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Gears Sells a Million
Gamespot reports that Gears of War has sold a million units in two weeks. This has made it the fastest-selling 360 game to date, beating out GRAW and CoD2 for the honor. From the article: "Microsoft dropped some other statistics as well, saying 'more than 850,000 unique gamers have engaged in 10 million [Gears of War] gameplay sessions while unlocking an impressive 7 million achievements.' Since the game went on sale November 7, the rate of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, which are required for online play, has increased more than 50 percent. According to Microsoft, the impressive subscription rate is because more than 85 percent of Gears players play one of the game's various multiplayer modes, which include full campaign co-op." The GamerScore Blog wants you to know that rumours you have heard about Gears for Windows were mistaken. For the time being, anyway.
I hate that it is Xbox 360 only. I only have an atari.
Oh, and no. I haven't even seen the game played.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
According to Microsoft, the impressive subscription rate is because more than 85 percent of Gears players play one of the game's various multiplayer modes, which include full campaign co-op.
Is it surprising that a game that is meant to apeal to hard-core gamers sells to people who like to play a game in the way that hard-core gamers like to play their games?
I may be wrong, but I think it would be more impressive to hear that 50% (or more) of people who got the free XBox live subscription with their XBox 360 used it and of those 50% (or more) continued paying for the service when their subscription ended.
A song which was attached to a commerical which grabbed the attention of millions and made them get shivers down their spine from the sheer amount of awesome. Ten karma points to whoever replies to this with the name of the song and the artist.
The rest is history.
TLF
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Co-op rocks.
Any one mind doing me a favor?
/. collective intelegence.
What is so great about gears?
I admit, Ihave done no homework on this, and thus am simply relying on the
It is just another FPS, isn't it?
Is there somethign fantasticly inovative about it?
somethign horribly fun?
Somethign original?
please, I am curious. (and lazy)
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
Correct. I use gaming to remove myself from reality, and find that the media, news, comments that I choose to read using the Internet is of better quality and less frustrating than the "popular media" like TV and commercial radio. Duh. Huge piles of Duh for the "reporter" trolled that article.
I am truly surprised that people are willing to buy yet-another-FPS. Didn't we get enough of this with Quake? Why would you want to buy essentially the same game with some sprites changed? I just don't get it.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
It's not "just another FPS". In fact, it's not a first-person shooter at all. It's third-person, which is an important distinction. Like many people, I prefer my FPS games on PCs, where the keyboard/mouse combination really can't be beat (at least IMHO). When I play a typical shooter (which have been mostly first-person based, hence FPS) on the console, I get the sense that I've lost a lot of control. For some reason, the third-person controls in Gears
As for innovation, it's got plenty of interesting bits to it: a very comprehensive "cover" game mechanic, a new twist on reloading (called "Active Reload"), and the concept of being able to revive your teammates on the fly. None of them alone are "OMG!!!" material, but all together, makes it one very nice package.
Also, one huge bonus to the game is that it has Live-enabled co-op through the "single"-player experience. It's very seamless. I haven't tried it myself, but friends can't stop talking about how cool it is. Apparently that's a similar sentiment with many other folks. It's a feature that many folks wished Halo 2 had.
Does Gears have flaws? It certainly does. Zonk and other reviewers have pointed out that the AI can be fairly dumb (although many people, myself included, think it's just fine), and the multiplayer is somewhat shallow (not enough modes). That said, the sentiment is that the game is just so much fun that despite some flaws here and there, it's very much Game of the Year material.
Oh, and one last thing, yeah, the game is very pretty. But graphics alone don't sell a game, and the things people love about it, go beyond graphics. That's nice to see for a change.
So, in short, give it a shot. It's quite original for a shooter, and a whole lotta fun.
-- jchenx
Posted before, not commented or modded, bears repeating:
The real question is: if Gears of War didn't have such pretty graphics -- i.e. it looked like, say, Quake 3 -- would **anyone** be gushing over this game? Would anyone care?
I dare say no. It's really not that special except for the graphics. I dare say that is why a lot of games are getting such high marks -- because it's a semi-decent game wrapped up in shiny graphics, and people see it being a lot better than it really is.
It's not that GoW isn't *bad*, exactly, it's just not all that people say it is.
This is a sig. Deal with it.
Yes, the game is pretty, no doubt about it. But if you read through a lot of the comments, opinions, reviews, etc., you'll quickly see that it's actually the gameplay that people are gushing over. Nice, no?
If this game were released last generation on the Xbox, PS2, or GC
-- jchenx
Bill and John. Pretty amusing actually. Unique, enjoyable. A little confusing. But fun.
I see a lot of comments here referring to Gears as an FPS and no one correcting them. It is most decidedly not. Its a third person tactical shooter, not unlike Ghost Recon, or even Splinter Cell.
only one everything
Im sure that record will get smoked
The 360 is just looking better and better to me. The rough part is I have promised myself to play all the great games of the previous gen before I move on! God of War, FFXII, RE4 just to name a few. Ah well, maybe I can wait until the next price drop but still...I am pretty excited to see this news. It seems that all 3 consoles will have something great to offer...though it seems like the greatness might be slipping away from the PS3. They better hold on tight to Square Enix.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
The Unreal 3.0 Engine totally rocks!!!
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
I personally don't see what's so special about Gears of War. When I first saw the trailer for it, I thought the actual game would look like that (and I was impressed). Then, I bought the game and noticed that the graphics are nowhere near as detailed as the trailer. No big deal.. but then I played it, and discovered that it really isn't all that fun (IMHO).
For a game like that to hold my attention, there needs to be a somewhat elegant/clever combat system, but the combat system used in Gears of War is one-dimensional. I do like the realism they added to the process of reloading weapons, but that alone doesn't make or break a game in my mind.
Personally, I found The Godfather to be all-around more fun than GoW.. and for an example of the "perfect" third person action game, I'd point to Ninja Gaiden for the original Xbox.
How much do you think Microsoft are paying to get this continued onslaught of dull Gears of War press all over the Internet?
I prefer the essential way Tears for Fears produced their stuff. This one, Head over heels, Pale shelter, and the most famous ones of course were good ideas with just the minimum amount of arrangement to work. No pretentiousness, neither minimalism. And that went also for their career. They were not rockstars they were musicians.