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I went and shelled out the 30 bucks to rent an Xbox for the weekend. CoOped through the game in about 4.5 hours. Agree with Russes sentiments on the game. Online was the real kicker though; the controls are intuitive and VERY flexible.

The up close is a pain... but the chainsaw bayonet instant kill makes it much easier. The Assault Rifle really is the weapon of choice in this game.

The Shotgun is my weapon of choice when going up close and personal. I beat the game on casual and now I am working through it on Hardcore...I am not looking forward to the two Berzerkers on Hardcore, they sucked enough on casual!

Chappy P!

I found the AI on the berserkers was pretty tame on Hardcore. I just beat the second one and it wasn't particularly hard. Just shoot it in the head and roll out of the way to get it to run the way you want it to. Shoot, roll, repeat.

The Assault Rifle wins out for really good weapon with me. Once you get the timing for the perfect reload down it's nasty, and the chainsaw hit is an insta-kill on anything short of a boomer.

hawt.

Yesterday Raef and I hooked up our 360's in his house for emergence day and solved the game from beginning to end on Hardcore.

Took use 10 hours (excluding breaks).  the game was so good, we just had to try Insane mode for "just a second", 1.5 hours later, we forced ourselves to quite.  I scored the "I just can't quite you Dom" achievement.

The bad guy AI is just off the hook on insane.  They very rarely miss, and they pop up for only a moment, you really need to flank the heck out of them.

Favorite moments?  Getting my first grenade sticky kill on a Boomer!  "Boom that ya B*tch"

The co-op mode on that game is so much fun, I had no desire for deathmatches or anything.  I'd be happy to hop in and help anyone on any level, as long as it is at least Hardcore difficutly. Casual is just no fun because enemy AI is too dumbed down.

The down side to Gears? It has ruined me for other games.  I watched the Call of Duty 3 trailer last night after I'd solved Gears.  I was suprised as the first thing I thought was "wow, do those graphics suck".  In truth, COD3 graphics are pretty nice, it's just Gears has set the bar so high, after playing it for awhile, it's hard to go back.

I also tried the R6: Vegas demo.  Graphics were better than COD3, but the environments still weren't as lush as Gears.  Also, I felt like my feet were stapled to the floor.  Gears just lets you move so dynamically, old style FPS movement feels slow and clunky.  Also, the R6 controls felt needlessly complicated.  If feels like you can do ANYTHING in Gears, but the controls are very simple.  This drove home the idea that Gears is great not just because of graphics, its a total package game.

The only negative thing I can say about Gears is that although the Co-op online mode is PERFECT, the multi-player 4v4 team combat needs work.  Connecting to a host is tricky, and it is tough to set up a game with your friends.

According to GameRankings, Gears has already scored 7 perfect 10's from various review websites and mags. My only question is "Why so few?"

This game definitly defines what "Next Gen" means.  If the PS3 and Wii get titles as sharp looking as this, then we as vid-gamers are all winners. 

A note about difficulty levels:  It seems to me that the boss fights are about the same regardless of difficulty.  The level really effects enemy troop AI, and how effectivly the flank, how well they use cover, and how accuratly they shoot.

 Here's my pile 'o achievements:

http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/Achievements/ViewAchievementDetails.aspx?compareTo=Red%20Toof&tid=%09%5d%3a%15%18*iAs%05

By the way, if you solve an "Act" on Hardcore, you also get the achievement for "Casual" so there's no reason to play the game on Casual unless you just can't take the heat.

 

Ok Russ, you're going to help me with Raam later today Been stuck on him since Friday...

I hate Gears of War, because it makes me like it so.

Gee...  All I need to do now is buy the X360 and GoW so I can play it.  Only just.  :S

Ok Russ, you're going to help me with Raam later today Been stuck on him since Friday...

I might be available for a quick "Raam Slam" tonight.  If not, here are some tips:

*****  WARNING: Here be Spoilers *******

I actually enjoyed the final battle with Gen. Raam on the train, as it brought in all the tactical elements you learned in Gears in one big combat:

• Use cover:  Since Raam caries essentially an assault cannon, you can't keep your head up.
• Stay out of the Dark: Raam has a flock of Kryle (bat-like creatures) that hover around him that he sends out to attack from time to time.  Kryle don't like the light.  If you are in the shadows when the Kryle fly, you will be killed.
• Move & 'rodie run': Raam will slowly close toward to, at some time you'll be forced to move. 

All that said, here's what we did.  It was undoubtbly easier with two players, as we could talk and avoid one of us getting curb stomped by Raam:

• When the Kryle flock is around Raam, he has a sort of force field.  Your bullets will just spark off him and cause no damage.
• When the kryle flock flies out, you'll notice that the field is gone, and when you hit him you see blood.  So the key is to shoot him when the flock is away.  It still takes a crap load of shots, I emptied at least 14 sniper rounds into him, with at least 7-10 of them as 'hot reloads'.   Normally a hot loaded sniper rifle will kill any locust, even in armor, in one shot.  That should tell you how strong he is.  Meanwhile, my ally was dumping clip after clip of bullets into him.
• When he sends his kryle after you, if you're in the light, you can stand up a shoot.  But if you're in the dark, you're dead.  don't move into the dark if his kryle are moving.
• To avoid the Kryle, we did the following: wait behind the barrackade you start at, shooting Raam when his shield is down.  When he gets really close, go UP and over the barackade and run right by Raam to the other end of the car.  There is a lighted barackade at the other end.  Repeat as necessary going back and forth up the middle.  Up the middle is definitly tricky, as Raam is in the way, but it is well lit, and safe from Kryle.  Remember to RUN when you do it.

I haven't been able to hook up with anyone to play Co-op. I don't know if it's a network issue or a problem with my 360 or what. It really sucks.

Also, GoW has been crashing my system. Has this happened to anyone else? It usually happens on the splash screen if I hit the center button on the controller to bring up the dashboard. The game also froze mid-cutscene too. The whole screen becomes checkerboarded or sometimes just has a few steaks of checkers running down it, and I have to manually shut off the system, the dashboard will not come up. Here's a pic of the frozen screen:





As for the final boss, I only have beaten the game on casual, but if the difficulty stays about the same it seems like it would work (************spoilers below***********):









I just ran by him (staying mainly in the light) and got onto the stationary gun and fired at him till he died.

I haven't had any problems, and I had my 360 running it all day on Sunday as I said. 

Co-op has hooked up fine every time, but versus does sometimes have trouble connecting to host.  That's a known issue that a patch is due out for soon according to the web site.

I've never seen the screen problem.  That is wierd.  Although I don't think I've ever hit the center button while on the splash screen.

 

** Spoiler **

 

 

On the final boss fight, we did try the turret, but the guys on the Reaver's (flying beasties) kept killing us up there because we were exposed.  That may be a function of difficulty, because I do think the grunts get more accurate.