Alain Tascan, general manager for EA Montreal, has revealed that he thinks Xbox 360 title Gears of War has been overrated by reviewers - with one or two, ahem, notable exceptions.

Speaking in a panel discussion at the Montréal Games Summit, Tascan said, "What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero.

"Only two very brave UK-based journalists said, 'You know what, Gears of War is a great game but it's like what Quake was a few years ago.'" Any guesses as to who one of those might be?

"Why are people loving it so much? It's like added production value, incredible cutscenes and the best ever graphics ever. I'm sure it's going to be a great success, I can't wait to play it, but let's face that graphics are still number one," Tascan continued.

He then used the comparison of a nice looking girl you might see in a bar and go up and talk to, "And if she's smart enough, that's the gameplay.

"I'm not talking about my tastes, I'm just saying, when you go to metacritic and you see a 96 for Gears of War, then you read the critics saying, 'Okay, storyline - there's none, gameplay is not innovative...' Then I say, why did they give this 96? They were blown away by the high quality of the graphics... Myself, I prefer something more creative," Tascan concluded.

After the panel discussion was over, we grabbed Tascan to ask if he was indeed referring to Eurogamer's Gears of War review - and the answer was, "Absolutely, yes. You guys were one of the only people who had the guts to say it." So there you go.