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Friday, February 2, 2007

Gears of War Review (Xbox360)

Gears of War is an excellent game on the Xbox 360 developed by Epic Games. Epic Games is the same company that created the Unreal Tournament engine, famous for use throughout most high-end graphical games. It was published by Microsoft and released November 7th, 2006.
  • User Interface:

o Pros: Excellent player interaction. Menus are easy to read on a standard definition TV. Options are robust enough that you can change things to make sure they are the way you like them. Setting up the cooperative play is simple. The cover system on the control scheme is amazingly simple and innovative. How many people with guns run through a field shooting at their enemies while juking/jumping up and down? Usually we sit behind cover and blast them while they're reloading. Reminded me of the arcade game Time Crisis. This is good.

o Cons: None. Some minor bugs with the engine, especially online.

· Graphic Detail:

o Pros: Amazing detail. It looks great on an SDTV using composite cables. I can't imagine what it would look like with components and maybe progressive scan. 720p, 1080p, whatever, it would just look amazing. The texturing is amazing, and the whole color style of the Gears of war world really immerses you.

o Cons: In some places, minor bugs jump out, and sometimes you can't grab this gun because its on top of this shelf. And the environment, while mildly interactive, could use even more work. The whole "shooting the wall makes this circular black texture that disappears" thing was cool back around Duke Nukem 3D. Make some new particle physics so we can really chew away the wall if we so chose. or the chair, or the bleach bottle.

· Storyline:

o Pros: Good storyline. Not completely random, it actually makes some sense if you really felt like diving into it. I'm glad they didn't put more of a focus on it, because we really just came here to kill some bad guys. Replayability is strong with multiple difficulty levels and multiple paths.

o Cons: As you will always hear, it is linear. You can't go the wrong way, you can't do the wrong thing. Only one way forward really. Some would argue that there is more than one way, because of all the paths; but no, its still linear.

· Fun Factor:

o Pros: This game is a lot of fun. There are many ways to kill a bad guy, including shooting them in the knees and then walking up and stomping them to death. My favorite is the Grenade Tag. My friend and I killed General RAAM (final boss) with a grenade tag after a couple of preparation shots. Also, I'm glad for once that the bad guys aren't the only ones who can use the turrets. For once in a game, we get to turn around and shoot right back at them. I have shot some of them so hard with a turret, that my friend was like, "I was just shooting at this guy, and then he evaporated in front of the turret!" Yes, that's what I call fun. Then, you can kick around their bodies for even more enjoyment. Oh, how delicious this is.

o Cons: Cons? I dunno, some of the levels got kind of old. The kryll annoyed me after awhile.

Wrap-Up: Great game, with high replayability. 10 out of 10. Terrifying, cinematic, thrilling, and fun. Definitely better than watching a movie, kinda felt like we were playing one instead. Play with a friend!

Buy/Rental/Never: BUY!

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