I'll leave that up to GavinMannion then - I'm not nearly eloquent enough to do the game justice.
Oh no talking about being dumped in it...... I ignored it because I hoped someone else will....
Pitbull: How on earth have you not played it yet?????
Gears of War aka GOW
EPIC's first game for the Xbox 360 and possibly the best they have ever produced.
This is very different from every other game that EPIC have produced. There previous claim to fame was Unreal Tournament which is fast paced and action packed. However GOW is much more tactical and realistic.
In GOW cover is your ultimate friend. If you run into a battle with all guns blazing you are going to fail miserably. You need to use the cover provided to strategically attack and wipe out the horde of locusts.
In terms of graphics no other FPS (okay it's more like 3rd person shooter) comes close. Even on my low end TV the lighting and textures are amazing. They say on a HDTV it is mind blowing.
Most reviews claim the game is short but don't let that distract you. It is plenty long enough in single player and in multiplayer it is just addictive.
In multiplayer you team up with 3 other COGS (Humans) against 4 other locusts. Teamwork is the name of the game. If you don't talk to each other you are going to get creamed. You need to plan and ambush your opponents to win this game.
When playing multiplayer once you have 'killed' the opponent he is not actually dead just waiting to be healed by a team mate., You then need to get over to him and "curb stomp" his skull into next week. Nothing is more satisfying

. This small added extra gets rid of most campers in the game who generally ruin these sorts of games.
Their netcode is fantastic and even with my average iBurst connection local games are flawless and international games are generally playable.
If you own an Xbox you have to own GOW. It is as simple as that.
My score 9.5/10.