Gears 3 was the best game in my opinion. The Locust war ended in Gears of War 2, they switched perfectly to the Lambent menace. I never saw the problem in it, regarding atmosphere. The story is by far the best (Except for letting one or two important things unexplained) and the game was solid. It was Epic's; I never saw any sign of "Bulletstorm" influence.

You didn't see bulletstorm's influence? Just look at the arcadey nature of the game, you shoot enemeies and points come out, ribbons pop up every time your character sneezes. The game even had a move that looked like it came straight from bulletstorm (bag and tag). Not to mention the overall silly cartoonish vibe of the whole game.

The story in gears 3 could and should have been great but epic dropped the ball on that too. There were just too many cringe worthy moments.

You understand that the Campaing in Gow3 is not arcadey, do you? There were two separated modes. Campaing mode did not have any "arcade" feel, because that's what it was: campaing. Wether you wanted arcade, you had Arcade mode for it. No points, nor ribbons appeared during Campaing.

And I don't see how Gears 3 is cartoonish. The graphics have their downside sometimes, but they tend to look pretty beautiful. Of course this is a matter of opinion.

I found Gears of war 3 to be a huge improvement.

That gears of war 1 screenshot just reinforces my point. Look how badass it looks compared to gears 3.

You could have gotten a better gears 2 screenshot. Odd choice.

Its not so much the technical graphics in gears 3 that I have a problem with, it is more the art direction. There were improvements made in lighting and other features with gears 3 but the art direction was a step down from the gothic atmosphere of previous games. And the new armor was not well designed.

The Gow1 is more badass because of the moment the screenshot is, of course. Staring at a monitor is not as badass as holding a lancer.

The screenshots were mainly to look how Marcus has improved. It had nothing to do with the backround or the rest of characters.

While the art direction got more colourful, it's a better step. The other games did not have a gothic atmosphere, but they were rather more dark, given the fact that you spend more time in Locust caves and cities at night rather than in forests or fighting in daylight. The new armor design is the same as previous ones, but they removed several parts because of the temperature (This is said in the game), and there was way too heat. I don't know, small things like these contributed to the atmosphere in the third one.

The second game was colourful too whenever it was during daylight. Perhaps not as much as three, but hey:

lol Have you played Gears before? 

Gears 1 was dark and new. Biggest problem was the multiplayer's lag yet people loved it still.  Gnasher, Sniper, Torque, and Boomshot was OP and everything else sucked.  Double melees, two-piece, active snipe, host advantage, crab walking, ninja flips, etc.  Many problem.

Gears 2 campain lost the dark feeling but replaced it with a more personal experience  and horde mode was added.  Multiplayer lost what made it good in the first place.  A huge mess upon release.

Gears 3 continued the personal experience of gears 2's campaign.  The multiplayer was the best overall experience by far.  Biggest problems became Retro Lancer and Sawed Off.  Sawed off got a huge nerf though.  Cliffy B since then has stated he regrets putting it in the game.

Gears: J I will not comment about it sense i have yet to play it but by arcadey it sure didnt follow Gears 3.  Gears has always been about skilled gameplay just like Halo.  Because of this they are popular, they may not be as popular as call of duty where everybody can jump in and play but they have been constantly one of the most popular online games. 

I'm a little confused by this point to be honest.  Maybe I read him wrong but was he saying Gears 3 is arcadey because that is how I read it?  He also stated that they dropped the ball with Gears 3's campaign.  IT was a great campaign.  They however left a few questions unansweredd though which was dissappointing but overall a great story.

I thought of you today, actually. I've achieved "Don't hate the player" (Being 1st in a ranked match) in my second attempt playing online with the first Gears. I found it kind of impressive that a game made in 2006 has still a solid community playing it.

And yes, Gears of war 2 was undoubtely a good game, but it is the black sheep of the trilogy.

Why the fuck does Myrrah look human...

Is Myrrah's Marcus mother? Seriously, she looked like she had an affair with Marcus' dad.

Other than that, yes. For me, the campaign in Gow3 is the best one; and I personally enjoyed the story of the trilogy. People don't praise Gow for the story but for the multiplayer, and I find that kind of a mistake.

Gears 2 is the black sheep? Check Vgchartz, its the best selling. Only bandwagon hoppers on the internet speak that nonsense. The only problem was the multiplayer was broken for quite sometime. Other than that it was by far the most solid entry in the series.