Mad World

If you watch any television, you may have seen a commercial advertising a new video game titled "Gears of War." The story of the game is typical of many other action games; an alien race has come to earth to wipe out the human race for some unknown reason. The game itself, although very familiar, has enough new gameplay elements to make it fairly unique amongst the hordes of action-shooter games out there.

But what is it about Gears of War that has my attention? The commercial. It's absolutely beautiful.



It doesn't capture the feel of the game at all. The game is non-stop, pulse-pounding action without the dramatic spin. But I don't know...I love this commercial. And I may get a bit poetic and deep about it....

I love how the main character is forced to run for his life while he's pondering the remants of yesterday's world. Franticaly running through the ruined city, he desperately searches for a place to hide. And when he thinks he's safe, he sees the very trouble he tried to escape from, waiting for him, staring him down. Realizing escape is no optin, the main character, overwhelmed, and possibly frightened, braces himself and stands his ground. And as the lights of valour pulse the room, the trouble bears down on him, snuffing out his last ditch effort to live (I'm of the opinion that the main character dies in the end).

I think it's so beautiful that the advertisement sidesteps the hard punk rock music that is normally associated with these genres of entertainment.

Here's the actual music video if you wanted to hear the whole song...it's called "Mad World" by Gary Jules (this is a cover, by the way).