Gears 2
 

I'm off to pick it up now. I have to leave town for a week tomorrow, but at least I've got tonight for some chainsaw fun. If you're reading this instead of picking up Gears, then you're an idiot.

Heh, I must be an idiot, then (especially since I don't have a 360 yet, unfortunately).

Keep us posted on how the game is.

Picked it up and only played a couple hours...got 2 classes tomorrow.

Couple thoughts.

The game is pretty awesome. I haven't been this stoked for a game since Halo 3.

Its nice to see that they fixed the glitches in online play. Horde is awesome.

No, no. If we're reading this instead of picking up Gears, then YOU'RE an idiot.

We're all idiots! Agh!

Mine hasn't arrived yet. Stupid postman :(

Curse my not having money problem!!

Awesome game. I'm enjoying it way more than Spider-Man (obviously), and Fallout 3.

Cure and I beat the story mode today, and the only gripe I have is that feeling of "Oh....it...its over? Ok."

You don't feel terrible or angry... Just wishing for more.

We destroyed horde mode tonight, but I'm up for doing it again. If anyone wants help in getting the wave 50 achievement, I'll gladly help out. I just love that mode so much.

Dude I so wanna get a group for Horde mode. I hate going in blind because either people either don't have mic or don't use any strats.

Depending on the wave you dont always need a strategy, but from the 8-10 waves, you need a solid plan.

Peanut and I zipped through 15 or more rounds by ourselves last night, then started again with Cure and JameO this afternoon. wave 50? Wheres wave 100?

I'm not sure what map I was on but everyone just stood out in the middle so locust could come at them from every direction.

Yeah, that's no good. We've pretty much got the tactics down for hoard mode.

You've got to do things like scrounge for weapons and ammo before finishing off a wave. Pick up a few Mulchers and Boomshields before killing that last Locust. You've gotta find the most defensible areas on the map you choose, set up your defenses (usually a couple Boomshields blocking a small area, some grenade traps, and a Mulcher or two set up and ready to roll) get everyone in and take positions.

Most importantly, you've got to have that communication; you've got to know if someone goes down; you've got to have someone in position to let everyone know what's coming. Even if someone dies, they should be telling you where things are coming from.

My favourite was easily our stand on the map we finished Hoard on, which was Jachinto. We'd go up to the higher portion of the map on either side, block off the bottom steps with some Boomshields, and we'd be good to go. Brodie would normally be sporting the Mulcher from the top of the steps, Cure would usually be in the tower sniping and telling everyone what was coming, JameO would usually be at the bottom of the steps defending the Boomshields, and I'd go back and forth between helping Cure in the tower, defending the Boomshields, and continually putting up proximity grenades.

So much fun.

I did not like Gears of War.
However, I love Gears of War 2. I picked this game up last night since a couple buddies of mine were, and we wanted to do some horde together...We were up for hours. I can't tell you guys how much this game surprised me. It really unlocks the potential I thought the first game had. Bigger Battles, Cinematic, and downright fun. The highlight though, was definitely horde. I can't tell you guy's how many thrills I had just playing about 20 waves with two buddies of mine. I'll be playing this mode for months. Highly recommended, especially if you have friends to play with.

Another great weapon to have is the mortar to rain down when they first start spawing. I've been playing through it with a friend on split-screen and we've cleared about 35 waves. It's pretty difficult when it's just two people but extremely rewarding when you finally clear the later waves. The only wave we normally suck completely at is the 10th one with the freaking bloodshots charging our strong hold because with only two people, once they knock down a boomshield and breach the line, it becomes extremely difficult to recover. But I'm pretty confident, we can make it through all of them. If not I can always just get the last few waves over live.

I'm pleased with the game so far. It's hardly any different from the first mechanically, and that's what I wanted from it. Just some refinements where necessary without tarnishing a winning formula. The Chainsaw is an EVIL beast now which suits me well, and the lancer is actually worth a damn now. I so miss the ability to randomly saw through furniture. The way the chainsaw latches onto everything is kind of annoying, but whatever. They nerfed the shotty, but I couldn't ever down anybody with it anyway since I was no good at adjusting to the bullet lag.

I just started on the campaign and I'm loving it so far.

My only complaint is that after certain points in the campaign I got sick of the chainsaw.

You can still chainsaw furniture.

How does that work?

Yeah, but all the furniture feels hollow and dry now. There's just less "UMPH" to the effect, if you get what I mean.

Compared to what? You didn't even touch the furniture you could saw in half in the first Gears. It would just fall apart when you revved your chainsaw near it.

Yeah, but when the chunks flew, the objects had more of a moldy and rotten feel to them. Now things feel more dry and hollow. It means nothing really. Just a small complaint from a chainsaw fan.

Getting further in the campaign. I'm loving the random shout-outs when you get successive kills ("EAT SH*T AND DIE MOTHERFU*KER!"). The story is so much better this time around, and the sniping feels a little smoother for some reason even though I can't discern anything that different in the mechanics.