I have noticed that the shotgun does have more power than it used to. I am getting people down when I would have no way done it before. If this is accurate, then gameplay will definitely be affected.

+1 to the thoughts above. I haven't been able to reproduce the 2-shot longshot yet, although I haven't tried extensively either. There is something slightly different about the shotgun, and it does seem slightly more powerful, but inconsistent. Didn't play with the chainsaw much--will have to test Rapture's findings.

I received a brand new Westell DSL modem in the mail from Bellsouth yesterday. At first I had no idea why, but I think I have determined it is b/c they apparently raised my upload/download. 'Bout freakin' time. I have 6Mbps/512Kbps now. Yes, comcast has been doing this for over a year. Bellsouth is to me, as Sony is to Brick.

Oculus noticed the other night that the sniper does not need reloading with a perfect active reload. I was curious when we were in a match and tested it out. It seems that after two perfect reloads when you fire the round another is already there without tapping the right bumper. I haven't played with it since that night, have any of you ran into this, oculus did you test this further?

This is just my opinion on the matter and should be taken as such

512K up? What was it before now? 384K?

Meanwhile, in other areas of the country, people are getting 50Mb/5Mb through Verizon FiOS.

Comcast. I'm waiting...

While not exactly up to snuff with national competition, we would have all killed for 512k up just 3 years ago.

The shotgun has definitely changed and seems more random both the long-range and short range effects. It seems to be more powerful at longer ranges, and still very deadly at short range. While you might think that this is just a player adjustment, what I have found is that the Gnasher is no longer a skill weapon as the power allows any random player to down you with 1 or two shots from 12-15 feet away.

As an example, I was putting a full lancer clip (not active reloaded) into a guy about 12 feet away and he downed me with 1 shot. 1st of all, I was putting so much lead into him he shouldn't have been able to shoot much less down me from that range. Prior to the patch that guy would have had about 0% chance of winning that fight. The list goes on and on with the shotgun and I beleive it has adversely effected gameplay.

I have also noticed and others have commented as well that some blind shots from behind (say 1 1/2 to 2 feet) don't do much damage, and they guy rolls away, turns around and downs you from 10 feet. On some occasions, two shots in the back doesn't do the job. Whatever the reasons, the shotgun is now a non-skill weapon and its effects are oddly random.

Tom,
Interesting thoughts. I definitely agree the shotgun is inconsistent. However, I'm not going to refrain from using it because it's not a "skill weapon." I kill the enemy in the most effective manner possible. I certainly wish it could be more predictable.

Nice input, Tom. I haven't fired the shotgun more than 100 times, so input like yours is much appreciated.

1. Slayer's shotgun is so magical.
2. Roadie run glitching should not be done in public matches...even if it is casual play with mostly THX'ers.
3. Since the patch, the Gnasher IS more powerful whether it's the new netcode or not.
4. Raise your hand if Slayer has killed you with anything besides a Gnasher.
5. I don't see any hands. Thought so.
6. I fired 11 Gnasher shots today. I am approaching 100.

*Hand goes up*

Oh sorry, I was just stretching...

"Slayer's shotgun is so magical."
Skillz, baby! ...but you guys think whatever you want to. Whatever helps.

"Raise your hand if Slayer has killed you with anything besides a Gnasher."
Next time I'll be sure to switch guns at least twice in a given match. Wouldn't want to make your lives miserable the entire time... that would be just greedy. :)

Conversation in lobby...

Oculus or JayWHY, after I got owned by a Gnasher and was quite pissed - "Slayer, now you know how we feel the whole time."

I replied - "I know, that's why I keep doing it."

...looks like it is definitely working. *Evil Grin*

That's "Slayer Smack" for ya...

"That was a load of horse manure!!"

You can call it whatever you want to, Mintz. Whatever helps you.

But evidently my shotgun does all the smack talk for me. Judging from the response I have had here and in the lobby... I think I'm doing just fine.

i disagree with number two....we had a whole match where some of the THX'ers wanted me to show them how to do it....if you don't want it done then fine i won't do it in your matches but there's nothing wrong with it, its just a game and its just for fun anyways but what evs lol

Getting a Rep for glitching is bad news if you're trying to compete in serious tournaments. I think that's why he said public matches.

Oculus has already reported one accusation while competing.

i totally agree if you are competing then you shouldn't do it, i only think that if you are just having fun in a game then it really shouldn't matter - had he of said tournaments then my comment would have never been made but he said "even in casual play....." blah something or the other (horrible memory)

I think the point of "not glitching in public" is so that a stranger never sees us glitching without an explanation. If everyone is huddled around Phoenix at Gridlock while he teaches us, that is one thing. If there are random nubs joining in/out of a public match and they see it used in gameplay with a room full of THX ______ gamertags, that could be dangerous. A private match of just THXers: no problem.

Bottom line: Be judicious and never put yourself in the position that you could be accused of glitching in a competitive atmosphere and someone provide evidence that you have done it before.

My 02/100

Midnight - that i can agree with, and if that's what you meant by your number two rapture then i humbly retract my comment

When it is all THX'ers, and it's not a serious game, there's no problem with it. Public matches, with others in the room... a definite thing to avoid. It's good that we all know what it looks like now as now we know what to report if someone does it against us in a match.

This is a good reason I think we should record our tourney matches somehow. Definite proof of how we don't cheat, and it would offer proof of cheating if someone did it against us.

Bottom line, every now and then, when one of you did it against me, I thought it was hilarious, the death lobby was dying laughing when someone did it in a game that we were just goofing off. If it happened in a serious game (tourney or practice) I'd be pissed.

(btw wasn't this a game of all THX'ers?)

Yes, I ran up to him, stood up, and shotgunned him before he got a chance to load me full of his lancer. All he had to do is press the B button to chainsaw me when I got there.. I think his ego wouldn't allow him to accept the fact that he had just been Slayer'd. It was very Lumberjack to find out in the lobby he was crying foul, so I need to record my matches from now on, I don't have a video recorder. I'm going to try and see if I can borrow one or buy one. That would make for some interesting footage, and good content to link to on the site. (with my muted voice of course to shield everyone from my language when I mute the mic)

I'd like to see some recorded GoW footage. I could benefit THX and other thinking of making the to jump to GoW and GoW leagues.

That's what I meant. I wouldn't want anyone accusing THX of being cheaters since some are playing in MLG now. I don't want THX to get some bad rep. We had some public spots open yesterday.

Nevermind about #1. I've found a way to deal with that.

GG's today.

zomg how?!

Thats better. Find away to counter the problem, not gripe about it. At least I wasn't banned from using shotty just yet. I was afraid that would be with the next No. to appear on rap's list... whew.

I'm glad you are catching on, rap.

...enjoy it while you can. :)

Today my shots would not register half the time I was shooting. I had to leave the game early anyway, but it was very annoying. Oculus said he was having the same problem. I literally followed one guy and shot about five times, almost at point blank range and it didn't register at all. No blood, no dust from impact. That is just weird.

Yesterday, we were playing on rooftops. I was on the the bottom part of the left-hand center ledge and rapture was on top of the ledge, shooting down at me. I was behind one of the balcony-like things watching him. At one point I saw an opening, I leaned over, aimed and shot. Now, on my screen rapture went down, so I went over, carefully (and somewhat savoringly) aimed at his head and blew it off. I got a kill... it registered. No big deal, right? Well, all of a sudden, someone shot at me (I could see their legs in the corner of my screen next to rap's pieces) and I got blown away. Next thing I know, I am in the lobby with JayWHY, who is a witness, and rapture IS STILL ALIVE! In fact, he was the one that blew me away. How can this be? In the lobby I could see his dead body... but there he was, big as day. What the heck? How can that be? Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm just curious about these weird things. This is the first time I have experienced these problems. I wonder if it has to do with the patch.

We are all experiencing weirdness of different varieties after the patch. I don't think the patch is a total failure, but in grand M$ fashion (although this is really an Epic issue), they're going to need to release a patch to address issues with their patch.

It might also be a combination with host issues. But rap was hosting tonight and his connection is really good, so I dunno. Crazy stuff.

My Favorite one was when someone was sniping down at escalation, and I stood there and put a shotgun into his back... literally in his back. The guy had no idea I was there, it still took me two shots to kill him (with the shotty IN his back) Neither one of us were moving around.

I think a change in network code is the culprit of all of this. They changed something that is affecting stuff that they didn't anticipate. I don't melee people for execution as much because the stupid melee's aren't registering lately.

Was having some lag at the beginning of raptures hosting. After a couple games it got better. Maybe some of these problems get worse as the lag does.

But since when has this game not had BS moments at least a couple times a game?

GoW has taken a step back, IMO. I've noticed more oddities since the patch than before the patch. I'd rather be playing 1.0.

* I don't like that NOW certain people on my buddlylist can't join up to my games when I invite them. I thought they fixed this issue. It seems they've, at least for me, caused MORE trouble.

* The chainsaw animation doesn't always finish. Last night was the third night I've witnessed someone exploding just as the chainsaw animation starts. It was as if the game thought they had a Gnasher instead of a Lancer.

* Last night I was fighting someone on Escalation near that upper frag grenades. I was hurt but pumping the enemy with a pistol. He could have sneezed and I would have been downed. I started meleeing. The enemy started meleeing. All of a sudden, the game ended and I won. On my screen, the enemy was alive and about 10 feet away.

* This may just be me, but on my screen in the pregame lobby a player named THX Slayer joins up. The weird thing is inevitably, one or two matches into the game, that player drops. Is this THX Slayer an AI bot? Why did they put that player in the game only to have it drop out a few minutes later. It really screws up the teams on both sides of the match. I'd rather the bot not join up at all if they can't play a full match.

* Phoenix was telling us about a glitch in which a person being chainsawed won't die. I don't really remember the circumstances because everything was happening so fast, but I believe that my teammate was chainsawing an enemy, someone shot either the chainsawer or the enemy and the enemy LIVED THROUGH THE CHAINSAWING. I remember Phoenix saying something about this glitch happens when Friendly Fire is turned on.

* What ever happened to the active reloaded sniper rifle firing a second round without reloading. Is this still happening?

BTW: Hubcap now has Slayer's magical shotty.

I thought that was just me.

Yes that is the Slayer bot 2.0. It comes in the THX package hence the THX Slayer designation. It's core code is still mostly comprised of the original xX Slayer Xx codebase, but now has an updated Magical Shotty module, and plug and play LAN avoidance features. I have heard rumors that the latest version of Slayer bot is more aggressive, and has less fault tolerance than the previous releases, that's why you may experience the bot dropping from your games.

(holds in laughter at raps previous comment)

I've experienced that too. However, I also notice THX Slayer bot activity on this website minutes after it quits the game, indicating something is afoot.

I have noticed that THX Slayer bot does in fact log onto the website to gripe while the rest of us are playing Gears of War.

Thanks for the clarification, Oc. Makes sense.

More later...

As I have said, I had to leave the game for personal reasons. I notified Oculus and Hubcap of this before hand. Also, I did not immediately log on to the website to do anything for the same reason I had to leave the game. Furthermore, I did not "gripe" about anything. I simply asked if anyone had experienced these weird... whatever they are.

Griping involves coming up with names that diminish the skill level, which does exist, because you don't want to face the fact that your face just got blown off legitimately. Not that it is always skill, but there is no way on this earth that someone could continually get lucky with the shotty.

But like I said, you guys say whatever you want. I know some of you have had this pent up inside for a while. I don't mind you getting it out now, even if it is through totally erroneous, implied accusations.

Hubcap has my blessing with the shotty, BTW. May he be cursed with whiners as much as I have been. :)

Slayer, nothing but props to your shotgun, but you do swoop in and out of matches like a flock of Kryll.

I beg to differ... for the most part.

I admit there are times, like last night, where I had to leave suddenly. But I do not leave games simply because I am fed up. I leave either because I had to go, my close friends are gone or I have a splitting headache.

Of course. Stereotypes exist for no reason at all. Slayer has a rep for quitting early because it only happens once in a great while. :rolleyes:

It's not even a big issue, man. It makes matches uneven when you leave, but it's not the end of the world. We're just ribbing you.

Sorry, Midnight, I forgot to put the smiley face next to my statement.

I didn't know I had that stereotype though... news to me. :)

Its fine, Midnight, I have already resigned myself to be THX's "whipping boy" for lack of a better word. :) I understand it is fun to give me a hard time... heck, I would... maybe. Not that it doesn't, at times, get a little old. But I can take it, I can dish it out too.

Its fine, bring it on.

Whatever, babydoll. You can't handle this!

NO..NOOO,TAKE IT BAAACK!!

][-][ //-\\ ][_ {()} ][

Wha?!?

The blessing! I like the BS shotty..but not the whole package

][-][ //-\\ ][_ {()} ][...pwens

LOL!!!

You whiney baby's I Issue a challenge to Any of you fools ( SLAYER ) that think your good at this game. I can kill you with whatever weapon u want me too My Gamertag is MR toronto im ranked about 1000 overall in warzone alltime and would be much higgher if it wasnt for all thoose jobless bastards who log 18 hours a day. So whos got Balls??? send me a message but i expect to hear nothing HahAHHHHAAHHAahahaAhaha

You guys are just weird sometimes.

I think he's hitting on you...

I'm down, you have to use smoke granades.

Necessary? Is it NECESSARY for me to drink my own urine? No, but I do it anyway cos it's sterile and I like the taste.

"I'm down, you have to use smoke granades."

lol i'd laugh if he still beat you =P

haha You do realize that's immpossible? well unless I down myself somehow then he can club my head off.

Necessary? Is it NECESSARY for me to drink my own urine? No, but I do it anyway cos it's sterile and I like the taste.

He did say "whatever weapon u want me too" (sic)

ok ill tag you with a smoke gernade before i can fight you then i will kill you with whatever weapon u want me to JUST BECAUSE I CAN then you have to leave a post here and tell all what happend to you when you fought MR T add me to your freinds list and add a message so i know its you