THE XBOX 360

Yes, I think it deserves a post. Quite recently, my brothers have got their hands on the console so I'll write this post as if it actually belongs to me. The 360 could quite easily be lumped into the category of consoles that bring nothing new to the gaming scene besides nice graphics, but I'd have to disagree pureley on the strength of it's online service, Xbox Live. I've never come across such intuative and helpful online capabilities before and I think it's a big step forward to bringing online gaming to the console mainstream.

The game I've been playing way more than others is Gears of War. It's a lot of good violent fun and although the single player campaign seems kinda lacking, the online multiplayer more than makes up for it. Visually, as everyone knows, it's stunning and it really helps to make the whole experience more immersive and visceral. Although I've heard many people argue that it's "just another shooter", I'd have to disagree. I think Gears' cover system has totally freshened up third person shooting, changing the action pace from Run 'n Gun to "Stop 'n Pop" has made everything more tactical and adds to the tension in those multiplayer matches as you really will get torn apart if you ignore using cover and just run in.

I'm sort of basing this whole next-gen experience soley on playing Gears of War since I haven't given any of the other games enough play time to make a proper judgement, but if there are more games like this one on the horizon then things are looking pretty positive.