Gears & Beers Fridays

Staats wrote:

I am seriously not digging the lobby system. Too much time not playing, and our practice of carefully crafting even teams through a session has disappeared.

Yeah, the amount of time spent in the lobby was a complaint I had about Halo. My first impression was that the system was definitely more Halo like.

I hadn't paid attention to how the teams were distributed. Is it actually random? Because you are right, in private rooms that continued on for several hours, there was always ongoing tweaking of the team balance to make sure things stayed competitive. The loss of that ability would be annoying.

I wonder if the problems with the lobby system were intentional, meant to herd people into the NXE party system for their group lobby needs.

I'm not seeing serious problems with the multiplayer.

Shotgun: The range is reduced, the damage is not. You can still liquefy someone in one point blank shot. The shotgun is excellent at stopping the chainsaw attack, unlike the other guns. The hit model is goofy but it's always been like that. The first game would blow your head off at 30 feet.

Flamethrower: Awesome weapon. AWESOME. It has a particular use, though. Do not use it in an open area, save it for tight quarters. It works well around corners and over cover. You aim right for someone's face and they can't see you at all, are forced to fire blindly. A great chaos weapon, I've taken out 2 attackers with shotguns, simply because they couldn't see me well enough to react.

Chainsaw: I don't see the problem, not really. It's not like the shotgun rush, which was pretty much unstoppable. If someone runs at you with their chainsaw revved they are moving very slowly and you can usually roll away and keep shooting at them. The only real problem is when you are approaching melee range, normally every other weapon could pwn a lancer because the chainsaw was so easy to interrupt. I never though it was realistic that a pistol or sniper rifle would win at close range against a submachine gun with a chainsaw attached. That doesn't pass the common sense test.

Lobby: mostly good, although I don't understand why it has 2 "stages" and you can't invite anyone in the second "stage."

Maps: mostly good to great. I don't particularly like the lasers in Security, and wish we had the option to turn them off. I miss the simple nature of the maps from Gears 1. Mansion, Gridlock, and Canals had clean layouts that were immediately understandable. Gears 2 maps are "busy." This is probably a good thing, though, we'll still be discovering things about them in 6 months.

Host-advantage: Err, no. I'm not seeing it. I've been hosting, I haven't lost my skills, and I'm not hitting the 15+ kills that I used to get hosting the first game.

There is a button to change teams while in the lobby.

Having only played Gears 1 for the last month, and being seriously frustrated for the first 2 weeks of that, Gears 2 is much easier to pick up and a lot smoother. The shotgun is where it should be, but the chainsaw needs a little tweaking. I've shot people point blank with the shotgun and still got cut in half. Overall the game is a much better improvement. The time in the lobby is a little long.

Wasn't security supposed to have laser sensor turrets? I could swear I saw this in some of the early multiplayer footage they were showing off. I know the campaign has them but I thought they were in multiplayer as well.

turbocopland wrote:

I hadn't paid attention to how the teams were distributed. Is it actually random? Because you are right, in private rooms that continued on for several hours, there was always ongoing tweaking of the team balance to make sure things stayed competitive. The loss of that ability would be annoying.

You can do it, but you need to set them up every single game, which takes (more) time, coordination, and some soberness. Gears is the only game I've played with GWJers in which teams were so carefully balanced, and I think part of that was due to how easy it was. (I think another part is how easy it was to create unbalanced teams in a 4v4 game with such disparate skill levels, but that holds true in Gears 2 as well.) Time will tell if we fall into the habit again.

The multiple lobby thing wouldn't be so bad if chat didn't drop between them and wasn't restricted during the game, or if the ready system was still in place. After each game, post-game chatter occurs that would have occurred between rounds, and then "Everyone ready?" calls go out, and usually the host is generally polite enough to not cut off the conversation, etc. We need a real asshole to host, someone who starts knowing everyone is in the bathroom and tells everyone to shutup and play.

Staats wrote:
turbocopland wrote:

I hadn't paid attention to how the teams were distributed. Is it actually random? Because you are right, in private rooms that continued on for several hours, there was always ongoing tweaking of the team balance to make sure things stayed competitive. The loss of that ability would be annoying.

You can do it, but you need to set them up every single game, which takes (more) time, coordination, and some soberness. Gears is the only game I've played with GWJers in which teams were so carefully balanced, and I think part of that was due to how easy it was. (I think another part is how easy it was to create unbalanced teams in a 4v4 game with such disparate skill levels, but that holds true in Gears 2 as well.) Time will tell if we fall into the habit again.

The multiple lobby thing wouldn't be so bad if chat didn't drop between them and wasn't restricted during the game, or if the ready system was still in place. After each game, post-game chatter occurs that would have occurred between rounds, and then "Everyone ready?" calls go out, and usually the host is generally polite enough to not cut off the conversation, etc. We need a real asshole to host, someone who starts knowing everyone is in the bathroom and tells everyone to shutup and play. :)

I could be that asshole, if not for my thin little network connection! Oh, the tragedy!

Staats wrote:
turbocopland wrote:

I hadn't paid attention to how the teams were distributed. Is it actually random? Because you are right, in private rooms that continued on for several hours, there was always ongoing tweaking of the team balance to make sure things stayed competitive. The loss of that ability would be annoying.

You can do it, but you need to set them up every single game, which takes (more) time, coordination, and some soberness. Gears is the only game I've played with GWJers in which teams were so carefully balanced, and I think part of that was due to how easy it was. (I think another part is how easy it was to create unbalanced teams in a 4v4 game with such disparate skill levels, but that holds true in Gears 2 as well.) Time will tell if we fall into the habit again.

The multiple lobby thing wouldn't be so bad if chat didn't drop between them and wasn't restricted during the game, or if the ready system was still in place. After each game, post-game chatter occurs that would have occurred between rounds, and then "Everyone ready?" calls go out, and usually the host is generally polite enough to not cut off the conversation, etc. We need a real asshole to host, someone who starts knowing everyone is in the bathroom and tells everyone to shutup and play. :)

You've never played when I've hosted have you?

Hi guys

I'm a recent subscriber to the GWJ podcast and a huge Gears of War fan. I listen to a lot of community based podcasts and haven't really felt compelled to reach out to anyone of them in particular, but you guys sound awesome I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but I would love to play some gears with you guys. I'm really starting to find that my enjoyment level in these games drops significantly when the lobby chat turns into an all out verbal war, and nothing beats some good well balanced private games, as you guys said. So anyways, my gamertag is Insulslayer, and I would love to game with you dudes.

Cheers

insulslayer wrote:

but you guys sound awesome

I hope you handle dissapointment well.

skeletonframes wrote:
insulslayer wrote:

but you guys sound awesome

I hope you handle dissapointment well.

Speak for yourself. I am awesome.

I got some beers, whos up for some Gears? I'll be on for a few hours tonight.

ChrisLTD wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:
insulslayer wrote:

but you guys sound awesome

I hope you handle dissapointment well.

Speak for yourself. I am awesome.

But are you Awesome 3.0?

Nimcosi wrote:
ChrisLTD wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:
insulslayer wrote:

but you guys sound awesome

I hope you handle dissapointment well.

Speak for yourself. I am awesome.

But are you Awesome 3.0?

He's awesome like David Copperfield -- "just watch as the Locust heads disappear!"

Nimcosi wrote:
ChrisLTD wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:
insulslayer wrote:

but you guys sound awesome

I hope you handle dissapointment well.

Speak for yourself. I am awesome.

But are you Awesome 3.0?

This is a new version of Gears! Awesome 3.0 isn't compatible!

pneuman wrote:
Nimcosi wrote:
ChrisLTD wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:
insulslayer wrote:

but you guys sound awesome

I hope you handle dissapointment well.

Speak for yourself. I am awesome.

But are you Awesome 3.0?

He's awesome like David Copperfield -- "just watch as I take you to my secret rape island"

fixed that for you. no charge.

He's awesome like David Copperfield -- "just watch as I take you to my secret rape island"

fixed that for you. no charge.

I saw him when he did his show here in Edmonton in October. His first trick involved the sitting room audience flash their hands in the air to show off their rings.... Coincidence? You could see his handlers whisper something in the ears of a couple of the females also.

Sent an invite......hoping to play some multi with someone other than a random 13 year old

GWJers+beer=13 year olds

B*tches.

I haven't tested the waters of the new multi-player yet. I feel I should finish the campaign to sharpen my skills first. Do you guys do private (invite only) matches?

stupidhaiku wrote:

GWJers+beer=13 year olds

B*tches.

STFU STUPID.

EvilDead wrote:

I haven't tested the waters of the new multi-player yet. I feel I should finish the campaign to sharpen my skills first. Do you guys do private (invite only) matches?

I find a good way to sharpen you're skills is with the Horde mode. Just find a buddy and crank the difficulty up to HOLY sh*t. Aside from that there really is no replacement for player vs player.
Anyways, I would also be interested in some private matches, so I will send out some FRs later today.

Cheers

G4's Gears of War 2 requested patch list

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/pos...

I agree with everything there, and I would add the ability to turn off the "Sudden Death" feature when there's only two people left.

Got Gears on Monday, was supposed to get here on release day, but oh well, Amazon and/or UPS messed up. What can you do.

Anyway...I will be on tonight around 10pm Pacific, so if there are other late night West Coasters out there I would love to get into some Horde mode. I am on the GWJ Gears friend list.

I think I will be partaking in some Guinness tonight. Cheers!

Gumbie wrote:

G4's Gears of War 2 requested patch list

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/pos...

I agree with everything there, and I would add the ability to turn off the "Sudden Death" feature when there's only two people left.

I agree with just about everything they had, too. I strongly disagree with you on the idea of turning off Sudden Death. You have no idea how boring it is to watch idly as two players circle the map looking for each other for 3 more minutes. I know, "don't die" and that fixes everything, but sometimes you get a Torque Bow stuck in your foot and you die. I would say that instead of going back to map cycles, just put map selection on the second Lobby room so the host can change maps without going all the way back out to the first lobby - of course, this includes having a match end means you go back to the second lobby, and only by the host hitting 'B' do you go back to the first lobby. It would speed things up dramatically getting those two things changed.

insulslayer wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

I haven't tested the waters of the new multi-player yet. I feel I should finish the campaign to sharpen my skills first. Do you guys do private (invite only) matches?

I find a good way to sharpen you're skills is with the Horde mode. Just find a buddy and crank the difficulty up to HOLY sh*t. Aside from that there really is no replacement for player vs player.

I got to play some last night with what seems to some legends of GWJ Gears. It was pretty sick. I think I went three matches without registering a kill. At one point, I'm looking at the score screen, and everybody on my team had 600-1100 points. I was sitting at the bottom with 7. Yes, SEVEN. I just mentioned how kick ass I was doing, everybody laughed, and we moved on. GWJ is really is filled with guys that just want to enjoy the game.

During the last match I had finally registered some kills, and was actually staying alive for whole rounds! Then, in the final round of the final match of the night, I registered the final kill with my very first chainsaw death ever. It really made all those rounds of being nothing more than cannon fodder worth it. I danced a little jig in my living room.

One of the advantage of just playing is that once I was killed, I could watch different players and get a feel for what they were doing that I wasn't.

Gumbie wrote:

G4's Gears of War 2 requested patch list

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/pos...

I agree with everything there, and I would add the ability to turn off the "Sudden Death" feature when there's only two people left.

I like the Sudden Death message. It completely eliminates "I didn't know I was the only one left!" & "Guys I need help! ... Guys?"

I like the Sudden Death message. It completely eliminates "I didn't know I was the only one left!" & "Guys I need help! ... Guys?"

I didn't think that needed to be eliminated...

nsmike wrote:
I like the Sudden Death message. It completely eliminates "I didn't know I was the only one left!" & "Guys I need help! ... Guys?"

I didn't think that needed to be eliminated...

Yeah, it would be great if they could pipe that out to the dead people when there was only one left on each side. That would be very entertaining.