How Gears 2 Is Actually a More Realistic Combat Sim

No one would accuse Gears of War 2, or Gears of War for that matter, of being grounded anywhere close to reality. But Popular Mechanics has an interesting discussion with Unreal Games' Matt Mike Capps, a breakdown of the capabilities of the Unreal engine, and concludes that the chaotic environment it is capable of rendering in real time can actually raise the bar for accuracy in military combat simulations. A simulation like America's Army pales by comparison, and not just for aesthetic reasons. Gears 2 features destructible cover, and concepts like projectile refraction (that is, rounds altering course as they pass through permeable surfaces) and even how lighting factors into one's comprehension of a hostile environment. Through it all, Capps — who studied for four years at the Navy Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., and was part of the America's Army team — provides a very informed perspective on how Gears 2's deep aesthetics are more than just eye candy. Hauling off with a futuristic machine gun and a chin-mounted chainsaw bayonet, while suffering multiple wounds from elephant-stopping firepower, sure, that's not a part of anyone's combat skills manual. But the hunkered-down, is-that-a-threat, open-fire mentality created by Gears — and Unreal 3 — is. How Gears of War 2 Raises the Bar for Military Simulators [Popular Mechanics]