Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

I am back from my pilgrimage to Chicago and I have to say that the 400 mile round trip was worth every ass numbing mile. I was among the very first group of 8 who got to play Gears of War multiplayer for the very first time, and I am here to put any doubts to rest about how this game is anything less then amazing. First of all the game is obviously very pretty and the multiplayer is no different. Everything looks amazing and even though we were treated to only one Multiplayer map, it was beautiful and very well designed. Blood effects in Gears are equally magnificent, you get a real sense that you are shooting someone or chainsawing them in half, and the curb stomp will be the ultimate trash talk moment on XBL for the foreseeable future.

The best thing about Gears though had to be that fact that it was a breeze to pick up and play. The controls were perfect and felt as if they needed no tweaking whatsoever. Moving from cover point to cover point was easy and a lot of fun. This game feels in no way like Kill-Switch. The cover system is the easiest and most innovative cover system implemented in a game so far. I really had some small doubts about how entertaining this could be, but make no mistake, Gears is about to make taking cover a lot of fun.

Winning in Gears will require a lot of team work over XBL. Just running out into a crowd will almost always result in your own death, followed by a gracious curb stomping! Taking cover does not always mean you are safe though. I was behind a pillar but my back was still exposed slightly to the enemy and they tried to take advantage. This aspect of Gears should help keep the campers from ruining the game. If you camp, you die!

Besides playing the MP we also got to watch the President of Epic games play through the first 2 levels of the game on the actual movie screen, which was freaking amazing by the way. There has been a lot of talk about the AI in Gears but from what we saw the AI is fine. It is by no means the best AI I have ever seen but for a game where flanking and cover play keys roles the AI seems to do a good job of keeping you moving and thinking ahead. The game definitely looks better then any game I have seen so far and if the single player lives up to the excitement generated by the multiplayer, Gears will live up to all the next gen hype!

Besides myself over 200 other people got a chance to play Gears, and I will be posting some of their thoughts later on today as they slowly trickle into my e-mail inbox. So make sure to check back and see what others are saying about Gears.