Gears of War 3
I woke up this morning and turned on the 360. Then found the nifty surprise of Gears of War 3: The Story concludes April 2011.
Here is a link to a source confirming my lunacy
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/09/gears-of-war-3-announced-by-your-xbox/
First gameplay details
http://www.edge-online.com/news/first-gears-of-war-3-gameplay-details
Why wouldn't they be nice about it? Gears gameplay is brilliant. I'm not sure I've ever had more fun with a game than playing Gears campaign with a friend. Plus actual GOTY awards are laughable.
I also couldn't give a shit about online gameplay. So they can do what they want with it and I would be none the wiser.
They do need to change things if it's going to be anything other than more Gears.
The reason the first one was so great was because it was quite revolutionary in its gameplay dynamic. Like all sequels that follow revolutionary and surprising games, 2 had none of the initial charm. Whilst the gameplay was still good enough to make it really fun, it wasn't great.
Bioshock 2 was great, and for me the loss of initial charm didn't take anything from it, but it wasn't there.
When you're three games in, there's an issue. Resident Evil were five canonical games in when they decided to change things up (Unless you count Code: Veronica's 3Dness), and it did wonders.
-AC
I'd be more than happy if it was just "more gears" though. If it's not broken don't fix it. Look at God of War, thye've not mixed anything up in terms of gameplay but all 3 (4 if you count chains of olympus) are very fun to play and are worth owning. I'm not saying a series could last forever without changing but 3 games is well within a the lifespan for a series like Gears of War... without it needing to change it's gameplay..
I don't actually agree.
I saw some of God of War 3 today, and I can appreciate why some would find it fun. I found the Hermes fight to be VERY satisfying, and some of it is enjoyable.
If that was the first game they made, I'd be a lot more kind to it. The fact that it's the third and they haven't done much is what bothers me. At least change the characters or the story a bit, like in Resident Evil.
I wouldn't mind if the story on Gears was better, it's just numbingly generic. A prequel may be decent, though. One set around the time of Emergence Day.
-AC
I see your point but I don't completely agree.
I thought God of War 3 was terrific (Hermes was brilliant, while I was chasing him I knew how I wanted to kill him and the game didn't disappoint), I also had more fun playing 3 then probably both 1 and 2, sure it was more of the same but it was just a little bit more polished, more epic. The story was so-so but I wasn't expecting it to be fantastic. I bought the game because I wanted more epic fights with smooth controls, I bought it becasue I wanted gruesome murders of Godly things. It's a series that I don't believe needs inovation to be fun, just chuck in a couple of new weapons, new bosses and new equipment and I'm happy.
Gears of War is the same. I'll buy it because I know I'll get a good 8-10 hours of chainsawing fun gameplay with my flat mate. I like that the characters are 1 dimensional, I like that the story requires no thought. I like pretty much everything about the games. They're just fun to play. Innovation could only hurt it in my mind.