Gears of War: E-Day

Can't believe I'm saying this, but this feels like Epic Games era Gears again. I think they really cooked with this one. The tension building, the environments, the atmosphere, the gunplay, all of it is extremely well done. The guns are really satisfying to use. There are a few animations that look kind of weird and a few little bugs that need to be ironed out. Also, the gore is a bit toned down and not nearly as polished as the gore in the original trilogy. But these things are things that can and will be patched over time (at least, the first two most likely will, can't say for the gore, but I do hope they improve it). I think the foundation they have made here is absolutely stellar. I've only played two acts so far but I'm loving it and hardly want to put it down. The storytelling and atmosphere in the campaign is just *chef's kiss* compared to gears 4 and 5. I really do think they listened to the criticism of the direction, and this feels like real artistic talent behind it rather than a mere attempt to pander like Campaign Evolved felt like it was. I haven't encountered any crashes yet despite some people saying it happens a lot. Framerate has been good. There is the occassional stutter when loading new areas/cutscenes. Nothing too crazy as new releases go. Also I'm not seeing much of the woke stuff people are referring to, other than the fact that there are female soldiers in the game who are extremely jacked for women (but I mean, it's gears, being jacked kind of comes with the territory). It is not nearly as offensively bad as the girl bossing in the Halo: Campaign Evolved bonus levels. There is so far one semi-dislikeable female captain that you answer to, but she's not dislikeable because of woke stereotypes, she's just kind of a ♥♥♥♥, and would be equally dislikeable as a male character. None of it feels like forced showmanship of female characters. The female soldier in your squad is quite laid back and doesn't have much to say. She's a human feeling character who doesn't feel like her writing has been contrived for political agendas. Maybe the campaign becomes ass at some point and if so I might change my tune, but what I've seen so far has really impressed me.