Gears of War 3: Beta

It isn't a secret that I enjoy the heck out of the Gears of War series, which I think would have to be my personal favorite FPS. Yes, I think much higher of this series then I do Call of Duty and maybe even Halo as well. Maybe it's the Lancer and it's mounted chainsaw that wins me over every time. Anyhow, I've gotten into the beta for the upcoming Gears of War 3 and you know what? I think I am having some fun there.

Note: This actually marks the first time I've actually taken part in any sort of beta testing. Perhaps it is because I didn't have to sign up for anything and hope and pray that I would get picked. And maybe also because I didn't have to fight to download the demo in the first place... but that is all besides the point I suppose.

Back to the topic at hand, I am having fun with this latest installment of the Gears of War series but there are some things about it that bother me.

I don't really care much for the balancing of the teams, as it tends to be a ton of higher leveled players versus a bunch of low level players. Granted, the levels don't tie into any game play aspects, but it does show who has been playing longer and in the cases I've experienced, I've run into players that are considerably higher and it shows in the matches. Hell I've been a part of a three round beat down, where the side I was on was absolutely destroyed and we made next to no kills at all.

So I hope the balancing in the actual game won't be so one sided or else the matches won't be all that fun for very long.

The other "issue" would be how powerful the new sawed off shotgun actually is. Now I think this is more of a gripe from a player who has run into this far too often. I've been one shot killed by this thing more times then I'd care to have been.

Besides that, overall the demo feels like classic Gears of War and the death matches have been pretty fast paced and chaotic. Nothing like seeing both the Locust and Cogs rushing towards each other and seeing body parts and bullets flying every which way. Again, if the teams are balanced out a bit more evenly, this should be pretty damn awesome.