Gears of War: E-Day is a great game launching at a terrible time

There are few blockbuster games that are as confident as Gears of War: E-Day . A prequel to one of Xbox's most transformative titles, E-Day knows exactly what it wants to be: a brutal, tense, and self-aware action game, one that is stronger because it doesn't deviate from that premise. Twenty years since the original Gears of War , there's still nothing like its particular brand of up-close cover shooter gameplay, and E-Day shows that it still hits hard two decades later.