That these thoughts contain

Gears of War, a phenominal game that for many, exceeded the hype. This game is, in my opinion, the pinnical of shooters out there. The unique pop and stop gameplay not only makes this game great, but makes multiplayer the best i’ve ever played.

Have any of you ever played Halo 2 online? What about any Battlefield games? Counterstrike Source at all? If so, you more then likely know that those games have their veterans and their elitist players, no? If you are relatively new to these games, played through heroic or something or other. You go online and bam you’re dead. Respawned, bam, you’re dead! Dead again, sword to the face. Oh my god you killed him once. Then you hear “Oh you’ll pay for that” and you are reamed so hard that you never want to play again. *Cough* Shaymus *Cough*

At least that’s how I, the master of exaggeration, view it. Playing Gears of War up to Act 3 on casual, then going Co-Op through insane really blew me away. My stupid disk won’t let me play Act 4, but I know that most of us will probably want to go online and play multiplay at one point. The main campaign is good enough training for online. If you’ve played a shooter before it’ll only be minutes before you get it. But if you’re new at it you should have no problem killing people after the first hour.

While I praise the game highly for having the ability to take one such as me, who typically isn’t too good at a shooter, and turn him into a killing machine. The game can not cause miracles. While an hour seems a steep learning curve, it’s really only if you’re stupid. The game requires teamwork and taking cover. For those who enjoy running and gunning in Halo while not sticking together with a single person, don’t even bother playing this game. Four very skilled solo players pitted against four average players that work together, the average players are always going to win. When I get into maps later on you’ll see why teamwork plays such an important role.

By teamwork I mean things as simple as “There’s two of them over by the boomer.”

And in response you acknowledge it in any verbal way. That is if you have a mic. Then proceed to aid your buddy out.

I hope that i’ve made it clear that Gears of War is a great game to play online. I wonder what is going to make anyone read this blog. I figure I can post all I know about playing Gears of War online, because while the game hasn’t been out for too long, I have played it online for too long. I hope that those of you reading this find this either interesting, or informative. I’ll start with…

Weaponry

Lancer

Ah the lancer. Also known as the gun with the frikkin’ chainsaw on it. You start out every online match with this gun in tow. There’s not much to say about it. It’s a machine gun, you use it to shoot people. But I can give a bit of advice on how to use it. If for some god forsaken reason your enemy is leaning out over the side with any weapon other than a Boomer or a Sniper Rifle, take advantage of this and shoot them. If they have a lancer as well and shoot back, they’ll die first since you’ll get the first shot off. Again, do not do this if they have a Boomer (Rocket Launcher) or a Sniper Rifle. Also if the enemy is close enough and they are holding a shotgun.

The Chainsaw Bayonet is perhaps the most gratifying weapon aside from the grenade in Gears of War. However only use it when you have the jump on an enemy. If the enemy is rounding a corner that you are standing behind then chainsaw them. If the enemy is shooting at a teammate and you have the oppurtunity to chainsaw them, do it. The chainsaw is more of an opportunity weapon. There are plenty of times when you may think oppurtunity shows itself, but you shouldn’t attempt to slice n’ dice. Such as when someone has a shotgun. If you come running at them with a chainsaw 3 out of 5 times you’ll get blown away, or at least shot at. The chainsaw is again, more of an ambush weapon. It’s very situational, you should be careful with it.

But god is it fun.

Shotgun

Personally, i’ll hardly ever use the shotgun. But when someone has a lancer out in close quarters combat the shotgun will more then likely prevail. The only thing i’ll have to say about this weapon is that aiming isn’t always neccisary. As blindfiring upclose with any other weapon will still hit, because the person is in the way. Blindfiring with a shotgun up close has a chance of blowing the target to hell.

Pistols

The pistol given to you at the start of the round is admitedly without much use. However the magnum is a fun little tool that not too many people use. I believe it is an excellent blindfire weapon. Because not only does it shoot one shot, which after the first shot helps you gain better accuracy, but three shots from the magnum brings someone down. It’s also fun to blow up someone with the magnum as well.

Grenades

The smoke grenade is useful for obvious things such as advancing. As it’s brethren the frag can be stuck to others, so can the smoke. This is mostly for entertainment, but if need be, it can be used as a big “Hey i’m right over here, shoot the smoke coming out of my buttox.”

The frag grenade, my personal favorite weapon, is great for traditional uses. A piece of advice, you should seldom ever aim and throw the grenade. In doing so you’re giving your enemy plenty of time to shoot the living crap out of you. Blindfiring the grenade out of cover is a great way to either kill an unsuspecting enemy, or make him move out of his precious cover. Take advantage of doing so and kill him.

The best thing to do, because it is the funniest thing to do, is to melee with the grenade. This is especially perfect for when someone runs at you with their chainsaw revving. It knocks the rev down and kills them.

For those of you who do not know, the grenade is like a flail. When meleeing, you basically stick the flail into the other person’s body. Then you have around a second to move. You’ll here a brief “Tick tick tick” then will come the explosion. Get the hell out of the blast radius. A player who knows what’s coming will move out of his teammates way and into yours to try to take you with him. An inexperienced player will jump back into his teammates as to get away from you, taking his team mates with him. Which is hilarious.

Boomer, Sniper Rifle, Locust Machine Gun, Hammer of Dawn

There’s nothing too special about this weapons worth mentioning. Just shoot to kill.

Next Post

I’m going to be going over all of the maps. From Gridlock to War Machine.