| Sports |
The console war
By FRANKLIN DAHTU KOLMA
In the on going console wars, things have really tightened between
the main competitors - the Xbox 360, the Play Station 2 and the
Play Station 3.
I say Play Station 2 because the PS3 has not gone around the globe
yet in sales. All serious gamers would have one of these three
consoles.
Personally, I prefer the Xbox 360 over Sony's Play Station 3.
Still each gaming console has its firm adherents. A friend of mine
told me that he grew up with the Play Station and simply got every
peripheral obtainable.
He has followed the developments in the Play Station, purchasing
any new consoles and it's peripherals.
His new target now is the Play Station 3. But even though the
graphics on the Xbox 360 kills the other contenders, I have found
that it is the games that are made exclusively for these consoles
that really drive the children of video gaming delight into
choosing which console to have under their television sets.
Now on the Play Station since the first play station came out,
there have been games like Metal Gear Solid which is still
remembered for defining espionage gaming and Tekken's 1, 2, 3 and
4 which still remain hot in the button bashing beat em' side of
gaming platforms.
Gamers who love these games will be looking out for them on the
PS3.
On the first Xbox, there were games like the incredible Halo which
shook the foundations of gaming, then Halo 2 which was also a huge
hit except for being a let down due to the entry of a new hero,
and Splinter Cell's 1, 2, 3 evolved the Metal Gear Solid tradition
into a new species of espionage gaming.
Xbox gamers who now have an Xbox 360 want nothing more then to get
their perfectly coordinated hands and eyes on the sequels of these
games.
I was recently given a game as a gift by my father. I had heard
about it but wasn't sure it was better then the best game on the
Xbox 360 which I reckon is Elders Scrolls: Oblivion.
I was wrong, 'Gears of War', is like nothing that I have played,
it entranced me into sitting down in front of the television
looking like a zombie for the rest of the night just to review it.
'Gears of War', has an epic story and was produced by the game
making company, Epic Games in cooperation with Microsoft Game
Studio.
It is basically about the good guys fighting the bad guys who took
over the good guys home.
To give you an idea, here is the prologue from the game manual:
"Years ago, the locust herd gathered under every major city and
launched a surprise attack, once thought fictional boogeyman, the
herd are frighteningly real and stronger than anyone had imagined.
On Emergence Day, untold masses perished, and countless more died
in the days that followed. Rather than allow the Horde to keep the
spoils of their aggression, humans used chemical weapons and
orbital particle beams to neutralize them, along with the cities
and bases they controlled.
With most urban centers and military installations rubble, the
human survivors gathered on Jacinto Plateau, whose solid granite
strata could not be easily penetrated. When the Horde breached the
plateau's defenses, Marcus Fenix defied orders to save his father
at East Barricaded Academy ... but he was too late. Marcus was
subsequently charged with dereliction of duty and sentenced to 40
years in Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary.
Now, the Horde have overrun the penitentiary."
The Graphics on the game are the best layout of what the Xbox 360
can do. While playing, I would stop to remind myself that it is a
game and not an action film. It's just simply too realistic and
good to be true in terms of graphics, but the good news is, it is
true.
Apart from having graphics that literally redefine gaming on the
next generation consoles, 'Gears of War' delivers AI and Physics
that are totally out of this world.
Take the AI for example: If you shoot at an enemy he will take
cover, this allows you to suppress them while your team mates
flank or vice versa, if you are flanking and an enemy sees you he
will alert his team mates and while one covers, the others will
run to a cover out of flanking range and if they have no more
place to run, their fighting boost is ever more stronger.
With the Physics everything around you in the game moves according
to your movement, take for example: when you bump into a table
that has cups and plates on it, it may shake or turn over. If you
shoot an enemy and he dies, he falls dead according to his stance,
meaning no enemy dies in the same way.
What is also awesome about the game are the cinematic scenes, in
which there is hardcore army action and language, though not very
tolerable for my parents, awesome for me. It made me feel more
passionate about the game.
'Gears of War' will rock your world beyond any other rocking you
have felt. It is the best game of the year in my book.
I give it a rating of 10 out of 10.
Thanks for reading , have a good weekend and ...parents, take
cover when you hear Gears of War, because the hordes will be
delving deep into your pockets!
 
|
