Sounds more like a mix between Gears and Republic Commando...

 This OP isn't even referirng to the aspect of the cover system in gears. He's talking about it being just "dark and grittier".

I know it wasn't, in fact I've played PC games that were like that before and most genres come to PC first.  I am just comparing to Gears of War because it seems more of like a direct competitor with Halo for popularity on the XBox 360 and the way they described it sounded like Gears to me.

I've been playing computer games since 1993, I've seen and played all of the games that started and popularized genres.

Nah, I was just clarifying the original literary definitions of first/third person etc...  They're slightly misused in gaming conversations but it's not a huge deal. 

Also, I don't really consider Gears to be squad-based or tactical since you can't give your allies orders.  Rainbow Six Vegas is squad based, Gears is not.

Yes because Gears was definitely original to have anything after to be a copy of it.

I mean it might be but since when did people start caring about whether games were copies off the others. If they did this topic wouldn't have existed haha.

Ok look you people are completely misunderstanding this and taking this to far in saying that I think Gears of War was the first 3rd person shooter or some crap like that.

All I am saying is that from what I heard about the next Halo game they are trying to be more like Gears of War and I am questioning whether or not this is a good direction for the Halo series.

I understand the fact that Gears of War was not the first game of it's type but it is a recent release on the XBox 360 and games like Gears of War and Gears of War 2 are direct competitors with Halo in a way.

It is the same as how in the first years of the 2nd millennium like 2001-2005 tons of World War II games were all coming out and it was pretty obvious that the different developers were all copying each other for a popular setting. Now it would be insanity to say that any of those World War II games were original seeing as there were World War II games in the 1980s and 1990s but they were copying each other off of the current time not to say that any of them were completely original.

Now please no more comments like this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard or anything like that acting like I am just saying they are copying gears because they said it was going to be darker and grittier. The main reason why it sounds like a copy to me is because they are making it 3rd person as in over the shoulder and they are making it darker and grittier and just about the soldiers out there fighting, Gears of War is a game that is over the shoulder and is very dark and gritty and just happens to have come out on the same platform as Halo and seen exceptional sales and now a sequel to it is coming out that will be competing with whatever the next Halo game is which is why it seems like to me that Bungie is trying to mimic the style of game that Gears is just as all the developers in the early 2000s were making a ridiculous amount of World War II games.

Once again over the shoulder view and third person view are not the same.

So are all third person squad based shooters going to be classed as rip offs of gears of war now then?

So let me get this straight. You are saying a game that hasn't even been announced, and hasn't had a single shred of factual information reported on, is copying something? Seems a little weird to me. Regardless of what the game is, it will be absolutely huge. But only saying the next Halo is unspecific. There are going to be many Halo games released in the future. Ensemble is doing several, Peter Jackson is doing one, Bungie is doing one, and there is no telling in what form these unannounced games will take.

Anyone wanna actually link to where we have any confirmed info on this game before we go crying that it's copying something else?