Customer Rating: 
Summary: you know what im gonna say
Comment: this game's reputation speaks for itself and is well deserved, saying you own an xbox 360 should be synonymous with owning this game
Customer Rating: Summary: A blockbuster game!
Comment: Gears of War thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. Players take the role of Marcus Fenix. A disgraced former war hero, Marcus seeks personal redemption. You immerse yourself in an experience so intensely emotional and gut-wrenching that playing will be like controlling a blockbuster action movie. Control Marcus Fenix and his fire team as they pit advanced human technology against the overwhelming and horrific Locust Horde. Gears of War unites next-generation technology with classic, emotional storytelling and a revolutionary tactical combat system, engrossing the gamer in a horrifying epic story of war and survival Unreal Engine 3 technology pushes high-definition visual designs and brings out the smallest details in the largest battle. Experience a rich dynamic world with an unprecedented level of detail.
With GOW you're sure to experience a rich, dynamic world where characters spring to life. GOW is built with both the hardcore and casual gamer in mind. But, instead of selecting a difficulty level at the start of the game, GOW offers a choice at the beginning of each level. In the vein of choose your own adventure, you can select between a difficult or easy path. To be effective in combat you'll need to allot for time to successfully reload your weapon. Do it well and the battle is yours; do it poorly and you may actually jam your gun. Time it perfectly and you'll earn a bonus with a temporary damage boost. Though GOW clearly showcases a sci-fi experience, its roots are in tactical, realistic combat scenarios. Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience and is a classic.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Needs more difficulty levels...
Comment: Everyone has different skills at video games. I am not very good. I found it too difficult and therefore more frustrating than fun. It would have been fun for me if it had two lower difficulty levels: easy and very easy.
Customer Rating: Summary: A few bullets short of perfect
Comment: I think like most people, the idea of putting money down on an Xbox 360 knowing its failure rate, overheating and Microsoft's tendency to sometimes lose orders or take longer than necessary makes a purchase of the system a paranoid one since you're constantly going "I hope this isn't the day/game that bricks it". However, those that are interested in the system always looked at the one game that looked like a must-have: that of Gears of War. Developed by Epic Games who work on the Unreal Tournament games, this became one of those great action movies that offered an intense experience through its many firefights and seemed to replace its blood with testosterone. Only some big nitpicks make this game less than completely perfect but I have to say, I have a blast with this one.
Story: On the planet Sera, the inhabitants have been terrorized by an alien race known as the Locust Horde who suddenly popped out of the ground on Emergence Day ("E-Day") and are gradually reducing the number of the survivors. While fighting through a prison, Dom Santiago rescues his friend and your main guy, Marcus Fenix, and it's up to you to make it through dangerous cities and areas to hopefully nail a crippling blow to the Locust Horde.
Graphics: This is really a cosmetic nitpick than anything but I never liked the blood in games that uses the Unreal Engine like Uncharted since it was seemed more mass-like and gooey than a liquid but in a game like this, it seems to go hand-in-hand. But one can't deny the graphical power of the engine and from the extremely detailed character animation, scale of the firefights and architecture make this a showcase for what the 360 can bring to the table. Really small nags are the occasional texture problem and slight framerate but they're usually never an issue or distracting enough to cause frustration.
Sound/Music: The movie 300 was something that I tried several times to get into but I never could and one theory was that it was basically a movie for the frat boys who'll cheer at the violent parts and revel in the weird use of heavy metal music yet it has quote-unquote "depth" that made it different than most action movies. Not. Gears of War on the other hand knows it's basically a dumb summer blockbuster movie and just rolls with it from the line readings and one-liner dialogue. It's not meant to elicit tears but it's not eye-rolling either. The music however is fantastic from the creeping sound design to the big bombastic moments during firefights, this is one to have a stereo on.
Gameplay: Whereas shooters like Call of Duty or Halo are all about strafing a little bit from a wall or cover just enough to nail the enemy, Gears of War is all about taking cover. From columns to big blocks of stone, doorways, ruined cars etc, just press A and your character slams his side and is able to avoid enemy fire. Pressing the LT lets you take aim and RT to fire or pressing RT is just covering fire, inaccurate but helpful for nailing charging Locusts without wanting to pop up. Carrying up to 4 weapons at a time, we have the Hammer of Dawn, a laser-targeting system where a satellite will beam huge rays onto the area and all but vaporizing the enemy to standard pistols and shotgun. The highlight of course is the Lancer, which is basically a normal assault rifle only it has a chainsaw for a bayonet. Just hold the B, get closer to an enemy and press RT and we have the perfect dissecting machine. While sometimes it didn't rev up or trying to actually getting it to activate, it's still an immensely satisfying kill.
The big problem with the game is the AI and not the enemies who'll flank, throw grenades and do whatever it takes till you're lifeless on the ground. The AI problems come from your teammates since they are, to borrow a Yahtzee phrase, "pants-on-head retarded". They'll openly go out of cover for seemingly no apparent reason other than wanting to get closer and they'll end up crying for help to be revived which you do by pressing X near the body. It happens with such frequency that I even saved one guy only to literally need help 4 seconds later when he got out of cover instead of just staying put. While co-op in most games is more fun, here it's more beneficial you go through it co-op since the players will be smarter than the game itself.
And to be perfectly honest, that whole magnetic wall thing of characters doing a "roadie run", a documentary-like view of your character football-sprinting through the level, only to be sucked into cover when you didn't want to and I have to say I haven't experienced this once yet. Either I don't run enough or I just never noticed but I will say sometimes characters don't take cover so much as they keep rolling in front of the car instead of taking that much needed slam against the stone. At least thankfully we have "active reload", where during reload a bar will slide underneath the display with a large portion greyed out and one whited out with the rest being dark. Get it in the grey and it's a faster reload, white same thing but extra damage to bullets whereas the rest causes a fumble and he acts like Solid Snake or a Call of Duty player doing one of those painfully long reloads on certain guns.
The game isn't that long though given its repetitive "stop-and-pop" gameplay, as Epic calls it, it prevents the game from being too long and just being more acts and chapters for the sake of it. With multiplayer drawing big crowds, co-op, the achievements as well as COG tags hidden in levels for collectibles, this one'll keep you busy...that is if you haven't bought the sequel yet.
Customer Rating: Summary: simply amazing
Comment: i got this game for my birthday and i haven't gone a a day since without playing it. it is so much fun, the online multi-player, the campaign, and especially the two player on-line co-op. it's a little too easy on casual but it's still a lot of fun. anyone who owns an xbox 360 should buy this game.
