Gears of War 3

[Satanist]

Ok so this is out on the 20th and its getting some pretty darn good reviews.  If you've played the first 2 you know what to expect so anyone getting this and up for some co-op/horde/beast/deathmatch?

I played the Beta and loved it so cannae wait.

Oh and the 20ths my wedding anniversary so I'm in a bit of a pickle with this!

[Ghastly McNasty]

Will buy it when it comes down in price. Looking forward to it though. Thought the first 2 were amazing and have high hopes for this.

[radiator]

I'll be getting this on the 20th. Definitely up for some co-op/Horde action at some point (my Xbox tag is KissMammal).

Won't have much time to dedicate to it for a few weeks though, as I'm still getting stuck into Space Marine and want to play that a bit more before I dig into Gears, and I'm away on holiday late Sep til early Oct...

[mogzilla]

gonna be a rentAL till it comes down cos of skyrim... but i aint on live gold   and for some bizzare reason i lost my entire friends list (it was easy to find dave from work and my nephew((another dave funnily enuff))

   so any requests will be welcomed i'm "mogzilla71 on xbox live..

[Keef Monkey]

Will be getting it definitely! I love me some Gears, pretty excited about this. By a beautiful coincidence I booked 20th September off work a while back for something else (going to see PJ20 that night and didn't want to risk missing it for overtime) so now I've got a day off and Gears 3 and PJ20 that night. I love it when an accidental plan comes together!

Would be up for any MP sessions going, gamertag is Superbeasto.

[Starkers]

Just got my copy  Shame I had to come back to work rather than just going home mind you!! 

The Beta was excellent so really looking forward to this.

[Keef Monkey]

Been playing it a fair bit today (both on me own and in co-op) and it's brilliant! Exactly what you'd expect, it's Gears but bigger and flashier and the 4 player co-op takes it to another level. Loving it.

The whole front-end and MP integration looks really swish too, but I haven't jumped into any of the MP modes yet. You unlock a few goodies just for having played the first two though which is nice.

[Darren Stephens]

I've only played the versus so far. Awesome. They've tweaked it in all the right places. Looking forward to getting stuck into the story and hoarde modes.

[radiator]

Just played the opening so far. Initial thought - not keen on the Lambent, would rather be fighting the Locust tbh. Hope they show up soon.

[radiator]

Got to admit - I'm not loving the singleplayer so far. In addition to the combat feeling strangely lacking, and the Lambent (which I'm finding increasingly boring to fight, the big ones are just bullet-sponges and don't really demand any tactics to defeat), I'm finding the pace a bit slow, with constant interruptions, and while a couple of moments have raised a smile, it feels like the old chestnut of a game developer getting really excited about their lame story and letting it get in the way of the game - the 'touchdown' moment being a particularly cringe-worthy one.

I'm all for a good story in a game, but it shouldn't intrude too much. When it starts to smother the game like that (witness also the rather pompous prologue) it just winds me up and belies arrogance on the part of the developer. They seem to forget that it's only a tiny percentage of players that genuinely give a shit. This isn't a Greek tragedy - it's a load of nonsense involving ridiculous steroid-addled morons shooting monsters.

It's not holding up well to Gears 2 (or even Space Marine), which I pretty much loved from the off.

Graphics are stunning, though.

[Keef Monkey]

Graphics are stunning, though.

They indeed are, just played a some deathmatch and I was ooh-ing and ah-ing at every new map! Thinking about it, Gears was the first 360 game that truly blew me away visually, then Gears 2 blew that out the water and this is another equivalent step up I reckon. I guess no-one knows Unreal better than them though so it's to be expected.

I've been really enjoying the campaign, although I've only played the first act. I have played it 3 times though, once with 3 randoms, once with a mate and once on my own. Have to say it feels a bit flat solo, so I'm going to try and leave the campaign for that playthrough with my mate. I felt the same with the 1st campaign, it didn't do much for me until I played it with someone.

[radiator]

Im near the end now, and to be fair the second half is much stronger - I still roll my eyes every time the Lambent turn up to spoil the fun, though.

It may sound weird, but it really reminds me of Left 4 Dead, the way that you're up against swarms of, essentially, zombies most of the time.

I'm sure as Keef says, that it's fun to play co-op, but if you ask me, gearing the campaign for four players has kind of spoiled it slightly as a singleplayer experience. The dynamic has changed as a result, and the firefights lack a lot of the tension of the previous games. As it's so easy to get revived with 3 NPCs fighting alongside you, I rarely die even after cranking up the difficulty.

Yet another singleplayer game compromised due to the multiplayer! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the odd game of co-op and horde, but for me the meat of the game will always be the singleplayer, and in this respect Space Marine was much more enjoyable.

[mogzilla]

finished it and loved it! dom's death was expected but what a way to go! 

  the lambent humans were good and added a bit of zombie action though too similar to the husk from mass effect...hard to talk about it witout having all spoiler tags but bloody hell...

[mogzilla]

well, i succumbed and bought it! so have to save again for skrim!    still got some nice gears stickers. nice big crimson omen on my xbox and a gears one on my bike!

[Keef Monkey]

Still haven't finished the campaign (I keep getting lured into Warzone sessions -which are awesome!) but am surprised at how involved I am with the story at this point. Narrative has never been a strength of the franchise, but it is a very solid and nicely realized world and I'm looking forward to finding out how it all pans out. I'm holding off playing it on my own though so it may take a while to finish!