Gears of War Preview

Another important aspect of the action is the AI of your teammates. We suppose that the AI is still not in place, but from what was seen so far, and given Epic's reputation, we have no doubt that the AI squadmates will prove really, really useful in tight spots. The game won't feature health packs scattered across levels; instead, your teammates will be in charge of reviving you if you happen to go down, and the team will be operational as long as one of the members is still alive and kicking.

They are former catwalk models, we know that.

Let's do this right!

In addition, the AI squadmates will have to know their way around the maps, as the designers have decided they will often split the team into two groups. As IGN describes, "Later in the demo, the Gears have split, with half the team heading into the Academy to battle Locusts in the dark corridors while the other half takes on the enemies in the courtyard. The upper path earns Marcus and his teammate a view down on the courtyard so they can strike the Locusts from above while the Bravo Team hits them from the ground. All this is punctuated with an extra oomph when Marcus fires a few rounds into a statue, knocking it down on top of the Locusts. That same tactic can be used to create cover just about anywhere. When there isn't cover, you create it."

As far as the weapons are concerned, we know that Epic is going for that bulky, nuts-and-bolts feel to them, which is great. The game will feature some sort of melee combat in the form of minigames that might have Marcus use his chainsaw bayonet on enemy's crotch or have him ram it through his throat - just something to get the anti-gaming lobbyists really hot and bothered. (Just as long as there's no hot coffee, we're good to go - Ed)

Another important aspect of Gears of War is that the Xbox 360 version will offer cooperative play for up to four players possibly, as well as Xbox Live functionality, but even more importantly, there are some hints that Gears of War might eventually appear on the PC. I know, this is just supposition and probably so far off from actually happening that the PC gamers shouldn't look forward to playing the game on their platform of choice till well into 2007, or 2008 possibly. Although Gears of War is not an Xbox 360 launch title, it's still an Xbox 360 exclusive and certainly one of Microsoft's flagship games. So hoping that you'll play the game on the PC before at least a year has passed since its Xbox 360 release is silly at best. Still, Eurogamer quoted Microsoft's head Xbox feller J. Allard claiming the game will hit both platforms: "It's Xbox and PC," he told the magazine. Hope springs eternal.

Whatever the future may hold for Gears of War, I know that I'm excited about it. Not because I hope to see revolutionary new things in terms of gameplay, but because I expect a visually stunning title that has a solid and very well executed yet familiar gameplay foundation. Gears of War is one of those rare titles that may innovate simply on the grounds of offering the type of graphics and AI previously unseen in the gaming world, on any platform. Let's hope Cliffy B. has grown an Adam's Apple for starters (and some fashion sense - Ed), and is up to the challenge.