Final project: Gears of War

In 2006, Epic Games revealed a third person shooter game that helped satisfy the need for those who sought video games with a passion for action and cooperative team play. This popular game is soon to be a trilogy with two of the three games already successfully developed. The game was noted as the highest and fastest selling game of 2006 when the first of the two Gears of War sold over 3 million copies in the first ten weeks which set a high standard for other game developers to follow. Gears of War consists of realistic graphics provided by the Unreal Technology which will be explained furthermore and a similar character view to that of the “Resident Evil” franchise. Gears of War known as GoW, is a third person shooter with the “over the shoulder” look which allows the character to be moved in many ways when compared to other shooter games. For example, the characters can roll, duck, hide behind most objects, deliver a powerful thrust to the opponent when in need and climb. The versatility of the characters allow for a more intense and enjoyable game instead of the boring “hide and shoot” technique limited by past technology. The Gears of War realistic graphics are based off of the Unreal Engine created by Epic Games which was soon published by Microsoft Game Studios. There are three advancements of the Unreal Engine with each one setting a new standard of virtual graphics. It was first illustrated in 1998 in a number of award-winning games such as: Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, America’s Army and many more to list. The first Unreal Engine was put into the Unreal Tournament video game which was released in 1999. Unreal Engine 2.0 was used by Bioshock 1 and 2 and also, America’s Army. Gears of War used the Unreal Engine 3.0 pushing the limits slightly further. This advanced technology used for GoW made fantasy look ever closer to reality.

The story sets place in a planet similar to Earth known as the Planet Sera. Shortly after the humans have colonized the planet they discover that there is a highly valued power source called “Imulsion.” The planet, sought after by many led the humans into a long and cold war for 79 years known as the “Pendulum Wars.” The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed although it was minor and only an obscure world-government philosophy, it evolved into a legitimate political party during the wars. A corrupt day known as “Emergence Day” was the beginning of the tragedy that had befallen the human race. A civilization called the “Locust Hordes” were mutant-like creatures with certain human characteristics such as similar physical appearance (arms, legs, neck…) have begun their attack on humanity in order to extinct the human race. In the Hordes attempt to destroy humanity, they have managed to leave the COG as the only human government left on Sera.
Fourteen years after Emergence Day, a former COG soldier, Marcus Fenix had been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Marcus Fenix has a right hand man by the name of Dominic Santiago who later introduces Fenix to the Delta Squad in which Fenix will be leading. In the first series of Gears of War, the objective of the Delta Squad was to obtain a powerful weapon called the “light mass bomb” in order obliterate all the Locust Hordes dwelling within the planet. During co-op story mode you play as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in order to successfully retrieve the bomb while the game deeply engages you in the never-ending action against the Hordes. With the ability dodge, hide, use team work and do almost anything to stop the Hordes in your way, the thrill leaves you wanting to play more and more.
In Gears of War II, Epic Games went more in depth of the reason Dominic Santiago is in the COG army. It shows through out the story that Dominic has an emotional crisis with his wife. As in the first Gears of War, your main objective is to get obliterate the Locust Hordes from planet Sera except Dominic Santiago gets “personal” with the Hordes because they have enslaved his beloved wife. As the gamer is focused on the main objective of the game, the story also entwines with Dom’s personal problem which dramatizes the story and engages the gamer into the game deeper. Unlike the first Gears of War, the second one takes place underground of planet Sera. The Coalition of Government (COG), takes action against the Horde’s stronghold in order to put an end to the war. New characters are introduced and some die a horrifying death which enriches the games campaign mode. Upon entering the underground world of the Hordes, Marcus and Dominic run into trouble left and right. Marcus, commanding the Delta squad which consists of Dominic, Baird, Cole and B. Carmine, discover an abandoned COG outpost in which they are ordered to investigate. Further along, Delta discovers some abandoned humans along the way. As they further went down the locust cave(hollow), they discovered the Dominic’s wife was indeed alive. However she was so weak and tortured by the locust she had to be put down in order to end her suffering. Enraged by the death of her wife, Dom and Marcus go out and try to save jacinto, which is mankinds last resort, from been taken over from the locust. Eventually, in order to win the battle they had to make a hole in jacinto in order to flood the hollow and kill the locust. Once again the COG are victorious..well at least for now.
In the first Gears of War, there are plenty of unique weapons and the characters presented are diverse and can leave you with a cold chill down the spine. The characters are unique in their physical appearance and the emotions that they show brings a completely new style of game play to the table. There are a number of characters that Epic Games have created with carefully crafted appearances such as Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Baird Damon and Augustus Cole as the main protagonists. In the second series of Gears of War, Epic Games have added more characters and weapons to accompany the games outstanding action sequences. Although the “good” side of the force has added a few artillery to the collection, the Hordes have also increased their weapons load and new characters in the second series.

The game play for gears of war is very unique. There are different types of modes you can do. For example for every game mode(exception wingman) there are two teams of five. One team is the COG (humans) and the other is the locust(monsters). The most popular game mode for gears of war is execution in which you try to eliminate the other players from the other team.
However, you cant just shoot them and watch them die. You must shoot the enemy enough times so that the enemy ends up crawling on the ground. The opponent will remain on the ground until he is revived by another teammate or killed by an execution move by your character. Another way to kill the opponent is to get a one shot kill. This happens by either getting a headshot or blowing up the opponent with a boomshot (similiar to a grenade launcher). Another game type that is quite fun is called Annex. In this gametype the objective of the game is for both teams to capture a specific location on the map. Usually the point to capture will be located by a weapon. When a team captures the location and hold that location they start to collect points for each second they last. The maximum amount of points a team can get is 60 points per each position. After a team has captured 60 points, a new location is shown. Teams get infinite lives while playing annex. The first team to get to 180 points wins the round and the first team to win two rounds wins the match. Guardian is also another game type which consists of a leader in each of the teams. This game mode has the same rules as execution except for one factor. As long as the leader is alive, each teammate gets infinite lives. So the best thing to do in this mode is to kill the leader and then kill the rest. The first to win three rounds wins the match. An interesting capture the flag mode is called submission . It basically combines the modes execution and annex but with a twist. Both teams rush to get the “flag” which in this case it is actually an AI-controlled player. The "flag" will wander the map and attempt to kill anyone who gets near. To "capture" him, you'll have to first down, then escort him as a meat shield all the way back to your base, all while your opponents are trying to kill you and shoot at the "flag". Because, if shot at enough, your meat shield flag will break free, go berserk and deal out the pain. Infinite respawns are also included in this game type. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. Wingman is when you and a buddy team up, sharing a single character model in this five teams of two game mode. It has the same rules as execution but the first team to get 15 kills or more first wins the match. The last game mode which I think is the best one is horde mode. This is basically a mode where you can have up to five people playing and trying to survive the hordes of locust. When a level is chosen, everyone must start out in wave one. As you progress further into the waves, the enemies get smarter, tougher, and more accurate. The basic goal here is to make it all the way to wave 50 without losing. Yet as long as one person survives a wave, the whole team can still advance to the next wave. This is by far the most challenging since teamwork is needed in order to win and advance all the way to the very last wave of locust.
The campaign mode in Gears of War 2 allows for a single player or two players playing cooperatively to complete the game's story mission as Marcus or Dominic(Main characters in GOW). There is a variety of difficulty for the experience veterans and for the novice gamer. There is also an 'Insane' difficulty which is unlocked after the player completes the game at least once. Players in Co-op mode can select different difficulties depending on their skill level. For example if one player chooses hard and the other easy, the AI will adapt to those difficulties. So when the AI shoots the player with the easy difficulty, it wont do as much damage as to the player that picked hard difficulty. Also what’s neat about the Co-op is that there is sometimes a double forked path in which both players would have to split up and try to help each other advance. For instance, One player might have to pull on a lever to help the other player open the door so that they can both be reunited. Also when been attacked from behind, one person can give some covering fire while the other person flanks from behind and kills the locust.
Along with the game play, Gears of War brings interesting weapons to its arsenal. One weapon is the Boltok Pistol. The Boltok is powerful magnum that fires single blasts.
The pistol has a powerful rounds along with its small clip and slow reload. Yet if reloaded perfectly, it will fire faster bringing enemies to a stop. The Boomshield is a shield in which it protects you from enemy fire and lets you fire back with a pistol. However since the Boomshield is heavy, your character will move slowly and make you vulnerable from the back end. A very powerful weapon which acts like a grenade launcher is the Boomshot. The boomshot consists of having shells when launched straight at an enemy it is instantly a one hit kill. However if one shoots it close, the result can be that you die along with you enemy. The frag grenades in the game are very useful in gears of war. The can be used as a melee weapon or a projectile. If an enemy gets close enough, you can stick the grenade to your enemy and shortly after will be blown to pieces. They can also be stuck to walls and other things. This is useful since it can be used defensively or offensively. Another type of grenades are the flash and the ink. Just like the frag grenades, the flash and ink can be stuck to walls or on enemies. The flash grenade temporarily stuns the enemy so you can run away or go up to them and shoot them. The ink frag explodes leaving a trail of poison gas in the air and anyone in the way( enemies or allies) can be killed by it so it must be used carefully. In the game, there are three standard weapons each character has including the shotgun, assault rifle, and hammerburst. When used at closed quarters, the shotgun can become a devastating weapon, turning bodies into little pieces. The assault rifle is always good taking down enemies from med to long range. A substitute for the assault rifle is the hammerburst. The hammerburst is gun which shoots short bursts of rounds and is a little bit more damage than the assault and can zoom in. There is a so the flamethrower which burns the enemies to death. The long range weapons in the game consists of the Longshot sniper rifle and the torque bow. With the Longshot one can zoom in from very far way and has the capability of downing an enemy or killing them with a head shot. As with the torque bow, it is basically a bow which needs to be charged before been shot at the enemy. If aimed carefully, it is a one hit kill. Yet, if the bow is not fully charged, it cannot penetrate the enemies skin therefore , bouncing off the body. Finally, we have the Hammer of Dawn which is a device that one can aim on open space and a beam from the sky will shoot down on destroying any enemy in its way.
Even though Gears of War has these unique features, many people still like to compare which of the two Xbox giants is better. The first person shooter halo 3 has been compared to gears of war on things relating such as multiplayer, story, and graphics. In the following video, it compares these features in a detailed fashion.

More Gears of War 2

Although Halo 3 won , Gears of War is still a game everyone must at least try once. From the graphics to the story it is a game that will have you wanting for more. It also provides a beneficial experience for those who are accustomed to the first person shooters, like the Halo trilogy. To simply say, Gears of War has set the standard for games to come including the graphical technology, the real life storyline, and the action and thrill the game provides the player.

Links
http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/GOW2/TheGame.htm#/weapons/GorgonPistol
http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14232680/gears-of-war-2/videos/gearsvshalo_120108.html

rough draft..so far..

In 2006, Epic Games revealed a third person shooter game that helped satisfy the need for those who sought video games with a passion for action and cooperative team play. This popular game is soon to be a trilogy with two of the three games already successfully developed. The game was noted as the highest and fastest selling game of 2006 when the first of the two Gears of War sold over 3 million copies in the first ten weeks which set a high standard for other game developers to follow. Gears of War consists of realistic graphics provided by the Unreal Technology which will be explained furthermore and a similar character view to that of the “Resident Evil” franchise. Gears of War known as GoW, is a third person shooter with the “over the shoulder” look which allows the character to be moved in many ways when compared to other shooter games. For example, the characters can roll, duck, hide behind most objects, deliver a powerful thrust to the opponent when in need and climb. The versatility of the characters allow for a more intense and enjoyable game instead of the boring “hide and shoot” technique limited by past technology. The Gears of War realistic graphics are based off of the Unreal Engine created by Epic Games which was soon published by Microsoft Game Studios. There are three advancements of the Unreal Engine with each one setting a new standard of virtual graphics. It was first illustrated in 1998 in a number of award-winning games such as: Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, America’s Army and many more to list. The first Unreal Engine was put into the Unreal Tournament video game which was released in 1999. Unreal Engine 2.0 was used by Bioshock 1 and 2 and also, America’s Army. Gears of War used the Unreal Engine 3.0 pushing the limits slightly further. This advanced technology used for GoW made fantasy look ever closer to reality.






The story sets place in a planet similar to Earth known as the planet Sera. Shortly after the humans have colonized the planet they discover that there is a highly valued power source called “Imulsion.” The planet, sought after by many led the humans into a long and cold war for 79 years known as the “Pendulum Wars.” The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed although it was minor and only an obscure world-government philosophy, it evolved into a legitimate political party during the wars. A corrupt day known as “Emergence Day” was the beginning of the tragedy that had befallen the human race. A civilization called the “Locust Hordes” were mutant-like creatures with certain human characteristics such as similar physical appearance (arms, legs, neck…) have begun their attack on humanity in order to extinct the human race. In the Hordes attempt to destroy humanity, they have managed to leave the COG as the only human government left on Sera.
Fourteen years after Emergence Day, a former COG soldier, Marcus Fenix had been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Marcus Fenix has a right hand man by the name of Dominic Santiago who later introduces Fenix to the Delta Squad in which Fenix will be leading. In the first series of Gears of War, the objective of the Delta Squad was to obtain a powerful weapon called the “light mass bomb” in order obliterate all the Locust Hordes dwelling within the planet. During co-op story mode you play as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in order to successfully retrieve the bomb while the game deeply engages you in the never-ending action against the Hordes. With the ability dodge, hide, use team work and do almost anything to stop the Hordes in your way, the thrill leaves you wanting to play more and more.

The game play for gears of war is very unique. There are different types of modes you can do. For example for every game mode(exception wingman) there are two teams of five. One team is the COG (humans) and the other is the locust(monsters). The most popular game mode for gears of war is execution in which you try to eliminate the other players from the other team. However, you cant just shoot them and watch them die. You must shoot the enemy enough times so that the enemy ends up crawling on the ground. The opponent will remain on the ground until he is revived by another teammate or killed by an execution move by your character. Another way to kill the opponent is to get a one shot kill. This happens by either getting a headshot or blowing up the opponent with a boomshot (similiar to a grenade launcher). Another game type that is quite fun is called Annex. In this gametype the objective of the game is for both teams to capture a specific location on the map. Usually the point to capture will be located by a weapon. When a team captures the location and hold that location they start to collect points for each second they last. The maximum amount of points a team can get is 60 points per each position. After a team has captured 60 points, a new location is shown. Teams get infinite lives while playing annex. The first team to get to 180 points wins the round and the first team to win two rounds wins the match. Guardian is also another game type which consists of a leader in each of the teams. This game mode has the same rules as execution except for one factor. As long as the leader is alive, each teammate gets infinite lives. So the best thing to do in this mode is to kill the leader and then kill the rest. The first to win three rounds wins the match. An interesting capture the flag mode is called submission . It basically combines the modes execution and annex but with a twist. Both teams rush to get the “flag” which in this case it is actually an AI-controlled player. The "flag" will wander the map and attempt to kill anyone who gets near. To "capture" him, you'll have to first down, then escort him as a meat shield all the way back to your base, all while your opponents are trying to kill you and shoot at the "flag". Because, if shot at enough, your meat shield flag will break free, go berserk and deal out the pain. Infinite respawns are also included in this game type. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. Wingman is when you and a buddy team up, sharing a single character model in this five teams of two game mode. It has the same rules as execution but the first team to get 15 kills or more first wins the match. The last game mode which I think is the best one is horde mode. This is basically a mode where you can have up to five people playing and trying to survive the hordes of locust. When a level is chosen, everyone must start out in wave one. As you progress further into the waves, the enemies get smarter, tougher, and more accurate. The basic goal here is to make it all the way to wave 50 without losing. Yet as long as one person survives a wave, the whole team can still advance to the next wave. This is by far the most challenging since teamwork is needed in order to win and advance all the way to the very last wave of locust.
The campaign mode in Gears of War 2 allows for a single player or two players playing cooperatively to complete the game's story mission as Marcus or Dominic(Main characters in GOW). There is a variety of difficulty for the experience veterans and for the novice gamer. There is also an 'Insane' difficulty which is unlocked after the player completes the game at least once. Players in co-op mode can select different difficulties depending on their skill level. For example if one player chooses hard and the other easy, the AI will adapt to those difficulties. So when the AI shoots the player with the easy difficulty, it wont do as much damage as to the player that choose hard difficulty. Also whats neat about the Co-op is that there is sometimes a double forked path in which both players would have to split up and try to help each other advance. For instance, One player might have to pull on a lever to help the other player open the door so that they can both be reunited.