Not our words, but those of Alain Tascan, General Manager of EA Montreal, in an interview with Eurogamer. Tascan fails to see what all the fuss is about with Gears Of War and doesn't feel the high review scores currently being banded around numerous print magazines and gaming websites are warranted.

" What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero. Only two very brave UK-based journalists said, 'You know what, Gears of War is a great game but it's like what Quake was a few years ago." said Tascan, possibly referring to Eurogamer's review in which they gave the game a modest rating of 80%. "Why are people loving it so much? It's like added production value, incredible cut scenes and the best ever graphics ever. I'm sure it's going to be a great success, I can't wait to play it, but let's face that graphics are still number one." he continued.

Hang on a second, Tascan admits that he hasn't even played Gears of War yet! We'd suggest you make your minds up for yourselves after you've played the game.

Tascan is currently working on 'Army of Two' which he claims will redefine strategic two man cooperative play when it launches on the PlayStation 3 console and Xbox 360 in 2007, but we'll believe that when we see it. Unlike Tascan, we've played Gears of War and, perhaps surprisingly, we do actually agree with him to a certain extent. The thing that blew us away about Gears of War was the fine level of detail and the way the game makes you feel as though you're in a movie. We do think however that Gears of War is unlike any game we have ever played due to these great production values and cinematic feel. He's right in saying that great graphics aren't the most important aspect of a videogame, but in the case of Gears of War, it's the intense gameplay coupled with the cinematic polish that make the multiplayer mode stand out from the rest of the below average next-gen games on the market. Whatever others say, Gears of War is, in our opinion, the best multiplayer next-gen game so far. We still haven't played the single player campaign so Tascan may well have a decent point, but judging a game he hasn't played seems slightly unfair and his pre-judgement based on watching trailers really annoys us. Tascan obviously feels as though Army of Two will be a better game than Gears of War which is a huge claim. If he's right we can't wait to get our hands on it, if he's not than he may regret prematurely judging Epic Game's shooter. We're certainly looking forward to judging his next-gen game.

Gears of War is released on Xbox 360 on November 17th.

Source : Eurogamer