Gears of War - Reviews

[Deepblue]

First One:

http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=13749

SPOILER:
5/5

(might be pulled as it was put up early, can't find it with normal navigation of the site)

 

[nintenho]

That's only the multiplayer review-GOOD NEWS.

Actually they review the co-op for a couple minutes but they dont' really spoil anything and wow the resolution of that video is horrible.

 

[aaaaa00]

The video segment only covers multiplayer (probably due to embargo), but the 5/5 review score is clearly for both single and multiplayer.

 

[Deepblue]

Actually this video shouldn't have been posted due to the embargo, but we benefit from their mistake!

 

[Graham]

Gamerscore blog mentioned that xplay gave gears 5/5, and OXM gives it 1/10.

*
ops

I mean 10/10.

 

[Malibu]

Actually this video shouldn't have been posted due to the embargo, but we benefit from their mistake!

Looks like Gamespot made a mistake by putting their video review up. For some reason it doesn't contain a score though.

Possible spoilers in the video. You might want to just listen to the audio, if you're afraid of anything being spoiled for you.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/video_player/popup.php?sid=6161197&pid=

 

[London Geezer]

Are there any written reviews yet?

 

[DieH@rd]

Well both reviews are down [at least for me. streaming movies dont go well on my comp]

Anyone managed to record it to HDD?

 

[expletive]

Looks like CNET let slip the gamespot score, even though the full review is not up yet.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Gears_of_War_Xbox_360/4505-11457_7-31414802.html

9.6

When are these reviews supposed to be held until?

 

[London Geezer]

Or we can just keep refreshing this page and hope for the best

 

[palamede]

Wow, that's more than Halo2 and 0.1 less than Halo.
Sounds good !

 

[pipo]

Well both reviews are down [at least for me. streaming movies dont go well on my comp]

Anyone managed to record it to HDD?

The Gamespot version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0cJA-W-7ek

 

[aselto]

MS and Epic deliberately didn't show most locations and enemies and if you don't any spoilers do not watch gamespot video review as it shows plenty of new ones. Anyway, great notes so far

 

[Qroach]

looks like this game will get some really high review scores.

 

[Arwin]

To be honest, I don't generally like this game very much. It's just about long enough for what it offers (8 hours, which is pretty short, really), and it looks pretty good, but I still think it lacks depth. But I do recognise that this is just my own taste.

On the other hand, I do think that MGS4 could learn a few things from this game. Most notably, when reviewing its controls with the use of tilt, I'm hoping that it will obtain the immediacy of this game's controls, which seem excellent. If you can run around using cover with the ease and fluidity of Gears of War, in a game with the depth and variety of Metal Gear Solid, then I will be a very happy camper. The other night I played Subsistence online on PS2, and I thought it was rather good (I also love the hosting options, where you can just watch). But the transition from standing to kneeling to crawling is too slow and cumbersome, and ducking in and out of cover should be easier. And blind-firing is also a great idea. I'm no MGS expert, mind, but I think with a few Gears-like tweaks MGS could be a lot smoother, for sure.

I'm going to be interested in seeing how long this game is going to last in single player for most people, and how long the multi-player stays fun.

The graphics though, look to be making this a well-deserved next-gen icon for the 360. The game certainly matches the 360s target audience!

 

[London Geezer]

looks like this game will get some really high review scores.

The length of the game is what worries me. Hopefully that won't be overlooked. Graphics and WOW factor can only take you so far.

 

[Jon Brittan]

To be honest, I don't generally like this game very much. It's just about long enough for what it offers (8 hours, which is pretty short, really)

I'm going to be interested in seeing how long this game is going to last in single player for most people, and how long the multi-player stays fun.

How can you say you don't like a game very much (unless you just mean "the look") without having played it and your two quotes semi-contradict themselves, with the second suggesting you don't know how long the game will actually last, while the first is just plain wrong as no-one (publicly) has played the game all the way through yet and the devs said it's longer than that anyway.

But the transition from standing to kneeling to crawling is too slow and cumbersome, and ducking in and out of cover should be easier. And blind-firing is also a great idea. I'm no MGS expert, mind, but I think with a few Gears-like tweaks MGS could be a lot smoother, for sure.

There are plenty of other games like that too, Rainbow 6 uses cover very nicely too, especially the speed of transition between cover and open movement.

The graphics though, look to be making this a well-deserved next-gen icon for the 360. The game certainly matches the 360s target audience!

That's kinda generalising, don't you think? I think Microsoft would argue that the 360s ideal target audience would be everyone... Most common/successful genre and "target audience" are not necessarily the same thing.

 

[Qroach]

To be honest, I don't generally like this game very much. It's just about long enough for what it offers (8 hours, which is pretty short, really), and it looks pretty good, but I still think it lacks depth. But I do recognise that this is just my own taste.

Not sure where you got that from, but the game isn't 8 hours long. The last quote we heard was 10-12 hours for someone that knows the game inside and out (from epic). For someone that doesn't know the location of every enemy or what to always expect, the game will be considerably longer.

Many reviewers have all been saying they were curious if it lacked depth, but after playing the final copy, thier fears are gone in that respect. Just watch the latest 1up show. I think everyone was pleasantly suprised but the complete game.

 

[Jon Brittan]

The length of the game is what worries me. Hopefully that won't be overlooked. Graphics and WOW factor can only take you so far.

I think replayability is as much of a key point as the overall length of the game though.

I read one post this morning about KOTOR and it made me quite nostalgic, I really enjoyed the game and it was quite long, but I tried to play it through a second time and never got round to it. In contrast, Splinter Cell: DA took me half a (normal, not purely gaming) day to complete, but I've played it through twice already and played a lot of multiplayer. If the gameplay is fun and there's enough options for replay or a good multiplayer then the original length isn't so key. Another example would be Dead Rising, that practically *required* replaying, but it's good fun.

 

[pipo]

... as no-one (publicly) has played the game all the way through yet and the devs said it's longer than that anyway.

The Yahoo review is up. The 'depth' part in Arwin's post made me go '?' too by the way...

http://videogames.yahoo.com/gamereview?cid=1951037562&tab=reviews&page=0&eid=-1

Which, somewhat ironically, serves to underline Gears' one Achilles heel: the single-player game is shorter than you might wish. For us, we'll take Gears of War's intense, no-filler eight or so real-world hours over a lesser game's 20 - and it's a game you'll definitely want to replay on higher difficulty levels. Throw in the marvelously flexible co-op and versus multiplayer options and Gears of War has longevity enough for most, though if you really are stuck on your own you might burn out on it quicker than you'd like.

If you've been wondering why you lined up all night for an Xbox 360 this time last year, agonize no longer. This is the kind of game that sells systems, and if you have the merest action-loving bone in your body - and you can handle the gore, bad language, and short-ish play time -- it's pointless to resist. Gears of War is the best 360 game of 2006.