Christmas is on the way - someone today mentioned to me how many weeks it was, but I really didn't want to hear. This year will be another console war as the new kids on the block, the WII and the Sony PS3, fight it out with the well established XBox 360.

Up to now I've been avoiding upgrading my XBox because the only game I've wanted to play is Halo 3 - the follow up to two of my all time favourite games, Halo and Halo 2. Halo 3 however is more than a year away.

Finding a potential replacement has been difficult. Many of the games that appeared on the XBox 360 in the months after it's release have hardly taxed the new environment and power that is available. Until recently, at least, when I heard about Gears of War. The game centers around the emergence of an alien race of insect like creatures that take over the planet.