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Gears of War 2 |OT| ...Maria...MARIA!!!

D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
With all of the election fun and other things I haven't had a whole lot of time to play the game, but the 1-2 hours I have spent on the campaign have been quite fun indeed. The game feels like a very polished Gears of War. The gameplay is virtually the same as the first one (this was to be expected), but the "gunplay" feels a lot better. I am playing on normal difficulty for my first play-through, but the guns feel a lot more like guns in this game compared to the first. It's hard to explain, but it really feels like your bullets are connecting more and actually damaging your enemy more than it did in Gears 1. I like the improvements to the gunfire sounds as well.

The graphics are improved over the first one, especially in regards to lighting and animation, and look quite amazing. It seems like it runs smoother than the first game, but they are probably both locked at 30fps. There seems to be less hitching on checkpoint saves, and cutscene framerates are vastly improved. However, I don't find myself as blown away as I was with the first game. This is probably because back in 2006 I had an awful computer and was mostly used to playing Playstation 2 games so when I first saw Gears of War in action I couldn't believe my eyes. Now we have plenty of great looking games and the Unreal Engine 3.0 is starting to look a little "played out", so the game doesn't come across as impressive as the first, but there are definitely a lot of graphical improvements to be found. Unfortunately the Unreal Engine 3.0 texture loading problem still exists, but it isn't nearly as bad as the first game and the loading times are all very short.

I really like the collectables and documents that can be found throughout the game and provide some background story. It is a lot better than simply having the COG tags to collect in the first game. I also really like how they handled the achievements this time around. You get progress updates ala Half-Life 2 Episode 2 / Team Fortress 2 on certain achievements and it really gives the player a sense of progression. It's going to be fun working on achivements and unlocking everything.

I still haven't had a chance to check out multiplayer, but from what I hear the netcode is greatly improved along with game balance.

All in all, if you enjoyed the first game at all then you need to pick this game up!
 

Aladuf

Banned
CrazedArabMan said:
Does anyone know if actually calling a 7-11 to check to see if they have it would be a good idea, or would I be wasting my time, I found 2 more, one looks pretty fancy, not a normal building, but its a little bit away, I could probably make it in 20 minutes top on my bike but I'm not sure if I want to do it or not.
I wouldn't call, but in my far too extensive experience today, the good/fancy 7/11's seem to be more on top of the fact that the game isn't available yet. Although I just went on another run and the fancy one was selling that WWE game already and I think it comes out next week so if they have one game to sell early then I don't think they'd care about holding off on another.. so I think in my area the 7/11's might not actually have them yet.

Tomorrow is going to fucking drag, I know it. I need to freeze myself until tomorrow at around 11:30 pm. :p
 
Aladuf said:
Tomorrow is going to fucking drag, I know it. I need to freeze myself until tomorrow at around 11:30 pm. :p
Tell me about it. I'm gonna try to occupy myself with random shit to do until time to head to GameStop.

That in-game photo looks really good, and I like how there's a Gears watermark in the lower left corner.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I almost got a copy at 7-11.

The girl at the checkout went in the back and started talking to someone and came out with a copy. Was about to ring it up and whoever she was talking to came running out of the back "you cant sell that yet".

:(
 
Aladuf said:
I wouldn't call, but in my far too extensive experience today, the good/fancy 7/11's seem to be more on top of the fact that the game isn't available yet. Although I just went on another run and the fancy one was selling that WWE game already and I think it comes out next week so if they have one game to sell early then I don't think they'd care about holding off on another.. so I think in my area the 7/11's might not actually have them yet.

Tomorrow is going to fucking drag, I know it. I need to freeze myself until tomorrow at around 11:30 pm. :p

I'll just drop in then, thx for the advice, I'll just drop in then since my only class tomorrow is an 8:00 A.M.. Also, if I do find one, what is the cancelation policy at gamestop, can I call to cancel or am I allowed to cancel on the day that the game comes out or will I get charged like 5 bucks or something.
 

Aladuf

Banned
CrazedArabMan said:
I'll just drop in then, thx for the advice, I'll just drop in then since my only class tomorrow is an 8:00 A.M.. Also, if I do find one, what is the cancelation policy at gamestop, can I call to cancel or am I allowed to cancel on the day that the game comes out or will I get charged like 5 bucks or something.
I'm not sure about calling to cancel but I do know you can just go in on release day or anytime thereafter and cancel it with no penalty.
 

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
StoOgE said:
I almost got a copy at 7-11.

The girl at the checkout went in the back and started talking to someone and came out with a copy. Was about to ring it up and whoever she was talking to came running out of the back "you cant sell that yet".

:(
Should have said you'd slip her an extra 10.
 
Aladuf said:
I'm not sure about calling to cancel but I do know you can just go in on release day or anytime thereafter and cancel it with no penalty.

Well that is a relief, hopefully they have the collectors edition, if not I don't know if I will pick it up or not.

Oh, and it sucks to be you stooge. Hopefully I have better luck tomorrow.
 

X26

Banned
first time I've ever considered going to a midnight launch

I mean, I won't, but still, considering it in the first place is pretty significant

no, not really
 

Blueblur1

Member
Its amazing that 7-11 stores are selling games. I'm assuming because Halo 3 sales last year went over well? I certainly like the idea of grabbing a snack and a game while I'm at it. :D
 

Dirtbag

Member
God frustrating section #5

Boss talk
Skorge battle is beyond pissing me off, I just turned it off, its just not even fun for me right now. It's like he's sawing into heat-seeking concrete pillars, they never miss. I hate this trial and error crap.

Also, the Reaver elevator section leading into the Hive was pretty terrible. Not much else to say, but the whole scene is like 5+ minutes long and really easy to fuck up at the end. I just flat-out hated it.

It seems to me that all the regular-type battles are awesome, or even much more awesome then they ever were in Gears 1... but once the game strays too much from its formula, its hit or miss mechanics. Any scenes that have extended death cutscenes, piss me off. I'm not looking forward to going through most of them on repeat play-throughs, which kind of stinks because they are spread around the campaign. I think EPIC got a little too cute in areas, putting a damper on one of the best campaigns I may have ever played.
 

Treo360

Member
Dirtbag said:
God frustrating section #5

Boss talk
Skorge battle is beyond pissing me off, I just turned it off, its just not even fun for me right now. It's like he's sawing into heat-seeking concrete pillars, they never miss. I hate this trial and error crap.

Also, the Reaver elevator section leading into the Hive was pretty terrible. Not much else to say, but the whole scene is like 5+ minutes long and really easy to fuck up at the end. I just flat-out hated it.

It seems to me that all the regular-type battles are awesome, or even much more awesome then they ever were in Gears 1... but once the game strays too much from its formula, its hit or miss mechanics. Any scenes that have extended death cutscenes, piss me off. I'm not looking forward to going through most of them on repeat play-throughs, which kind of stinks because they are spread around the campaign. I think EPIC got a little too cute in areas, putting a damper on one of the best campaigns I may have ever played.

Wut?

that part was really easy, if anything
I thought all the boss battles were easy and yes I beat it on Hard, with the Reaver riding escape sequence being the only toughie

Can't wait for the 19th to tackle this on co-op.
 

Taurus

Member
Horde mode is AWESOME! :D

My third try with a decent team took us all the way to 29th level. It wasn't that hard either, but we got greedy and started playing more aggressively. There were only 3 of us so we were easy targets to pick one by one. If we had played all out defense tactics then we'd kept going much, much longer.
 

cresto

Member
I hate all of you who got it early...cheap bastards!!!! :mad:

I really hope circuit city will have the LE editions availible come friday morning...they just closed the closest one to me so I am hoping they just disperse the merch to the other stores.

1600 free points is a definite steal

edit: anyway to pre-order it from the store through the website? i dont want them to ship it to me
 

zewone

Member
Dirtbag said:
God frustrating section #5

Boss talk
Skorge battle is beyond pissing me off, I just turned it off, its just not even fun for me right now. It's like he's sawing into heat-seeking concrete pillars, they never miss. I hate this trial and error crap.

Also, the Reaver elevator section leading into the Hive was pretty terrible. Not much else to say, but the whole scene is like 5+ minutes long and really easy to fuck up at the end. I just flat-out hated it.

It seems to me that all the regular-type battles are awesome, or even much more awesome then they ever were in Gears 1... but once the game strays too much from its formula, its hit or miss mechanics. Any scenes that have extended death cutscenes, piss me off. I'm not looking forward to going through most of them on repeat play-throughs, which kind of stinks because they are spread around the campaign. I think EPIC got a little too cute in areas, putting a damper on one of the best campaigns I may have ever played.
It sounds like you're not very good at the game. You probably should have started on an easier difficulty.
 

chespace

It's not actually trolling if you don't admit it
Horde mode. OMFG.

Just played for a solid 1.5 hours with a coworker and got to wave 8.

It gets ridiculously hard but in a very refreshing way. :lol

The bot AI can be quite good, and in horde mode, it does what it's supposed to. They flank, take cover, charge your position, and overwhelm when you're caught.

The gunplay feels better than GoW2. I'll see if I can take some photos and post them.

I haven't even touched campaign yet. I think this game just became my new home base MP shooter.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
I think after I beat campaign, I'm exclusively playing this game on Horde mode. Never really cared about multiplayer...but waves of enemies in a co-op environment? Yes please
 

minx

Member
In horde mode do you HAVE to be connected to xbox live to play? I randomly get kicked off live with certain games (Gears of War, Halo 3) and it would really suck to be deep in a wave and for it to kick me off. Also, anyone know why it randomly kicks me off? It never does it with COD4?
 

chespace

It's not actually trolling if you don't admit it
Wario64 said:
I think after I beat campaign, I'm exclusively playing this game on Horde mode. Never really cared about multiplayer...but waves of enemies in a co-op environment? Yes please

Horde mode is so good. And it isn't just Serious Sam, non-stop shotguns to the face. You gotta find a place you guys can hunker down and you're having a real firefight with good AI who are sniping the shit out of you and using cover and moving around dynamically. But you can't get too comfortable because motherfucking ticks will come charging in. In fact, lots of melee dudes will come charging in.

You also have to worry about ammo. It's really tense when you know you're down to less than 10 guys in the wave and both of you are using pistols because you're too scared to go grab the arsenal that's lying out in the open. :lol
 

Sailor

Member
Argh, I won't be able to get the golden guns :(

1) Preordered at Blockbuster, so no Hammerburst at Midnight for me..
2) They ran out of LE's to sell :(

So looks like I'm stuck :\ Would be willing to trade the Gears comic book I get from Blockbuster for a code though, but that's probably not gonna happen.

Wonder how much they are on eBay..

edit

rofl
 

Dirtbag

Member
More campaign frustrations!

The fucking turret part where I have to kill no less then 6 reavers?! Fucking GARBAGE.
Most inconsistent turret ever? Just maybe.

It wouldn't be so bad if the restarts didn't require a load screen... but they do.

Reviewers were way to kind to gears, or they played this puppy on normal difficulty and not hardcore. Not cool... maybe its better in coop.

zewone said:
It sounds like you're not very good at the game. You probably should have started on an easier difficulty.
Normal was way too easy.
It's not that these parts are terribly hard.. It's that they feel inconsistent, and the old die/restart play mechanic combined with poorly placed dialogue scenes just creates a time suck - and stand out compared to how good the rest of the game is.

Fantastic core gameplay.
The rest is either brilliant or frustrating.
 

Hazimov

Member
GOD I LOVE SAUDI ARABIA ...... :D

The game has been officially released in Saudi Arabia, since our weekend starts today (Thursday-Friday)

What an amazing feeling. To purchase a product officially before everyone else in the world! :lol


DSC00301.jpg


DSC00304.jpg


DSC00310.jpg


05112008653.jpg


05112008649.jpg








saudi2.gif


:lol

It sucks though that the Flashback map pack codes are not included in local copies :(
 

gray_fox224

Junior Member
Hazimov said:
GOD I LOVE SAUDI ARABIA ...... :D

The game has been officially released in Saudi Arabia, since our weekend starts today (Thursday-Friday)

What an amazing feeling. To purchase a product officially before everyone else in the world! :lol


DSC00301.jpg


DSC00304.jpg


DSC00310.jpg


05112008653.jpg


05112008649.jpg








saudi2.gif


:lol

It sucks though that the Flashback map pack codes are not included in local copies :(

Okay, I'm fucking stupid. I tried to click on one of the questions to vote...I still have the voting bug I guess.
 

Hazimov

Member
cjelly said:
You guys don't have Live over there?

Just curious because there's no Live branding on the box.

Unfortunately the service has not been released yet >_>

Of course that explains why we didn't receive any codes for downloading (the 5 extra maps + the gold lancer) ._."

But most Saudis (Middle Easterners) login to Xbox Live using American/European/Asian accounts.
 

Penguin

Member
chespace said:
Horde mode is so good. And it isn't just Serious Sam, non-stop shotguns to the face. You gotta find a place you guys can hunker down and you're having a real firefight with good AI who are sniping the shit out of you and using cover and moving around dynamically. But you can't get too comfortable because motherfucking ticks will come charging in. In fact, lots of melee dudes will come charging in.

You also have to worry about ammo. It's really tense when you know you're down to less than 10 guys in the wave and both of you are using pistols because you're too scared to go grab the arsenal that's lying out in the open. :lol

That sounds awesome and what was expecting from the mode.

Think got a 4 man squad set up for Friday night so I hope it's fun. :D
 

Kibbles

Member
How much do you guys think I would get from Game Crazy if I trade in...

Madden NFL 09
Super Mario Galaxy (<--- Probably won't do this... I'll probably regret it in the future)
Mario Kart DS
Fusion Frenzy 2

+ 20% Trade boost?

If I keep SMG, it looks like I'll have to fork over some money. I'm trying to get an estimate over here... hmmm...
 

Aladuf

Banned
With Madden and MK DS you should get a good amount with that 20% extra.. Fusion Frenzy shouldn't get you shit. Maybe like $50..?
 
Is the 'Mad World' commercial still available on Live? I thought I had it downloaded and wanted to watch it but I must not have grabbed it again after replacing my old 360.

And then I couldn't find it in the 'Gears of War' section in the game store.
 

chespace

It's not actually trolling if you don't admit it
Jesus christ at the graphics in this game. Just going through the first chapter, Tip of the Spear, of which we've only seen a tiny portion of the vehicle ride part. Fucking hell, the visuals are AMAZING for a console game.

UE3 is a beast.
 

Ramirez

Member
So I checked the Gamestop site, but MGS4/Uncharted aren't on there, anyone know how much trade in they would pull me? I figured MGS at least would get me close to 30, but not seeing it on the site has dashed my hopes. :lol I know Uncharted prolly won't get me much since it's old, better than nothing though.
 

Treo360

Member
Dirtbag said:
More campaign frustrations!

The fucking turret part where I have to kill no less then 6 reavers?! Fucking GARBAGE.
Most inconsistent turret ever? Just maybe.

It wouldn't be so bad if the restarts didn't require a load screen... but they do.

Reviewers were way to kind to gears, or they played this puppy on normal difficulty and not hardcore. Not cool... maybe its better in coop.


Normal was way too easy.
It's not that these parts are terribly hard.. It's that they feel inconsistent, and the old die/restart play mechanic combined with poorly placed dialogue scenes just creates a time suck - and stand out compared to how good the rest of the game is.

Fantastic core gameplay.
The rest is either brilliant or frustrating.


Again, I don't know what the problem is, that section was kind of easy as well, in fact I thought that Hard mode was too easy.
 

gray_fox224

Junior Member
chespace said:
Jesus christ at the graphics in this game. Just going through the first chapter, Tip of the Spear, of which we've only seen a tiny portion of the vehicle ride part. Fucking hell, the visuals are AMAZING for a console game.

UE3 is a beast.

I don't have it yet. You're not making this wait easy Mr. Chou:lol
 

Domino Theory

Crystal Dynamics
chespace said:
Jesus christ at the graphics in this game. Just going through the first chapter, Tip of the Spear, of which we've only seen a tiny portion of the vehicle ride part. Fucking hell, the visuals are AMAZING for a console game.

UE3 is a beast.

Tell me about it. :p

You got buddies ready for some Horde on Friday? :D
 

Sallokin

Member
GAH I had it in my hands at 7-Eleven and the clerk wised up to my scheme. Oh well guess I'll have to wait
until tomorrow when someone else will hopefully be behind the counter
 
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