As I mentioned just shortly before its release, Christmas is coming up and many kids (and their parents) will be hoping for Gears of War in their stockings.

Before it was released there was a huge amount of hype about the game, its visuals and gameplay. Having now been playing it for a couple of weeks, I thought it worth passing on some of my experiences so you can decide whether GoW is worth playing.

First, the good stuff:

• Visuals are gorgeous. There's no denying that the work done to produce the superb visuals in the game is all worth it. (Although see my counter comments below)