of this! Ta-da! Dedicated servers! Gears of War as a series has fought hard to try and shrug off its reputation for host shotguns. Yet no matter how many times it was updated, the slightest problem with the game or any perceived imperfections would always be attributed to host shotgun. Dedicated servers zaps that problem. No more host shotgun. No more lag. And hopefully, no more matchmaking problems.


3. Execute Him

Epic has paid far more attention to the executions, ranging from the brutal (pulling an arm off and beating the player to death with it) to the detailed (gibs falling out of the Mortar's barrel after it has been used to crush skulls). You can even prolong some executions for extra points if you fancy the risk. The nastiest of all? The throat slice with the Pendulum Lancer. The sheer weight of the weapon makes it really, really, really satisfying in a really, really, really dark way.


4. No Wastage

Remember Submission? Probably not. Epic has combined modes to ensure there are no 'dead' game types on the main menu. Guardian and Submission have been combined to become Capture The Leader while King of the Hill and Annex have combined to become... King of the Hill. Again. But think of it as King of the Hill v.2, with faster pace and a clearer need for teamwork. And that's without us even mentioning Team Deathmatch, which is sure to become the new multiplayer staple...


5. New Weapons

The One-Shot, the Digger, the Flame Grenade... there are plenty of new toys to play with alongside additions and tweaks to old weapons such as the iron-sights on the Hammer Burst. Finding new tactics to use the weapons and perhaps more importantly, new ways to deal with them, is going to be part of the Gears of War 3 learning curve. Consider melee has been toned down too and you're going to have to roll your sleeves up and get hands on with all the artillery and arsenal you find in Gears of War 3. Fortunately, there's plenty of it to go round.

[GamerMan316]

A Look at the Multiplayer Maps of Gears 3

[dfusioness]

cant bloody wait 

[Jaynestown]

Why do they keep teasing us with all this stuff and then make us wait a whole fucking year! The game's obviosuly ready (or almost ready), they should release it this November and go head to head against Call Of Duty, that's what I say!!!

[GamerMan316]

Why do they keep teasing us with all this stuff and then make us wait a whole fucking year! The game's obviosuly ready (or almost ready), they should release it this November and go head to head against Call Of Duty, that's what I say!!!

It's all Microshaft's fault mate, they're just doing what they do best.

[Jaynestown]

Why do they keep teasing us with all this stuff and then make us wait a whole fucking year! The game's obviosuly ready (or almost ready), they should release it this November and go head to head against Call Of Duty, that's what I say!!!

It's all Microshaft's fault mate, they're just doing what they do best.

Bastards!

[Handshakes]

Since when did nobody play Submission? That was always my favorite game type. Shenanigans!

And Deathmatch? There is a radical concept! Slow down there, a shooting game with a deathmatch gametype? Revolutionary... What is next? Perhaps they could put a flag in each team's base, and then the teams try to take the opposing flag and bring it back to their home base, while defending their own flag from enemies who try to do the same. They could call it capture the flag, and it will revolutionize multiplayer gaming forever. Yes, genius...

Who wants that? Boo, says I. Gears 1 felt totally fresh, and it sucked me right in like a hoover vacuum chainsaw bayonet. Gears 2, in comparison, just felt samey-but-slightly-worse. They didn't add anything that helped the gameplay but instead focused on a bunch of extra over-top-weapons, only half of which are even useful. Wall tagging for grenades? Who thought this actually made the game better? It makes it campy and boring, especially since they are unavoidable instant death in most situations. Horde never did much for me either, so Beast mode naturally doesn't turn me on much. I'd hate to say it, but I'm not totally on board for Gears 3. Yet.

[GamerMan316]

Robbed this from the Epic forums 

Modes

* Gears of War 3 will exceed the multiplayer mode offerings of Gears of War 2

* Warzone / Execution
Both are returning unchanged.

* Team Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch with a Gears style twist - your team spawns with 20 lives, and each death on your team takes a life away from that pool. Once all lives are expired, you can no longer respawn. If you are consistantly dying, you will be spawned nearer to your teammates or take slightly
longer to spawn to counteract any potential issues of one person draining a team of lives.

* Capture the Leader
Guardian meets Submission - the leader now cannot be killed, but instead must be meatshielded for 30 seconds to gain the victory. Leaders can struggle using the B button at certain intervals to put off the captives aim. Leaders also gain leadership vision through the Tac/Com, which allows them to see both friend and foe. The new leaders are Queen Myrrah for the Locust, and Chairman Prescott for the COG.

* King of the Hill (Revamp)
King of the Hill has been revamped into a merge of Annex and King of the Hill. The objective now is to hold a ring until your score for that ring hits 100% (the enemy capturing the ring only increases their percentage captured for the ring, and does not decrease your teams percentage). Once one team hits 100% captured, they gain a point and the ring moves. KOTH now uses the Wingman spawn locations to prevent spawn blocking.

* Wingman
Confirmed to be returning, but now involves FOUR teams of two rather than FIVE teams of two.

Ranking and Progression System

* Gears of War 3 will have an XP based ranking system similar to Gears 2, but with unlocks including weapon customisation and multiple skins for characters.
* In a match, you can earn "Ribbons" for things like kill streaks, saving someone's life, killing your nemesis and such. These will earn you extra XP towards your level.
* Your in game accomplishments also count towards "Medals", which are longer term versions of Ribbons that you build towards match over match, such as a medal related to weapon usage. Once a medal is levelled to a certain point, it unlocks a "Title" for use in multiplayer.
* Some Executions will only be avaliable at a certain level. Once earned, you can earn the ability to continue an execution beyond the normal length of time by earning medals with the weapon related to that execution.
* Executions earn you higher XP than a standard kill. Using extended executions earns you more XP for as long as you stand over them, which obviously leaves you extremely vulnerable.
* Epic will store your entire profile data on their own servers to ensure no profile corruptions / rank losses that happened for some Gears 2 players.
* You can level offline, but it is noticeably slower.

Features

Balancing

* New players to Gears of War 3, who have been detected as having never played Gears 1 or 2 AND have died three times consecutively without a kill, will recieve double health and a damage boost for their first 10 kills to help them integrate into multiplayer. As they get closer to ten kills, their bonus will degenerate until disappearing completely at 10 kills.

Matchmaking

* Cliff confirmed they are tackling the bad matchmaking issues in Gears of War 3 in the Meristation TV interview. He mentions improved region filtering as one of the ways they are addressing this issue. Dedicated server based multiplayer will have the strongest matchmaking experience yet.
* There will be a new feature that allows players to stay together as a party. You can now play in seperate games across seperate modes but remain in a party, allowing you to stick with your friends even if you want to play something different.

Other

* You can now "call out" an enemy in multiplayer, which allows you to place a marker over their head with the press of a button. This only lasts three seconds, but earns you extra XP.
* Tac/Com now shows weapon spawns
* Players can now bring up an overhead map showing weapon spawns ect in the middle of the game. Wording makes it difficult to confirm if this is for new players only or for all players.

New Weapons

* The Retro Lancer (aka. the Pendulum Lancer)
Described as the midpoint between rifle play and shotgun play, the Retro Lancer is a high stopping power, high recoil weapon. It is most effective at ranges just outside the Gnasher's effective range usage. Holding the B button allows you to use the bayonet on the front in a roadie run style charge, which lands you a kill if you can connect with your opponent. However, this charge must build up momentum first with at least 4 or 5 steps otherwise landing the charge will just bounce you off your opponent.

* Sawed Off Shotgun
The Sawed Off is a one shot, extremely long reload, extremely high powered shotgun with a wide spread. The Sawed Off has the ability to gib multiple people at once at close range, but it's effective range is very very small (described as almost point blank). The reload is also much longer than expected, and with one shot, it's a make it count kind of weapon.

* The Digger Launcher
A new locust weapon that fires a locust "Piranha-like" creature into the ground, which then emerges and explodes. When fired, dirt is kicked up as it moves along it's trajectory to give an indication of it's attack destination. If you are killed by it, your head explodes.

* The One Shot
A recoilless rifle that can take down almost any enemy in the game with, as the name says, one shot. It's a heavy weapon that needs to be "deployed" to be fired according to recent previews - it also projects a laser where it's going to shoot because it's satellite guided, so your enemy will know when it's aimed directly at them. The One Shot also has a very low ammo count.

* Incendary Grenade
A new grenade from the COG that acts like a molotov cocktail with no warning - it explodes on impact. Throw it on the ceiling to rain fire in front of a doorway, or throw it directly on someone to set them alight.

* The Multi-Turret
A new fixed weapon that can have its four weapon slots traded for almost any weapon you currently hold. By standard, it holds four Pendulum Lancers.

Returning Weapons

* Lancer Assault Rifle
Confirmed to be returning. The chainsaw has now been buffed, and you no longer stumble when revving the saw. Chainsaw kills can now only be stopped in the first few moments of the revving animation, as it now takes time to rev it up to full speed

* Hammerburst Assault Rifle
The Hammerburst remains an accurate semi automatic rifle, but now has the addition of iron sights. This added level of zoom takes you into a first person view for precision shooting - articles have also confirmed that the last shot required to down someone will give you a headshot kill if the last hit lands on the head.

* Gnasher Shotgun
Confirmed to be returning.

* Boltok Pistol
Confirmed to be returning.

* Gorgon Pistol
Returns under the new name "Gorgon SMG", having changed from a burst fire pistol to a fully automatic pistol.

* Grenades
All three types have been confirmed to be returning. The Ink grenade now gives off no warning beeps to make it a little more useful.

Miscellaneous

* Character Movement Speed (CMS) has been increased from the Gears 2 CMS
* There is an Events Calender in game that lists all upcoming XP events ect for Gears
* Photo mode from Gears 2 is not included in Gears 3
* The "Training Grounds", a bot based mode designed to ease people into Gears multiplayer, can now be played in co-op

[Jaynestown]

* Team Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch with a Gears style twist - your team spawns with 20 lives, and each death on your team takes a life away from that pool. Once all lives are expired, you can no longer respawn. If you are consistantly dying, you will be spawned nearer to your teammates or take slightly longer to spawn to counteract any potential issues of one person draining a team of lives.

Ha ha, it's as if they've put that in just for me!!!  

[citatscEellE]

so  gears 3 was at con today..
IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING. i didnt wana fucking leave and i was there for like 2 hrs.
too bad i couldnt take pics
i fucking cried.. its amazing

[DFUSIONITE]

Robbed this from the Epic forums 

Modes

* Gears of War 3 will exceed the multiplayer mode offerings of Gears of War 2

* Warzone / Execution
Both are returning unchanged.

* Team Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch with a Gears style twist - your team spawns with 20 lives, and each death on your team takes a life away from that pool. Once all lives are expired, you can no longer respawn. If you are consistantly dying, you will be spawned nearer to your teammates or take slightly
longer to spawn to counteract any potential issues of one person draining a team of lives.

* Capture the Leader
Guardian meets Submission - the leader now cannot be killed, but instead must be meatshielded for 30 seconds to gain the victory. Leaders can struggle using the B button at certain intervals to put off the captives aim. Leaders also gain leadership vision through the Tac/Com, which allows them to see both friend and foe. The new leaders are Queen Myrrah for the Locust, and Chairman Prescott for the COG.

* King of the Hill (Revamp)
King of the Hill has been revamped into a merge of Annex and King of the Hill. The objective now is to hold a ring until your score for that ring hits 100% (the enemy capturing the ring only increases their percentage captured for the ring, and does not decrease your teams percentage). Once one team hits 100% captured, they gain a point and the ring moves. KOTH now uses the Wingman spawn locations to prevent spawn blocking.

* Wingman
Confirmed to be returning, but now involves FOUR teams of two rather than FIVE teams of two.

Ranking and Progression System

* Gears of War 3 will have an XP based ranking system similar to Gears 2, but with unlocks including weapon customisation and multiple skins for characters.
* In a match, you can earn "Ribbons" for things like kill streaks, saving someone's life, killing your nemesis and such. These will earn you extra XP towards your level.
* Your in game accomplishments also count towards "Medals", which are longer term versions of Ribbons that you build towards match over match, such as a medal related to weapon usage. Once a medal is levelled to a certain point, it unlocks a "Title" for use in multiplayer.
* Some Executions will only be avaliable at a certain level. Once earned, you can earn the ability to continue an execution beyond the normal length of time by earning medals with the weapon related to that execution.
* Executions earn you higher XP than a standard kill. Using extended executions earns you more XP for as long as you stand over them, which obviously leaves you extremely vulnerable.
* Epic will store your entire profile data on their own servers to ensure no profile corruptions / rank losses that happened for some Gears 2 players.
* You can level offline, but it is noticeably slower.

Features

Balancing

* New players to Gears of War 3, who have been detected as having never played Gears 1 or 2 AND have died three times consecutively without a kill, will recieve double health and a damage boost for their first 10 kills to help them integrate into multiplayer. As they get closer to ten kills, their bonus will degenerate until disappearing completely at 10 kills.

Matchmaking

* Cliff confirmed they are tackling the bad matchmaking issues in Gears of War 3 in the Meristation TV interview. He mentions improved region filtering as one of the ways they are addressing this issue. Dedicated server based multiplayer will have the strongest matchmaking experience yet.
* There will be a new feature that allows players to stay together as a party. You can now play in seperate games across seperate modes but remain in a party, allowing you to stick with your friends even if you want to play something different.

Other

* You can now "call out" an enemy in multiplayer, which allows you to place a marker over their head with the press of a button. This only lasts three seconds, but earns you extra XP.
* Tac/Com now shows weapon spawns
* Players can now bring up an overhead map showing weapon spawns ect in the middle of the game. Wording makes it difficult to confirm if this is for new players only or for all players.

New Weapons

* The Retro Lancer (aka. the Pendulum Lancer)
Described as the midpoint between rifle play and shotgun play, the Retro Lancer is a high stopping power, high recoil weapon. It is most effective at ranges just outside the Gnasher's effective range usage. Holding the B button allows you to use the bayonet on the front in a roadie run style charge, which lands you a kill if you can connect with your opponent. However, this charge must build up momentum first with at least 4 or 5 steps otherwise landing the charge will just bounce you off your opponent.

* Sawed Off Shotgun
The Sawed Off is a one shot, extremely long reload, extremely high powered shotgun with a wide spread. The Sawed Off has the ability to gib multiple people at once at close range, but it's effective range is very very small (described as almost point blank). The reload is also much longer than expected, and with one shot, it's a make it count kind of weapon.

* The Digger Launcher
A new locust weapon that fires a locust "Piranha-like" creature into the ground, which then emerges and explodes. When fired, dirt is kicked up as it moves along it's trajectory to give an indication of it's attack destination. If you are killed by it, your head explodes.

* The One Shot
A recoilless rifle that can take down almost any enemy in the game with, as the name says, one shot. It's a heavy weapon that needs to be "deployed" to be fired according to recent previews - it also projects a laser where it's going to shoot because it's satellite guided, so your enemy will know when it's aimed directly at them. The One Shot also has a very low ammo count.

* Incendary Grenade
A new grenade from the COG that acts like a molotov cocktail with no warning - it explodes on impact. Throw it on the ceiling to rain fire in front of a doorway, or throw it directly on someone to set them alight.

* The Multi-Turret
A new fixed weapon that can have its four weapon slots traded for almost any weapon you currently hold. By standard, it holds four Pendulum Lancers.

Returning Weapons

* Lancer Assault Rifle
Confirmed to be returning. The chainsaw has now been buffed, and you no longer stumble when revving the saw. Chainsaw kills can now only be stopped in the first few moments of the revving animation, as it now takes time to rev it up to full speed

* Hammerburst Assault Rifle
The Hammerburst remains an accurate semi automatic rifle, but now has the addition of iron sights. This added level of zoom takes you into a first person view for precision shooting - articles have also confirmed that the last shot required to down someone will give you a headshot kill if the last hit lands on the head.

* Gnasher Shotgun
Confirmed to be returning.

* Boltok Pistol
Confirmed to be returning.

* Gorgon Pistol
Returns under the new name "Gorgon SMG", having changed from a burst fire pistol to a fully automatic pistol.

* Grenades
All three types have been confirmed to be returning. The Ink grenade now gives off no warning beeps to make it a little more useful.

Miscellaneous

* Character Movement Speed (CMS) has been increased from the Gears 2 CMS
* There is an Events Calender in game that lists all upcoming XP events ect for Gears
* Photo mode from Gears 2 is not included in Gears 3
* The "Training Grounds", a bot based mode designed to ease people into Gears multiplayer, can now be played in co-op

looks like they took some good idea's from battlefield bad company 2 and COD.

[GamerMan316]

Yep and everything is primed ready for the glitchers and hackers, especially the part about dying consecutively and getting a health and power boost, you just know that'll get abused regardless of whether people have played Gears 1 & 2 or not.

[DFUSIONITE]

yeah i know, and even with dedicated servers i bet people still moan about host advantage!