Gears of War...I love you...I hate you.

Ever since November 12th of last year....Gears of War has been my shooter of choice. In the beginning their were a few issues that needed to be fixed. And some of them were.
Then things that didn't need to be touched were getting screwed up. The roadie run for one. Before all the "fixes", the roadie run was fine. The system worked. But all these timmies started bitching on the Epic forums about how much it sucked....

So they "fixed it". Nope....they made it 100% worse. It was like running through a hallway of magnets with a metal sheet strapped to your back. You stuck to EVERYTHING!
Then EVERYONE bitched about the fix.....so they fixed it again. They didn't undo the last patch...the fixed it. So that made it some half-assed abortion of half works, half doesnt. But now everything is ok and it works....because Epic says so. They even posted how it works now. Wow....damn shame it still doesn't work right.

Take me back to day 1 of Gears please.

Ok. Now we all know with online gaming there will be lag, latency and even host advantage to a degree. But not in Gears....it excels in everything...even its flaws.
Latency can cause shots to end up hitting something up to a full second after the trigger has been pulled. yeah...our network code is fine...no fixes needed their.
Lag is something that will never go away completely. So there really isnt much the designers can do about it...to my knowledge anyways. Could be wrong.

Ok now my BIGGEST complaint with Gears. The X-Factor.
For those that don't know what that is...thats when shit just doesn't work for some reason. You KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that the person infront of you should be dead...yet they are not...and you are dead.

Boomshoots hitting someone but not exploding, or exploding but not even downing them.
Shotguns for one round being like the fist of an angry god....then the next its like hitting someone with a wet taco.
Grenade tags that dont end in a death. Im sorry you have a grenade on your ASS...you are dead. I dont care what Epic says. Grenade + your ass = dead motherfucker.

This one isn't really a glitch that I know of...but a new aggravating technique that it seems you need to master in order to win shotgun matches.
Wall-humping. This involves a twitch-like reflex that involves you sliding into cover while pulling the trigger and aiming in the general direction of the enemy. Or popping in and out of cover firing inbetween movements.

Its crazy.

Now I'm a pretty decent Gears player...not an expert, but I'm pretty good. My clan can attest to this. But when I'm at the bottom of the scoreboard for 3 matches in a row...something is wrong. I barely make 3 kills.

Then the 4th match....I decided to try something. So I tensed up, got really aggressive and ended up leaving that match with about 12-13 kills. So what the hell is the difference? I tensed up. I had to get sooooo focused that I was iron-gripping the controller. Now thats not fun to me. I play games to relax....not get high blood pressure and die of a stroke.

So in order for you to be a "top notch" or even good player all around all the time....you gotta be puckered. And I don't like that.
I remember when I first started playing...it wasn't that difficult to get a few kills...and have a few laughs inbetween. But if all the fun is being had in the dead room...and not while you're playing...I'd say the game has lost its magic. But thats just me.

So...Gears of War...I love you...and I hate you. And I'm sooooo glad that next week Halo 3 drops so I can have a more balanced and stable online multiplayer experience with m y clan homies.

Gatsu OUT!