[Inquisitor]

Because the Sony thread was getting stupid, and reading the name calling was making my IQ drop.

So I played some of it, not much, but well into the second mission (maybe 30 minutes of gameplay this morning).

Short answer? Its good.

The voice acting is cheesy, but well executed (its an action film script so far, but the actors do a decent job with it).

The graphics are pretty mind blowing. The environments are very shiny. The AI even on easy seems pretty bright, flanking, using cover, generally trying to kill you, sometimes succeeding if you forget to play the game as its intended (using the cover system).

The cover system is intuitive, everything done with one button and a flick of an analog stick. The weapons feel satisfyingly heavy and damaging, though I only really have the pistol, the stock machine gun, grenades, and a locust pickup machine gun. The bad guys are decently scary looking.

It plays faster than I was expecting from the reviews,  I was expecting mroe Rainbow Six gameplay, working from cover to cover and slowly taking guys out. None of that, its a frag fest. I don't mind R6 gameplay, but furballs are definetly more my speed.

The game seems built for coop. You can invite a buddy into your game whike you are playing thru single player without stopping, they just inhabit your NPC buddy. THAT is cool. Its also starts out with "Press start to join" for the split screen coop.

Sound seems particulary good. A suitable music score, and nice environmental sounds coming from the surround speakers.

I have not tried multi yet, but the 3 deathmatch modes are intriguing, especially the protect the boss mode.

All in all, an excellent package. Good gameplay, a not uninteresting story, good voice acting. I'll play more, but my initial impressions is this is indeed a must have app for the box.

Let the accusations of schilling begin.

[BlackDove]

You don't seem to get the concept of what schilling is.

At any rate, my question is, does it get too repetitive? Getting behind walls every time to kill something off? Or is it always fun?

[aldo_14]

Because the Sony thread was getting stupid, and reading the name calling was making my IQ drop.

So I played some of it, not much, but well into the second mission (maybe 30 minutes of gameplay this morning).

Short answer? Its good.

The voice acting is cheesy, but well executed (its an action film script so far, but the actors do a decent job with it).

The graphics are pretty mind blowing. The environments are very shiny. The AI even on easy seems pretty bright, flanking, using cover, generally trying to kill you, sometimes succeeding if you forget to play the game as its intended (using the cover system).

The cover system is intuitive, everything done with one button and a flick of an analog stick. The weapons feel satisfyingly heavy and damaging, though I only really have the pistol, the stock machine gun, grenades, and a locust pickup machine gun. The bad guys are decently scary looking.

It plays faster than I was expecting from the reviews,  I was expecting mroe Rainbow Six gameplay, working from cover to cover and slowly taking guys out. None of that, its a frag fest. I don't mind R6 gameplay, but furballs are definetly more my speed.

The game seems built for coop. You can invite a buddy into your game whike you are playing thru single player without stopping, they just inhabit your NPC buddy. THAT is cool. Its also starts out with "Press start to join" for the split screen coop.

Sound seems particulary good. A suitable music score, and nice environmental sounds coming from the surround speakers.

I have not tried multi yet, but the 3 deathmatch modes are intriguing, especially the protect the boss mode.

All in all, an excellent package. Good gameplay, a not uninteresting story, good voice acting. I'll play more, but my initial impressions is this is indeed a must have app for the box.

Let the accusations of schilling begin.

But is the box a must have for this app?

[Inquisitor]

What I have played, yes, because there seems to be a variety of cover and cover related actions, so its not just the same thing everytime. It made the game interesting and exciting, instead of standing and shooting. And so far, its not slowed it down at all. granted i have only played for 30-45 minutes.

As far as the box being a must have, I'd say yes, but your mileage may vary. The Xbox, and the Xbox 360, with the advent of Xbox Live, are must have platforms for any gamer who likes playing games with people. The games have been pretty consistently good, there is a variety available, and the hardware performs magnificently (for me). Microsoft has done a pretty flawless job with Xbox Live from my personal experience with it, and the 360's iteration of it is simply amazing.  The original Xbox's version was solid, and games like Halo 2, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell (PT and CT) and SW Battlefront showcased what it could do, the 360 has taken that interaction to a new level. Its everything I want cooperative gameplay to be, integrated voice, on the flygame session joining, easy to find your buddies, etc, ad infinitum. It is, simply put, fantastic. I wouldn't want to game without it. I expect GoW to cement that further that once my 360 owning friends pick it up.

Its an excellent platform, and I will happily proselytize it. 

[Colonol Dekker]

Splinter cell meets doom and MGS, woohoo

[Inquisitor]

Its more Rainbow Six than Splinter Cell, gameplay wise.

I expect to be playing of it this weekend.

[BlackDove]

30-45min doesn't quite qualify for the question I made earlier.

Post when you've had a lot more time with the game (like 7-10 hours) with impressions of whether or not the constant pulling up against the wall is or isn't boring/repetitive.

Also, if you can, post how the storyline handles, and if there is any of it really there.

[Inquisitor]

On easy mode, there is supposedly 7 hours of gameplay for single player. So, i am just shy of 1/7th thru the game

I play of shooters, I predict that my opinion will remain unchanged, the variety of cover options seems deep enough to keep it interesting. I intend to get deeper into it, but, I spent a fair amount of time messing with the controls, and seeing what all the cover system did, and there was of context sensitive action, and a fair amount of variety.

The story so far is full of well delivered, cheesy dialog. Its got the feel of less epic, Halo type story and more personal, Call of Duty-esque (or Band of Brothers), sorta gritty, about the soldiers rather than the geopolitical context, if you catch my meaning. I expect I will be "saving the planet" but the journey will be more about wise cracks and revenge-type stuff.

I'll know more Sunday (or maybe Saturday, though I have some FFXI stuff in the afternoon and social things to do in the evening).

[MicroPsycho]

Chainsaw bayonet is the coolest thing ever. (note the period)
There is full dismemberment (feet, legs, waist, torso cross sections, arms and hands and head) which makes shotguns, grenades and chainsaw extremely brutal and satisfyingly gory. I agree some of the dialogue is pretty cheap, but the gameplay is fun (think GRAW OD'ed on steroids) especially co-op.

Though I do remember reading about voice-activated squad commands being a part of the game, but there arn't any, though I may be thinking of a different game.

[Mongoose]

I played a few minutes of co-op at my school's video game club this week.  Needless to say, just picking it up like that, I was incredibly confused, since it handled rather differently than any other shooter I've played to date (which isn't saying that much, since I haven't played too many of them ).  Of course, it didn't help that I had a bunch of ***hats standing behind me, berating me for not following their oh-so-helpful "advice," but meh.  As far as the game itself went, I could see myself having a lot of fun with it if I actually knew what I was doing.  From the better people I watched playing it, it appeared to handle very tightly and dynamically, with lots of running, diving for cover, and outflanking; you definitely can't run in guns a blazin'.  I could definitely see the AI at work even with such a short exposure; those slippery bastards were running and diving almost as much as you yourself were.  The dialogue was incredibly cheesy but still fun; I plan to start using "Sup *****es?" on a regular basis.   And that chainsaw gun...oh momma.  Were Jack Thompson to sit down and watch the blood spatter all over the screen, he'd most likely have a coronary straight-off.

One interesting co-op element to me was that, if your partner were to snuff it, you have a limited amount of time to get to the place where he fell and "tag-team" him back to life.  Somewhat unrealistic, perhaps, but it added an interesting strategic element.  Of course, the one time this happened when I was playing, I was incredibly disoriented and wasn't entirely able to figure out exactly where the pop-up location indicator was pointing; I chalk this up more to the somewhat ****ty projector we were playing on and the aforementioned ***hats than any fault of the game itself, or my own lack of skill.

Long story short: I really don't plan to ever get a 360, since nothing on it really interests me all that much, but if I did have one, this would definitely be a title I'd pick up.  I didn't get any real Live experience with it, since our school's network was being a pain in the ass, so I can't comment at all on how it handles in MP.  If you're on the fence about the 360, I'd recommend finding a way to try it out.

P.S. As a completely unrelated side note, even though I'm no soccer fan, FIFA '07 for the 360 was immensely entertaining.

[Deepblue]

As you probably noticed, the control scheme has a bit of a learning curve to it.

And Inquisitor, I think you'll find the game much more rewarding if you switch to the Hardcore difficulty.

[redmenace]

HOLY ****. I picked it up tonight.

[Deepblue]

Was that verbal explosion because you picked it up?

Or did you find something you like?

[redmenace]

Both, I picked it up tonight and it kicks ass.

[aldo_14]

One interesting co-op element to me was that, if your partner were to snuff it, you have a limited amount of time to get to the place where he fell and "tag-team" him back to life.  Somewhat unrealistic, perhaps, but it added an interesting strategic element.  Of course, the one time this happened when I was playing, I was incredibly disoriented and wasn't entirely able to figure out exactly where the pop-up location indicator was pointing; I chalk this up more to the somewhat ****ty projector we were playing on and the aforementioned ***hats than any fault of the game itself, or my own lack of skill.

Ever played Conflict: Desert Storm (or the sequel)?  That used the same mechanic, but for a sort of 4 man team tactical-shooter-lite.  Strange game, C:DS2; really enjoyed it first time I played, but not the second.

[Colonol Dekker]

Conflict Desert Storm was cool, If only for the Engineer.

[Inquisitor]

The more I use the cover system, the more I like it. I have played through some very cool, almost Call of Duty-intense, firefights, and during one furious exchange, I blind fired a burst for a kill that made me smile.

So, its pretty clever gameplay. It doesn't feel so much like "hiding" as it feels like "fighting for your life." I've seen variations on this before, its not entirely new, R6 (and the upcoming Vegas) had this kind of thing, Full Spectrum Warrior did as well. I think it actually adds to the immersion rather than takes anything away from it.

And Inquisitor, I think you'll find the game much more rewarding if you switch to the Hardcore difficulty.

Not on my first play through, and frankly, if I want amped difficulty, I'll play against people (and apparently coop is hard set at "silly hard" no matter what your single player difficulty is). I always play these thru first on easy, to avoid any smashed controllers. Blame it on my age

[freespacegundam]

I picked this game up tuesday, spent every moment I wasn't working playing with a buddy of mine through co-op.  I can honestly say this is the most fun I've ever had in a co-op type game.  Not even Halo 2's co-op system was as satisfying as my friend and I flanking and fragging every ten seconds, fighting for our lives against hordes of enemies in a two day blood bath to reach the end of the game.  Admittedly the game is short, and honestly I did expect a bit more story wise.  What little there is has wet my appetite however, and I hope there's a sequel in the works. 

I'm playing through Hardcore in the single player right now, and boy is there a difference.  I actually have to fight even smarter than I did the last time.  I'm hoping to work my way up to insane eventuallly.

All in all a great game, and in my opinion a must have for the 360.  On a side note though, has anyone figured out what the COG tags you pick up do?  I assume it unlocks something, but I didn't have time to find out on my first time through.

[Deepblue]

Achievements.

[Inquisitor]

Split screen coop, once you get past the no vertical split option on 16:9 TV's, is sublime. And no obvious graphic reduction. Its amazing.