Beery:
GoW really is a closet homosexual's dream game. I mean for this title to be so incredibly successful there must be a HECK of a lot of insecure guys out there.

I bought it based on the hype, but after a few hours trying not to laugh at the 12 year-old's idea of what tough guy dialogue sounds like, and trying not to laugh at the homo-erotic OVERcurrents, and trying TO laugh at the horrible Albert-Speer-inspired architecture, and trying to come to terms with the fact that in the future everything is built like Fort Knox and grey on grey (hey, we've had COLOUR TV for donkey's years), I just gave up.

Most over-hyped game in history as far as I'm concerned. And really, if you like this stuff, ask yourself if you need to live the lie that you like girls your whole life. I mean nowadays we're all liberal on issues of sexuality - it's really okay if guys like other guys. It's not something that dudes need to hide anymore.

So I guess I don't agree with the writer's conclusions - yeah, this game is laughable - but not joyously so. Most of it is just bad, and it's way too serious (and too sexually confused) for its own good.

By the way, I hear GoW2 is in the making. I'll be keeping an eye out to see which of my friends likes it a bit too much, LOL.

You, my friend, are a troll. A big, ugly troll. You probably are the closet homosexual, so just shut up and stop trolling so that you can look cool to other trolls on this forum.

Gears is great and really fun. Wait aww man I must be a BLATANT homosexual that hasn't come out yet. Pfft how much more homophobic can you get?

I felt kind of insulted by this article. I own Gears of War and Gears of War 2. I did think that the COG troops were...overly masculine I guess. I figured that was meant to parallel the equally disturbing locust soldiers though. Sort of a, fight fire with fire thing.
I like Gears because it's fun. Running from cover to cover with bullets flying overhead and fighting giant t-rex like monsters with guns on their heads is pretty awesome. Gears is why I play games. To experience things that I can't in real life. This is coming from a guy who owns and loves both Psychonauts and Okami.
Devil May Cry is stupid. I still like it though, despite its brutal difficulty. Gear though, I think Gears is smarter. Although I couldn't understand what the "resonator" from the first one was, I like the evolving story finally ending with them sinking the Jacinto Plateau. I hope there's a Gears 3.

I think it might be safe to say that gears lacks in story what a game like final fantasy lacks in gameplay,
both can be a lot of fun and both are very enjouyable to their fans,
but final fantasy isn't trying to pump adrenaline through your body with all that grind, just like gears is hoping that the intense gameplay will drag you through its story

so its just a case of which comprimise you prefer

and you also get the choice of a bit gay, or a jrpg

The problem I have with Gears is different, and a more serious one: The graphics are held up as the pinnacle of next-gen gaming.

Yeah, yeah, it's impressive from a technical standpoint, I know that. The shading and textures are very well-done and the architecture is mapped out amazingly well. I just came out of the game design program at MATC, I know nice graphic specs when I see them.

And the spectacularly high-quality graphics... look boring as hell. There is nothing interesting about the way the game looks. Every damn level in Gears of War looks exactly alike, and that would be bad even if they didn't look spectacularly uninteresting.

So why are the graphics in this game so popular? Very simple: "Hardcore" gamers are ashamed of the fact that they like video games. They don't like the designation that they're playing with toys, since they're determined to act macho at all costs. This leads to them craving "realism" in games, even at the expense of fun (in a way, especially at the expense of fun) so they can pretend they're not sitting on their ass playing with a toy.

Great writing, I especially liked the end bit.

If the writers of this are secure in their heterosexuality then why would they feel the need to write this article?