Gears of War for the Xbox 360

I first read about this game in a magazine several months ago, and while the screenshots were impressive, I have never been a tremendous fan of shoot-'em-ups as my friend calls them. Then I saw some preview footage and had to admit that the moving game was just as impressive-looking and sounding as the magazine article had led readers to believe.

Even then, I was not entirely sure what to expect when I first played this game with a friend of mine. As usual, I try to mention if I think a game is inappropriate for younger children, and this one falls into that category. The language is a bit rough at times and there is violence and blood galore. Still, the storyline is a good, mature one of humanity doing its best in the future to sustain itself against a relentless foe.

This is not your typical shooter as some of the controls you would expect (like jumping) are absent, but your ability to interact with your environment is amazingly well done. This is not the first game to try this particular approach, but it is without a doubt the best to date. You need to learn to make quality use of your environment, because standing out in the open to take on your enemies will get you killed very quickly. Instead you take cover behind scraps of broken car, broken pillars and shattered chunks of concrete, firing around corners and working with your squad mates to overcome nearly insurmountable odds.

The world is very much alive all around you, as choppers fly by, the ground erupts with monsters, buildings and glass are shattered and swarms of enemies can be found around any given corner. The graphics and sound are amazing as well, doing a wonderful job of immersing you into this horrible world that you and your teammates are trying to save. It plays well in single-player mode, but the co-op mode really makes this game shine. The only downside of course is that the screen is split so your viewing area becomes a bit more limited, but it was nice to have someone you could turn your head to sand say "cover me" as opposed to hoping that your computer-controlled allies will do the same as you lunge in through a hail of gunfire.