Gears of War In, Halo Out

In memoriam of the second wave of gamers joining the battle in the Gears of War 3 multi-player beta, I thought I'd say some on Gears of War. Its interesting as time goes on how things can really change. We've seen Mass Effect 2 work its way onto the PlayStation 3, we've seen Insomniac Games become more independent and announce themselves as multi-platform developers. We've seen Gabe Newell fall for the PlayStation 3 and integrate Steam and we've also seen Microsoft allow Bungie to become independent as well. A lot has happened in the last five years. Things we thought would never happen, have happened. Things we haven't wanted to happen have happened. Things we've wanted to happen have both happened and also smacked us in the forehead and have not happened. The fact that Gears of War has remained an Xbox 360 Exclusive has worked both ways. Something we're happy hasn't happened and for some something that hasn't happened as made some extremely angry. You've heard this before, but we're going to say it again:

"Do we wish we could take all those Killzone and Resistance fans on PS3, and get them to say 'Gears is awesome'? Yeah, sure I'd love to ship the Gears trilogy on PlayStation," said president Mike Capps. "That would be fun. I want to be there; I want to be everywhere."

"Time and time again, when it came down to figure out what we do next with Gears, we sat down with Microsoft and they've given us really good, compelling reasons to work with them again."

 Now, I can remember the day I first got my Xbox 360 Premium. All my friends had them and I'd known before I'd gotten home and was able to finally pick one up of Condemned: Criminal Origins, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Resident Evil 5, at the time, was on its way. But then a short time later, I'd heard of 'Gears of War.' I was excited for it. Whatever information I could find on it I would study up on it. I don't remember why I was so drawn to it, but I remember that I was really excited for it and I was out telling the world about it and trying to convince them that it was a game that they absolutely had to own. That it was something totally new and fresh. Its origin. That the idea came while playing paintball that I'm sure is still true today, I don't know how I could have come up with that, but I remember that some of my friends and those around me were drawn in by the idea and had played the first with me and really got into it and loved it. We spent many long hours in that multi-player, me mostly getting torn apart.

However, on the other side of the fence, some still refused to leave their found love behind. I'm talking about a game that had been popular and synonymous with the original Xbox. It was the game I had a really difficult time gaining interest in and to this day, admittedly still don't understand and have never gotten into. A man named Master Chief that walks about in green armor and fends off an attack and an invasion of the Covenant. Yes, I speak of the famed 'Halo' series. I'm sorry, I just took the other side of the fence with the Locust invasion and using an armor clad, lancer toting, jail-breaking bad-a named Marcus Fenix. For me it was about diving into cover and stratagem versus running out into a battlefield firing madly and hoping to survive. I had also been unable to understand the draw with a game that didn't really try to maximize the hardware of the Xbox 360. I found myself playing Halo: Reach unable to understand why the game still looked like an Xbox game. But, gamers loved it and to this day still totally digg the game and I can understand that. I find interest in several games myself that people don't understand why, but what mattered most, is that you loved the game and had a great experience.

However, like I had stated at the beginning, time has gone by and lot of things have changed. We had mentioned that Bungie sought their independence from Microsoft to venture out and try new things. To try new platforms and new ideas. The result of which would be that Bungie would no longer be developing Halo games, but that Ensamble Studios would be taking over to develop for Bungie. But, truth be told, there's just something about a take over. Twisted Metal was awesome! Twisted Metal 2 was great and overtook Twisted Metal's glory! Then came Twisted Metal 3. It was fun and all, but didn't hold a candle to the original two. It had the Twisted Metal name and sold because of it, but something was still missing. It was the originator of the series. David Jaffe had nothing to do with Twisted Metal 3. In an interview, he'd talked about this and how the original team was ready to get back into doing Twisted Metal with Eat, Sleep, Play. I know several gamers feel the same about Infinity Ward's departure and the takeover of Modern Warfare. Its missing its identity. Its signature and its soul.

What's been interesting lately to me as I've observed gamers coming in and out of GameStop and other gaming stores, is how things have changed. At the moment, the remaining hardcore titles exclusive to the Xbox 360 that we know are coming or are still exclusive to Xbox 360 are, Forza 4, more Fable, Halo HD Remake with Kinect Support, and Gears of War. Nothing else is certain and the fact of the matter is, the fact that Microsoft have lost most of their exclusives to the competition that the PlayStation 3 is a Blu-ray player and that Xbox LIVE! just went up another $10 while PlayStation Network remains free with a large and growing number of exclusives has left a bitter taste in its gamers mouths and many I know, have sold their Xbox 360's and purchased PS3s for those very reasons. To go out and buy a stand-alone blu-ray player simply isn't enough. New functionality seems to always be around the corner and then you've got to buy another blu-ray player while the PlayStation 3 just requires a software update and its Netflix ready, 3D ready, whatever.

What I've noticed most however, is the uprise of talk in Gears of War and what seems to be the slow burial of Halo. What I mean by this is not Halo's death and non-existance, but that Gears of War is talked about much more and I hear Halo less. Heck, I hear the words Call of Duty more now that I hear of Halo. For Xbox gamers like myself, its a realization that there just isn't anything else there. Over the next few months, exclusives that can't be obtained on the competition offering free services and much more with its hardware, I even watch those who only have an Xbox 360 are in the stores picking up games like Naughty Bear, Aliens Vs Predator or whatever, they're picking them up because there isn't much of anything to look forward for quite some time. For those who own PlayStation 3 consoles, Xbox 360 gamers maybe wouldn't care but most likely if they had a PlayStation 3 would care that PS3 owners are getting InFamous 2, Sorcery if they can iron out the rumored bugs which was more than half a year ago, they've had Killzone 3, Gran Turismo 5 and many more to come, Sony undeniably has a plethora of solid exclusive games now and coming up this year. For Xbox 360, there will be Brink and L.A. Noire, but they are also on PlayStation 3 and likely L.A. is likely to get exclusive content the way things are going with Sony. They've chosen to play Microsofts game and Rockstar at the moment are in Sony's court. There just aren't things for Xbox 360 gamers to get excited about other than Gears of War. This presents a great oppertunity for Epic to capitalize on this. Gears has remained Xbox 360 exclusive and don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

I personally think that with Bungie out of the picture and Gears of War all Microsoft has really got for my Xbox 360 this year, that it will deliver a solid title this year that will drive it up to the top placing it as king of the hill and becoming the Halo of the Xbox 360. Its working its best to give a solid multi-player experience. Microsoft knows its strength and its loss of Halo and is backing and has been backing it with whatever strength it can, even to the extent of Microsoft themselves helping Epic with their 'server farm.' Epic Games since day one on the Xbox 360 have not been content with mediocrity. Their philosophy has always been, "What can we do to make Gears push the hardware more. What more can we do with the engine to draw what power is left. How can we tweak the system to gain better gameplay performance." Its this sort of mentality that drives them to the top with me. As well as this guy:

How can you say "NO!" to a guy like Clayton Carmine. His brothers are all dead, and he's huge and he's  pissed! Halo has a good long stretch and again, no Bungie backing it. It just takes away the games soul. This is Epics moment to take its rightful place at the top. I think sales for Gears of War 3 are going to be better than they ever have been, and gamers are going to realize there's more out there than just running out into the field firing hoping you're going to stay alive. If that isn't the case, than you're in a open meadow swatting at butterflies. If there isn't enough heat that you're worrying about your life franticly trying to preserve your ammo like some survival horror, buddy, you're playing the wrong game. You need to pick up Demon Soul's and maybe play through Uncharted on Crushing and feel what the heat really is like. It requires strategy and a whole over level of gameplay. Once gamers can get their hands on this masterpiece designed by a creative genius, they'll suddenly understand. I'm already seeing it and I'm already hearing it?

What do you think? Has Gears of War sold you? Are you ready to move on? Or are you still waiting for the next Halo? Opinions are good. Its what makes everyone unique, but I guarentee that you're missing out. I mean, look at the Clayton Carmine shot again. Can you really say 'No' to grabbing a Locust drone by the jaw and tearing him apart. If only General Raam were still alive. Then ever COG soldier would be avenged. Marcus was given that pleasure instead.

The Gears of War Beta is up and running NOW! for those whom had purchased Bulletstorm for the last week, as of now, those whom have pre-ordered Gears of War 3 finally have access to the beta and the game releases come this September. I wonder why Bleszinski didn't want to screw with Uncharted this November though and they chose September instead. For all things Gears of War 3, all things Xbox 360 and all things gaming stick to the X-Gaming Zone keeping you inside the XZONE right here at ThumbDrive!