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> Results: Gears of War
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The ESRB Says
Blood and Gore: GamerDad was able to dismember and blow up bodies and see parts scattered about. Intense Violence: There are intense and fierce battles throughout. Strong Language: Constant use of just about every bit of strong language that springs to mind. The Gears of War for XBOX360 review extolled the excellent graphics, gameplay and cover system of the game. And while all of those elements are present in the PC version - as well as some extra missions to expand the rather anemic single-player campaign - the overall result is a very average experience due to the many compromises made in bringing the game from console to computer. Gears of War is a brutal third-person shooter that features an advanced cover-and-shoot system that takes some getting used to but quickly becomes a blast to play. But that doesn't make it a low body count stealth game - oh no, when you emerge from cover it is to brutally kill as many enemies as possible as creatively and violently as possible. Sam from Sam & Max would be so proud. The single player game features a paper-thin plot but really serves as just the appetizer to the main-course of multiplayer modes. And this is where the problems start - the performance of the game itself is not very good to begin, with more crashes, freezes and slowdowns than should be expected in such a polished console release. Then there are the controls - if you pretend this is a PC game and use the keyboard & mouse you will get even more frustrated. This is a console game designed for console controllers, so hook up an XBOX360 controller and the game becomes much more playable. Unless you want multiplayer, in which case you need the pay-to-play version of XBOX Live for Windows to get any multiplayer matches going. If you have ever used a PC matching service like GameSpy Comrade, XFire, or the console version XBOX Live, then you know how good a matching and filtering service can be. While the lousy state of the service when Vista first launched with Halo 2 was excusable as an early version, it has been many months and there are just too many features missing - yet you still have to pay full price. It makes for an expensive ($140 for game, controller and XBOX Live) and unsatisfying experience that would have been better left on the console - there is fun to be had, but it has faded from greatness to mere adequacy.  
This is brutal, loud, and over-the-top in terms of content that makes it an easy Adult GamerDad Age Seal. Unlike some other recent games, Gears of War is just a total bloodbath of body parts and strong language from start to finish - nothing you want kids to hear or see, let alone play. As Andrew Parsons said in the XBOX360 review, it is excellent de-stressing for adults who love brutally violent shooters.
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