Kotaku: Gears of War is certainly one of the most anticipated games for the 360, what gaming innovations do you expect it to bring to the next generation of gaming?

CliffB: I believe that "Gears of War" will be the first game to really establish the "Cover Shooter" as its own legitimate genre. In the past games such as Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid established the stealth genre.

Were those the first games to have stealth as a primary element? No, a game like "Thief" was the first title (that I know of) to really REQUIRE stealth but it was too far ahead of its time; ultimately it wound up being more of a cult hit. Games like MGS and Splinter took that idea, put it in a contemporary setting, marketed the hell out of it, and brought it to the mainstream and voila! - we have a new genre.

You can take a director like Darren Aronofsky who innovates with his style and camera work - all the way back to "Pi" and we now see these techniques (such as the chest mounted "vomit camera") in shlock like "World's Scariest Places". It's audience evolution and it takes time to happen.

Is Gears the first game to feature cover? No. But it's going to be the best implementation you've seen and it will be supported by a publisher who will know how to bring the idea to a legion of gamers who maybe…maybe are be a bit tired of running around deathmatching like chickens with their heads cut off. Gears is to the shooter genre as Tekken is to the fighting genre.

Kotaku: Do you have a favorite 360 title yet?

CliffB: It's a toss-up between "Condemned: Criminal Origins" and "Call of Duty 2." (Which, I suppose, is to be expected as "Gears" combines elements from both into a fresh gameplay experience.)