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First Person Shooters (Games) E3 XBox (Games)

Gears of War Hands-On Impressions 47

The Xbox 360 title that everyone seems to be excited about is the first person shooter Gears of War. Hands-On impressions are available from 1up.com, Gamespy, Gamespot, and IGN. From the IGN article: "Sera is gripped in darkness. The Locusts are most at home in the shadows, so expect the worst moments to occur when the lights go off. Gears of War can best be described as a mix between a third-person tactical shooter and a survival horror game. This is pop-and-shoot gaming, not the run-and-gun style of Halo 2. Oh, and it's f---ing awesome."
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Gears of War Hands-On Impressions

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  • holy crap! (Score:2, Interesting)

    Is this [gamespot.com] what xbox 360 games are going to look like? I might have to join the console dark side. Course if the game play isn't any good...
    • Re:holy crap! (Score:3, Informative)

      by tolan-b ( 230077 )
      That's what Unreal Engine 3 games are going to look like.

      The Unreal Tournement 2007 tech demo for the PS3 was equally impressive technically.

      The artwork for Gears of War is particularly impressive though.
      • I was about to post the same. The Unreal Engine 3 [unrealtechnology.com] looks flooring; expect to see games with that graphical quality on your PC soon.

        The next Unreal Tournament [gamespy.com] looks damn sweet aswell.
        • Re:holy crap! (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Gulthek ( 12570 )
          So why use that PC for gaming when a console does it just as well?

          Join me in the dark side, I have vaulted from PC gaming to consoles and I'm having much more fun. But then, I love 3d-person action, driving and fighting games more than I love FPSs. Ninja Gaiden is where it's at. Resident Evil 4 is totally awesome.
          • That's what sets apart this next generation of consoles from the rest: they perform better than decent PCs. To get a PC to play games like that would be very expensive.
          • Well, from a purely graphical perspective...when consoles first come up they are genreally on par or better with PCs. PCs catch up and pass them and then it's prettier there. PC gaming is better for FPS and RTS mainly because the mouse and keyboard are superior to a controller for those games. Now I know that there are mouse and keyboards for consoles. They suck though because you still can't turn any faster than what the controller would let you. I have mixed feeling on that. I like it because it eve
            • exactly, preferences are preferences and there's no need to force someone to like the PC or console better. I, like brkello, game on both consoles, and find the PC better for shooters (except for halo 2 obviously), and the consoles better for action/adventure games like DMC. either way, its fun, so keep enjoying and im looking forward to the next gen consoles.
    • Re:holy crap! (Score:1, Insightful)

      by theclam159 ( 833616 )
      While it does look great, I don't think it's the leap in graphics that it should be. When this generation's consoles first came out, we were amazed at the graphics. Everything looked so much better than N64/Playstation/PC graphics at the time. Now, the difference is much smaller.

      Let's take Half-Life 2, running on the Source engine.

      The graphics in Gears of War are only moderately better than HL2.
      http://media.pc.ign.com/media/492/492830/img_24657 11.html [ign.com]
      http://media.pc.ign.com/media/492/492830/img_21 [ign.com]
      • by Anonymous Coward
        It's important to understand that in this new generation of engines, you can't actually see the difference from a still screenshot unless you know what to look for.

        In motion, though, it's a whole different story. Very obvious.

        The lighting in HL2 is still largely precalculated. This leads to a much flatter, more distant world when the game is actually moving.

        If Doom 3 hadn't been so damn dark, the difference would have been obvious.

        Things to look for are the funny way glass shines in the older style engi
      • Re:holy crap! (Score:3, Informative)

        by hollismb ( 817357 )
        Just a note, it's been confirmed by the developers that the Killzone footage is 'what we intend the game to look like'. I.E, it's all pre-rendered CGI. Heck, even the animation gave it away. I wouldn't get you hopes up for the game to look like that trailer. Good, yes, but like that? I don't think so.
        • to be the devils advocate. its not something unheard of. given how the unreal 3 engine looks. and its shown and proven from the e3 techdemo that the actual ps3 hardware is capable of handling the unreal engine at full HD resolution at a consistent framerate, its not insane for me to believe that killzone is capable of whats been shown.

          if you played the first killzone, you would notice not much difference between what appeared to be footage and how the first one played except for maybe a larger AI and scrip
    • Re:holy crap! (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Seumas ( 6865 )
      I am not a console owner. I have never cared for consoles. I owned a used Nintendo (classic) console when I was in my teens for a couple years and that was it. Everything else has been PC. And I didn't really even get into games until I was an adult.

      I have never seen the point in buying consoles for a hundred bucks or three hundred bucks, plus games at $80 each. Especially since they become obsolete. On the PC, I can demo (okay, bit-torrent - but if I play them more than a couple hours I tend to buy them)
      • Some of take the same approach to consoles. We demo (ok bit-torrent) the games as well. I demo games for the Xbox the PS2, PSX, GBA, Gamecube) I remember when me and my brother talked my mom and dad into getting us a Z64 for Chirstmas instead of buying us any games so we could "demo" games for the N64 as well.
  • "but in co-op you have to figure it out between yourselves, punch each other on the sofa and spill beer on each other" ...my question is, will there be coop on Live?
    • "it's only gets more exciting when you join forces with a buddy to play cooperatively, both over Live and in split-screen mode."

      oops...didn't read all the articles...good news though! i was hoping for more coop Live games ala doom 3
  • Anybody else with the damn systems would be out already and we could get over the marketing blitz for all three systems? Seriously. Gamers more or less already know which one they want to buy, and don't need this massive marketing expenditure to tell us what we need. Please, for the love of god, STOP.

    • Didn't you hear? In preparation for the Xbox 360's release, Microsoft has submitted 360 slashdot articles.
    • Err, it's E3. This is a week of Marketing Blitz. It happens every year new console or no.

      Besides, you don't seriously think that the marketing will stop once launch day hits do you?
    • Seriously. Gamers more or less already know which one they want to buy

      Umm... I'm a gamer and I don't know which one I will buy... For me, it comes down to the quality of launch titles on the 360 to determine if I'm getting one or not. What we've seen so far is just a taste. On top of that, the PS3's release date is much more undetermined than the 360. I don't want to hold off playing incredible-looking games waiting for a console that I could have to wait up to a year longer to get. By that time, I
  • I was almost sure CliffyB told us it was third-person, which is how it looks in the trailer. Is it first or third?
    • Third person. The story has it completely wrong. It's a third-person survival horror action game. Apparently, according to the article, it seems like it plays a lot like Namco's KillSwitch, where you strategically move from one spt to the next to take cover, pop up and fire, take more cover, move ahead, etc. Most of that is actually in-game footage in the trailer, if you look closely enough. Note that this is NOT a launch title. It's supposed to be out next spring.
  • by incom ( 570967 ) on Thursday May 19, 2005 @08:49PM (#12585207)
    have to act like immature children? I hope in time there will be a source of adult gaming news with the comprehensiveness and bredth the like of the IGN's and gamespots, but with some maturity and professionalism. cough*and integrity*cough
    • by rAiNsT0rm ( 877553 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @10:12AM (#12589545) Homepage
      I have been a member of the gaming media, and finally had become fed up with it two years ago. Try to work with these people some time if you want to see unprofessional at its finest. I actually will never go to another E3 again, people (grown men and women) take pride in not showering, oogling "booth babes" more than the games, have maturity levels near plankton, and are generally a pain to be around (try going to a after hour release party some time... these people have no idea how to act because they simply have never been in these situations in real life). I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, but the majority.

      In all of my years developing sites and writing reviews I always kept an unbiased view of the titles and wrote hard hitting truthful reviews backed by actual facts. The amount of "bought" reviews would make you sick, and the young reviewers who are so thrilled to be schmoozed by a company gush about their products like schoolgirls. I've seen reviewers play a game for 15 minutes and write a glowing review to meet deadlines, and because the game was considered a top game of the year... I reviewed the same title and gave it mid-to-low ratings because it was simply substandard (then I proceeded to get nasty emails from the company and other reviewers because I must be crazy to give an honest opinion and pick apart a so-called "A" title.)

      I've thrown up my hands and given up trying to bring honest reviews to the public because it has always been headaches, I enjoy Guild Wars and look forward to the Revolution console and that's about as much gaming as I care to be a part of anymore.
    • Not in the near future.

      So far my favorite of the E3 reporting is Gamespot's Tor Thorsen likening people's response to the Killzone footage to people's reaction after Kennedy's assasination.

      Next up from Tor and Gamespot: "When Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 would not be compatible, it was like being in the World Trade Center when the planes hit."

      These people are pros incom. Let them do their work.
  • ... they're offering us Doom 3, right???
  • The game was graphically very pretty, and the whole emphasis on using cover was cool.

    That having been said, the gameplay footage itself SUCKED ASS. I don't care how pretty your game looks, if it's running at 15fps and is choppy as hell, it's going to look like utter shit, and people won't want to play it.

    The other humourous "dirty little secret" at MS' booth was that all Xbox 360 demos were running on Macintosh G5s. Understandable, but nonetheless funny as hell.
    • we all think of m$ as a company that is the antithesis of apple. truth is... when was the last time you went out and bought a m$ pc?

      m$ doesnt care what hardware you have, as long as youre running their software and paying for their licenses.

      they want the biggest and best this console generation, so they went for the best hardware when it comes to running graphics. smart decision. if it was smart enough remains to be seen. guess we have to wait until ps3 launch.

Marvelous! The super-user's going to boot me! What a finely tuned response to the situation!

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