 I don't know what's going on but I love it! I've never picked up a Gears of War before. Until recently you had to have an Xbox console to experience the franchise, but with Microsoft's recent push towards reclaiming the PC gaming market, Gears of War 5 is now available. What's more, with the Xbox Pass for PC I'm currently playing it for a dollar, which is kind of crazy. Good job Microsoft and a strong first blow over these weird subscription service wars. But that's besides the point. The game picks up with you, the player taking control of JD. It all rightly feels like a big Hollywood spectacle movie opening with a tense mission to reclaim orbital weaponry on a tropical island. The camaraderie between the soldiers, they're called Gears, big surprise Philip, is instantly likable and easy to appreciate. It doesn't take an experienced player to figure out the dynamics between the four and there's plenty of tension to start with. JD, once again short for James Phoenix, has some daddy issues which is no wonder because even I have daddy issues when I hear his dad, original Gears of War protagonist Marcus Phoenix, open his mouth. It's John DiMaggio. If I grew up with that voice criticising me for messing up my chores every other hour I would be a mess too. I mean just look at Bean! What I'm surprised by is that I cared for these characters even though I didn't know any of them. And it's probably the critter in me but I can't wait to play as Kate, the gear voiced by my all time favourite voice actress and possibly human being Laura Bailey. I knew next to nothing about Kate but it was fairly obvious from the previously on Gears section that she'll be stepping onto a more key role over the events of Gears 5's. First of all, loved her beanie, that's a memorable accessory. She keeps getting these headaches and it's obviously out of it. Whether due to trauma or exhaustion or something deeper and more sinister, that's something I'm looking forward to finding out more about but I like her, I really do. And dynamic with another one of the Gears, Del, is something I'm looking forward to finding more about. Some revelations towards the end of Act 1 will be really fun to follow the repercussions of. A revelation in particular about past orders JD gave will definitely change his relationship with Del and Kate, the two other main Gears. And that's fun. Tension and drama between characters in such context makes for a good storytelling device. Let's see how far the writers can go with the relationship dramatoe before it all turns into ham, eh? The gunplay is a lot of fun. So many great weapons, weapons that go boom, weapons that go pew pew and so on. My favourites are the big bazooka types, and the grenade launchers as well as this sweet shotgun called Overkill, which is just the best weapon to have once you close the distance between you and a mini boss to some such creature. Either my shooting isn't great with your run of the mill assault weapon, the Lancer, or it takes a fair amount of bullets to kill your average swarm grant. Take the Nashish shotgun, however, and pull the trigger at the point blank range, and you will see that all your troubles will say bye-bye. Boy, do I love shotguns and shooters. One pet peeve. I think the minigame that you do every time you reload your guns is a little bit annoying at first, especially because if you do it wrong, you're penalised, your character reloading more slowly than if you didn't engage with the press R at the right time, mechanic at all. Has that always been a thing, or is it a gimmick of this latest rendition of the Years of War series? Either way, it's a minor gripe and at the time of recording this, I have actually gotten fairly used to it, and no longer make mistakes. Oh and the swarm? Let me tell you, I am confused by this here swarm. If I got it right, it's a biological alien species that spreads through all sorts of mutated nasties across the planet, and certain swarm creatures are able to horde people, thus connecting them to some sort of a sentient alien system. This all gives me some solid zerg flashbacks, it's been so long since we've gotten any proper lore-driven content for Starcraft everyone, I just, I just want more of that. Herbs, I meant Abbott's long-winded monologues, what did you think I was talking about? Back to gears, I like it, I want to play more of it. It's a solid campaign which tells a good story, or maybe it tells an okay story in a well-crafted engaging way. It is a basically Space Marines fighting aliens, I don't expect it to break new narrative ground or anything, but I am happy to say that it's a heck of an entertaining time that I've had for these two and a half hours or so of the opening act, and I'm ready to kick ass with Kate all over again. Thanks for watching, speaking of Laura Bailey, a new video game called Chorus is looking for financing through the online platform FIG, it's an action-adventure musical as great David Gader dubs it. You might know David as the man behind the story of Dragon Age Origins, yes he was the main writer. With him penning this weird gorgeous project, I can tell you how excited I am to see it come to life. It's going to have a lot of singing, a lot of Laura singing in particular, and I wanted to happen so bad. Give it a listen, maybe you'll fall in love the same way I did. Until then, see you next time, bye!