by Dee Wells

Created on: January 20, 2007   Last Updated: April 12, 2007

Gears Of War Review

I first heard about Gears of War during the PS3 vs. 360 debate. "Why would I want to buy a 360 instead of a Playstation? 'Cause 360s gonna have Halo 3 and Gears of War!" At that time, I thought, "Who cares? What's the world with another [console based] first person shooter?"

Don't get me wrong, I love a good first person shooter. When I was in high school, first person shooter meant everyone going over to my friend Nick's basement (he was the only one we knew who had cable internet at the time) and staying up all night with [Half Life] Team Fortress Classic, Counter Strike, and Gumby's Pizza's "Pokey Sticks".

Yeah I had played Halo (and Halo 2). Who hadn't? So when Dee brought home Gears, I wasn't that enthused. In fact, he played it once, and then it sat on the TV shelf for at least a week and a half before I even thought about touching it. Suffice to say, my expectations were pretty low. You know, just running around the same repetitive maps, seeing the same textures over and over, and fighting pretty much the same 4 or 5 aliens for hours (thank you Halo).

All that changed within 20 minutes

Gameplay:

Seeing as how I came from a control background of keyboard-mouse combo, I have always been hesitant to play FPS on consoles. Not to mention the fact that I play left handed (even though I am right handed). Within the first minute and a half I found my 2 major dislikes with the entire game. 1) The irreversibility of the analog sticks. Of course, they give you the option of playing it "southpaw" but with the necessity of the A button, you are pretty much stuck with what it is. Right after that is 2) Lack of aim sensitivity controls. You get three settings: low, medium, high. That's it. I pretty much played it on low, but many (many many) times I wished I could find a nice balance between low and medium.

But I got used to it. And I'm glad I didn't get scared away. It was worth it.

After the initial frustration of trying to get my customize my controller (and giving up) I got right into the game. Anyone who's even seen Gears realizes its not your basic FPS. Its more of a series of running, ducking, aiming, and shooting.

What I mean is this: you are walking until enemy forces (aliens from underground called "Locust") begin to surge your location with suppressing fire. You run (realistically being unable to shoot while doing so) and find the nearest cover, being a pillar, rock, couch, statue, doorway, anything you can hide behind. Switching positions or

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