Gears of War

Originally shipped on the 7th of November 2006, but was not released in places such as Walmart and Target until November 12th, also knows as E-Day. The game takes place 14 years after E-Day, and you are to finish off the locust hoards by destroying their underground civilization. The game features three difficulty settings: Casual, Hardcore, and Insane. Insane can only be played once you have completed all five acts. Playing through on Casual will take 6-7 hours, Hardcore 8-9 and Insane 10-14. Gears of War truley thrives in the multiplayer universe. Weather it be playing the campaign online side by side with a friend and nearl;y no lag, to playing a 4v4 warzone match. There are 3 game types to play online in versus (ranked and player matches) and 10 maps. The game types are: Warzone- One life elimination. Simple. Assassination- To win, you must kill the enemy leader. The leader the first round is determined by who joined the Locust or CoG team first. If you win, the leader becomes who ever kill the enemy leader. If you lose, the leader transfers over to who ever has the moist points. Also, the leader is the only person who can pick up special weapons. Execution- In order to die, you must be executed. This can be acomplished by: Sniper headshot, headshot while you are bleeding out, grenade tag, shot gun to the chest, chainsawed, or curbstomped. Points are determined as follows: Kills: 20 for normal kill, 25 for execution. Downs: Putting someone in a bleed out state is worth 10 Revives: Reviving a fallen comrad is worth 10. Other: Doing high amount of damages and accomplishing multiple active reloads will earn you a small amount of points. In general, the maps in gears of war are quick and fun. They do happen to be very semetric except for a few, such as elongation. The maps generally have at least 2 power weapons, often a sniper rifle or a boom shot. The weapons in the game are: Lancer - Automatic; 60 bullet clip; equiped with chainsaw. Note: Holding B revs the chainsaw, but if shot by anything, it will become unreved. Snub Pistol - Semi-Auto; Small capacity, but fast reload. Revolver- Semi-Auto; Powerful, but 6 shot capacity. Locust's SMG- 3 shot burst; Unless you achieve headshots, very weak. Shotgun- Pump-action; 8 clip capacity; Poweful only very close. The 'host' also recieves benifits of longer range. Sniper- Single bullet loading; A single shot to anything but the head/neck puts someone near death, a headshot is an instant kill, and a neckshot puts them down. The sniper is very powerful if mastered, but if jammed when active reloading, it can put you in a lot of danger. Toruqe Bow- Bow & Arrow; Must be drawn back all the way to be effective. If succesfully implanted into someone, they will explode. Note: If drawn back too long, you will let go. Hammer of Dawn: Often refered too as the Hammer of Doom; When fired at the ground or a person, a small target will appear. If the laser is kept in the same general area for 2 seconds, a larger laser beam will shoot down from the sky a destroy anything it touches. The laser lasts 3 seconds once is has been shot and can be dragged back and forth. Note: The Hammer of Dawn cannot be used if the area being shot at is underneath something (Hanger, Roof, etc.) Boomshot- Often refered to as the Rocket Lobber. If fires a single shot that lobs slighty. Often used to replace the shotgun, as the only way to get a kill with it is to kit someone directly. Smoke Grenades-Self explanitory. You throw it, smoke goes up. Frag Grenades- Also self explanitory, you throw, it bounces, it explodes. Note: Using the melee button, one can 'tag' the enemy, causing them to explode in a second. Overall, Gears of War did live up to the hype, and I HIGHLY reccomended it to anyone who likes shooters.