Constructive criticism

[Tibilicus]

I would just like to start of by saying this is a constructive post not just another bashing Epic thread. also it's very long, if you want to read then thank you if your gona flame about it being to long then don't read.

Basically I got this game 2 weeks ago and would like to give my feedback on the Multi player. As you might guess I'm disappointed.

First of my main problem is the whole concept of the MP. I never played gears of war online so the whole thing was new to me. The problem for me though is epic market their game as a "third person shooter". I would just like to know where the shooter comes into play? Besides the select few weapons pick ups the starting weapons are mainly useless for actually shooting. The Lancer and hammerburst are completely pointless unless some moron is running straight towards you with the chain saw revving. The damage output on both is so minimal that the only real way to kill some one is tog et up close and try and shotgun them. That leads on to my second point.

The shotgun itself is fine but its inconsistency is a nightmare. There have been times where people have been brandishing there lancers and running straight for me, so I pump a shotgun round into them only for nothing to happen. No knock back, no kill no nothing. Then what I like to call "the vacuum effect" takes place and I have to sit there watching myself being chainsawed in this so called "third person shooter". The game is also down heavily to chance. Will my shotgun actually knock back to guy running towards me with the chainsaw? Who knows. The ridiculous feature of chainsaw duels also adds nothing as no matter how fast you tap B the out come always seems to be that of chance. I actually tried this out and tapped B slowly one round and I still won. I then tapped it rapidly a second duel and lost. What gives?

Another major problem in this game is the whole matchmaking system. Yes I am aware of the ridiculously long time to find games problems but that isn't even the main problem for me. The problem is epic claim to have "true skill" matchmaking but how is it true skill when the teams end up up with me + 2 others against a full team of 5 higher ranks or me and a team of low level ranks against an extremely high level team. Even worse is the fact they then base the whole ranking system on wins and losses. Basically those people who have buddy's and are in clans can gain the highest ranks and dominate the game whilst normal people are left with whatever rubbish the matchmaking system decides to put on their team.

Lag is also a major issue and often ruins about a 1/5 of all my games. Often the best host isn't found or some one who isn't remotely with in my geographic are thus resulting in a poor connection for me. It is impossible for to play after about 10 PM GMT as being from the UK after that time I'm more often than not thrown into games with people from America and other country's.

I appreciate Gears 2 SP is all about the gore and making the action look cool but lets be honest, we don't want that formula for MP. Gaming online should be about who has the best aim and quickest reactions to get the kill. Not about who can optimize the use of the B button the best. I think you know when butting some one with the end of the hammerburst does more damage than shooting them with it you know the formula isn't right. Epic said in interviews they wanted to to make the MP less orientated around the shotgun, now it' revolves around the B button. I purchased this game hoping for a game which took tactics and good aiming to be successful. I was horribly wrong.

What I find more insulting is only a month after launch Epic don't have the time to listen to these problems but have time to churn out a map pack which they expect people to pay for. Are they honestly having a laugh? What ever happened to consumer rights?

You can tell me all you want if I don't like it then go play a different game but the fact is as consumers we have the right to state our opinion and expect better. The single player was great but no offence, I didn't really intend to fork out £40 for a 10 hour single player campaign..

[Grievous98]

You speak mostly truth. A lot of truth. Hopefully they're addressing the issues. Thats all we can really hope for.

[Ajimbo B]

Dude, no offense but do you have anything original to say? Every point you've made has already been beaten to death in this forum. All of your points are correct and valid, but everyone has already said them.

Also you forgot to mention all of the people who glitch in the game, ruining multiplayer even more, and the people who quit because they are losing.

Also, you are lucky that only 1/5 of your matches are laggy. For me about 1/3 of mine are laggy, and most of the matches that are fine some people quit so the teams are uneven.

[Ajimbo B]

Dude, no offense but do you have anything original to say? Every point you've made has already been beaten to death in this forum. All of your points are correct and valid, but everyone has already said them.

Also you forgot to mention all of the people who glitch in the game, ruining multiplayer even more, and the people who quit because they are losing.

Also, you are lucky that only 1/5 of your matches are laggy. For me about 1/3 of mine are laggy, and most of the matches that are fine some people quit so the teams are uneven.

[Cashus07]

From what I've read there wasn't any constructive critisum, or suggestion to make the game better. Yes lag is due to a majority of these problems, when there is no lag shotgun works fine, everything works great. I've used the lancer lots of times to stop people, some of the best players will only use hammerburst and active with it b/c its effective, thats why they gave smoke grenades with stun radius, and stoping power. So there are more tactics then jump rolling and shotgun.

[Mister Swizzle]

Yeah, I made a similar post a few weeks ago and i know how you feel, i think all of us gears fans do. I love gears so much its pretty much the only game i play aside of rockband when i have friends over or host partys etc. I played gears 1 religiously and we all hoped for so much in 2 and after watching all the videos on youtube and the commentaries on this site, i feel they let us down tremendously.

And i totally agree with you on the new maps, they delivered to us a broken game and then had the audacity to put out new multiplayer maps a month past its release for a game that hundreds of thousands of people come to these forums to complain about because of issues that shouldn't happen in this age of video gaming and programming, esp. when the game is working off of its predecessor for the most part, which aside of some glitches and lag, worked flawlessly.

I feel that they nerfed a lot of features in 2 to make it more noob friendly to increase sales and have more online players but it back fired on them. There is no reasoning for the constant randomness of the game, and the ranking system has failed for the sole reason that for the individual player, ranking up is next to impossible being that ranks only matter depending on the frequency of victories in a row aside of personal performance. If you search these threads you can read all about the real true skill and how what this website explains it to be and the actual creators of true skill say it to be are 2 different things.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/trueskill.aspx this is the website.

http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/Templates/CMBlog.aspx?id=1146&blogid=47896
This is gears version of how it works.

The Main issue with true skill is the lag in gears 2, its a measured feature according to true skills ranking procedure yet lag is a normal occurance in gears 2, 1/3 matches is pretty accurate to say.

There are some many things about gears that are unsatisfactory that epic really needs to take a look into what they have to do to remedy the situation, they have to understand that many of us will wait for them to perfect the game, but they have to acknowledge that they screwed up, and that they will take care of their patrons. People can accept the fact that there are issues, but to release something broken as they did, and then not have any posts on there website concerning these issues is in poor taste IMO. Gears fans need to back off a little bit but EPIC needs to come out and say that they acknowledge what we are saying, and they need to make good on what they told us was gonna be the biggest meanest and most bad assed game ever.

I love the game, but its randomness is so aggravating that i can feel my blood pressure rising match after match.

[Tibilicus]

Yeah, I made a similar post a few weeks ago and i know how you feel, i think all of us gears fans do. I love gears so much its pretty much the only game i play aside of rockband when i have friends over or host partys etc. I played gears 1 religiously and we all hoped for so much in 2 and after watching all the videos on youtube and the commentaries on this site, i feel they let us down tremendously.

And i totally agree with you on the new maps, they delivered to us a broken game and then had the audacity to put out new multiplayer maps a month past its release for a game that hundreds of thousands of people come to these forums to complain about because of issues that shouldn't happen in this age of video gaming and programming, esp. when the game is working off of its predecessor for the most part, which aside of some glitches and lag, worked flawlessly.

I feel that they nerfed a lot of features in 2 to make it more noob friendly to increase sales and have more online players but it back fired on them. There is no reasoning for the constant randomness of the game, and the ranking system has failed for the sole reason that for the individual player, ranking up is next to impossible being that ranks only matter depending on the frequency of victories in a row aside of personal performance. If you search these threads you can read all about the real true skill and how what this website explains it to be and the actual creators of true skill say it to be are 2 different things.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/trueskill.aspx this is the website.

http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/Templates/CMBlog.aspx?id=1146&blogid=47896
This is gears version of how it works.

The Main issue with true skill is the lag in gears 2, its a measured feature according to true skills ranking procedure yet lag is a normal occurance in gears 2, 1/3 matches is pretty accurate to say.

There are some many things about gears that are unsatisfactory that epic really needs to take a look into what they have to do to remedy the situation, they have to understand that many of us will wait for them to perfect the game, but they have to acknowledge that they screwed up, and that they will take care of their patrons. People can accept the fact that there are issues, but to release something broken as they did, and then not have any posts on there website concerning these issues is in poor taste IMO. Gears fans need to back off a little bit but EPIC needs to come out and say that they acknowledge what we are saying, and they need to make good on what they told us was gonna be the biggest meanest and most bad assed game ever.

I love the game, but its randomness is so aggravating that i can feel my blood pressure rising match after match.


Cheers for the reply. It is good to see i'm not the only one disappointed.

Any to all those above maybe if we keep up the pressure Epic might listen.

Oh and flamers GTFO I said if you don't want to read it or have anything useful to contribute then don't bother posting. What i tried to do was structure a post instead of be like every one else who just offers a widely sporadic argument with out even the use of a put together sentence.

If that's a problem go keep your opinion some where else cos im not going to be flamed for stating my opinion.

[Tibilicus]

From what I've read there wasn't any constructive critisum, or suggestion to make the game better. Yes lag is due to a majority of these problems, when there is no lag shotgun works fine, everything works great. I've used the lancer lots of times to stop people, some of the best players will only use hammerburst and active with it b/c its effective, thats why they gave smoke grenades with stun radius, and stoping power. So there are more tactics then jump rolling and shotgun.

You say lag is responsible for these problems which is true but the fact is nearly all the games are laggy. What's the point in using the hammerburst when there's a high chance it won't even work correctly. I'm not a "noob" I know how effective the hamemrburst can be. It's all I ever use in private matches with my friends or when I have a guarantee the game wont be laggy.

Even still the fact remains epic said they wanted to step away from the shotguns of Gears 1 and you try and bring in the argument of how smoke nades help and add more diversity to the game when all that happens is a smoke nade comes your way and you either get knocked down and chainsawed or knocked down and shotguned. Seems to me like more of the same rubbish except with a little twist.

The fact also remains the emphasis in this game is really taken of using your primary weapons to kill unless your opponent is about 5 meters away from you. And also lag can't be blamed for the ridiculous matchmaking problem.

You and others need to accept the fact that epic need to address some serious design flaws with this game. Instead of offering us a map pack which they expect people to buy I know I speak for a vast majority of people when I say I patch is much more urgent than getting money out of us.