Gears of war Hardcore setting

After finishing Gears of War on the casual setting I’ve moved to hardcore. I’ve found the AI much more strategic and wise in its action, more like the feel that I’m playing something with some intelligence and not so much just a drone. Its taking me many more tries to complete the various scenarios. I’ve just completed act 3 on hardcore. Entering the base inside the earth was made difficult due to the theron (?) guards and their use of the torque bow. I spent about 3 hours before finally successfully finishing off the guards.

I have a great deal of respect for the entire team at Epic at this point. I am extremely picky and quickly bored with most games and have never played through at another difficulty setting, but this game is fantastic. I am frustrated of being sneaked up on from behind and on the sides, so Friday I bought a set of rear-speakers so I can better hear when enemies on their approach.

Despite gears of war being probably the best balanced game I’ve played, I am still frustrated as a player at the fact that I have to play scenario components over and over again despite having mastered them as I learn my way through a particular scene. For example, when the guards come through in waves, why am I always forced to go through wave one again and again to get to the part I am actually stuck on? When I was a kid it drove me nuts and it doesn’t make me any more pleased now. Gears of War does an especially annoying thing, which is repeat dialog you’ve heard a hundred times and doesn’t let you escape out of it. When the dialog does start, you also move slower while it is playing. If I had to guess its to load content in the background and the slowdown in activity allows CPU resources to be used to do the load of content for the upcoming battle (keeps you in the same region of space, no BSP node transitions, for example). Still frustrating and wish they’d have allowed mini-checkpoints more often in these scenarios for adults that have jobs, perhaps not save points but in the same game session you would not be forced to start over, I’ve played games in the past like this. Maybe the settings should be ‘novice’, ‘employed’, and ‘unemployed’?