IT's a shame there isn't a bigger community talking about this game on chartz, as this beta has been really fantastic.
Standard weapons each have a use, Lancer for long distance suppressive fire, hammerburst for mid-to-short range and Pendulum for CQB (pretty effective against gnasher wielding foes). Shotguns are nice if you like them (I do) gnasher feels like Gears 1 and DBS is a beast up close.
Two-Peicing has been mostly nerfed (stun from melee is non-existant really) and power weapon are fun to try out (though niether map currently available is particularly a great sniper map IMO).
Biggest difference is the speed and maneuverability; much faster and smoother than 2 - took some getting used too.
You can still tell when you are on a P2P connection, vs dedicated server, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was in Gears 2. Plus when you hit a dedicated server it's like sweet mana of the gods.
For the most part you rarely feel like the game cheated you out of a kill, or gave another player an unfair advantage, you can usually tell how/why you died, and learn from it (like don't let the fool with the DBS get anywhere NEAR you).
Two nights and 30 or so matches in and I"m loving it, can't wait to get back to it shortly.
