If you're talking about Gears 1, it was famous for the delayed texture loading issue, and the slow movement speed transitions were also quite obvious. It wasn't about Epic being that much clever, or the game being that impressive in this regard.
If you really want to bring up an example for an outstanding accomplishment, choose Halo 1 instead, with its 1-second loading times within the main levels...
If you really want to bring up an example for an outstanding accomplishment, choose Halo 1 instead, with its 1-second loading times within the main levels...