Shhh... IF we don't bump the thread, maybe it will go un-noticed!

Oh - damn!

Played Horde last night for a bit before calling it a night.  Delicious.  Off to play the campaign for a bit now (convenient that may day off of work was on September 20th, huh?).

I will be snuggling up with this bad boy tonight after the kids are asleep. It's been pretty much all positives I've been hearing.
Check the two posters above me. One is good to go with a planned day off of work, the other is fucked and can't play Gears because he has no work.

Gah, you're all so lucky. Gears 3 doesn't release here in Japan until 9/22 (Thursday) so I have to wait...

I'm still thinking about picking up the Gears 3 Console as well. I wouldn't really "use" it though since my Reach 360 is my main system, but it just looks so awesome! My gf was telling me that I buy a new 360 every year! hahaha

My copy should be here sometime soon. *Prays it more like GeoW2 then GeoW1*

I'm stuck at work until about 6pm (it's about noon where I live) and I have to go to work in the morning at about 5am but I'm okay with that. The knowledge that my sis has my Gears of War 3 Limited Edition waiting for me gives me comfort. I haven't been this excited since I went to see Revenge of the Sith while high on Viagra. I may wait until my day off to play (Thursday) so I can savor this game like a tuna savoring a delicious lion.

LMAO! That right there is some sig worthy gold.

Ok.

So heres my thoughts so far.

Im currently on Act 2 : chapter 5 and have played Team Deathmatch online.

Campaign:

Easy way to say it is its by far the best Gears campaign. It keeps its A-Team vibe ( over the top dialogue and in your face humour ) but makes it much more free flowing and cinematic. The story of Gears is a typical Scifi story but that doesnt mean the way its told is lacklustre at all. Its told brilliantly. If you want seriousness and twisty storylines with big shocks. Gears sint it. And you probably dont like The A-Team film either. But if if you like tongue in cheek, over the top classic Action films or as I said before The A-Team you'll love it. You'll get it. Everything in the way its told is done so on purpose. And thats why Gears Of War 3 works so well on the Campaign front.

In terms of Gameplay. This surprised me the most. It feels familiar yet very different. Tactics that you used in previous Gears dont always work now. Sometimes you will be like, what I'm dead? Then realise there wasnt many enemies you were fighting. This is because of an added element in the Lambient. Now you have to deal with Locust and Lambient, which believe me makes Gears feel very different. The Lambient can have Zombieish tendencies, some wont be dead when you think they are dead. Others just wont plain die. LOL.

The variety in all honesty isnt much different. You have the occassional on rails section, cover shooting and the usual A to B stuff. But you dont notice this. In fact where the gameplay feels tighter, more varied and more engaging is the firefights you have. It feels fresh, it feels new yet as I said familiar. Whatever the reason for it being so much better than the predecessors, without a doubt Epic have done a fantastic job. And by far and away its their best piece of work yet.

On the visual front the game is extremely polished. Although Gears has always looked great, It has always been the case you would see some texture pop in. Not in Gears 3. In fact Im as far in as I am, and have never even noticed the slightest popin. Nothing. And yet they have added so much to the engine. For example theres a section at the end of Act 1 where you go through a Bridge section inside the underside of a bridge. Here the game goes through a darker section, but lets lilttle creeps of light through cracks and holes etc. A firefight here is awesome. Instantly you'll see the massive lighting differences and more importantly different brightness of lighting. With everyone including yourself fire off rounds, it becomes a beautiful show of fireworks. Its quite impressive to say the least.

godrays are present as is dark and light being much more contrasted. Textures are beautiful and to be honest you will be hard pressed to find any game with this much going on onscreen have this high detailed textures. I was unsure if Gears 3 or Epic could even match Crysis 2. Heres my take. I would say that techncially Crysis 2 is pushing harder. Its environments gameplay space are still unmatched on console and yet uses the sort of advanced effects that anyone else. Yet Crysis 2 did stumble a bit attempting that along the way.

However Gears 3 looks better. Although Epic arent asking for the engine to do Crysis 2's size gameplay space what they do do isnt small.

Gears 3 throws motion blur, transperancies and Global illumination round better than anything out there altogether. The way the effects are done here are just perfect. Many times you will witness almost all the effects happening at once with no slow down. So all in all I believe you will be more impressed in the end with Gears 3 visuals even though it may not be as technically challenging as Crysis 2's visuals are.

A couple of things that I think are brilliant additions Ive noticed so far, are Locusts popping out the ground. Now we had Grub holes before, but the way Locust exit the ground now is awesome.

You'll have a soft rumbling and then ( imagine a man being shot out of a big sized air compressed gun facing straight up ) a Locust will burst through the ground about 10 feet up then land and attack. Its animated so well and will catch you out. It feels so natural and instant that it can impact a battle.

Water soaked Cogs. Seeing the Cogs get oout of the water. The water covered men youll see. ( lol ) No really, the armour, skin , hats looks brilliant drenched. No game has done it like this.


Well this has all been quick and off the top of my head. I'm going back to get into Act 3.

Its not the same. Its also in a different context. So far Ive only seen it in context of  a cutscene. But it was still very impressive. 

HOLY SHIT.

Act 3 is aWESOOOOOMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

That was the best action ive experienced in a game.

That was impressive. It did not let up. Night, day literally waves of locust and lambent. and an amazing looking vehicle section.

WOW. Can this really top Act 3?????????????????