Just beat Gears of War

And in case anyone's wondering, it was in Casual mode. I might try Hardcore next. And since I never got far in Doom on Nightmare mode, I doubt I'll ever survive Insane on this game :-P

I've had Gears of War for the Xbox 360 since late January, and had to re-start several times because stuff kept coming up and with a video game narrative like Gears of War, I like to play it through with a sense of uninterrupted story.

This was one of the best video games I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Gears of War, along with Halo and BioShock (which I've also been playing and will review shortly) represents an exciting future for storytelling: a deep, immersive plot that pulls the player in and makes him or her honestly believe that this is a living, breathing world they are interacting with.

Anyhoo, I had some time this afternoon in-between projects, and decided to have another go at taking out General RAAM: something that's eluded me for two days now. The strategy that finally worked for me against that black-clad freak: use the barricade for cover, stay in the light so that the Kryll won't bother you (I also had to duck when they approached 'cuz otherwise they chew me to shreds) and hit RAAM with the Torque Bow to dissipate the cloud of Kryll that surrounds him. Then quickly switch to the Lancer, aim for RAAM's head and do well-timed Active Reloads whenever possible. With that strategy I was finally able to kill RAAM in about a minute, without taking serious injury or having Dominic hurt too much either. Ironically it was a hit from the Torque Bow - which I was only using to shoo the Kryll away - that delivered the coup de grâce to RAAM.

Now it's just a wait 'til November, when Gears of War 2 comes out and continues the story of Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad in their fight against the Locust. One thing this saga needs that I would have appreciated: some more back-story. Especially for the planet Sera. My theory is that this was a bare-bones colony from Earth that was dropped onto the surface, and in this fictional universe starship travel is a hard premium. So there's not much contact with other human worlds and those on Sera have to fend for themselves, but they've also been able to reach a level of culture and technology on their own that approximates that of 21st Century Earth. And the Locust Horde? Right now I'm thinking those are humans that got exiled early on in Sera's colonization, that "went native" and hooked up with the local wildlife and now years later are back for revenge. Maybe we'll find out more in the sequel.

Worth noting that Gears of War is pretty much a product of the Tarheel State, having been made by Epic Games out of Cary, North Carolina.

Very, very cool game. And a beautiful thing to behold on a 42-inch LCD high-definition screen at maximum resolution :-)