While finding the time and motivation recently (along with some fiddling around), I was finally able to once again revel in a much-needed nostalgic journey with 'Gears of War 3' on the XBOX 360... after roughly a decade and counting.
While I managed to finish-up the 'GEARS 3' campaign (years ago) after its release, the included multiplayer component remained mostly untouched due to time constraints, my dwindling attention span, and the NUMEROUS back-log of other 360 games in my collection that garnered my attention at the time.
All in all, 'Gears of War 3' still remains a FANTASTIC interactive experience that's aged quite well - even despite various issues that have ultimately plagued many of the GEARS titles since their heyday (e.g. gamertag / profile data glitches, saved game bugs, etc.).
Unfortunately, EPIC GAMES never bothered to fix much of their Legacy Titles, since these recurring issues continue to persist to this day. Sadly, 'GEARS 3' still suffers from random crashes and the dreaded profile glitches that can basically wipe-out all of your data / progress.
Hmm, over the last year I managed to deal with a similar (and even worse case "game-breaking" scenario) while playing 'Gears of War 2' on the XBOX 360. Yeah, nothing like having 15 years worth of progress become a disheveled mess and nearly non-existent over something that should've been fixed by the developers.
Granted, the powers that be made an effort to improve the online server(s) quality in both 'GEARS 3 and Judgment' back in June 2023, but never bothered rectifying the truly serious issues, such as these NASTY profile glitches.
Whatever the case may be, I'm still planning to invest some solid time into the Multiplayer affair in the coming days, hoping to make-up for lost time with the third entry in the original 'Gears of War Trilogy'. While I mostly played through each respective iteration's story mode back-in-the-day - occasionally delving into the online portions ('GEARS 2' for example), I definitely feel more inclined to rock the 'multiplayer versus / online component' game modes these days.
Err... a dozen years too late for the party? Nah... I'm just getting started.