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Gears of War - Reviews
- Thread starter Deepblue
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I might give that to you if you are a pro driver. If not, thats your perception based on knowing its a professional race using high tech cars. Any car or truck can take a corner in the same manner except in one area and that's speed. If I let you watch F1 cars go through a track one at a time you would have no ideal whose car was better without track times unless you can accurately judge speeds above 100 miles/hour just using your vision.
Furthermore, do you think your understanding and perception (pro or not) is anywhere near those of the actual driver of the car?
The only difference between a "pro" driver and any other driver is experience, right?
Do you think a pro driver can watch another pro driver and tell how well his car is handling? I can assure you that they all do it, and do it well.
Extend that to gaming. Can an experienced gamer watch a game being played by someone else and be able to tell the good and bad of it?
The obvious answer here is "yes."
Yeah, I waiting for Barbie's Fantasy Malibu Kitchen Creator's expansion pack the Ken's Master Mechanic Garage Creator myself. LOL
The only difference between a "pro" driver and any other driver is experience, right? No, there is a thing called talent or else we could all be Tony Steward or Micheal Su...uhmm..macher.
So you believe that watching a car go around the track is just as accurate as driving a car around a track in terms of judging handling and cornering? Its not.
Watching a game and playing a game is two different things. Watching can spark your interest but if the game is too easy/hard or controls too arkward your interest can disappear.
Plus, if watching videos and screen shots was such an accurate measurement in judging a game then there wouldn't be so many duds that failed to live up to their E3 hype.
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I know that most of us are talking about the math behind game reviews, but we all know that the writings that precede the numbers are of true importance. If an expected killer app receives an average score due to elements that do not detract from the reasons a person originally thought it would be a killer app, it is still a killer app. Gears is the first such game for the Xbox360 and it seems to have met most of the goals of reviewers (obsessed hardcore gamers who can write). After reading some of the previews and reviews of this game it appears that it is just about everything it was meant to be, therefore the scores - as is always the case - are arbitrary.
A reviewer gives out a bad/average review for an rpg and writes that it has a massive world and challenging enemies (which I like) and lacks everything else I may still buy or at the very lease read more about it from other sources. It's the writing man!
A reviewer gives out a bad/average review for an rpg and writes that it has a massive world and challenging enemies (which I like) and lacks everything else I may still buy or at the very lease read more about it from other sources. It's the writing man!
A pro driver watching a pro driver - yes.
This is different to the above though. Could a pro driver watch a novice driver in a car he's never driven and tell from them how well the car handles? How does he know when the oversteer in the corner he sees is due to the car or the driver? How does he know when the poor acceleration out of the corner is due to the car's lack of performance or the driver's timid use of the accelerator and bad gear shifting?
Yes.
Observation and experience.
See above.
Now, let me ask you this:
How do you think racing schools work?
Do you think a pro driver watches a novice, can tell the difference between a car deficiency and a driver error, and offers advice to the drive which will help them improve their control of the car?
Sorry, but if you are going to use this "tell how a car handles and why by watching it" comparison, then accept that yes, it's done, done daily, and done effectively. People make very good livings doing precisely that, and doing it extremely well.
So...has anyone finished the game yet? Anyone lose his job... cancel a date...
I haven't finished the game, but I did lose a LOT of sleep last night, and came in late to work this morning because of it.
Here's my take on the game, just some very basic thoughs.
Single Player
Very fun. Of course the graphics are awesome but they don't make or break a game for me. I am really enjoying the cover system and that is where the game hits it for me. It really is pretty much a run of the mill shooter IMO but the cover system adds a nice element that no other game has done WELL before. It's really easy to pick up and start moving from cover to cover but it takes some time to really master it. My own personal opinion on a games and their rating is based on what kind of emotion i feel while playing it. Gears rates about an 8.5 so far, bout half way through.
Just to give you an idea of what I am talking about. When I played the very first Medal Of Honor, I had to pause that game a number of times cause it made my heart race, my hands sweat. Everything came to together in that game for me, the music is probably still the best going, the atmosphere is top notch, and the sound quality was just unreal for a PSX game.
With Gears, that one moment comes when you fight the Berserker for the first time, I won't spoil anything but dam that was sweet. I though i was playing Resident Evil for a second. i got scared a bit, griped my controller a little harder than normal, and held my breath. Good stuff and i hope there are more moments like this later on in the game.
Multitplayer
Awesome. I still wish they could have given us 8v8 but 4v4 will do. My console online experience started with the original SOCOM and let me tell you I played that game to death for a year. No other game has come close to it, even any of the SOCOM sequels. Gears gave me that renewed feeling again as i was playing with some of my old SOCOM clanmates last night. It was a blast, we were laughing it up on the dead channel watching people getting crub stomped. I can't wait to get back on tonight to learn the other maps we didn't play and figure out some new strats.
It's not a 10 or even a 9.5 IMO, more like a 8.5 but it is a great gaming experience.
Single Player
Very fun. Of course the graphics are awesome but they don't make or break a game for me. I am really enjoying the cover system and that is where the game hits it for me. It really is pretty much a run of the mill shooter IMO but the cover system adds a nice element that no other game has done WELL before. It's really easy to pick up and start moving from cover to cover but it takes some time to really master it. My own personal opinion on a games and their rating is based on what kind of emotion i feel while playing it. Gears rates about an 8.5 so far, bout half way through.
Just to give you an idea of what I am talking about. When I played the very first Medal Of Honor, I had to pause that game a number of times cause it made my heart race, my hands sweat. Everything came to together in that game for me, the music is probably still the best going, the atmosphere is top notch, and the sound quality was just unreal for a PSX game.
With Gears, that one moment comes when you fight the Berserker for the first time, I won't spoil anything but dam that was sweet. I though i was playing Resident Evil for a second. i got scared a bit, griped my controller a little harder than normal, and held my breath. Good stuff and i hope there are more moments like this later on in the game.
Multitplayer
Awesome. I still wish they could have given us 8v8 but 4v4 will do. My console online experience started with the original SOCOM and let me tell you I played that game to death for a year. No other game has come close to it, even any of the SOCOM sequels. Gears gave me that renewed feeling again as i was playing with some of my old SOCOM clanmates last night. It was a blast, we were laughing it up on the dead channel watching people getting crub stomped. I can't wait to get back on tonight to learn the other maps we didn't play and figure out some new strats.
It's not a 10 or even a 9.5 IMO, more like a 8.5 but it is a great gaming experience.
To a degree, yes, I can agree with that. A driver who's driven lots and lots of cars in his time, who knows that a novice is driving an adequately prepared vehicle, can see what's the driver's fault or not. I don't think a pro racer from the circuits could watch a novice in an unknown dune-buggy making a hash of a rally event though, because the pro racer doesn't know how the dune-buggy handles in that situation.
Comparing this to games, a person who's a seasoned pro with Halo and other FPSes can look at a novice playing Halo or similar games and see where a novice is making mistakes, but where the game deviates to a degree, they can't determine that. Consider GeoW where duck-and-cover is essential, in stark contrast to other games of that ilk. Consider an expert gamer of GeoW who wins every tournament. Could that expert look at other GeoW players and see where they're going wrong? Yep. Could that expert GeoW player look at a novice playing a different game, where duck-and-cover isn't an option, and see where they're going wrong? I think not. If I were that expert, I'd be looking at a player running out into the monsters and getting shot up and I'd be thinking 'duck and cover you doofus!' without appreciating necessarily that this particlar game doesn't have duck-and-cover gamplay. The skills I would by looking for them to use aren't available to them. Consider an expert of fighting games that all have blocking, and then that fighter expert is asked to comment on the skills of players of a fighting game where there is no blocking. If it plays differently, his expertise doesn't give him insight. When a player is getting hammered with a 10-hit combo, the expert doesn't know whether it's that gamer's inability to block or retreat, or the rivals ability to execute an unstoppable super-move from which there's no counter.
I didn't follow this conversation enough to know what exactly the pro is supposedly loking for in the other plays, and in this case it may be right. But I dispute the idea that a pro in a field can always have insight into similar fields. It depends how much deviation from the pro's field of experience there is as to whether they can interpret what they're seeing correctly as a fault in the tools (game) or the use of them (gamer).
Ok this is silly. Yes you may look at a game and be able to decide if you'll like it or not. Thats perfectly fine and your business. But don't go onto a forum and post something like "I don't like this game" as if you've played it when you haven't. I think that was the problem people had with the post that started this mess.
Speculation about a game you haven't played can be interesting to some but you have to make sure those reading know its speculation.. so we can write it off as irrelevant
Anyway ladies, I have my copy. My buddy and I are holding a coop marathon later on tonight. Everybody is invited of course
Speculation about a game you haven't played can be interesting to some but you have to make sure those reading know its speculation.. so we can write it off as irrelevant
Anyway ladies, I have my copy. My buddy and I are holding a coop marathon later on tonight. Everybody is invited of course
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Many of the reviewers really liked the feel of the combat. What's funny is that a cover system/stop-and-pop/whatever-you-call-it is far closer to real combat than traditional FPS's. GOW looks a lot like the battles you'd see on CNN footage and in movies like Black Hawk Down, barring the weapons and aliens of course. Other shooters may have had cover, but GOW made it a focal point. I wonder why something so seemingly obvious (in hindsight) wasn't implemented by shooters 3-4 years ago? Stop-and-pop isn't technologically contrained as I'm sure the Xbox/PS2/Gamecube could have had a stop-and-pop game.
We weren't discussing a pro critiquing a player, we were discussing if a seasoned gamer can look at videos and screenshots of a game, and see what is wrong with the game without having to play it themselves. (And clearly a seasoned gamer has experience with lots of games, not just one.)
I think the answer should be obvious, we do it here all of the time.
Truly an amazing game. Played it for a few hours tonight and I have to say I was never any less than impressed throughout
We all know the graphics and sounds are ridiculously good but it's the controls that I'm really digging! I'm a PC kb/mouse person so I always havd had doubt about playing shooters on a console. Well, about an hour into it, all that disappeared. The controls are so damn perfect it's like telepathic control of the character. The active I have timed at a "one thousand one *click*" everytime!
Feels like a lifetime when you miss an active reload though. Oh you know you have the "A" button down well if the beserker part is a joke for you! The "A" button features, active reload and the camera position make this game very unique. Never once did the camera postion become a hinderence btw, it's simply perfect.
My only complaint so far are the nades. Perhaps I'm spoiled by CS:S and BF2 by being able to make Olympic style throws but I was hoping for a bit more range. You simply have to be too close (even arched up doesn't help) to make the nade count.
This game should be the benchmark for other shooters, by far. Full credit goes to Epic and MS on delivering such a gem. I can sincerely say if that you don't get to play GOW, you're missing out on a truly great experience. I simply could not say this about any 360 game prior to this.
We all know the graphics and sounds are ridiculously good but it's the controls that I'm really digging! I'm a PC kb/mouse person so I always havd had doubt about playing shooters on a console. Well, about an hour into it, all that disappeared. The controls are so damn perfect it's like telepathic control of the character. The active I have timed at a "one thousand one *click*" everytime!
Feels like a lifetime when you miss an active reload though. Oh you know you have the "A" button down well if the beserker part is a joke for you! The "A" button features, active reload and the camera position make this game very unique. Never once did the camera postion become a hinderence btw, it's simply perfect.
My only complaint so far are the nades. Perhaps I'm spoiled by CS:S and BF2 by being able to make Olympic style throws but I was hoping for a bit more range. You simply have to be too close (even arched up doesn't help) to make the nade count.
This game should be the benchmark for other shooters, by far. Full credit goes to Epic and MS on delivering such a gem. I can sincerely say if that you don't get to play GOW, you're missing out on a truly great experience. I simply could not say this about any 360 game prior to this.
