How it Ends

I don't play video games, but I've been taken by the meditative, almost surreal promos for Gears of War 2. It's a gory, fast-paced shooter, but the advertising focuses on the art direction—a mash-up of Gothic and Neo-Classical architecture, military and post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Think Starship Troopers meets Prague, in an environment that exudes lost Old World beauty.

"I Have a Rendezvous with Death"

"The Last Day"

If you're wondering (like I did), the poem from the first promo is "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" by Alan Seeger, an American who died fighting for the French Foreign Legion during World War I. And the song in the second Promo is "How it Ends" by Devotchka, a Denvier indie rock group.

This is all in keeping, of course, with the memorable "Mad World" ad for the original Gears of War.