never gears all the way baby!

Eww, no. PS3 bad. Xbox good. Mmm.

MUST DESTROY PS3 EMPIRE

Well, it's more an exception to the rule. For me Gears 2 wasn't engaging at all. I guess it was way too predictable. In contrary to its predecessor the melee combat felt clumsy as hell, the outcome had more to do with your connection than with skill. The first Gears became even more engaging the more I learned.

I'll give you an example of what I mean: At some point very late into the games life I learned how to use a sniper in almost every situation. Imagine you're the last man standing, you get up the stairs and hear an enemy is revving up the bayonet behind you, you turn around quickly and shoot without hesitation giving him a head shot for the game winning kill with a freaking sniper. The whole scene is over at the blink of an eye. Would you go, "yeah, that was cool". Or would go like "hell fucking yeah". I've seen people so good with the sniper, they could pull off something like that every freaking round. They were way out of my league and I wasn't exactly what you'd call a bad shot.

I guess this is what I primarily seek in MP games: Continuously getting better at it and seeing the results immediately. The Halo games are a good example of that, although I had the feeling that with Halo 3 I hit the ceiling way too early. Bad Company 2 is a good example of that, too. With all the kits and vehicles you have it offers you something new to learn every time you put in the disc. Flying a heli at the edge of what's possible. Outsmarting the enemy movement and racking up 'em kills. As soon as I have the feeling I don't make any progression I try something new.

Eve online is a totally different beast. Not only is it the most complex game I ever played, it's also the least forgiving. Again to get a perspective I'll give you an example. The first proper contact with PvP I ever had was when I got my first Battleship. It was way too expensive for me, so I build it myself. I mined the bulk of easily obtainable minerals myself and bought the unobtainable very expensive ones from the market. It probably took me a month to get everything together, but it was no biggy because it took over a month to train for that ship. So once I had it I thought I'd go make more money fast in lawless space, couldn't be that difficult now that I had the most powerful ship?

Next thing I know a red square appears on my hud and I get tackled by a small frigate. Then 3-4 pirate ships warp in on me and open fire, one of them had another Battleship. Of course I didn't stand a chance and once I was about to die their leader opened a chat with me and demanded ransom, money that I didn't have since I spent it on the ship. We made an arrangement that he would take the ship, give me free passage out of the system and half of the ships' value. Later I learned that the leader was a pirate legend and I was lucky that I ran into someone who honoured his agreements.
So yes, this is a little anecdote from a game I was really passionate about years ago. This started my whole PvP "career", made me get hired by the best pirate hunting corporation eve has ever seen and from that point I became hooked on the intensity of that aspect of the game.

What I'm trying to say is: The more there is at stake, the more intense the battle will get. It gets even more intense when your survival is only dependant on your own judgement and skill. The Warzone mode in Gears had everything, it was lost in the sequel and I hope I'll return in Gears 3.

@Viginti, well I see the difference is that I can never put nearly that much time into games. I don't mean that in a negative nor condescending way at all, I just don't have nearly that much of a passion you seem to.

Sounds like me playing basketball, when I have a good game going and I'm hitting three pointers from "in the gym" range, the high I get from that sounds similar to what you are describing.

Made we want to play EVE at least lol. Never played that game but damn if that doesn't sound like a really interesting gaming universe/community.

I don't think I put much time into games either, it's 4-10 hours on week ends. I mean, when I still went to school I had lots of time and I played lots of Halo 2. But for me every shooter is basically the same, and the time it takes to adjust to new mechanics is the time to learn the new controls. I guess when I have to change my input device is the time when I'll stop having that luxury.

I can relate to getting highs from sports too, but it feels different when you're exhausted. I felt a lot calmer whenever scored (be it handball or basketball), and the calmer I was the better I played. When I had an adrenalin rush in EVE I usually felt the need to run, or at least do something because I couldn't calm myself down, it just overwhelmed me. For that reason I never played too long in a single sitting.

LOL! love it :)

Not that ironic at all. In MW2's case, people were having specific issues with things like getting killed too much by air support. That can be attributed to not knowing how to play the game.

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/05/07/...

Nice cover in the magazine.

Pure EPICNESS cant wait!!

I've gotta say, I absolutely love the design of these Lambent beast... things. The Locusts were creepy enough to begin with, but these new creatures are on a whole new level.

The Lambent aren't just Flood versions of the Locust, are they?

No there not a flood equiverlant.

@DC: check this bad video of the GI mag, even with the crap quality you can see how great this game will look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOx1cayDn8A

no there not, the flood are lowly parasitic lifeforms, and the Lambent are badass mutants!! :)

+1

mark 1
aliens face huggers are breeders they live to shoot there wad in others
mark 2
Half lifes face hugger thing's are parasites that take over a body to control it and feed off it.
mark 3
flood are parasites taking over a body not to feed though, only to kill so there "face huggers" can infect others
mark 4
Lambent are mutations from the fuel... do they breed? not by the looks of it it looks like they have a queen that pulls in other living creatures to be mutated in the fuel (assuming that is what the tentacles are doing, do they feed? probably off the dead.. pretty much the same deal at the end of the day when your shooting them all, but there biology is different.. I suppose.


Aliens rules :)

still no HQ scans?

Amen to that.

I would also like to add that The Flood sucks. These Lambent creatures are way cooler.

Why are the Lambent cooler? Do you mean just in how they look?

Yeah, I dig their design.

I do like their design more than the Flood's. They don't seem as plant-like and busy, and the skull-like faces are cool.