30.12.2006

In GEARS OF WAR you play squad leader Marcus Fenix, who is forced to lead his small army of people against the Locust Horde over a set of levels that have been subdivided. The game is viewed as a third-person, with you looking from just over Marcus' shoulder, and, like many other games of this ilk (e.g. RAINBOW SIX, CALL OF DUTY etc) the use of cover is vital if you are to succeed without getting killed too frequently (although if you are playing alongside other human players and get killed, one of the others can go up to you and heal you, allowing you once again to re-enter the fray -- that is, they can if they haven't all taken different paths,as sometimes happens during later missions!).Using cover is really easy; when you're next to something you can hide behind you can press A. From there, you can move the left stick in various directions to see on-screen what options are available to you as you emerge from that particular cover. As examples, if you were on one side of a door and hiding, you could quickly spin and switch to the cover on the opposite side of the door. If it's low cover in which Marcus has to crouch, pressing Up on the left stick with A allows him to vault over the cover (one slightly annoying thing is that to get over some obstacles you have to hide behind it then jump over it in this way instead of simply being able to jump over it). You can also do a roll to quickly go to one side from cover, perhaps to roll to another bit of cover closer to your target. If you are running to cover while holding A Marcus will run low and fast to make him harder to hit, until he runs into another bit of cover.From the cover you can fire to your left or right (depending on the cover obviously), or over the top (if the cover's low enough), or, if it's too intense to pop your head out to take an aimed shot, you can blind-fire, although this is understandably less accurate.Like in other similar games, you have limited ammo, although with some weapons you can do close-quarters attacks by striking the adversary with the butt of your gun. One of the myriad of guns available has a chainsaw bayonet, and the reasons for the BBFC's 18 certificate are particularly noticeable here, as this is, as claimed elsewhere on here, a guilty pleasure as the chainsaw rips into your foe, sending a huge jet of blood upwards that smears over most of your view! (Don't worry, it's translucent, so you can still see what's going on, and it fades away shortly afterwards anyway). You can also pick up grenades (no more than four, though); one niggle regarding grenades in split-screen multiplayer is that, to use them, you press one button and you see an adjustable on-screen arc that shows where the grenade will bounce and where it will explode, but sometimes due to the smaller view the crucial bounce and explosion points are below screen.You can also pick up guns from downed foes -- I love the sniper rifle, which does quite a bit of damage and you can click the right stick to zoom in using the sight for a more accurate shot; its downside is that its chamber can only accommodate one bullet, so you have to reload after each shot.Ah, reloading! Now, GOW allows for a bit of skill in this area. When you choose to reload your gun (or are forced to because the current magazine is empty), you get a bar which has a meter going from left to right -- when it reaches the right your gun will reload. However, you can get an added bonus of quicker reloading and more powerful shots from the gun if you can stop the meter within a small area about a quarter of the way from the left of the bar. If you fail to stop it in this area the reloading will be even slower than if you just left the meter to fully get to the right of the bar, as the weapon temporarily jams. It's a gamble, but when you get the hang of it it's handy. You can also top up ammo via ammo crates that are occasionally lying around (although you won't be able to top-up every weapon in this way).There are four slots for four different types of weapons; e.g. the aforementioned grenades have their own slot, handguns such as pistols have a separate slot, and heavier-duty weapons such as machine guns have another. You can only have one weapon of each type.Another thing that is recommended is picking up the COG tags lying around; these are like dog-tags, and have come from fallen comrades. You will often find them somewhere nearby if you find a bit of scenery that has the gear symbol with a skull in it (or the Crimson Omen, as it's called).If you're playing in multiplayer and cannot find the others, you can press a button and, while holding it down, the game will automatically turn towards where they are (handy if you get separated). Occasionally, the game will prompt you to use this button to look at areas of interest, such as a hole from which foes are likely to appear, or a part of the scenery that is to play a part in what you are about to do. You also get on-screen prompts for things like buttons to open certain doors, so you'll never need to worry about whether or not something interesting-looking is just scenery.Graphics are generally dark and moody, and the sounds are great; both are good enough to appreciate it, and the battles are quite gory, with suitably ghoulish sound effects as blood spurts and the various members of the Locust Horde make their distinctive grunts and growls.Generally the missions are well laid-out and intriguing, and the banter from your cohorts sometimes injects a little bit of humour (occasional strong language here). One level where sound and darkness combine in a really effective way comes later, when a whole level advises you to stay out of shadowy areas. I won't give it away, but the tension here is really quite jarring. Levels in rocky areas seem a little artificial, as if they had been designed to have bits of rock jutting upwards with cover, as if the foes knew Marcus was going to come and have a go at defeating them (which, admittedly, being a game, they have, but it can detract from the experience; at least in the building levels there is a justifiable reason for the existing cover, such as pillars, or church pews within churches, so it seems less artificial).Overall, despite a few niggling flaws, this is a great game, and definitely worth a look if you're old enough. If you're still not sure, why not rent it from somewhere?Rated 18 by the BBFC due to strong bloody violence.

24.11.2006

I've got to admit, I never really looked forward to this game. I was more intrested in buying COD3 when it was released but due to all the hype, decided to bankrupt myself by getting this as well. All the reveiws had been amazing and the Americans on my friends list were going mad about it.Its not often I fall in love with a videogame. It certainly hasn't happened on the 360 up till now. But this just beats everything I've ever played. Its gone straight to the top of my favourite games of all time overtaking classics such as Goldeneye, Legend of Zelda and FFX.From the moment I turned it on I knew it was going to be good. The first level on games is usually a bit of a chore, trying to teach you everything.Gears of War doesn't. You learn how to play the game without even realising and within minutes, the controls are second nature. The cover system is absolutely fantastic, allowing you to weigh up your options without getting shot. Do you lean out and fire. Do you roll out of cover to gain a better angle? Do you switch cover? Do you just charge out of cover towards the enemy's and try and take them all with the shotgun. Or do you blindfire. Talking of blindfire, I feel it is the first time a game has finally nailed blindfire on the head. For once, its effective without making it too easy to kill everything. I can't think of another game where blindfire works quite so well.Moving on through the game, you realise just how amazing the graphics are. In game, everything looks so damn realistic, like a war has been going on for more than a decade. The cutscenes are also fantastic, with the lip sync done perfectly so it actually looks like their talking. None of this miming done by several other games where the character speaks but doesn't actually move his mouth.The storyline is absolutely brilliant as well. Many shooters can't admit to having a good storyline (PDZ i'm looking at you) but GOW keeps you intrested throughout. The interaction between the characters is fantastic and often makes you chuckle as they throw sarcastic and witty comments around like nobody's business. The levels are all amazing as well. Consisting of 5 acts, I can only complain about Act 3, set in a factory/underground caverns. It wasn't a bad act but compared to the rest, it just fell short in my opinion but Act 4 completely redeems it.The weapons are also absloutely brilliant. The chainsaw on the underneath of the lancer is a masterstroke, the shotgun is unbeleivably powerful from short range, the grenades are fantastic(escpecially when "tagging") and the sniper rifle is also spot on. The reload system for all the guns is also brilliant, adding some skll factor to the game. When reloading, a little bar comes up which you need to stop in a specific area. Getting it right will allow a quick reload whereas failing will cause your gun to jam, gaining the enemy a precious few seconds to move without fire. It works perfectly and may be a future feature that many games in the future use.Online, GOW is also amazing. Maps such as Gridlock and Mansion are masterpeices with guns scattered in awkward places where breaking out of cover to get them involves an element of risk. Success however can easily swing a game. There are 3 modes, Warzone, Assasination and Execution. Warzone is your standard game mode with everyone with one life. The team that kills all of the other wins. Assassination is a Protect the President style game with each team having a leader they need to protect or they lose the game. Execution is like Warzone except you can only kill enemy's with close range kills. This leads to lots of chainsaw action, curb stomping and grenade tagging. The coop mode over live is also perfectly done, allowing you to invite a mate into your game at any time you need help doing a section, without any pauses or reloading of the game.Overall, this isn't just the best game on the 360, its the best game on any platform currently. If you've been waiting for a killer game as a reason to buy a 360, this is it. If you've been waiting for a PS3, don't. Resistance:Fall of Man and COD3 may be good games, but compared to this, they're nothing. If Halo 3 is going to take the title of best game on the 360, its going to have one hell of a job beating this.

20.11.2006

I entered into the 'next-gen' world only yesterday. I purchased 6 games and an extra wireless controller. Gears of War was one of those and to be quite honest, visually encompasses the true 'next-gen' nature of video games. The only title I purchased that comes remotely close visually has to be Advanced Warfighter (and I mean remotely). It really goes to show how fickle we all really are. I was truly captivated by the visuals and camera and in light of this wander how the Nintendo Wii will succeed - revolutionary control is one thing but when you look at the slightly better than XBOX (not 360) graphics one can't help feel a wave of reluctancy.The controls are very intuitive once your use to them (which can take a bit of time)and are more than adequate for you to not even think about them when playing.The gameplay though simple in premise is so engaging as you really feel like part of your squad (there's you and three other computer controlled guys) and in the early levels you can just sit back and let them do most of the up close and personal combat while you snipe the enemies from cover. You can even let them get mauled by the monstrous locust guys and when you take control and win the battle, they all get resurrected. This system can allow you to be cruel and ruthless as you can let them draw all the locust to them and when they are fighting up close, throw a few grenades and toast them all, you're squadmates will come back when it's over. I am doing all this on the 'casual' setting though.The Halo style checkpoint system works well and the game doesn't experience any slow down when autosaving as there is not any action at the checkpoint. You'll find yourself playing through several sections non stop before realising that you've been playing for over an hour because the game is so engaging even though the gameplay is little more than shoot-hide-shoot. I'm not a big shooter fan as I was seriously put off by doom 3 which I found clostraphobic and visually boring in terms of the environment. That isn't the case for Gears of War because the environments are varied and there is so much attention to detail.The camera in Gears of War is really good, you see the action from behind the main character but the camera is so well placed that it is really enjoyable to see something more than a hand holding a gun. The camera effects from looking around to running (it's like the camera man is running too) and checking out objectives is all executed beautiful and so far the camera hasn't annoyed me yet by getting stuck somewhere or stopping me from seeing something. Aiming is really good and is really simple and well executed, you cannot look further than the characters ability to turn his block head and tree trunk neck and this adds to the realism. The screen is clutter free from loads of stats and one noticeably absent stat is your character's health status. This is because your health recovers automatically after fights (which believe me, is a good thing) and you only see if you're in trouble when you're getting shot as a little red cog will appear which gets bigger and when you get a little skull in it you're dead. I think this is a great idea.Going back to the graphics, the game is truly breathtaking graphically and you will honestly be stunned whether you are viewing it in High Definition on an LCD or on your normal television (I tried both). The level of detail in the game really is amazing apart from the crappy looking car wrecks (only in terms of design). The lighting, textures and models are all spectacular, especially the horrible looking locust bad guys who are far more visually interesting and animated than your pumped up steroid freak of a character.I think all the reviews are 5 stars for this game which says a lot. What I would suggest is that because it's more than likely that you're mate with an XBOX 360 has purchased this, borrow it off him/her and give it a whirl before you commit around £40 to buying it. Having only played it for a couple of hours I can't help but feel that some people may find the action boring and repetitive, and some people may find it a bit hard. So I would recommend trying it out first if you're not that much of a shooter fan.

6.3.2008

You have to feel sorry for the human race, as we seem to be constantly under attack, whether it be from mutants, martians, zombies, mutant zombies, mutant zombie martians, or this time round the Locust Horde.Gears of War is something special. Starting on plot, it's set on a war torn far away world, an appropriate setting for such a game. What I liked about the setting, is that, even though set in the future with human colonies beyond our beloved Earth, the makers didn't feel it was necessary to make things super futuristic. The plot is somewhat simple; Marcus Fenix (voiced by John DiMaggio, Bender from Futurama) has been busted out of a hellish prison to fight some crazy locust horde that's bent on taking over the world for a relatively unknown reason.Fair enough. The script remains rather light-hearted throughout the game, but so much as to invade on the occasionally tense atmosphere of each location. The characters are excellent creations, Baird and Cole in particular are a rather humorous and, frankly, awesome duo. The story is told extremely well, and obviously is left open for a sequel, which was predictably recently announced. More casual gamers will be a bit confused with the lack of information, more so at the start, but we're hoping the back-story and intentions of the horde will be revealed in future instalments of the series. So it's all good.Moving onto graphics. It's easily one of the nicest looking 360 games out there, despite its age at time of writing. Smooth frame-rate, realistic textures, atmospheric locations, positively gorgeous water effects and, some very good use of blood and gore, especially when it's streaming out of the victim of your merciless chainsaw finish. For those looking at these words with a somewhat puzzled look and such phrases as "WTF" going across your mind, I'll get to that later. Overall, it looks fantastic, and I for one love the motion blur and camera effects of when your character starts running. Very realistic indeed.Gameplay wise, Gears does everything right for a third person shooter. The control mechanics work perfectly, and the duck and cover mechanic has been implemented without fault. Well nearly, it's a tad annoying when you accidentally press A and take cover when you don't want to. Otherwise it's okay. The game mostly consists of shooting, the stuff you'd expect from a shooter, aiming takes a small amount of time to get used to, but quickly becomes second nature. There are many levels of difficulty and bosses provide a challenge. Plus there's some replay value in there as well, as previously mentioned the various difficulties, the COG tags and achievements. A good move was the choice of both offline and online co-op campaign, which is immense fun with a friend. Sadly, I've not had much experience of the online multiplayer, so there isn't much I can say about it, but I've heard from many sources it's one of the game's best features. So I'm confident it won't disappoint.Now, to the negatives. No game is perfect, but Gears has some flaws. First off, the main game is far too repetitive, on playing through the game a second time, I realised most of the game was simply a case of running, ducking, shooting, repeat. Eventually it got tiresome, and there's only a few cases where the game play takes a break from it, one example being the fairly average driving section. Secondly, I felt there wasn't enough variation in weaponry. I got through the whole game keeping my chainsaw gun (which you can brilliantly chop up stuff with) shotgun, grenades and Magnum, rarely needing to switch from that, and rarely getting the chance to switch from that to anything really different.But, those flaws don't stop it from being a simply amazing game. Highly recommended!

17.11.2006

Gears of War follows the story of the humans battle against the Locust Horde. The Locust Horde have, for some reason, come to planet Sera (home of the humans in this game) to take over. It's your job to stop them. To do that, you assume the role of COG soldier Marcus Fenix. When you start the campaign mode, you find that the story begins with fellow COG soldiers breaking Marcus out from prison. Marcus did something wrong, but his battle tested skills are somehow needed. From there the story takes off, carrying you through 5 "acts" and 30 chapters. This is just the way the game is broken down.When you start the campaign mode, you can select from 3 difficulties. Casual,which the game should take you no more than 8-10 hours to complete. Then there is the Hard mode. Hard mode is a challenge, and can easily add 4-5 hours to the game, making the campaign about 12-14 hours long. Finally, we have the mode "Insanity". Think of Halo's legendary mode. You may not even be able to do this mode on your own.Which is why Gears features a co op mode, simialr to Halo. Co op allows you to play through Gears with a friend. You can do this over Xbox Live, through system link, or through split screen. It is most fun over Xbox Live. You simply host a campaign "server" and start playing the game. Somone can join, take the role of a computer controlled soldier, and play alongside you, which can be great fun. If they have to go, when they leave, the computer will automatically assume the role of the soldier again, so it doesn't ruin the experience. Of course, you can always invite somone on your friends list to come play through campaign with you.Aside from the excellent campaign mode, Gears features a robust multiplayer mode. Up to 8 players are split into two teams of 4 people. Doesn't sound like much, but this game is all about cover, flanking, and working with your teammates. The game ships with 10 multiplayer maps: Canals, Clocktower, Escalation, Fuel Depot, Gridlock, Tyro Station, War Machine, Mansion, Mausoleum, and Roof Tops. In multiplayer, there are 3 modes to choose from: Warzone, Assasination, and Execution. Warzone is a standard team deatmact, and like counter strike, once you die, you spectate until the next round. Assasination requires players to kill the other teams "leader". Finally, Execution requires that in order to kil somone, you must curb stomp them (smash their heads into the ground after wounding them), chainsaw them (a chainsaw is attached to the "lancer" machine gun), or kill them with a torque bow (a bow that fires a rocket the explodes on contact.)The weapons in Gears are very diverse. The Lancer machine gun is most common, and best of all, it has a chainsaw attached to the end of it. So when you come up close to somone, you can press "B" to rev up the chainsaw, and then go in for the kill. Other weapons include a sniper rifle, pistol, magnum, shotgun, grenade launcher, and of course, the hammer of dawn. The hammer of dawn is a gun requiring you to charge a laser beam. Once charged, the gun calls down a laser beam from an orbital satellite, blasting anything in its path.The sound, of course, is incredible. The music is amazing, and the gun sounds are some of the best you will hear. Like I said, the graphics are some of the best I have ever seen in my life. The amount of detail is scary. For instance, when you shotgun somone up close, you can see individuals parts fly, such as the jawbone, brain, etc. But the graphics don't just excel in a gruesome kind of way. Brick walls, water reflections, blades of grass all look so real, you are going to be stunned. Like I said earlier, the BEST graphics you have ever seen.

5.2.2008

Hi everyone this is the first of my "honest reviews" by that i mean im going to say how the game really is not how gamespot etc rate it to make you spend lol at 18 yrs old i knw what its like spending money on something great n not getting the fun factor so lets get down to it...Gears of war is epic's TPS for the xbox 360,In short the story revolves around the human race being on the brink of extinction after an invasion from a nightmarish enemy known as the Locust Horde, here we meet the games hero Marcus Fenix who is busted out of prison by old friend and team mate Dom Santiago and introduced into the fight.(a bit more back story would of been nice but if you buy the collectors edition you get a hand book giving little detail its nice for a collection but nothing special). Ok so down to the game itselfGAMEPLAY:Gears of war uses a unique cover system which works very well with the gameplay and really adds a great feel of realism when in fire fights its very easy to use with the press of the A button when near an object.Also the squad command system works well in the game sure the commands only come down to "regroup" "attack" "cease fire" but this is enough to get the job done.The enemy AI is amazing ok it can be a bit choppy at times but its still very challenging especially on the harder difficulties.Unfortunately the same cant be said for the friendly AI they'll spend more time bleeding out and waiting to be revived than actually fullfilling an objective but when in combat they do an impresive job of destroying the enmy and will use weapons effectively (of course this can be changed with the online and off line co-op which works perfectly).GRAPHICS:Wow the graphics on gears of war are pure eye candy all characters and enemy locust are very detailed the environments are very realistic looking and give off a great atmosphere with the smoke and flame effects, honestly gears of war is like watching a movie, the locusts all look different from their ranks so you never fight the same enemy over and over.However some of the scenery can look very blurry of just rushed into at the last minute but this isnt an excuse to be put off this fanatastic game. lip sync is very good in this game maybe the best seen for 2006 (the games release date), but again at times the graphics lag abit and it makes it feel abit psone with no lip movement but ahwell only the odd time. The blood effects and gore are really detailed in this game when you chainsaw an enemy locust in half you can see all organs that a human would have and how the blade has damaged them very cool :P.MULTI PLAYER:ok the ultimate in fun, gears has alot of variety for multi player games online and off (of course online is much better but offline isnt without its charm) deathmatch fans will love online multiplayer with 4 man pvp (player vs player) battles using either cog or locust teams.The online co op works very well too and can really make them hard achievements easier to get.OVER ALL:Gears of war is an incredible game but can be abit boring after the campaign has been completed but if you have life your bound to keep coming back every now and again. Comapred to most newer games out there today gears may appear abit dated but its deffinitly an essential and deffinitly worth buying.one of the best games i ever owned for my 360 hopefully you will find this review helpful i will wriet more on other games both 360 and ps3 as i have bought a ps3 now after selling my 360.Thanks for reading,Review by Jay

22.1.2007

I must say this game oozes quality. Very detailed, Very gripping and extremely addictive gameplay. This is coming from a hardcore online PC gamer. I only recently bought the 360, having owned the original xbox.GOW is an impressive title to christen my 360.I started to play the tutorials and must admit a little kind of, 'yeah seen this before' . I even put it down and came back to it after a LAN weekend with my mates. But once I had actually started to get a feel for the controls and the all important 'USE OF COVER' this game really opens up. The action at times is just simply nothing short of genius, you just want more. I even find myself reloading certain checkpoints just to replay certain firefights.The campaign cutscenes are a sheer cinematic joy to watch. It is like Halflife 2, though the graphics are better. Some elements of gameplay are intelligent. Most of it though has been seen before but executed differently.The weapons are not overly creative or the actual selections vast. Though what is there works, the chainsaw bayonet is quality. The slingshot grenades are a nice touch. The quick reload is a nice little feature too. In my opinion the weapons lend themselves appropriatley. No Need for BFG's etc. Just plain old hardcore assault weapons mixed with some good use of cover often wins firefights with ease. In some instances on the larger enemy, more powerful external weapons are required.The graphics are simply amazing. Nothing more to say, they are the dogs danglies. I run this on a 28" widscreen CRT TV (100hz). So I cannot wait till I finally upgrade to a 42" Plasma with HDTV. As it is simply breathtaking to play now. The vibrancy of colours is awesome and the bump mapping just adds to the feeling of bulk on the characters armor. The environments are reminiscent of a post nuclear war zone (not that I have ever been in one). That deserted wasteland void of life which was once home to a bustling city. Broken only by rounds zipping overhead (in your head if you don't use cover) from the enemy when a firefight ensues. The music is cool and the tempo chnages with regard to the current siuation.The game features online play with differing game modes. I might take advantage of the free xbox live 1 month trial. Though I get my online fix via my PC these days. Though depending on how the taster goes I may suscribe. I imagine the online multiplayer modes will add to the games longevity. Playing split screen co-op rocks and online would be even better as you get the full screen to yourself.I get the same buzz from GOW as I did from HALO the first time I played it. (HALO 2 was a dissapointment) Though I would say it goes one further. The environments are more enclosed but it gives a great feeling of claustraphobia. Which adds to the intensity of action and the depth of tension. I haven't completed this game yet but I know I will be trying to complete it on all difficulty levels.As it is that good. For me to take time to actually write a review is testament to how good this title is. I would say it is moreof an adult title due to the level of gore and use of strong language, though this can be controlled (unsure to what level) in the options. I haven't had this much goretastic mindless blowing away of enemies since Doom III. This game belongs on the 360. Quite simply must be a title in your collection.I bought an N64 for Golden eye, I bought the XBOX for HALO. Then I bought the 360 for GOW.enough from me, go get it!

31.12.2006

what a truly wonderful game this is. you'll notice right from the start that this is something special. Its a real must-have game for any 360 owner who isnt uppish enough to be offended by a spot of violence, gore and occasional bad language.Story. 8/10In fairness Gears hasnt got a particularly original story line. its the classic aliens-want-to-take-over-the-world-and-its-up-to-you-to-stop-them motif, but who gets tired of saving mankind anyway?! there's some reasonable chracter development however and you will begin to care about 'your' lads before long.gameplay. 9.5/10this is where Gears comes into its own. Action involves taking cover behind...well virtually anything really, rocks, cars,walls, pillars, fences anything goes and then popping up and shooting ten bells of s**t out of the bad guys. the cover system really is extremely effective and becomes intuitive very quickly. There's a reasonable array of weaponary but they haven't gone overboard and you'll love chainsawing foes to death as your character roars with battle lust. As in Halo you'll find yourself in the main up against just 3 or 4 varieties of enemy with the occasional boss type battle thrown in for good measure and the AI is reasonably astute. They'll flank, cover, grenade and generally make a nuisance of themselves and they're actions largely depend on what you do so this insures that levels never play the same again twice. Likewise team-mate AI is very reasonable. they usually wont dash out into the open and they do more than provide cannon fodder for the enemy Also the game borrows from Halo once again with the health system. once you get shot up a bit a red reticule type thing appears centre screen, which deminishes when you take cover. a fewseconds later you'll be good to goGraphics. 10/10Simply breathtaking in every sense. im filled with a genuine sense of awe. texture, lighting and visuals are stunningly good. for once the in game graphics are as good as the cutscenes. some of the environments are just incredible, particularly the cave and train sequences. rain, ightning and water effects are wonderful and you'll genuinly want to spend time just looking round to take it all in. theres often a lot going on on screen at once but my system suffered no slow down. you'll have gun battles, helicoters flying overhead destroying buildings, bombs going off etc etc etc. the cutscenes are short simple affairs but blend seemlessly and (ip sinking is the best ive seen in any game) and theres a nice blend of humour and information to experience befor the next battle starts. war ravaged earth never looked so good!Sound. 9/10You'll benefit from surround sound but everything fits well. guns and grenades resonate nicely and character dialogue is witty and extremely well voiced and it never feels cheesy. you'll feel immersed.overall. 10/10This is definatly not a tactical shooter, like say Splinter Cell. Its meant to be a rolicking, in-your-face shoot em up and theres nothing wrong with that. the best looking game that money can buy and its just great fun throughout. theres a lovely variety of locations and although its quite linear no two streets look quite the same. just buy it darn it!

29.7.2008

write im feeling like going off on opinionated rambles about everything i own so heres my gears of war reviewive once again found most reviews here quite misleading (i try not to follow the ones that just say everything is awesome cos there is no game where everything is awesome...fact)i wont be bitter about this. being new to the world of the 360 i found this game to be brilliant. graphics are beautiful in a less then conventional gaming sense which made me love them more (the running camera just feels like more than a game to me) and the fact that this plays more like a game of paintballing then an FPS.to me this feels like a game thats really gone for the idea of being a true next gen gaming experience.not just looking nicer and running smoother than most but truly changing elements of the genre that have always been seen as unchangeable.however this game is not perfect. i was really getting into the story and wondering how far into it i actually was and what shocks and twists were coming my way when suddenly to my suprise...the game ended woop woop(sarcasm). i read here that this game was a good length. 5 levels is not a good length unless you have ADD. granted the levels arent short and can be quite tricky but with perseverence (and if you enjoy the game you will persevere cos its addictive) you will finish this game in 1 or 2 sittings. (although i will admit to playing it on casual. when you die 7 times in a row in the first battle its safe to assume your in the wrong difficulty right?).the other problem with this is also in the difficulty. no its not too easy. no its not too hard. the problem is that it doesnt actually seem to get any harder as the game progresses. if your not a pro at these sort of games you will die a lot at the beginning, die a lot at the end. no problem there, i like a challenge. the problem is when you finish the game, start a new file and realise that your actually no better at it than when you started the last file (execpt you can reload faster)those gripes aside i would recommend this game to anyone (its not gonna cost you much anyway) its great fun. i havnt tried online or split screen yet but the idea of both modes makes me happy enough by itselfif they can just make the second game a bit longer(im getting rather sick of games that arent RPGS being so short recently) throw in more weapons (which they apparently are) and actually have a learning curve to overcome so that you come out of single player mode more skilled than when you went in then that could become a true classic. im willing to forgive this game slightly as somewhat of an experiment with the ideals of next gen gaming but next time they will have no excuses.also if you dont know already, you will never, NEVER get tired of using the chainsaw! its beautiful in the way goths will tell you that cradle of filth albums are beautiful (disgusting but so so pleasing to all the senses execpt taste for moralities sake)

18.11.2006

This is the first item I've ever bought from amazon that inspired me to write a review, that in itself should speak volumes considering the thousands of pounds I've spent on amazon over the past 5 years.Gears of War is the 6th Xbox 360 game I've purchased, bought Just Cause, Ghost Recon AW, Burnout Revenge, Oblivion, Chromehounds previously. Those 5 games were ok, but left me with this vaguely dissatisfying feeling at having shelled out so much money on the console and the games, and there was always this nagging voice at the back of my head berating me for wasting my money on this console.Well that voice just got stabbed in the face and torn apart by a Locust grunt.Gears of War is simply amazing.Every second I play it I am in awe, in terror, on the edge of my seat. Most games I play I take the gung ho approach and just charge in all guns blazing. Not Gears of War. I find myself terrified of open spaces, of dark areas, of anything that looks peaceful and safe. I know that as soon as I'm feeling secure, the Locust will attack and I'll find myself in the middle of a terrifying hail of gunfire, inhuman screams, yells of victory, warnings of enemies flanking me, and that's just from my teammates! Never in my life have I played a game that made me feel so completely immersed in its world. From the jaw dropping visuals to the excellant sound and the fantastic battle music that builds slowly as more and more enemies come charging at you, covering each other, throwing grenades, keeping your heads down while their comrades try and flank you.Some of the game innovations are wonderful. Dancing from cover to cover is effortless and highly intuitive. Quickly ducking around the corner and capping a grunt with your sniper rifle then ducking back as a hail of gunfire splatters all around where your head was a half second ago... talk about adrenaline pumping. And the reload system, I don't know how they thought of it! Most games you run out of ammo, you reload, and that's it. In GoW you can just let the gun reload normally sure, but that takes time. Instead time it right and pull off a quick reload, or time it perfectly and get a damage boost reload. They took such a simple thing as reloading your gun and turned it into another adrenaline pumping task that needs to be mastered or you risk jamming your gun for several seconds. Simply brilliant.Beautifully, wonderfully, horridly fantastic. One of the best games I've ever played on any console or on PC. I'm confident saying there wont be anything out to beat this for a long long time, and since I haven't even tried multiplayer or seen it in HD yet, that's a heck of a claim!I am now happy that paying so much money on my xbox 360 was indeed not a waste. To have never played this game (at night, in the dark, with the volume pumped WAY up) would be a crime against the very spirit of gaming.

12.5.2009

I've been a nintendo gamer for all of my gaming life, but I was a bit dissapointed in the 'casual' direction the wii was taking after E3 of last year, so I decided to buy myself a 360 to fill the void.Gears 1 and 2 (along with Far cry 2) came with the Xbox, and I was very impressed. I'd never been a big fan of shooters, First-person or otherwise, but Gears is welcoming for the newer players due to a forgiving "casual" difficulty setting, but provides challenge for more seasoned players (as I am now) on the harder difficulties. The online matchmaking is surprisingly fair: you are almost guarenteed to be matched with people close to your own ability,unlike certain other games I've played...*cough* Halo 3 *cough*The campaign is quite short by my previous standards, but as I've learned the single player aspect of most shooters nowadays only ever clock in at about 10 hours a playthrough, so I guess Gears is a sufficient length. The story isn't much, but it ties the chapters together nicely, and you'll soon forget whether you care about the story or not thanks to the involving gameplay.The gameplay, as you probably know by now, is all about the tactical use of cover and strategic manouvers. You encounter a squad of enemies, duck into cover and try to outgun, flank or distract them long enough for your teammates to do some damage. On the easy difficulty you can pretty much just shoot-duck-shoot from one spot, but on the harder settings you'll have to use your brain a bit more. Co-op play is fun and I haven't noticed any flaws in it - even if you're a billy no mates you can search online for a random partner, who is *almost* guarenteed to be better than the AI, but you can't mark a game down for the incompetence of the other human players.Online versus is VERY fun, for the most part. A squad of up to 4 Gears goes up against a smiliar team of Locust (the enemies in the game) and player must try to complete the objective given, whether it be to kill all the opponents (Warzone and Execution), Kill the enemy leader (Assasination) or capture specific points on the map (Annex). occasionally due to hosts with a poor connection you will time out, which can be annoying. It would be better if there was a host designation feature like with Halo 3 which choses the player with the best connection to be the host, but it's a small gripe. As is the "host advantage", which I haven't been a victim of yet (to my knowledge) and I've been playing a lot in other people's games, so it's not as big a deal as some make it out to be, although it could still pose a problem.I've not assessed graphics since I believe the gameplay, not how pretty it is, makes a game, but suffice to say they are very nice to look at. Overall I would highly reccomend this game to anyone, whether they be seasoned gamers or those just starting out.See you online.

13.11.2006

GOW appears to be your standard run-and-gun shooter, but the developers have really broken the boundaries established by the "last gen" shooter titles. There are several new additions to what would seem to be standard gameplay that add extra dimensions to each battle. For example, reloading - has been completely remastered, presenting the possibility of a gun jamming, or a speedy mag-change that lets the fight continue fluently.The AI you are fighting with is fairly decent, but the majority of enemies will be dispatched by you rather than your team-mates. Co-op is a lot more fun as you really feel you are relying on your friends and encourages you to take the initiative when planning out tactical manouvres.Another great aspect is the revive function; if your matey gets shot down, you can race over and revive him, in a very similar way to the Conflict Desert Storm games. This is great for online multiplayer, as you can set up some great ambushes. Whilst the team AI will not kill as many as you, they will draw the enemies bullets and order you around, whether it be to flank, lob grenades, or move to cover. The orders you are given will tend to be effective, and if your computer buddy yells at you to flank left, then flanking left will produce the best results.What i liked most about GOW is the gritty feeling, the tense spooky atmosphere punctuated with explicit gore and bloody firefights. GOW most crucial success is creating an immersive world which you can become completely absorbed in.The characters tend to be of the stocky "Lets Rock!!" variety, but it seems sort of appropriate considering the context of the game. Whilst playing you sometimes feel that there could be a little more background info, but this drifts into insignificance as the next fight begins.You as a character are fairly easy to kill, and the enemies are fairly good shots. Therefore most firefights tend to be from behind cover, supressing and flanking and flushing the enemy out with nades. Whilst this seems repetetive on paper, the enemy is using the same techniques to try and kill you, so you get a very tense battle sequence and you often have to respond to the enemy attack before you can launch your own offensive.You will all know that the graphics are amazing, not much to be said here. The frame rate doesnt drop, everything is very smooth, even in multiplayer.The hardness of the game escalates severely towards the end (10-12 hours gameplay) and you may find it a struggle on the harder setting, but you can change the difficulty at the start of each chapter, so dont worry if you get stuck.The replay value is all in the multiplayer, and gameplay on xbox live is addictive and fresh.I love this game, i would reccomend it to anyone.5 stars all round.

28.3.2007

Gears of War is widely regarded as the peak of current software technology and ingenuity. No! Not just for the X360, game designers have now mastered the art of 3D re-construction in a 3D environment! The AI now DOES actually react under fire, mostly, but i ask you... How many games actually achieve this? In Preview reports they say 'new AI', 'not react to location and react under fire'. Then the game does no such thing, compare GoW(Gears of War) to games that have stated this and you will notice that which I have!Anyways, back to the great game at hand. You find yourself in the confines of a futuristic prison block, as a veteran of a previously glorious battle against Humanities greatest foe,

1.2.2010

To be honest next to Gears of War 2 (perhaps the best game I have ever played) this is pretty terrible. The number of irritations in this game drives me crazy. The AI for example is at times abysmal, Dom dies all the time, this is no exaggeration, they could have called this 'Gears of War: The many deaths of Dom', it would have been apt. He literally dies in every single fight, I haven't played this in Insane but in GoW2 you have to revive Dom when he's hurt on insane, if this is the case here the game will be unplayable.The chainsaw, although a good idea as is proved in GoW2, is broken. The tips on the loading screens say "when shot at Marcus will not be able to rev his chainsaw" (or something like that),

15.7.2007

Gears of War is unique. That's all there is to it.It's not your usual run 'n' gun, you have to think about where to take cover, how to move around to get the best shots, and all the while trying to concentrate on the lovely active reload feature.Graphics: Awesome. Even on an SD TV, the graphics are extraordinarily detailed, rich and crisp. In my opinion, the game looks slightly better on SD than HD, because on HD you can see the sharp edges of the shading, whether as this looks softer and more realistic with less pixels... just my opinion.Gameplay: Nothing comes close to depicting the intense combat of war. If you stand out in the open you're dead. You MUST take cover to survive,

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