Last night Microsoft and Newline Cinema teamed up to bring the “Match Made in Hell" to Los Angeles. The evening was an awesome combo of a slasher flick--in this case New Line’s forthcoming prequel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning-- and a totally kick ass game: The much anticipated Gears of War.

The film was okay, and even had a few good moments, but the packed-to-capacity theater full of gamers was cleary waiting to get their grimy mitts on Gears.

A big thumbs-up goes to Microsoft for following a movie about a chainsaw wielding psychopath with 250 other chainsaw-wielding psychopathic hardcore gamers

When the horror film reached its grisly end, we were treated to a five minute intro movie for the single player mode of GOW. It looked incredible, especially on a screen bigger than most people’s houses. The intro cinematic was in-engine, meaning that the rest of the game, which will run at 720p, looked just as good as the opening movie.

We were walked through the basic mechanics of the game, shooting, melee attacks, grenades, running (when you run the camera switches to a mode that looks like it’s taken directly from a documentary on Vietnam) and of course, the chainsaw. Evidently, Marcus Fenix, the game’s protagonist, could show Leatherface a thing or two about chainsaw use.

Playtime followed immediately after (on the same build showcased at this year’s X-06 event). Everyone who attended that night was given a cool Gears of War T-shirt and a sticker. More than a piece of cool promo swag, the sticker determined who you would be playing as that night, either as a member of the Locust Horde or as one of the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments).

The matches were four-on-four, where the final victory went to the first group to get three wins, and by wins I mean totally dismembering the other team. We were able to play two of the eight multiplayer maps that will come included in the game.

One of them, “Gridlocked” was like a bombed out downtown district and the other, unnamed map was like a small portion of Venice, with a couple of shallow canals, waterways and bridges. Each came with hidden weapons and surprises like the sniper rifle and the boom shot (rocket launcher) to make the ducking dodging, and shooting all the more fun.

It’s been reported that the combat in Gears of War is about one thing, cover. The environments are designed to provide you cover and the developers have made it fun and intuitive for players to use it. There are a lot of things to like about the game, but I can say with confidence that the control scheme is definitely one of the best. The A button does everything! It allows you to take cover, it moves you from one cover area to another quickly, it initiates running and most amazingly of all, each of these actions work just like you intend them to. Everything is so intuitive. You can run, take cover and then roll forward to the next crippled pillar or bullet riddled automobile, before taking cover again all with one button and never once does your character do anything other than what you meant him to.

In multiplayer, once a player is down you can revive him if he’s a teammate, or if he’s an enemy you can finish him off with a final volley of fire, press the X button to stomp his skull into the pavement or do what everyone has being dieing to do since Microsoft’s pre- E3 conference: Cut him right in half with the chainsaw. Don’t worry though; the chainsaw isn’t just reserved for finishing off the defeated. If you manage to get close enough it can be used anytime to deal certain death to your adversaries... and it’s damn satisfying!

It seems to me that I’ve been putting lead into alien invaders since before I could talk, but not since Contra on the original Nintendo have I had so much fun doing it. The game looks great, plays great and if the single player mode is as fun then it’s sure to become the standard by which all other action shooters are judged.

Pick up your copy when the game is released on Emergence Day, November 7th in the U.S.

To read more about the event, check out Silicon Era's coverage.