01-07-07 1042 PM - An FPS for the Rest of Us

Since my Wii abandoned me and went off to Syracuse, I've hooked up my XBox 360 and am subsequently in love. Unlike the original Xbox, which sat behind my other consoles taking up space, I'm actually enjoying the 360 a lot. Anything I say about the console has already been said countless times since launch: the Live Marketplace is an idea both thrilling in its current execution and thrilling in its promise. The integration of Xbox Live's online functionality is nothing short of mind-altering as a service that I have previously spurned (Playstation 2's atrocious online capabilities combined with the DS' very limited offerings helped me ignore the original XBox's promise, especially since no one I knew owned one) is now one that I look down upon other systems for not trying to match. The fact that I can be notified of friends coming online, sending messages and can pause the game to interact with them, only to unpause and pick up where I left off is wonderful.Anyway, this is really about Gears of War. I kept it wrapped up until I could give it my proper attention, using my 360 mainly to play Hexic and look longingly on all the Live content, already spending my overdue paychecks in my head. This Sunday, I kicked Lisa out of the house (alright, she went shopping) and popped Gears of War in.Wow.It's not perfect by any means -- the driving mission (I hope there's not more, I stopped as we were going to enter the factory) was enough to bring the game to a screeching halt. All the momentum that I had up to that point, the kind of momentum that kept me immediately restarting after death with no hesitation, had quickly drained away during this mission despite the fact I completed it on the first try. The flaws are outweighed immensely by how much I'm enjoying this game. I generally suck at FPS games. I'd like to think I have great twitch reflexes, but I apparently can't aim for shit. There's something about moving the joystick to aim that doesn't translate in my brain as well as it should. Gears of War makes up for this fact by taking away the whole "Stand Face to Face with the Enemy and Shoot Until One of You Dies" aspect and relies heavily on taking cover and shooting when the opportunity arises. The enemy will still charge at you occasionally, but when you die it's your fault for not seeing it coming. It takes a lot to die if you're playing properly (not out in the open, running straight at the enemy) and there's fair warning if you're getting pummeled. I'm on Casual and the game's as challenging as I'd like it to be on my first playthrough. I'll definitely play it again on a harder difficulty and I can't wait to try it on Co-Op Multiplayer.