The title may throw you off -- but let me explain.  I've seen Gears in action, and it is going to be something amazing.  I'm not too sure what it is about the game... but it just feels like Halo (albeit slower paced).  Epic has really tried to make this game as similar to Halo as possible in how if feels, yet totally different in the presentation, storyline, and of course gameplay.

Take one example of how Gears is like Halo -- weapons.  Just like in Halo 1, the Covenant Plasma Rifle was similar to the human Assault Rifle, yet offered it's own advantages and disadvantages.  Same with Gears.  The Chainsaw-bayoneted COG's assault rifle is similar to the Locust machine gun, except the Locust weapon offers a higher rate of fire, and slightly stronger ammunition.  But, it's not quite as accurate as the human-made equivalent, and carries slightly less ammunition.  This is just one of the many ways Gears is like Halo (heh, you even have a chick talkin' in your ear all the time -- Cortana style).

And fans of the original Halo pistol will be happy as well.  Gears' pistol is slightly similar to Halo's in that it is powerful -- it can hold it's own up against a bunch of Locusts brandishing assault rifles with it's shear stopping power.  Three or four hits on the Casual (easy) difficulty in the game will bring any Locust Grunt down.  It also features greater "zoom" than the other weapons.  Not an actual scope, but the camera zooms in even more after pressing the right thumbstick to reveal a tighter reticle and thereby greater accuracy.

Those are just a few of the positives I've found so far.  I'll give you a "full review" when the game ships here in the forum, but until then, we have to go through the only negative I've found so far.

In the piece I experienced... the voice acting was mediocre at best.  Seriously.  A combination of "meh" writing, and bad voice actors equals bad cutscenes to listen to.  I'm not sure if Eric did the writing for the scene I watched, but let me just highlight a conversation:

"Are you the Marcus Fenix?  The one that liberated the Celestial Gardens?" (meh, may not have been "celestial", but I can't remember that part well)

--"Yeah, I'm the one."

"Cool!"

--"Yeah, not really."

Yep.  That's just a "highlight" of the writing in the game.  Maybe it was Susan O' Conner or something for this particular scene, or maybe it was Eric.  I don't know.  All I do know is there are way to many "Cool!"s, and "Awesome"s in the game for my liking.  Hopefully the gameplay will outshine the mediocre voiceacting/writing. 

Anyone who wants to experience what I just wrote about for yourself should sit through this 10 minute YouTube video, straight from Saturday's Gamestop "After Dark" event. 

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/21/dont-bother-tonight-see-gamestops-gears-video-here

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