I'd like to take this opportunbity to welcome a new addition to the GameJonez Blog writing staff. Adam Montgomery has written articles for UK magazines and websites on the subjects of Interactive Entertainment and film.

Adam will provide us with his views on gaming and film and whatever else he feels the urge to explore on a weekly basis starting tomorrow. Being born and raised in Britain, he offers North American readers a view from the perspective of a UK gamer.

Below is a sample of Adam's work for you to enjoy. It is a "review" of Gears of War. Tomorrow, he will offer his thoughts on "What It Means To Be A UK Gamer".

Welcome aboard Adam!

Tiberius Jonez

Gears of War Review

Your feet step across the blood-stained floor. Cover is needed. You duck your head and slam your shoulder into the base of a statue. Even in the heat of battle, fate affords you a show of irony; this stone figure of mankind’s civilised age now standing as refuge to the regiments of man’s armies. War can make you smile, sometimes.

Smiling is just for the living though, so stay alive. In Gears of War, staying alive is all about taking cover, an action natural after a moments practice. Your soldier’s desperate jog towards cover is a reckless thrill with enemy fire sweeping toward your location, missing by a thin margin as you successfully drop behind the defence of a small wall. Sheltered, the game’s satisfying tactical element comes to life as you must quickly grasp the layout of the area and the location of your adversaries and assailants. Knowing this, you can move productively. It’s not one-hit kills here, but dashing blindly into a pack of enemies will end only in death. If you come under fire then quickly get covered and get your bearings; cut that sod to pieces later.

Carving up the enemy, possible only in close quarters, is a rather detailed, graphic affair. More disturbing is the pleasure of these murders; chainsaw killing is one of gaming’s great joys. Technically, the visuals are an achievement. Detailed and weighty to an impressive level, Gears of War may be the pinnacle of apocalyptic, gritty renditions of earth in game history.

The world you battle on is torn to pieces. You’re fighting in a war here, not waging a one man assault, and you see your team live and die on your flanks -- often in one of the game’s spectacular set pieces. It is a shame that same effort could not be spent crafting a world which felt new, rather than what here feels slightly stale. Marcus Fenix, protagonist-at-work, is similarly lacking: another generic space marine for gaming, seen again and again.

With a dull plot which comes to a rather abrupt end, it is fortunate Gears has such an enjoyable multiplayer aspect. The artificial intelligence is no substitute for the tactical possibilities when playing with friends, which truly puts a feeling of teamwork and support into the gameplay. As the high profile release of the year, Gears does a good job in promoting the strengths of the Xbox 360 as a console, particularly the online capabilities of the machine.

Enjoyable though it may be, Gears of War may be worrying to some. With narrative and characters as shallow as they are here, some will question whether the new generation of consoles can offer anything above another step towards ‘Hollywood realism’? Asking such questions here is pointless, Gears is clearly without care for such matters and does offer more than just a visual appeal. However, an audience of both sexes exists that wants more than just blood ‘n’ guts gameplay, and a march towards only bigger and better graphics seems to be a march away from them, and this issue should be put into the spotlight.

Criticising elements such as this is criticising but a small part of Gears, which remains a fantastic action game. ‘War can make you smile’ was the point this prose began with. Gears of War will give you the brightest smile of all.

Adam Montgomery