Examiner

Epic Games listened to Gears of War 3 fan feedback and announced a change to the sawed-off shotgun on Tuesday and also shared stats with what is the weapon of choice in the Xbox 360 shooter.

Effective today, the "gib range" for the sawed-off shotgun has been reduced to match that of the gnasher shotgun. Epic says that it is also looking into the weapon stats for the other weapons to see if there is any tweaking to be done. Director Rod Fergusson previously said that Epic would not make any knee jerk tweaks to the weapons of Gears of War 3.

Epic also shared a number of stats for the first couple of weeks of Gears of War 3 that show what are the most popular matches and what weapons get the most kills. Unsurprisingly, Team Deathmatch is the most popular versus mode and the gnasher shotgun has the most kills in quick matches. But somewhat surprisingly, the chainsaw lancer has the most kills in ranked matches.

This shows a fairly stark contrast between the more hardcore players who play in ranked matches and are smart enough to keep away from players that charge and roll in with either shotgun.

The weapon characteristics in Gears of War 3 can be changed pretty much on the fly by Epic Games thanks to the way the multiplayer was built. It also allows for the developers to add special events like the recent Big Head Mode weekend or change how weapon spawns behave on different maps among other things.

You can check out slideshows for the Gears of War 3 stats so far in our slideshow gallery. We've also got a video from Senior Gameplay Programmer Pete Knepley in our video gallery that explains some of the stats.

http://www.examiner.com/console-gaming-in-national/epic-nerfs-the-gears-of-war-3-sawed-off-shotgun-plus-weapon-stats

the lancer is high because of the melee, they don't seem to be differentiating melee from actual weapon kills, everyone uses the lancer for melee

sigh, i wish devs wouldnt cave to this

every popular multiplayer game i've played since halo 2 has one weapon people whine about

Ranked = Less risks of running in with the shotgun. More team work. More shooting from distance, downing, getting the kill.

This has been the same since Gears 1.

i'll likely be playing Halo Reach and GEARS3 online in the next wk but i can't give out the XBL account cause i'm not sure of the name. i won't except friends request, but you can pm me or post on my wall to find out more info if you want to join a match with me, or find out if i'm playing.

it will likely be on Saturday and Sunday every wk for the next month, and i'm glad they made changes to the sawed off shotgun cause that thing sucked. the spread was fin e but it just wasn't affective at close range.

Gears only has 5 weapons?

They had already toned it down after the beta. Now they tone it down even more? Why don't these people just get used to it?

No those are starter guns you start with before you get in the game you chose the dhotgun then you chise yout Ar

I'm still getting way too many kills with the Lancer. This patch pretty much makes me run around with the Lancer/Gnasher like the old days, not that I don't like that but they need to reduce the damage or something on the lancer. It's way too easy to down people with it, and of course when they miss with the sawed off or gnasher i'm gonna rev that shit up.

The chainsaw lock on is ridiculous and the fact that you can shoot somebody with a direct hit and it doesn't lower the chainsaw is stupid too.