Epic feels 'very very bad' about Gears of War 2 multiplayer

Examiner.com
"When Gears of War 2 was released, playing the multiplayer portion of the game was, at best, a chore because of match-making issues that would cause the game to spend long periods of time finding online games. In a surprising bit of candor, Cliff Bleszinski acknowledges the problems with Gears of War 2 multiplayer and promises that there are a number of steps they are taking to improve the online experience for Gears of War 3."

[Fishy Fingers]

Ditch the match-making.

[Lord Vader]

Fix the L A G.

[dangert12]

they took the time to patch it thanks guys sarcasm
=/

[BeaArthur]

So I see they are still ignoring the core problem...it's buggy as sh!t.

[Bnet343]

I agree with Lord Vader. They need to fix the lag. I'm actually playing Gears 1 multiplayer right now (trying to get Seriously ...) because the Gears 2 multiplayer is god awful except for the coop campaign and Horde mode. Don't care for matchmaking or join servers, as long as we have a working online component it's all good.

[ABizzel1]

When I played it I didn't really experience lag, but I played Horde mode 90% of the time.

[maniacmayhem]

Props to Kigmal

I actually loved the ease of the Gears 1 multi player. Just pop into a room, that's it! No match making!

They need to bring that back.

[Lord Vader]

Hey Cliffy B:

Not a Gears hater, just the opposite. But you guys screwed up the MP so bad with Gears 2, you had better quit worrying about 4 player co-op & new weapons & concentrate on creating decent netcode for the Gears 3 MP - Here are some suggestions:

1. Fix the L A G

2. Dump the crappy Matchmaking system for at least P2P or PLEASE = DEDICATED SERVERS !!!!

3. Make the weapons' damage more balanced like Gears 1

4. Dump 'smoke' I mean CONCUSSION grenades, they suck.

5. Regional setting so I dont play with ppl in Mexico. = L A G

6. Address weapon switching & player movement = Gears 2 weapon switching, jumping, & general movement is SLOW & CLUNKY compared to Gears 1. Don't believe me ? Go play a map from G1 & then loadup a map on G2 = BIG difference.

7. Fix the L A G again & Beta test the Hell out of the game.

Look at Mass Effect 2, Bioware LISTENED to critics & more importantly gamers & made significant changes to please us & look what happened: a VASTLY IMPROVED GAME !!!!

No excuses this time, Epic will have 5 or 6 extra months to work on the game due to ReAcH's release date. C'mon EPIC, we all loved the first game, PLEASE make some POSITIVE changes to the MP for the GAMERS who love GEARS this time around.

[Marcus Fenix]

I want dedicated servers instead, Epic should make a multiplayer beta for the game and let us see 4 ourselves if they've really doing something about it or not.

[doG_beLIEfs]

This just proves yet AGAIN the bias towards 360 exclusives and the bias AGAINST PS3 exclusives. There is NO WAY that a PS3 exclusive would get a free pass on this.

How did this game get all of those 9's again?

The PS3 gets points deducted if 1 piece of dust is out of place yet HALF the game of a 360 exclusive is a broken mess and it gets a FREE pass.

IMO the irony is....the bias against the PS3 forces PS3 exclusive to be even better, to be more highly polished, to be bigger, to look better and so on.

While 360 exclusive developers can cut corners and release unfinished buggy games knowing that they will not get called out for it.

So PS3 owners get BETTER games while 360 owners get buggy broken messes.

I LOVE the irony of that. I love how 360 fans always bring up review scores as for reasons why 360 is better. Meanwhile PS3 owners get great games. I am not saying that the 360 does not have great games....but IMO the PS3 has a much better crop of AAA games spanning more genres.

Keep it up Edge, Eurogamer, American press...keep up the bias against the PS3 so that I keep getting gems like GOW3, KZ2, UC2, LBP, MGS4, HR and soon GT5, MNR.

While you are at it....bash MOVE while praising Natal.

[jjohan35]

FINALLY they admit to the multiplayer problems of Gears 2. It would have been a great game and deserving of the high scores if these problems were fixed.

I love the Gears franchise, but I got lampooned by the 360 fanboys for pointing out the major game-breaking problems in the multiplayer.

Gears 3 and Halo Reach are my reasons for renewing my Live Gold subscription later this year. Until then I can wait it out.

[Lifendz]

you know why? Because 360 owners are paying money to play games online. XBL should therefore be held to a higher standard. When you pay for a game that has multiplayer you're essentially paying more for that game in the form of your XBL subscription. As such I think MS has a duty to ensure their online games meet a certain standard of functionality. Just think how much respect MS would've gotten for maybe delaying the game a month or two (go with me here) to ensure the online functions meet their quality standards?

But I hope Epic learns from the mistakes of Gears 2 for Gears 3.

[HolyOrangeCows]

Bygones be bygones, all you can do is just make sure it works in the next game.

Oh, and bring back splitscreen competitive online matches. Or else! (Dun dun dun)

[Mo0eY]

Time and time again I bring this clip up and here is where it is needed most:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Boody-Bandit]

but it is why I could careless about the Gears of War 3 announcement. Epic just keeps putting while pile of poo out after another and people flock to it like flies on sh*t. They ruined Gears of War 2 so what makes anyone think they wont with the 3rd. Even if it runs 50% better? Is that really enough considering how broken it is?

They need dedicated servers!
So they can just fix it server side and police the cheaters.

I didn't care for the campaign of 2 and online it was a cluster f#ck. I loved the original, even though that has a ton of issues as well. At least you could connect to rooms and play most of the night with minimal lag. The glitches sucked but it ran a lot better than 2. When are people/gamers going to demand quality for their dollars? No just keep on buying DLC for broken games like Gears 2 and MW2 and we will keep getting subpar games with minimal effort and a ton of profit.

They think of us as fools and we keep proving them right. This is just a bogus PR article to get us to fall for their horsesh*t.

[maniacmayhem]

U are so right!!

Also...

UFO were behind 9/11

The government puts secret messages in all boy band songs

The food we eat secretly has micro chips for the government to track us.

Jimmy Hoffa and Elvis secretly run China.

[IaMs12]

Lets sure hope so. If so, fix it now, and in Gears 3!

[mcslick101]

To be honest, I was fairly surprised at Gears 2 MP, Epic Have a track record of making the most intense, fun, competitive and not to mention INSANE MP as we see with UT.

Gears was buggy and lacked a lot of the core elements that made their previous multiplayer masterpieces a hit. I'll take gears word on their Gears MP update, only because they make great PC games :D.

[crck]

If they feel so bad about it then why don't they issue a partial refund to buyers? Oh I guess they don't feel THAT bad about it...

[REDHULKSMASH]

1 whole year of Marketing, hype, promoting, guest appearances, = alot of sales u think they are going to really go out of their way to perfect it when they can just talk all year how great it's going to be and get 5 million copies sold anyway. You guys ever heard of msnbc? You know Microsoft and NBC? You think it was a coincidence cliffy b was able to get a slot on Jimmy Fallon who happens to be on NBC? When was the last time you saw Sony or nintendo on late night tv. They own the media they'll just keep exposing it so part 3 has a big launch. They did all the leg work with part one who cares if the sequels are any good we'll make them sell.

They have to make this one sell. This is 2011 for Microsoft. Halo Reach Is 2010. The more they add to this game the more sluggish and/or cartoony it's going to be.

If they REALLY wanted this game to work they would give multiplayer it's own disc with all previous maps and put the campaign on TWO discs that way u get the graphics of part 1 and the length of part 2.

But that would eat into profits so doubt they'll do it.
Ms style annouce it early as possible don't give a demo and just keep saying how great it will be.

[SeNiLe911]

but Gears 1 and 2 I sold or traded because the multiplayer blew from the get-go or got worst from update to update. I really like the campaign and played as much of the MP I could stand but their updates never fixed the problems, made it worst most if anything.

I will be buying Gears Of War 3 day one but will sell or trade if the MP is not on par or better.

[Bathyj]

Why is it they only mention things like this when there is a sequel to hype up, as if the promise is it will all be fixed, yet no one is allowed to say anything about it while its still the current iteration, less be accussed of fanboyism, or god forbid, while they are writing reviews for the game in the first place.

Did anyone mark their scores down for the buggy mess multiplayer was, or did it get a pass?

[Rampaged Death]

Like Fishy Fingers said ditch the poor matchmaking and bring back the peer to peer

[mauleriscool]

matchmaking is already p2p hosting in gears2. The game usually picks the party leader from one side as the host. Getting host is very exploitable since people love the host advantage.

[PS360PCROCKS]

That's very very good if they can fix it. The idea in theory was ok, but it worked terribly. Seldom did it work, and if it did it took FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRR when it first released. I'm talking 5,10,15 even 20 minutes to find a match than you'd get kicked, it was laggy, the host would leave etc...they should seriously think about beta testing the MP. The campaign though for Gears 2 was excellent til the final boss, ugh lame lame lame. But riding the Brumak was hella fun

[el_nene_lindo]

$50 a year + no dedicated servers for there exclusives WOW JUST WOW PSN IS FREE AND ALLLLLLL PS3 EXCLUSIVES HAS DEDICATED SERVERS sad...that the bots pay for inferior service while we dont pay nothing and we have better DEDICATED SERVERS WOW SONY I LOVE YOU

[DlocDaBudSmoka]

but i feel worse for having to shell out $60 and some change. the title to my comment is pure sarcasm. To me they should feel really bad about shipping a game with broken MP. I'm sure they just seen the $$ and let that blind them.

[blizzard_cool]

This sound to me like a little kid coming to me and saying that he's very sorry for breaking my TV and in the next 30 sec. breaks another thing.

[v0rt3x]

Yes its nice they've come around and are thinking about changes made to Gears of War 3 - but the issue remains in Gears of War 2, with many people still playing it online (and I guess that's an understatement).

Fix and support issues of the games you've already released, before putting resources to a sequel - because we all know - once GOW3 releases, GOW2 will be history even more so...regardless of any issues that may persist.

Just look at other games that met the same fate.

Ok - the match making will be better in GOW3 than in GOW2 - but did Halo fans stop playing Halo 1 or 2 multiplayer - once Halo 3 was out?

I think not.

[DlocDaBudSmoka]

doesnt have dedicated servers. and im a ps3 supporter.

[Greywulf]

for free.

I just said the games that do. -- no offense intended --

Edit:

Bots got owned by their own dev saying the MP was garbage, yet you bots still bought it.

Morons.

[AliTheBrit19]

Call me naive

But I think... well I say think but I really mean hope

This means Gears of War 3 ships with none of the terrible issues that plagued both 1 and 2

[v0rt3x]

yea but they're ignoring the core problem of the previous two games - and GoW3 WILL have its own issues.

[Mr Logic]

It's Gears not GOW.

[mcslick101]

No, it's both clearly. The abbreviation and the shorting will work just as well as it does with any other game. Don't outlaw the abbreviation because it shares the same abbreviation with another game, It's how we run this town. Either way, they're both an exceptional example of internet colloquialism.

[Bathyj]

Its GeoW.

[The BS Police]

Public Beta!

[maniacmayhem]

Chubby Bunny.

[FragGen]

It worked for Bad Company 2. Oh wait a minute... no, it didn't. :)

[cmrbe]

gave it a free pass.

[iPad]

Karma's a bittch.

[DlocDaBudSmoka]

i was just stating that UC2 didnt have ded. servers. Dont get all hostile, im on ur side.

[TheObserver]

Why don't they just provide some dedicated servers, I mean Gear of Wars will sell as much as Halo. Cost for maintaining the servers will be insignificant to the profits they'll reap in if they pleases their fans. XBOX 360 users pay for online multiplayer, they should be entitled to a better service than P2P.

[JeffGUNZ]

Exactly man. Dedicated servers is the deal breaker for me. If they say they "improved" their terrible matchmaking, then this game will only be a rental. If they get dedicated servers, then it's a midnight release day one for me. I am not falling for this crap anymore. I remember in an interview cliffy said prior to Gears 2 coming out that, "the connection is so good, the lag is non-exsistant, and host advantage is so minimal, you won't even be able to tell who was host!". Bullsh*t. So, it's not the guy with 36 kills in annex when everyone else has 10-12? Get going Cliffy. Stop being a cheap scumbucket and have this game go out with a bang, DEDICATED SERVERS!

[Mikelarry]

should it was AWEFUL

[FragGen]

Do you mean it was "AWFUL" or full of "AWE"?

[LoaMcLoa]

a mix of Gears 1 and 2, with a lot of new content and gameplay in it of course.

[MMFGaming]

Matchmaking blows.

[ExPresident]

And yet people will buy Gears 3. He's not apologizing, this is a slap in the face. This says we knew it was messed up, we knew you couldn't play it well, we knew we made money off of you and now we are going to do it again.

NO thx Cliffy or any other dev/pub that does this. Just like Socom Confrontation. I won't buy another /6 product. Fool me once shame you, fool me twice shame on me.

[Slimshadyn]

I think the quote is actually "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." :P

[bviperz]

and that's part of the problem. They're apologizing now to 'ease the worry' so you buy Gears 3. They didn't apologize before because the media gave it a free pass and people still bought it. That and Horde mode worked fine, so there really was no problem. Most 'reviewers' gave the excuse that matchmaking wasn't up so they didn't review it.

[The Iron Sheik]

So are they going to give people their money back?

[Dylantalon1]

i thought fanboys said gears 2 doesnt have any issues. if people are waiting and thinking gears 3 will be lag free, might as well they get rid of their xbox 360. gears 1 is a bad game but was seen as good at the time of release because the ps3 was new to the market and other xbox 360 games were just rubbish . gears 1 has crazy kill inconsistencies, lag and glitches. sometimes one shotgun blast will rip people to pieces from quit a distance off and other times a close quarter shotgun blast to the head doesnt kill . gears 2 has some kill inconsistencies, glitches, lag and just looks basically the same as gears 1 . ive already formed an opinion about gears 3 because a trend of a lot of xbox 360 exclusive titles and not to mention the 2 previous gears game. i dont have to wonder if killzone 3 will be an improvement over killzone 2. can anyone say the same for gears 3 ?

[PshycoNinja]

'Some trolls aren't looking for anything logical, they cant be questioned, talked to, reasoned or negotiated with, some trolls just want watch the forums burn.'

[palaeomerus]

Y'mean like Resistance 2 was "guaranteed" to be an improvement over Resistance? LOL. Weak argument is weak.

[drzmvp554]

even though gears 2 was laggy, buggy and glitchy i still came back for more, still playing it, and having been playing since january of 2009

[BannedForNineYears]

Old news, Cliffy B said this in an old interview.

[Dylantalon1]

i prefer honesty from people and its fine for people to play sub par games but there is a problem when people tout about a worse game with all sorts of issues being better than a good one. some people dont realize that they dont have to play constantly with laggy people. gears 3 will be like gears 1 and 2,

[Mkai28]

I read two of your post(and others), and you gave nothing on how to improve on gears 3. You rant on and on about how bad gears 1 and 2 is and even other 360 games that have nothing to do with this topic. Everyone knows what you are, no one cares about your xbl/psn tag. So shut up and say dedicated severs.

[Kingdom Come]

Cliffy has always accepted the fact that the seconds Multiplayer had issues, he's said this for months, and Yet, I think the Multiplayer is great, I have since release, Cliffy shouldn'tapologise, he made a mistake, and he's solved the problem. But his feeling of guilt only supports the idea in my mind that the Thirds multiplayer will be even more superb, roll on April 2011!

[PirateThom]

I wasn't aware anyone played Gears 2 multiplayer on anything buy hoard.

They should scrap vs multiplayer and focus solely on hoard.

[Karum]

Horde mode was the only part of Gears 2 MP that I found to be fun, the rest was terrible. Had quite a bit of lag in horde mode also but that's the downsides of p2p gaming I guess.

Still though, hoping they can make some good MP modes in Gears 3 and look forward to having a go.

[blazed13]

im sure they fix the issues. gears 2 multiplayer isnt that bad as people make it sound. i enjoy it very much. you dont always get bad connections.

[Cyb3r]

I didnt think the match making feature was the main issue I think that the amount of bugs on the online mode was unforgivable

[air1]

it would be nice to have dedicated servers for games that sell in the millions.

i do find it strange though that you can find more dedicated servers on the "free" psn. this is something that micro has to fix, they been getting crazy money off of live for years now. i think its time for ALL 360 exclusives to have dedicated servers.. and have the multi platform devs have there pick..

[patterson]

uhhh yeah...

[Tobes]

Yeah, XBL is definitely an inferior service...