Gears Multiplayer

I put off playing this for quite a while, wary of the phenomenon of 'raging jackasses' that has blighted Xbox Live ever since frat boys realised that this Halo thing was quite good fun.

So I went on this afternoon, fairly safe in the assumption that anyone playing would be British (nearly right) and therefore not make me want to wrench my own head off through sheer frustration. And it's fantastic. If anything, it's slower paced than the single player, and you really, really have to make use of cover. I did suck for quite a bit, but redeemed myself by taking out the entire other team in one round. Two headshots, one chainsaw death, and a mighty kerb stomp to finish the whole thing off. There's no reason to post this, of course, save for the fact that it'll definitely cheer me up every time I look at it.

Another thing that I really liked about Gears multiplayer was that it uses the full version of the game engine. The last three or four games I've played on live have all had a cut-down or ccompletely different engine. It's lovely to see a multiplayer game that still actually looks good.

Now I'm going to check out the Lost Planet multiplayer. I loved the E3 demo that went up in the summer, so I have high hopes for this. Capcom, of course, not being known for shoddy multiplayer experiences.