Then I ask what is the point of playing a ranked match vs. a player match if not boosting? They are the same exact thing except one improves your rating the other does not. So what would you call it?

Wow, the General is hellacious on Hardcore. The only way I took him down

All that happened on my umpteenth try to kill that crazy bastard.

I addressed this in the Live Gaming Schedule topic but it's probably more suited for here.

Who's excited about tomorrow, Emergence Day? Anyone else plan on joining in and playing a helluva lot? Luckily I'm off from both work and school tomorrow, so I'm in.

Gears of War on co-op online is the most fun I have had in years.

I'll definitely be on tomorrow. I keep seeing you online but we haven't played together yet.

See you tomorrow then. I'll be playing mostly ranked matches (for the prizes), but I'm definitely up for some player matches with everyone here.

Had an awesome time playing with you tonight, pizza. I added the guy who kept tagging us with grenades to my friends list, so we might see him again.

Around what time is this e-day happening? I may try to get in on it.

It's on now. Going on all day. Certain events are at certain times. I believe Megadeth will be playing at 3 PM Pacific.

Yeah thanks. I just the found a page with details. I would be on but I'm here at work watching the Star Wars marathon on cinemax.

Me too and man that strategy is annoying! Well, love it or hate it, it works. We have to get some more Execution matches in with him.

The free Emergence Day theme and "I played on Emergence Day" gamerpic are now available for download (it says "One day only").

I had a lan party last night(well psuedo- only 4 guys showed up out of 7 invited). So four and me make an odd number at five. Two of the guys hadn't played before which worked for a while but once they got the hang of it, it just wasn't fun having unmatched teams, especially with the ability to revive your teammates. Three on two just doesn't work. And for some reason I ended up on the losing team for two hours straight(first being the leader of the two noobs, then later when the noobs grasped it I was on the two man team). Not very fun.

Anyway, it would be nice if you could tailor private matches with a handicap for this purpose. Like being able to turn off the revive option for the stronger team or the team with more players. Typical games like Halo where you have an unlimited respawn are usually fine with different numbers on a team(at least for deathmatch), but it just doesn't work in Gears at all.

We ended up doing two on two with one sitting out each match, but by that time the two hours of losing wore on me and I was done.

I just finished it on hardcore last night. Although I don't think it was the greatest game ever as some have been saying, I do feel it is a game that every 360 owner should check out. I wouldn't even give it game of the year since FF:XII already has that title in my book.

I do feel that it will be very hard for me to go back to a standard FPS after playing this game with it's cover system. I was thinking to myself that I should pick up COD3 now but I don't know how much I'd like it after just playing this. I may need some time in-between.

It's funny you said that. I was afraid of this myself and it was one reason I got COD3 first. I love the FPS games, but even with COD3 it's almost like a bunch of stuff I have already done, just in a different environment. Don't get me wrong, COD3 is amazing, but I was afraid if I played GOW first, I may never like COD3 again since it is the same old war, weapons and concepts. That said, COD3 is awesome and I love the improvements they made to COD2, but I think I will skip any more WWII shooters. I need some innovation and can't wait to play GOW and some other games like Lost Planet.

Funny you say that. I tried out COD3 last night before we started Gears. S.O.S. different $60. Definite pass for me. I was bored within an hour.

And the big innovation in that series? Vehicles? Are you serious? Welcome to 2001 and meet Halo. The vehicle controls were a joke, it almost feels like you are floating on air. I could hop into a motorcycle with a side car and pivot on a dime and squeeze through areas where even a motorcycle only would be stretching it. Definitely a half assed attempt at throwing something new in and repackaging it for the masses.

Definite pass for me. Gears is definitely going to spoil some things for the genre.

LOL!
Same thing happened to me. I even tried using the minigun at the other end but that leaves you wide open to the Kryll.
Anyway, it's time for some Insane gaming.

Halo wasn't even the first FPS to have vehicles. The original Half-Life had a mine car and No One Lives Forever had a motorcycle. I am not sure if any FPS games older than that had vehicles.

Agreed. I considered getting COD3 just to do the multiplayer with people on here, but after playing for so long on Gears last night, I won't bother.

I am having a bitch of a time trying to beat the corpser towards the end of the third level. I know how to do it, but those damn wretches get to me before I can hit those switches.

Well I got my 360 yesterday and ended up with GoW instead of COD3 and must say it has the "out-of-this-world" wow factor. The word amazing doesn't come close. When the wife even said it looked so real then it's there. I stopped at the point of trying to get the "Big Ugly" out of the church (?) in the open and do a "Hammer Time" on him. I'm almost afraid to play any of the norma Xbox games in fear of being in despair.

Kenny J. - Buzz Starhopper

Okay, I decided to go in blind and pick this up, despite the fact that I've been iffy on a lot of FPS games (I know, it's third-person, but still). I'm glad I did. This is quite a fun experience.

I have a (possibly stupid) question, though. Is it possible to have multiple game saves? I'm somewhere in the second act on my single player campaign, but I'd like to try out the co-op campaign with a friend, but I'd like for him to see it from the beginning and not have us screw around with my game save. Is it possible to have a second campaign game without screwing up my initial "true" save?

I could be wrong, but you may lose some part of your true save. Remember that each act is broken down into 5-6 chapters that you select at the menu though so it shouldn't take too long to get back to whereever you left off.

Not that I know of, because I did try what you said. I would assume the only possible way is if you created a new profile via the Dashboard, but I haven't tried it.

Have been playing Gears of War for the last 2 days and all I can say is WOW!

This is hands down the best shooter I have ever played. Everything about this game screams AAA. These are without a doubt the best graphics I have ever seen in a videogame, console or PC. Ihonestly cant believe how good these graphics are considering its a console. Just shows you how far consoles have come. There were a couple scenes where Ijust had to stop and look around at the detail the game had. The section where you have to blow up propane tanks to light you way is stunning. The one part when you have o go on the roof and aim the spotlight on your partner while he makes his way down the street is absolutly stunning. The colored lamps strung up across the street and the architecture has to be seen to be believed. I have never seen better period.

Then the next level in the rain, the brick walls are so real looking its scary. This game has without a doubt raised the bar in a big bad way. Studio's muct be playing this game thinking holy crap, we have to compete with this?

Anyways another top notch game from Cliffy and Co. and this is without a doubt the game MS was hoping to get before the holiday season. This should go a long ways in getting MS to that magic 10,000,000 number by the years end as predicted. Releasing this alongside the PS3 is just a slap in the face to Sony.

Amazing game period and one that I am sure will have a couple sequels now that it has scored AAA from every major review site. I can live with that.

Overall I would give it a 9.5-9.6

I am playing it on a 50" Pioneer PDP5060 Plasma- Looks so amazing its hard to believe!

Now back to GOW, Later!

PS...