Gears of War [X360]

Because the cover system is so effective, you will actually feel nervous when you're not behind cover. If you hold the A button, you'll start an all-out, crouched sprint. The camera starts shaking so you won't be able to take aim (as if you could do so effectively at a sprint anyways), nor will you be able to really see enemies that are far away. The camera angle also drops very low, so you'll feel you're in a scene of "Saving Private Ryan" as you displace and look for more cover. Some people may not like not having the ability to sprint and shoot, but I think it adds even more importance to taking cover and lining up effective shots. Try as you might, but it's just impossible to run at a full sprint and train your crosshairs on anybody.

Weapons are placed strategically around the map, usually in places that are wide open to enemy fire, making it a bit of a risk, reward situation. The sniper rifle, for instance, is located on the ground in the middle of a small clearing right in the middle of the map. So I found myself sprinting to it, grabbing it and sprinting back behind cover. But being on the ground is not the ideal place for a sniper, so I snuck up some stairs to the second story of a bombed out building and took cover, waiting for my first victim. Players come equipped with an assault rifle, shotgun, pistol and grenades, and each weapon is quick-mapped to a direction on the D-pad. You always have slots for grenades and pistols, but you'll drop either the rifle or shotgun when you want to pick up another big weapon, like the sniper rifle, rocket launcher -- we also thing we saw a Gatling gun.

Visually, Gears looked outstanding. While we saw some minor frame rate issues yesterday, we didn't notice any slowdown or graphical hitches in this LAN setup. Obviously we weren't playing on Xbox Live, so who know how it will perform online, but if this session is any indication, it will be pretty damned good. Epic says there will be other multiplayer modes but isn't saying what. We do know there is a team deathmatch, obviously, and we can all assume there is the standard death match as well. Capture the flag would be an interesting option given that you can't really run around in the open with a flag without getting your face shot out. The Gears framework would definitely give CTF a more methodical approach and a new spin on an old favorite gamemode. Then again, we all hope Epic does something completely new that we haven't seen before, so we'll keep you posted on that.

Gears of War is playable only behind closed doors at E3, but whispers of the game's awesomeness are spreading throughout the convention center. Halo 3 is still the star for Microsoft after the fantastic trailer, but Gears is something new, fresh, different and really, really fun, and we can't wait to play it again, even if it takes a fire-hose and booth-babe to do it.

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