Since the majority of 360 owners here have Gears of War, and now that the dust has settled, i' m curious as to whether you guys think it lived up to the hype surrounding it' s release and whether you think Epic did a good job with their first 360 title.

I wonder whether you agree with this assessment that i happened across earlier today...

Gears of War - it' s probably the most anticipated 360 title of 2006. Microsoft worked hard to generate enormous hype for it, promising an epic next-gen system seller. As of now you can just go to your favourite store and buy it. YES! the game is finally here!

So... is it the best game ever made?

NO.

Isn' t it as good as expected?

NO.

Oh... so ...errr how is it?

In short Gears of War is a very good game - it' s really fun, it' s got some great gameplay, awesome visuals (with some issues) and good voice acting accompanied by terrible music (more on that later).

The big selling point of this game have always been the visuals and here it mostly delivers. In-game visuals are outstanding (both in SD and HD), while the " story" (there really is no story) elements are lame mostly. Someone at Epic forgot that no matter how real your character looks, it' s all wasted when he or she moves like a doll (in cut-scenes). Not all story elements are realtime though and the funny thing is, the realtime ones look much better than those prerendered (also made with UE 3.0 so many people won' t even notice they' re watching a movie).

The most important part - in-game visuals, is top notch, but some textures pop-up when new scenes are presented and some glitches show here and there.
Epic is a PC developer so it' s not really that surprising. In comparison, all the MGS4 trailers show much more " real" or shuld I say immersive cut-scenes thanks to great character animation and lip-synch (that I personally believe to be more important than textures and shaders).

Enough with this visual bullshit, the question is: How does it play?
Well, it' s got a really fun and deep gameplay that I honestly did not expect from Epic. It' s actually fantastic both offline and online.

While Gears of War looks and sure as hell plays great, it has major problems with audio and overall presentation. Let me put it this way: Sound effects are great, voice acting is great (but the lines try too hard to be as tough as " Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja" ), but the music is fuckin silly/horrible. It' s like it was made for a completely different game. It doesn' t fit - COMPLETELY. It' s like watching fights in Gladiator with soundtrack from the Titanic.

What about the story, this hould be good right?

WRONG!

The game starts in the middle of a war tha you have no idea about, it never explains anything about this war and it' s mostly based on a few guys trying to blow up some tunnels. It ends when they finally do.

To sum it up - there' s no story - not a single word to make it as deep and epic experience as we' ve all expected from trailers.

Presentation : 70/100 (no story, idiotic " too tough" lines and horrible music accompanied by lame & stiff cut-scenes typical for PC games)

Visuals : 96/100 (some glitches hurt it' s overall groundbraking 3D quality)

Gameplay : 90/100 (well done Epic, keep this up)

Audio : 90/100 (cause you can turn this terrible music off)

Overall : 90/100 (and I think that the fair rating shouldn' t go lower than 8,5/10 or higher than 9,5/10)

Last word: It' s a shame that many editors nowadays don' t remember their console roots and rate games based on visuals alone. This game is so totally overhyped that it hurts. It' s short and has nothing of greatness expected from it' s commersials. Were it not for visuals, it would' ve been another good game for 360. It' s just as Halo 2 - totally disappointing in singleplayer campaign while awesome in online multiplayer. After tasting a bit of Raibow Six Vegas I' m pretty confident that it will be the best game released for 360 since Call of Duty 2.

I think the reviewing guy is an idiot, plain and simple.

He has some points, but i really dont see how people can complain about the story, i dont play gears of war because i want a deep and engrossing mystery tale, its about blasting locusts and thats it. People could easily find out about the story by reading material on the web and in the manual, if it had been included it in the game it would have felt forced and silly. The voice acting is great, and i have no beef with the animations what so ever, iv noticed a few very insignifigant bugs.

I dont recall there being music in the game, but then again, i never really do.


Its as good as i expected, some people fall for the hype and expect the second coming of christ and what not.


Just chill the fuck out, and enjoy the fucking game

All I can say is CHAINSAW!! I may be the only one who hasn' t gotten tired of the CHAINSAW yet, but I freakin love it!!! Visually we all can agree the game is stunning when played on an hdtv, and the story I will have to agree is a little weak. Online multiplayer is top notch, I play with gamers in europe and acroos the globe and there is only minimal lag which I will not complain about. I also played 2 player co-op campaign with my brother in law and that in itself is a lot of fun for the both of us. (TAG TEAM CHAINSAWS). My personal opinion is that yes they delivered on everything that I at least expected Gears to be, for christ' s sake I even love watching the comercial for Gears.

It' s a great game, for sure, but not anywhere near as good as the hype suggested and it' s certainly far from the greatest game ever made.

Sorry,but i wasn' t dissapointed in halo2 sp,nor in GoW sp.

Just had my sonyfanboy brother over who cant keep his sonyfanboy mouth shut ever-


He admitted that Gears of war was kick ass and just awesome,i said.-what the graphic?

He said,what? ye sure the graphic is the best i ever seen but the gameplay is just so raw and awesome and,look at this,first time i play GoW and i can let anyone in the world find my game and just jump into it and take over Dom anytime and play co-op with me.

Im playing co-op right now with some american,this is fucking amagzing.

So my bro who for the first time ever played GoW played co-op with people all over the world which made him finish act1 on casual without dying once and he had a blast,and said.

" Im buying your pc now,and later a 360" -

So far he paid my mom 400$ for one of her comp-

Co-op on Insane =

Yes,but you don' t let your sony-fanboy brother play GoW for the very first time on " insane" ffs ^^

Gears on insane=and then back to

I agree with the score, 9.5/10 (95%) is about right (and Gamerankings agrees) but the actual " review" is diabolical and contradicting.

Oh, and Quez, ...Rainbow Six: Vegas > Gears of War!!!

Well,its a game im gonna get for x-mas i think,i need to spend my money on coca-cola and candy and stuff ^^

Until my last 2 school weeks are over.

Or i could turn in BMF2+Enchanted arms and get it for free...

Work is insane these days, i have R6 at home and i havent played it, as i havent finished GoW. Grrrr

If this didn' t get your heart pumped for buying a copy of Gears then I don' t know what would.


Click

Co-op on Insane =

Just beat the game on insane and PHEW! In The End IT WAS INSANE! I dunno how many times that Raam bastard did me and my friend (mostly my friend, then me while trying to save his ass). It feels like Insane is the only way to play Gears, and I would never return to Hardcore after this (although I probably won' t be playing it anymore, now that I' d beaten and gotten almost all achivemeants (not the online ones)).

Unfortunately though I noticed a lot of bugs while playing through this second time, that didn' t occur/I didn' t notice, the first. Have any of you found covers, that isn' t possbile to hide behind if you are two, even though there is clearly enough space for two and more?

Yes,i noticed that,happends a few times at general ram.

I also finished the game on insane with a friend,wasn' t that hard,but insane ,isn' t as fun as hardcore,on insane ,you can hardly take bullets,thus its very slow paced^^ camping with sniper+Lancer is the key.

ORIGINAL: Dionysius
It feels like Insane is the only way to play Gears, and I would never return to Hardcore after this

Just for the record, the guy who wrote the " review" in my original post has only played the game on casual.

The A.I tends to get stucked on cover on Casual,has nothing about being dumb,it has to do with you being able to flank easier,and to shoot more often from cover,without the enemy shot a headshot on your after 2-3 sec.
Or that the enemy doesnt suddenly do like in insane and rush you and mele you down.

This is a very amateuristic review of the game... I for one think trhat a game can
only be reviewed properly when completed thoroughly....

From now on, I am going to start writing my own reviews.. Unbiased and
fully completed..

That' s completed ALL modes, not getting all achievements.. That would take
ages..

I still think that the A.I isn' t impressive and easy to predict, that' s why I like insane, cause even though then the enemy compensates that, with being having crazy great aim and takes a million shots to the head, as well as a shot from Raam almost leads to instant death. Oddly I found the explosive bastards to be the most difficult.

A thing that woulld' ve been nice in the game is the ability to duck, even though you aren' t behind cover. It bugged me many times, when I found places that my Kick asser wouldn' t lock on a cover.

Another thing that happened to me a lot was that that the game assumed that I and my friend had died, when I revive him and die about a second later. Odd, but even odder was once, when I got the death screen, when me and my friend where both alive and kicking... It made me really angry, as we had just gotten past a particulary nasty area!

Just for the record, the guy who wrote the " review" in my original post has only played the game on casual.

And what right does he have to write that review?
BTW: No one plays Gears for its philosophical story.

How many times have i talked angrily about some rertards who just wanna piss us off?

Like the fucker who wrote FF7 sux and then explain he hates jprg,and still his review got uploaded at gamernakings.com

Im tired of these fuckers,they are just one " opinion" they mean nothin more then for ex me,majik or tiz.

The guy writing the review is an idiot, I' d say. Complaining about the badass characters? They make the game. Lack of story? Well, it' s about space marines blowing up aliens! Bad music (then giving Audio 90%??????)? I thought the music was atmospheric and worked well in the game. I didn' t get in the way of the explosions, gunfire and quality voice acting anyway. Cole cracks me up with nearly every line he utters..

He' s a million miles off in his opinion for the campaign mode - my only complaint (although a big one) was it was too short and should of had at least 2 more acts. You do get good replay value with online and splitscreen coop though. I love the versus games, although minor points down for not being able to change game types and levels once you' re in the lobby.

It' s the best game for 360, except perhaps Oblivion. Sure it' s not super original, but it' s original enough and has plenty of really nice features, such as active reload and the cover system. The graphics aer going to blow away everything else on 360 this year. I know Bungie have said they' re not looking for this level of detail in Halo3, but I think now we' ve seen it we deserve to expect it. Anything less is going to be, well, less.

If you believe all the hype you hear then you' re living in a fairy tale world anyway. Gears certainly brought everything I was expecting with it, and it still leaves my jaw dropping to the floor playing through it for the 3rd time! I bought CoD3 over a week beofre Gears and I havn' t put it in my disc tray since Gears came out. It' s even got me off Texas Hold ' Em poker!