One of the games most impressing attendees at E3 is Gears of War for the XBox 360, built on Epic Games' new Unreal 3 engine.
The game was shown in a 20-minute demo at E3, but that short glimpse generated in-depth previews of the game from all of the major game sites, and they're all favourable; all were impressed with the sheer beauty of the graphics, and some with the care and detail put into the storyline.
The game takes place on an earth-like planet called Sera, with a long history of war and conflict. The citizens eventually managed to find peace for a time, but the discovery of a new form of fuel called Emulsion plunged the planet back into war again as warring nations bega fighting over it.
Meanwhile, beneath the soil, a Locust species was waiting to emerge and on "Emergence Day" burst to the surface and destroyed a quarter of the world's population.
The survivors forgot their own disagreements and joined together to fight the common enemy, launching a counter-attack with orbital-beam weapons that destroyed 90% of Sera's surface.
The main character in the game is Marcus Fenix, a hardened soldier imprisoned for ignoring his orders on Emergence Day so that he could save his father; the game begins with Fenix in a military prison, but he is soon released because resources to fight against the Locusts are running low.
A detailed booklet given out at the showing is an indicator of the depth of the storyline, but 1UP.com say knowing the backstory isn't needed to appreciate the stunning action of the game, and IGN.com go so far as to say we can forget about Halo 3, Gears of War will be the killer-app of the XBox 360.
IGN.com: "forget about Halo 3. From now until the game is actually in my hands, the only thing we care about is Gears of War. "
Gamespot.com: Gears of War is a visually stunning game that will obviously appeal to Xbox fans biding their time for Halo 3
Gamespy.com: "the most impressive Xbox 360 title we've seen so far"
1UP.com: "the buzz from E3 is that Gears of War is an early favorite for the title of flagship first-generation Xbox 360 game"
Related:
GearsofWar.com
Epic Games
XBox365.com: Gears of War Fact Sheet
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