LifestylesThe TOWER 9

By KELVIN THOMASTOWER contributor

Sept. 20th, Microsoft released “Gears of War 3,” the highly an-ticipated final installment to the bloody and epic Xbox-exclusive series. With its well-written and enthralling storyline, aesthetically stunning environments and char-acters, and diverse modes of game play, “Gears 3” is provides a grati-fying gaming experience for both diehard fans of Gears trilogy while also catering to new players.

Like the two previous “Gears of War” installments, Gears 3 re-mains loyal to the series by offering an engaging campaign mode. The storyline, which has been hailed as one of the best amongst the shooter genre, picks up immediately where Gears 2 left off. Once again, you play as Marcus Fenix, the renegade leader of the Delta COG squadron and one of the last human defend-ers of the futuristic planet, Sera. The game immediately throws you into the action: As you attempt to defend the remaining strongholds

against the invading hordes of Lo-cust, an alien like race that is hell-bent on destroying the last vestiges of humanity. In typical Gears fash-ion, the game play and storyline are excellently paced, with well-placed cut scenes that not only break up the heart-pounding carnage, but also offer exceptional cinematogra-phy that truly allows you to become immersed in the story. The game’s storywriters also do a superb job of emotionally connecting the gamer with the characters with engag-ing and often witty dialogue. This, combined with the stunning realis-tic graphics, will have you locked in until the game’s completion.

Apart from its in-depth story and realism, Gears 3 also offers an en-hanced version of the game play that distinguishes the series from your stereotypical shooter. Unlike most shooters, where speedy reck-lessness and a lone wolf mentality are rewarded, Gears 3 demands its players to rely on the game’s tactical and unit-based combat en-gine. To survive the waves of Lo-

cust hordes that are encountered throughout the game, players must rely on their squadron and use tactics as covering-fire and flank-ing, while interacting with the environmental features for cover from enemy fire. The addition of four-player online cooperative play, which allows gamers to fight alongside their cyber-friends, has further emphasized this team style and allows for more creative game play. The variations in map struc-ture also force the gamer to adapt to wide arrays of combat scenarios.For example, players must utilize different weapons and strategies when fighting in an open city court-yard than they would if they were engaged in close-quarters combat inside a narrow hallway of a build-ing. The addition of new weaponry, execution-style finishing moves and more challenging foes adds to the overall intensity and brutal nature. And with varying levels of difficulty, Gears 3 allows players to develop their skills at their own pace, making it accessible to both

new players and seasoned veter-ans.

The new online game modes on Gears 3 offer a variety of ways for players to test their skills against one another on Xbox Live.

The game offers several versus mode games, such as the standard team deathmatch, capture the flag and king of the hill. Unlike the pre-vious Gears games, the speed and ability to absorb damage are great-ly affected by characters physical attributes. Gears 3 also offers a unique twist to their classic Horde mode, in which players try to de-fend a fortified position as long as possible. This inverse game play is called Beast mode, in which play-ers control Locust aliens with the objective to capture human bases.

Overall, “Gears of War 3” pro-vides a fantastic finale to the award-winning franchise. Whether this is your first campaign or your final battle, Gears 3 provides a fit-ting end to this space saga with its action-packed game play and en-grossing storyline.

Game Review: Gears of War 3, Continuing Epic Battles

By CHASE CARTERTOWER contributor

With all the social networking sites out there like Facebook and Twitter, some ways of social net-working are overlooked. The won-derful world of online gaming is just another way of bringing peo-ple together, whether it’s on the computer, Xbox or PlayStation.

“Gaming is clearly a form of so-cial networking, it has become one by offering a unique experience that brings people from anywhere in the world together to play games,” stated senior Commu-nications and Media Arts major, Amie Warrick.

This large network of people is expected to exceed 22.5 million people. These people play games ranging from Role-Playing Games (RPG) to First Person Shoot-ers (FPS). The most popular of all RPGs is “World of Warcraft” (WOW). This game is an online

role playing game on the computer that over 11 million people play worldwide. In the game, a person can spend time completing chal-lenges or quests with others while having conversations about any-thing, giving players the chance to build extended friendships. On the Xbox and PlayStation, there are so many options as far as what kinds of games that they can play. When gaming on these consoles, a person can choose from a sports game like “Madden” or “FIFA” to a shooting game like “Call of Duty” or “Halo.” These games provide this large community with so many options as to how connect to with each oth-er.

Although the computer has by far the biggest following of online gamers, the game consoles offer something more that enhances their gaming experience. The con-soles utilize voice communication, much like a phone, to allow people

to talk to a person a world away. “The innovation of voice com-

munication in online gaming made playing online easier because you have the ability to have conversa-tions with the people you are play-ing with whereas before you could only type to the people,” stated Warrick.

With the mass gaming experi-ence growing, people have turned gaming into a competition. The gamers use ranking systems to hold statistics like wins, losses and points. In games like “NBA 2K11,” people can take their cre-ated players into a team mode and compete against other teams, all while their stats are being recorded by a dedicated server. In “Call of Duty,” players can choose to play online with random people from all over the world or play with groups called Clans that have the option compete against other Clans. When two Clans compete against each

other, they take on the name clan battles and with these competi-tions came the creation of social networking website called Game Battles. Game Battles lists them-selves as a competitive gaming so-cial network where serious gam-ers can find more ways to compete against each other.

“I use game battles to play the [“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”] more competitively because it gives you the chance to play the game how you feel that it should be played against players that are of the same skill level as you are. It’s just not the same as going into a random match online because the play style is that much differ-ent,” stated senior Greg Garner.

So whether you’re playing with the guys next door or with a friend in Vietnam, the wonderful world of online gaming offers its own unique experience for everyone.

Internet Gaming: a New Form of Social Networking