Gears of War for Xbox 360 and Resistance: Fall of Man for PS3 share a common pedigree. Both are flagship next-generation sci-fi shooters with big guns and monstrous enemies -- but that's where the similarities end. The atmospheric Gears of War emphasizes time-consuming strategic firefights over the fast-paced run-and-gun combat in Resistance. We compare these two high-profile games to see which will win this year's holiday shoot-out.

Best Single-Player Adventure

Resistance and Gears both feature an intense single player campaign in which death comes frequently. Both incorporate moments bound to get adrenaline pumping, both contain encounters that take multiple retries and a definite strategy to overcome, and both leave corpses scattered throughout a battlefield that lies in shambles. But is one superior to the other? Nope. They should both be experienced.

Winner: Draw

Best Multiplayer

Gears' multiplayer of maxes out at eight players, but the smaller matches provide a more intimate atmosphere, something that encourages thought-filled strategic play over quick reflexes. Gears' team-based multiplayer is also its downfall, as the paltry three multiplayer modes are all just slight variations of Team Deathmatch, which feels awfully restricted. Meanwhile, Resistance not only offers matches of up to 40 players, but also a larger number of game types. In addition to standards like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, there's the survival-focused Conversion and the tactical team-based Breach and Meltdown modes. Furthermore, the two species of Resistance's multiplayer differ both in terms of appearance and capability, while the differences between the Locust and the Cogs of Gears are purely aesthetic. It sucks that Resistance doesn't have the online co-op of Gears, but its wide variety of modes and the differing capabilities of the playable species give it the advantage.

Winner: Resistance

Most Compelling Back Story

Both Resistance and Gears focus on constant action, so the frequent story-telling cutscenes in each come as a relative surprise. Plus, the two games have their own detailed side stories. Resistance takes the storytelling a little more seriously, including a heavily researched timeline at the official site explains how the Resistance's chronology differs from our own, and in the game, hints at an underlying story with implications far beyond the actions of main character Nathan Hale. Meanwhile, the cutscenes from Gears, though well directed, doesn't tie back to any supplemental information, making the plot seem as shallow as an Uwe Boll film, whereas the clever implementation of Resistance's mythology paints a larger, and more intriguing, multi-layered story.

Winner: Resistance

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