By now you’ve certainly see the reviews (95 out of 100 at metacritic), so I won’t bore you with the details, or feed Cliffy B’s ego with anymore praise. I will just say that the game should get a special look if you’ve outfitted your media centers with a surround sound receiver and a high def display. “Visceral” is the word that first popped into my mind, and I’ve heard it over and over in other reviews and opinions about the game.
While the graphics have recieved the lions share of the attention- deservedly so, as Gears is the finest looking video game my nerdy ass has ever seen- the sound design is pretty top notch as well (with the painfully shitty exception being this “hip hop” track that plays over the credits. As with most next gen games, the 5.1 mix is especially effective, in multiplayer, and the general chunkiness of the effects make the game feel as large and solid as the characters.

Speaking of multiplayer, there have been some issues regarding abuse of the ranking systems. This has’nt personally impacted me yet, as i tend to play casually in the non ranked rooms, but at a certain point players must venture onto the ranked servers if they want to unlock the multiplayer achievements. Hopefully EPIC and MS will tinker with some stuff and minimize the potential for abuse soon.
At the end of the day though, I am pretty certain I am preaching to the choir. If you’ve got a 360 odds are good you’ve grabbed Gears by now. If you dont have either, well, christmas is around the corner.