Gears of War 3: Raam's Shadow

18 cert, Epic/Microsoft, Xbox 360****

The downloadable content for

Gears of War 3: Raam’s Shadow

is a great mini-game, a full-blooded third-person shooter. It follows a platoon as they try to protect a town from invading, monstrous Locusts. You alternate between playing as the human “Gears” infantry and their grotesque enemies, specifically General Raam, who can summon swarms of bloodthirsty winged monsters. The game feels like a greatest hits compilation of the franchise, and we get to use familiar weapons. There are moments of poignancy between the gunfights, as we watch the city degenerate bullet by bullet, and, thankfully, some macho one-liners to relieve us of subterranean homesick blues. As one soldier says while shooting a monster in an abandoned classroom: “The bullies in this school are rough.”