I'd love to be starting the New Year with my life back on track, but apparently that's more complex that I originally deigned -- but I'm working at it so here's hoping.
Gears of War
Originally I had a fairly long comparison between Halo 2 and Gears of War. That probably won't be the case the second time around, but there definately will be some comparison.
First off, I'd like to say that the whole "Cog Tags" and "Gears" aren't especially creative, but they don't hurt anything either. Before I get into the core of the topic I'd like to say that, really, the whole Achievement System of the 360 is a thing of beauty in my mind. It engenders completionism, rewards exploration, and synergizes with creative development (heh -- how's that for a mission statement?).
Coming from a background of extensive Halo and Halo 2, lots of multiplayer and co-op, the cover system of Gears took some getting used to. I'm still a standing combatant at heart, though the game has definately taught me to use that power sparingly -- sweeping Lancer fire as a covering mechanism and to polish off injured enemies -- but I don't have the feel of Blind-Firing yet. David uses it to brutal effect without endangering himself, I utilize it sparingly, but generally prefer not to be wasting rounds calibrating my fire, especially with my nature to reload frequently.
The quick-reload system is special. I'm not certain that everyone wants a mini-game for their reload, but since I'm skilled at that sort of thing it wasn't a bother for me. I spent most of the game with white weapons, gotta love having an 8-round shotgun. Grenades seem to be poorly implemented with regards to having a Horizontal Split-Screen; even on the HD Widescreen you couldn't get the full arc of the Grenade in view, specifically the landing area, so I never got the hang of using them since I could never get them to land properly.
The revive system is excellent, allowing for a certain danger level in opponents and enacting a dangerous caution during split-pathed events -- an excellent balance that Halo 2's Legendary co-op system could learn from.
The cover system is wonderfully intuitive, though rarely does that come into play. Maneuvering into an obstacle purely to jump over it is the closet you get to having a jump function though, and the game does feel somewhat limited by that. Claustraphobia aside, the game is very narrow. Unlike the sweeping, too-large, vehicle-mandated fields of elysium of Halo 2, GoW is confined and dark. Almost too much so at times. The game needed a bit of sometime to aid it. Advancing through areas becomes difficult at times due to inability to see the clear path, and you can generally forget about finding dropped weapons, that's nearly impossible. And while you can interact with the enviroment plenty, well at least in a cover sense, beyond that it's boringly static. Aside from the occasional pushable car or sheet of metal covering a propane tank or the rare partially intact car that you can damage (though it has no bearing on anything) there really isn't anything to do with the enviroment. Although I concede to greatly enjoying the Kryll scenes in getting to the vehicle; an eclectic mix of strategy and searching that didn't manage to reach anything beyond minor annoyance at my 15+ deaths. Inability to damage Troikas is a major annoyance in my book. Although generally you turn around and use them against the Locust, they're pretty much invulnerable unless your wielding mad grenade skills or a boomer gun.
The 3 round burst rifle is perhaps my least favorite weapon, tied perhaps with the basic pistol, though there's never any reason to be using the pistol. The 3-burst weapon might have accuracy even at longer ranges, but in those circumstances you can either close distance for a more powerful gun and get the job done at least as quickly or you can pull out any of the other -- deadlier -- long range weapons and utilize those instead. The shotgun, sniper, and rocket launcher fill their purposes nicely, though really the rocket launcher is rare and generally completely overkill since enemies are rare to gather in such as way as to let it have great effect. The sniper is pretty much anti-effective if you can't pull off quick-reloads with some regularity, but the last boss can tell you that isn't the case for me. The Hammer of Dawn is pretty much instant party when you get to use it and even though it's basically a deus ex it's well balanced, and trails on some very nice events, beserker taunting for example. I didn't spend too much time with the Torc Bow, but I can say it's a beauty of a weapon once you master it's quirky aiming. Brutal to fight someone with one, the tell-tale sound of impending death, but the satisfaction of an explosive locust death is great. I used the Magnum for a bit, just to play with knee-capping + curb-stomping, but just using a real gun is far more effective. It's a decent finisher if you need to conserve ammo for some reason, but that shouldn't be the case ever. Last but not least is the Lancer, which serves the dual purpose Automatic Rifle and the highly-acclaimed Chainsay Bayonet. The chainsaw follows some fairly special rules, mainly the interruptable by damage, which governs it's ideal usage. It's best for destroying advancing Locusts, especially Wretches, though it can work aggressively if you've driven your foes into reloading cover, or get covering fire from allies to keep Locusts in cover.
The storyline of GoW is pretty miserable -- you're fighting a war, you've got this ultimate weapon to wipe them out, but stuff keeps going wrong with using it -- but it does at least provide an ending before gesturing towards the inevitable sequel, unlike Halo 2 which used the ending just to open even more unanswered questions. The cinematics are fairly pretty though rarely for anything too special, most of your comrades are faceless voices across com channels.
The general enemy level is much harsher than Halo. Weapons leave practically no trails, and definately don't come in 4 shades of neon, though the Locusts aren't very good at getting full cover when they hide, with the exception of Troika's that seem to shield beyond their means (I'm serious, hitting a Troika user, that can turn to face you is like trying to 1-shot snipe a moving Ghost in Halo). The enemies do speak, but it's rare. After awhile I was yearning for the familiar Halo shouts of "Demon!" and "Look Out!" from my foes instead of the chatter of Baird and Cole, amusing as they are in the scripted scenes. They hit harder and faster than you in melee, so much so that as a rule letting them get melee distance means you're done for unless you've got a shotgun or a rev'd Lancer. Wretches are perhaps the best Resident Evil creature ever. I admit they aren't from that game, but they'd fit. I still liken them to what I'd expect from Zerglings in a 3-d world (Hear that Blizzard? Taking notes for Nova's foes? Assuming you're still planning to make the game...). Their screams are unholy and echoing, and their threat and damage, especially when explosive, makes them quite perilous until you've learned the art of firing on the run.
Ninety-Nine Nights
[Okay, so 4 hours is not nearly enough, the other 2/3rds will show up sometime. Probably early next week as I have other stuff to accomplish this weekend]
