So I got the Gears of war 3 beta early and have been playing for the past 3 hours. I have decided to give you guys some of my impressions as a huge gears fan-

Graphics:

Fist thing I noticed right when I started the game was how colorful it was. The game is really colorful, I highly doubt we will hear people complain about how brown or grey the game looks. The charachters also look less bulky- I guess its because Epic made the camera come out a bit a more. Overall it looks a whole lot different than the other 2 games- its almost like it has a new art style. Also I have to give  ashout out to the smoke, it looks absoultely amazing and works very well.

Gameplay-Right from the start I noticed how loose the game became. Gears 1 and Gears 2 had a type of 'heavy' feel to it. That heavy feeling it seems has been mostly removed. It also feels like a much faster game in general-it takes less bullets to kill, it seems as if you move faster, etc. SO far the balancing between the guns is pretty good as well. Epic managed to find a way to make the smoke balanced and efective at the same time- a huge gripe for me for gears 2 was that epic changed the way the smoke gernade worked 6 months after launch

Maps- The usual symmetrical maps. Epic really did a good job to change the environment in some of the maps. In one of the maps there is a sandstorm in which you really can't see anything- its simply awesome! Overall it seems like Epic will stick to the general formula of symmetrical maps with some added weather effects to some maps.

Gametypes- Team Deathmatch is pretty good. You get what you expect. Capture the leader is pretty fun to but i dont like how the opennet can simply save the leader by throwing a smoke. King of the hill is decent as well but not really different from annex in gears 1/2. Overall I felt a little upset that Epic did not include the execution or warzone gamestypes. Those 2 gametypes were what made gears for me, and if epic does not include those in the final game then im sure many people will complain. I really actually enjoyed the slower pace in gears 1/2. Also I noticed you get medals for basically everything you do lol. It takes a while to rank up as well.

So finally the beta is pretty fun. i wish epic included the gametypes I actually like. But the gamestypes that are included are pretty fun as well. One thing is for sure though- Gears 3 is quite different than the other 2 games.

/my impressions

Some Gameplay-

You will see me in background

I can't wait till it comes out, im gonna sleep over a buddies house and beat the campaign xD...hopefully its not that long so i can get in the multiplayer action.

.....no homo

How do you get into the beta early? I know Bulletstorm owners gets in the 18th but how do you get in today? That said i will be on like 24/7 starting the 18th, Portal 2 have to wait until the beta is over =).

Is this game faster than Gears 1? Rod Fergusson said it would be between the 2. And Gears 1 was really fast so i hope its not that fast.

its fast! i think its the fastest. i always thought gears 1 was the slowest. Anyways i got it early because of microsoft expertzone.

Eh? Gears 1 was dope fast, i have a hard time believing this is faster have you even played Gears 1 man? That was the main complaint about Gears 2 how slow it was, personally i liked the "slowness" better since in Gears 1 shotgun was overpowered. Only weapons that could stop you while you where rushing was a the torque bow and a sniper headshot.

I love gears of war. I'm excited for this. The way you describe it akes me more excited... but that could just be how you're describing it.

yeah i played it. check my achieve,ents- have almost every single one. I was also my most played game of 2006-2007. I guess i just always though the running in gears 2 was faster and i guess thats what made gears 2 seem faster for me. But again i think gears 3 is the fastest of the two. My friend and I should have some HD youtube vids tomorrow so you can jude it yourself. The best thing about the game though is- hardly any lag!

I have a few friends in the beta also. All I hear is positive things about it, except one person complained that the sawdoff was too powerful. I also like how you can choose different loadouts even when your in a game and it seems you join a game pretty quickly.  

I heard that the dedicated servers weren't up yet? When do you think they may go up.   

I never liked King of the Hill or Annex in Gears 2 (Having not played Gears 1). The new multiplayer sounds promising, the mechanics of most gametypes really got on my nerves in Gears 2.

got some gameplay vids up in OP. You will see me in background