Gears of War coming to PC!

[Harrison]

Have you played the original Halo? It did do things better at the time than any other first person shooter.

The difference was in the way it was executed and the atmosphere created. The enemy AI was much more believable, with them not just sticking to their spot waiting to be shot, but moving around and spreading out from their starting points, with more being dropped into the combat zone from the air. And hearing them talking to each other, making you imagine they are working out strategies to get you worked quite well too.

I think games like Half Life 2 improved on many aspects since this time, but they are quite different games and do hold up on there own for different reasons.

Halo was also one of the first games that changed how weapons were handled. Before this in most games you could just collect all of the weapons and switch between them, but in Halo you could only hold two weapons at once and had to discard one in order to pick up another. This is something that has since been adopted by many other games.

[FOL]

I would have to agree about halo, I have finished about 30+ times. Damn fine game. The funniest thing was that bungie, hated porting it to PC saying "It was never intended for PC". I think they were trying to hide the fact that halo on Xbox sucked, the framerate would struggle in places. It like "HELLO", you cant make a game the hardware cant handle.

[Sharingan]

Have you played the original Halo? It did do things better at the time than any other first person shooter.

I've only played the first level really. Thought it looked nice enough, but didn't think the gameplay was as revolutionary as people claimed it to be at the time. Maybe I wasn't impressed because I'm generally not that much into FPS/TPS games.

[Harrison]

I definitely think you need to be into FPS to truly enjoy any game in the genre.

Although I was disappointed with the first level of Halo myself as I had already played the E3 preview a long time before and that was much better. In the original E3 version the game started with you in a drop ship surrounded by the other soldiers, but instead of crashing and finding yourself alone it began with you all being dropped into the location and working alongside the rest of the troops fighting the enemy. Changing that for the final version disappointed me quite a lot. Although obviously you do get to fight alongside others soon enough as you move through the game.

[Demon Cleaner]

I definitely think you need to be into FPS to truly enjoy any game in the genre.

Right, and for me, that's not the case. I like seeing them as I think FPS games are to most beautiful when it comes to high end graphics. But I don't like the gameplay.

[Harrison]

Even games like Farcry or Half Life 2?

Farcry is still my favourite FPS to date as it added so much to the genre. You actually felt like you were on tropical islands creeping through undergrowth towards the enemy or cruising through the water in a gun boat. It also contained a lot of variety and was a huge game.

You were not just in one type of environment, and each section was big in it's own right. The section on the ship, the tree top research facility, the underground labs and tunnels, the hangers and outside areas of the bases. All amazing and well designed.

My favourite area had to be the part with three small islands, where you could use the gun boats to travel around between them, as well as the jeeps on each. I replayed the one section many times, it was so enjoyable. I can[t wait for the sequel and that might be the game that forces me to upgrade my graphics card from my current 7800GT.

And Half Life 2 was just as good, with a great story and amazing environments. It's only downfall was being slightly too linear, but the sections of that game, especially the prison were simply amazing.

[Demon Cleaner]

I had 2 FPS installed on my PC, Far Cry and Doom 3. I only tested Doom 3 as I liked the dark athmosphere, and I also loved the setting in Far Cry on the island. But I didn't even play the first level, it was nice to show my friends in the beginning, but that's all.

Anyway, I was also impressed when I saw Stalker and now Bioshock, but with my X800 GPU, it won't run properly I suppose. And if I'm honest, I don't even care. I really converted from PC gamer to console gamer, which was due to japanese RPG games. And I prefer playing sports and racing games on the console, as it runs perfectly, doesn't need an install, and is perfectly controllable with a gamepad.

[Harrison]

You really should have played Farcry through a bit further, just because the game offers a lot more than the first level presents you. And later sections have so much variety.

Even the outside areas become more breathtaking later on. I especially loved one area where you come to a ravine with a bridge spanning it and an ancient stone ruined fortress at the other side teaming with enemy soldiers. Using the sniper rifle to pick them off before then crossing the bridge to finish clearing out the ruins was great.
And just as you thought it was all clear helicopter gun ships appear, firing at you and dropping fresh troops into the ruins. Amazing stuff.

[Teho]

Anyway, I was also impressed when I saw Stalker and now Bioshock, but with my X800 GPU, it won't run properly I suppose.

Actually, I bought Bioshock on Steam the other day (avoiding that incredibly stupid copy-protection hassle on the hard-copy). Everyone is talking about how it is so demanding on your hardware but it runs fine on my 7800GT with the detail level way up. Surprising, I was expecting to have to run it on medium to low settings from the way people talk about it.

[Blue Jedi]

I bought Gears of war when it first came out on the Xbox 360 at Christmas last year. In my opinion Gears of war is the best FPS game available.

Gears of war is one of the best Xbox 360 games I have ever played. The graphics are photo realistic and playing as a commando who was put in a high security jail for war crimes who is let out of jail to save the world is great.

Its got violence, gore, swearing, amazing graphics, great music, great story, great atmosphere, its erie, its frightening, its spooky, and it's scary. It is one of the most atmospheric games I have ever played. And it has "Mad world" by REM as its title song.

There are only two other games recently released that match up to it that are also great; Bioshock and Halo 3.

Gears of war is a year old now and although its late making it to the PC if you have never played it, don't have an Xbox 360, and do have a PC, then I believe it is a must buy.

It is the best game on Xbox 360, especially online with headsets and has great options such as creating clans from your friends list, joining leagues and entering xbox live tournaments and Xbox live themed all night gaming nights where you can even play the creators of the game.

If you haven't played Gears of war its ideal for Halloween go get it now.

Its a Mad Mad World

Go here for footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8

Note from Harrison: This post has been edited to make it more world readable.