Notes from the Gearheads Podcast

[WILTRON]

I'd be surprised if this isn't on the forum anywhere, but I haven't seen it:

My notes from the Gearheadsofwar Podcast. Some are already known, others are new to me.

It's over an hour long I think.

- Torque headshots decapite and stick the head to the nearest wall until it explodes
- Host fix unconfirmed (it was all on LAN)
- Screenshots were hard to take due to pace of the action
- You can change options / maps / settings in the lobby
- Haloish matchmaking confirmed.
- Martyrdom not so bad. Much harder to pull off than in COD4
- very few Locust shields on the map
- Shields (meat and metal) very effective
- Flamethrower somewhat slow to kill. Fire doesn't seem to attach to the victim.
- River map was the most fun (like Canals but about 20% larger).
- Shotgun nerfed from a distance. Still powerful within 10 ft. Slower rate of fire. Stopping power also discourages shotgun rushes.
- Lancer seemed more accurate. More powerful now.
- Hammerburst useful med - long range
- Boomshot not as wide a splash damage, but more accurate. 4 shots and 2 shot simultaneous on active reload. Not nerfed.
- Concussive force of smoke grenade very effective.
- Chainsaw overpowered? Stopping power didn't slow down or even stun a chainsawer. Bug. chainsaw still sucks around corners. Bug. Should be fixed before Nov.
- No melee stun.
- Most active reloads just make you reload faster and add a little more damage. No one shot downs.
- Gorgon pistol nerfed. Still 6 round bursts and accurate, but time between bursts extended.
- Torque targeting reticule changes color and shape to clue you in that it's ready.
- Wingman plays like FFA with a partner.
- Meatflag renamed Submission. AI dialed back from previous iterations. Only attacks when threatened.
- Bots? Probably (edit: Yes)
- Guardian far more enjoyable than Assasination.
- Execution, Warzone, Annex returning. 7 - 10 new gametypes.
- Spending 50% of the development time on multiplayer. Already looks and plays well.
- They're trying to bring strategic / cover gameplay back.
- Video recording likely. (Edit: Nope)
- Chainsaw duel works fine. Teammates shooting the attacker works well.
- Vulnerable during executions. Dangerous to showboat.
- Crawling around makes the game far more interesting when you're down.
- about 6 or 7 different character models for each side
- Quite a few "I can't talk about this or that new thing" moments


jeez that was long.

[Tarheal]

I can imagine the new shotgun being as slow as the one from battlefield: bad company

[Sugartits]

Will definitely tune in to this tonight.

[WILTRON]

Sorry. Deleted the previous post because I noticed another thread about it. For anyone that missed it:

Geoff Keighley and GameTrailers TV will be airing brand spanking new, unseen Gears 2 footage TONIGHT on Spike. According to their little teaser ad, they'll be talking with Cliff B. and the Epic crew who'll introduce fresh Gears 2 campaign footage as well as an unannounced multiplayer map. You can watch all the Cliff, Gears and bloody violent gameplay tonight at 1:00AM eastern (10:00PM pacific) on Spike and GameTrailers.com.

[MKTSirHenry]

I hope we do see video recording similar to that of Halo 3's theatre!

[Fred_Perry]

- Boomshot not as wide a splash damage, but more accurate. 4 shots and 2 shot simultaneous on active reload. Not nerfed.

Oh my ! Thanks for the infos.

[dan91easton]

Thank you for allowing use to change everything in the Lobby....I think this pretty much confirms a non-server style of online this time around...it'll be setup just like Halo 3, PERFECT!

Now...what are these settings defined that we can change?

[ARman]

Torque Bow is my new favourite weapon

[DUBL DUECE]

Thanks I could'nt get the podcast to work. Sending my Xbox in for repairs on Mon. E3 and othe GoW2 will have to got me through the next couple of weeks.

[Taffer]

I wish Epic would so podcasts similarly to what Bungie did. Those were actually a lot of fun to listen to in the background while doing other work. Then again, Bungie has people specifically hired for watching and interacting with the community. Does Epic have anyone like that?

[Birdy Man Bird]

From the looks of it this game is getting worse and worse on a competitive level. I can see it now the higher you rank up the worsening the experience.

People are barely going to be able to move anywhere without dying. This is Halo 3 all over gain. Jesus.

[Tarheal]

How do you figure this "Caters to the nubs"? If anything this would make the game a greater challenge rather then Gears 1.

[Birdy Man Bird]

How do you figure this "Caters to the nubs"? If anything this would make the game a greater challenge rather then Gears 1.

You need to go back and look at different games in the context of the console shooter to understand that this isn't always the case. In theory it all might seem dandy but what it does is bring the playing field leveled, but at a level far below what it was originally at. The gap between a good player and a decent player becomes a lot more narrow.

What this does is create this playground atmosphere where no one is really decent at the game (at a certain level at the top not at the bottom cuz nubs will always be nubs) and the whole experience becomes just one frustrating mess (a la Halo 3).

Put it this way- instead of giving everyone a two inch blade that would require some type of martial arts skill to wield, they'll give everyone a long baseball bat where whomever gets lucky with it wins. It's essentially like a game of rockets in halo 1 where even the worst player had a chance to win.

This isn't fun, this is frustrating and aggravating. Gears of War 1 was an triumph online regardless of the problems. Over tweaking could shatter the core experience by just creating another casual shooter. I wonder if it will even overtake COD4 or Halo3 now.

Before I thought it would dominate...

[Tarheal]

Will it overtake CoD4 and H3? Of course it will! The title is enough to convince people to buy it.

So trying to open up to casual gamers belittles the game. Adding features that make the game an overall more balanced affair bridges the gap between decent and good?

When you exploit a flaw in Gears 1 that does NOT make you better then the average gamer who plays for fun. Until people stop weapon sliding or wall bouncing I don't consider them pro.

My honest opinion.

[Einchy]

THE SHOTGUN

Nov 2006-Nov 2008

Goodnight sweet prince.

[Tarheal]

QFT, Einchy

[WILTRON]

Birdy Man, From what I've read of your posts, your definition of "nub" includes the vast majority of people who play Gears. It only makes sense that Epic would cater to that audience.

[Wisdom Thumbs]

Yeah... by Birdy's definition "nub" includes about 90% of GoW players...

Birdy, just wait until you play the game. You haven't played it yet, you have absolutely no idea how it works or what the balance is.

From what I've seen it's going to be harder to get kills, yes, but only because the difference between n00b players (in the original definition of the word) and l337 players (in the original definition of the word) will be a lot larger.

In other words, the gap between skilled players and unskilled players will be larger, not smaller.

No god-mode, no weapon-sliding, no crab-walking, no shotgun spamming, anyone?

[Mortificus]

THE SHOTGUN

Nov 2006-Nov 2008

Goodnight sweet prince.

loved by some, hated by others, but nonetheless your randomness will be forgotten because of the new features

[Birdy Man Bird]

I only speak from personal experience and watching one particular franchise (can you guess what one?) get flushed down the toilet. And let me tell you something, those same arguments and justifications that are being touting here by you guys were being done back then to.

Tweaking certain aspects of the game (wall bouncing, weapon sliding, inconsistency, party system) are ok and would effectively remedy the other problems but when going out and nerfing every little thing is a bad idea, bad bad bad idea. Because each tweak will compound on top of one another and inherently create a whole other slew of problems.

Just watch kids, just watch.

[< Profess >]

You have to understand though that none of what your saying really rings true as your adamant about Gears1 being fine how it is.

Which is something of an exclusive standpoint.

[WILTRON]

I only speak from personal experience and watching one particular franchise (can you guess what one?) get flushed down the toilet. And let me tell you something, those same arguments and justifications that are being touting here by you guys were being done back then to.

Tweaking certain aspects of the game (wall bouncing, weapon sliding, inconsistency, party system) are ok and would effectively remedy the other problems but when going out and nerfing every little thing is a bad idea, bad bad bad idea. Because each tweak will compound on top of one another and inherently create a whole other slew of problems.

Just watch kids, just watch.

You're right about one thing: This is the same argument that I had with the self-proclaimed 1337 players on the b.net forums. Exactly the same.

If H3 got flushed down the toilet, why is the MLG still playing it? Why are 100's of thousands of people still playing it? Why did it sell millions of copies? Careful, you're about to make my point for me.

*Side note: I'm probably old enough to be your father. Referring to me as a "kid", even in the ridiculous lingo of the internet, is funnier than you can imagine.

[Einchy]

loved by some, hated by others, but nonetheless your randomness will be forgotten because of the new features

:'(

You never really understand how much you love someone till you see them gone.

[Birdy Man Bird]

You're right about one thing: This is the same argument that I had with the self-proclaimed 1337 players on the b.net forums. Exactly the same.

If H3 got flushed down the toilet, why is the MLG still playing it? Why are 100's of thousands of people still playing it? Why did it sell millions of copies? Careful, you're about to make my point for me.

*Side note: I'm probably old enough to be your father. Referring to me as a "kid", even in the ridiculous lingo of the internet, is funnier than you can imagine.

Ah, and you are the type I can pick out of a crowd of em. Halo 3 is the worst multiplayer experience out of the three games released by Bungie in the Halo universe. Just because the company road the waves of the first truly competitive and well executed console shooter of all time does not mean their sequels were superior games.

Halo Ce sold 5 million copies with a much smaller install base as was played religiously though out it's tenure and is still regarded as one of the greatest games of last gen. Halo 2 sold about 3 million copies more and was played all the way up until Gears of War (a game that will be regarded as a classic of it's time) but with much fan backlash and problems. Then you get Halo 3 that sold 8.1 million copies and will eventually sell only slightly more than the previous game even though it's install base is much greater. On top of that you have the game selling 8 million copies but falling to COD4 in xbox live activity, a game that sold about less than half than halo 3 did mind you. What does that say?

Halo 3 was hyped and marketed more so than any game in the history of consoles and yet with everything going for it, it's tracking worse than it's previous game? and not only that fell to a war shooter with half the sales?

Umm hmm.

And for the record most if not all Halo pros and participants in MLG detest Halo 3 when compared to the other 2. Thanks. Enjoy.

[Mortificus]

Tweaking certain aspects of the game (wall bouncing, weapon sliding, inconsistency, party system) are ok and would effectively remedy the other problems but when going out and nerfing every little thing is a bad idea, bad bad bad idea. Because each tweak will compound on top of one another and inherently create a whole other slew of problems.

dawn of war (for the computer) suffers the same problem: everything is "overpowered" then they nerf everything, then they realize they nerfed it too much, then its all overpowered again, etc etc

[Sugartits]

Will it overtake CoD4 and H3? Of course it will! The title is enough to convince people to buy it.

So trying to open up to casual gamers belittles the game. Adding features that make the game an overall more balanced affair bridges the gap between decent and good?

When you exploit a flaw in Gears 1 that does NOT make you better then the average gamer who plays for fun. Until people stop weapon sliding or wall bouncing I don't consider them pro.

My honest opinion.

Wall bouncing isn't a glitch. Its a legitimate strategy.

[Mortificus]

Wall bouncing isn't a glitch. Its a legitimate strategy.

i agree. its not like weapon sliding or crabwalking where your doing something your not supposed to be doing (ei, moving when you pick something up, or shooting when your roadie running)

[Birdy Man Bird]

Wall bouncing isn't a glitch. Its a legitimate strategy.

it is but it's a flaw inherent within the cover system that only manifested after they tweaked the original setting. problems like this will arise even more when they go tweaking every little aspect of the game to "better balance" it out.

it wont balance anything, what it will do is aggravate dedicate gears players while manifesting a whole new array of issues that the kids that get killed now will start to b/tch about because they are getting killed again, just in a different way lol.

case in point- bungie.net kids complained that during 1v1 halo 2 days people would position themselves in high spots on the maps and BR downwards. Fine, bungie goes and tweaks the BR too death, BUT introduces an insanely powerful AR, and ping pong grenades.

So what happens in 1v1 halo 3? kids camp a spot and wait for the other player to turn the corner and boom they bounce a grenade off the wall and then chase them down (which is impossible to run from ) with an AR. Gone are the days of legitimate duels (like we have with the shotgun now) and in its placed is an obnoxious camp like gametype where people wait wait wait and then execute a very lame a55 kll. lol

[dj asakura]

It's been brought up before but I think (and it would seem) that wallbouncing will still be in.

We'll see though, I think wallbouncing is legit and not taking advantage of anything, it's just how the cover system works. Again, we'll see though

[WILTRON]

... Just because the company road the waves of the first truly competitive and well executed console shooter of all time does not mean their sequels were superior games.

Halo Ce sold 5 million copies with a much smaller install base as was played religiously though out it's tenure and is still regarded as one of the greatest games of last gen. Halo 2 sold about 3 million copies more and was played all the way up until Gears of War (a game that will be regarded as a classic of it's time) but with much fan backlash and problems. Then you get Halo 3 that sold 8.1 million copies and will eventually sell only slightly more than the previous game even though it's install base is much greater. On top of that you have the game selling 8 million copies but falling to COD4 in xbox live activity, a game that sold about less than half than halo 3 did mind you. What does that say?

Halo 3 was hyped and marketed more so than any game in the history of consoles and yet with everything going for it, it's tracking worse than it's previous game? and not only that fell to a war shooter with half the sales?

Umm hmm.

And for the record most if not all Halo pros and participants in MLG detest Halo 3 when compared to the other 2. Thanks. Enjoy.

Ridiculous. You can't ride the waves of anything to 8 million copies sold. Just because Halo3 isn't the only game on the block, as it was with Halo2, doesn't make it a failure. H3 still has a dedicated following and huge numbers of people who play it as part of their regular rotation of shooters. You're also recycling the H1>H2 argument. If Halo CE was the best of the 3 (in a competitive sense) , it would still be the mainstay of MLG Halo games wouldn't it? Halo is really beside the point though.

The bottom line here is: you and other "pros" can ***** and complain all you want. You'll buy Gears2 and it will sell milions to the normal people who don't nitpick every little detail. We'll play because it's fun, not because it's the most balanced, stripped down shooter out there.

[Taffer]

Ah, and you are the type I can pick out of a crowd of em.

Believe it or not Birdy Man your arguments are all extremely cookie-cutter as well. There will ALWAYS be a small crowd that dislikes it when change occurs to a game (hell, it's the same with movie sequels, television shows, and when bands make newer albums).

Call of Duty 4 beating Halo 3 does not prove that Halo 3 is worse than Halo 1 and 2. That makes utterly no sense. Hell, that could prove that Call of Duty 4 is better than ALL Halo's. In fact, I would say that's the case. When you talk straight up multiplayer, Call of Duty 4 takes the cake.

What surprises me about you, though, is that you believe Halo 2 to be greater than Halo 3. What with the ridiculous aim-adjust and magnetism that Halo 2 employed most everyone agrees that the third game is less "noobified" than the second. I mean, while I actually think magnetism is an absolutely excellent feature for games to use, sniping in Halo 2 was hilarious. Just slide the sniper and the game automatically stops the crosshair on your opponent's head.

I will say, though, that the one thing I miss about the first Halo was the shotgun. Now all we get is those ****ty, utterly worthless crap guns. 8v8 on BattleCreek with only shotguns is probably some of the best fun I've had in gaming.