Reducing the range of the SOS was a good first step, and proof positive that Epic is listening to it's community - that's a big PLUS for me.

I like the rifles, they all have their place, and outside of those modders who use turbo for the hammerburst (or have ridiculously fast trigger fingers) I think they all balance well.

That being said if they were to address anything else I'd also like to see the chainsaw fixed; if you pop someone while they have it rev'ing, they should drop it, not be able to walk right through it.

I am going to spend a ridiculous amount of time in this game, I know it.

Yes, to nerf the gun usually means they lowered the power in some way.  In this instance, they reduced the range that the SOS could gib people in.

I do not agree with littlejudas here though - the width of this weapon meant just about anything on screen was destroyed, when within range, without having to aim.  It was overpowered.  Nerfing the range was not caving to whining, it was balancing the weapons and makes the MP much more enjoyable to it's dedicated fanbase.  That should be applauded, IMO.

The best are the videos on youtube that pretty much show that you don't have to have the barrel lined up with any part of the enemy in front of you. You can essentially point the gun several feet off of somebody and still gib them like you actually lined your shot up. The spread is absolutely ridiculous on that gun, nevermind the fact that its only purpose is essentially throwing a bone to people who, for whatever reason, can't use a gnasher.

I hear you, it can be a frustrating weapon, but by making them get right up on top of you (hopefully with this update), it at least limits the "*$%@#" moments for me.  The last time I used it, I had a really high k/d match, it just felt so... skill-less, you know?

I find it much more rewarding to get in a gnasher battle and score the kill - feels like you earned it.

I don't know what to think of these stats, when I play (I play a lot) I'm one of the few guys using the Gnasher while there's usually at leas 4-5 guys using the SOS for every single one of their kills and the gametype doesn't matter.

They should have listened during the Beta, non of my Gears friends play this game. The people on my friends list that play are the COD noobs that hated Gears 1 & 2 and they'll be gone as soon as MW3 drops, and even they hate the SOS.

They did change the SOS from the Beta, they removed the downing ability but they increased the gib range. During the Beta I would always do the double kill with the Gnasher against SOS players (when 2 players kill each other at the same time), but have only done it about 10 times in the retail game and it was mostly by luck.

The player count is already way down from 300,000+ at peak to less than 120,000, I think MW2 is getting more players. At least they didn't pull a Bungie and just left their game to die, but Armor Lock was never as annoying as the SOS.

Am I the only one who read the headline and thought that Nerf was coming out with some sweet Gears-themed guns?