Gears of War came out Tuesday, and damn, I
wanted to play it so bad. Yes.
Wanted. You know what happened? My 360 died. Three red lights on the ring of life. Now, it was an older console. And by old, I mean manufactured before January of this year. Not too long back Microsoft said they would repair/replace any broken 360's that were manufactured before January. Then, a few weeks later or so, they released the Fall Update. After the update I was reading on the internet that it bricked a few consoles. Luckily, mine
was fine. After a few days it kept freezing up in BF2, showing random graphical errors and such. Now, this didn't persist for too long. But then, one morning after a few good rounds of BF2, my system crashed. I tried turning it back on and got the three red lights. Luckily I called Microsoft about it, and they hooked me up with a repair.
But how could they write code, as a mandatory update, that would brick a console? Reading about the update, I learned it required over 4 million lines of code. Well hell, you could mess up anywhere in there. But you shouldn't. I think this was done on purpose. Mainly meant to destroy modded 360's. Or, to destroy the older consoles, because only the new ones are compatible with the HD-DVD drive. Yes, conspiracies. But, fuck, I really don't care that much.
The point is, I can't fucking play GoW or CoD3. That really blows. Hopefully I'll get it back sometime next week. Two days shipping there, two days shipping back. It sucks. But at least I have my PC.
So anyway, GoW has been getting some very, very positive reviews and comments all over the internets. My site of frequent, Evil Avatar, is one hell of a site to judge a game by. The community is very well spoken for a group of gamers. And it's unanimous. They love GoW.
The following little tidbit was found over there at
EvAv. Apparently, Alain Tascan, general manager for Electronic Arts Montreal, disagrees with GoW. He's trying to say that it's way too overrated.
"What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero."
Ok. This coming from a Manger at EA? EA, as we all know, puts out crap. If Warren Spector said this? Sure. Will Wright? Yeah. But a douche from EA? Please. They fucked the Bond franchise up so bad, that now Activision has it. Fucking Madden on PSP can't even play right because they couldn't code a game. So really, this man has no room to talk. I could go on and on about EA's mishaps, but that's just a broken record.
While GoW is almost another standard shooter, it takes that 'standard shooter' and adds so much more to it that needed to be done. They made a great arcadey shooter with immense tactical elements. On top of an incredible engine. It is extremely different. If you ask someone what it plays like, saying 'Quake' isn't good enough. Saying 'GRAW' isn't good enough. Saying Quake and GRAW got together one night, dropped a bunch of pills and finished a bottle of everclear, then took a limo ride home where nothing of the night is remembered, except for a positive pregnancy exam the next morning, leading to the birth of GoW...then you did a good job of explaining the game.
EA just don't get it.
Well, I'm glad I finally made a post. That EA bullshit just pissed me off enough to write about it. I wish I'd get my ass to post more, but between work, playing video games, and my girlfriend...my life is pretty much covered.
-Adam
