I am having that discussion with my IRL friend all the time, about movies mostly. It's always hard to settle and agree on a particular case wether it's good or bad chease.

In this case I might pick Vanquish from the bargain bin and find out for myself.

I played through most of Gears Of War for the PC, but was unable to finish it because I'm lactose intolerant.

knowing EA, that means that Dead Space 3 will be announced soon. Remember when Shift Unleashed 2 was going to be released and they talk crap about GT and FORZA. It looks like it is how they work now.

I bet that when Dante´s Inferno 2 is to be announced they are going to talk crap about God of War III and Ascension.

From what I played of Gears (which is only the first game mind) I'm inclined to agree; it has terrible writing. Don't know Dead Space that well so can't comment on the story in that. Should probably finish Dead Space Extraction at some point...

But most games have pretty bland writing anyway. Only a few games really stand out amongst the sea of generic or over-the-top crap.

it wasnt that bad IMHO

I'd argue it has some of the best writing since it does exactly what it's supposed to do-- get you from one arena to the next.

As he said, nobody plays Gears for the story, it's like playing Mario for the story. The story is only there to rush you from one fight to the next and it does a fine job of that. It doesn't do much to get in the way and it's just long enough to give you a quick breather between fights. What more can you ask for from a game that doesn't care about story?

"It contains atrocious, offensive violations of story basics"

Am I the only one who thinks REALLY good writing does the exact same thing. Basically saying 'Fuck You!' to all standards and basics and come up with something new, fresh that really surprises the reader / player?!

I am not saying Gears did this! This is a generel thing.

There hardly is a story in the following two, especially the third which is just a desperate attempt to keep Marcus, Dom, Baird and Cole Train and the new cute mouthy females killing.

HOt Girl that is the voice Chloe in uncharted : "Baird your retarded meat head go blow that up and do more steroids."

Baird: "Look princess you can stick you high up noise in some crap before we do it your way," secretly they both love each other.

Cole Train: "Only Whole grain for the Cole Train baby, woo!!! "

Marcus:" Shut up you guys and kill shit."

Hot blonde: "Yeah, Marcus is a bad ass Alpha male and right, do what he says."

Dom: "My wife is gone I never mentioned in the 1st game, boohoo, lets go kill in revenge."

Pretty much sums it up.

After playing the dead space franchise including Extraction, it is great it talks about how religion can go bad and delude people and is a masterpeice in comparison.

I think it depends how it's done and how talented the writers are. Some (probably most, actually) of those standards are in place because unless you're very good and setup well, you'll just fuck it up.

As bad as the writing is in Gears 3, the end is still >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> than the abomination that is the end of ME3, which as a whole is very well done.