Freakin' LOTR. I thought that pop culture had finally overcome the overrated madness of the overrated movies based upon overrated books. But it's inescapable. Take a stew-eating, pure diesel, sci-fi future, manly man game like Gears of War—it seems completely free of of stupid ring fantasies. That doesn't sound like LOTR at all, right Cliffy B?

We wanted the Locust to be intelligent savages; they're like the Uruk-hai in LOTR, only with guns...The Uruk-hai would organise themselves, line up and then storm in - even though they look like horrible monsters. That's what the Locust essentially are...

Freakin' LOTR with guns? Did you really have to ruin it for me, Cliffy? Did you??

Gears: CliffyB reveals Lord of the Rings inspiration [cvg]