Gears of War 2 THREAD

[The Sceneman]

haha, I didnt see it coming. 

[duckman2000]

Did they even test the Landsdown area before shipping the game? Weird texture quality balance all over the place, and now I got physically stuck on something in a small passage (where you chainsaw your way through) forcing me to reload. The rig wasn't so bad, but it feels a bit weird mowing down a Brumak like it's nothing after having met one in Gears PC.

[Mrbob]

Whole game is buggy.  Encountered many bugs where me and DM were just floating in the air after something would happen.  Or as the second co op player Dom my weapon wouldn't fire until I got hit by an enemy. 

Finished it on hardcore tonight.  Stupid XBL went down though so we have to replay one part of a chapter to get the co op achievement.  Besides the horrible final boss, mission 5 was amazing.  This was the frantic pace of Gears I remembered.  If only the first four chapters were this good the single player would have been a worthy sequel. 

[ch1nchilla]

Whole game is buggy.  Encountered many bugs where me and DM were just floating in the air after something would happen.  Or as the second co op player Dom my weapon wouldn't fire until I got hit by an enemy. 

Agreed, sometimes I'd have to reload a checkpoint because a switch wouldn't work.

[duckman2000]

The underground has sort of redeemed the Landsdown fiasco, but I think they went a little overboard with cutting up the action. The highlights have been the extended battles, and even those could have been made significantly shorter had I bothered using the preferred weapon. A bit of Resistance 2 warning on that (as well as on the unpolished bits), but the skirmishes have been overwhelmingly good. They should stick to these kind of environments, the game really shines here.

[The Sceneman]

Shit, Horde gets pretty tough real quick

And wtf is up with online matchmaking? I was waiting 10 minutes and I couldnt even get a game

[Tieno]

Shit, Horde gets pretty tough real quick

And wtf is up with online matchmaking? I was waiting 10 minutes and I couldnt even get a game

Played some Horde this morning and it was a lot faster than yesterday. Still on the slow side.

[dark1x]

Yes it's amazing. A-FUCKING-MAZING. Looks like a CG movie with AA enabled. The PC exclusive chapter ROCKS.

The game is a bit less polished on the PC, however.  There are some odd hitches at various points that Epic has yet to address in a patch and there are still occasional (rare) areas where the framerate just won't hold 60 fps.  There's no reason why a GTX260 Core 216 should drop below 60 fps at any point in the game (even when dropped to 1360x768 with no AA).  Try loading up Act IV.  Is the opening cutscene completely smooth?  When you finally land, try spinning the camera around (I'm using a 360 pad) and you'll notice drops while facing the main area.  That's just one example.  Also, it's a pain in the ass to get 5.1 sound of the PC version for some reason (most UE3 games have no issues with this).

Still, the PC version is very much worth playing.

[AdmiralViscen]

If you have a 5 man party matchmaking is insanely fast. Otherwise it sucks, especially if you're a party of 4 (there is no one playing alone). It'd be nice if after a match took 30 seconds or more they would just make it a 4 on 4.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Finished it on hardcore tonight.  Stupid XBL went down though so we have to replay one part of a chapter to get the co op achievement.  Besides the horrible final boss, mission 5 was amazing.  This was the frantic pace of Gears I remembered.  If only the first four chapters were this good the single player would have been a worthy sequel. 

So Gears 2 isn't a worthy sequel? You're fucking nuts.  I'll give you act 1 because it can feel like Gears 1.5 at the beginning but after that it was nothing short of incredible.  If you're a fan of shooters and you couldn't enjoy Gears 2 then you need to find a new hobby because nothing will please you.

[GilloD]

I was super psyched when the Cole Train pulled into the station

[Smooth Groove]

Yes it's amazing. A-FUCKING-MAZING. Looks like a CG movie with AA enabled. The PC exclusive chapter ROCKS.

The game is a bit less polished on the PC, however.  There are some odd hitches at various points that Epic has yet to address in a patch and there are still occasional (rare) areas where the framerate just won't hold 60 fps.  There's no reason why a GTX260 Core 216 should drop below 60 fps at any point in the game (even when dropped to 1360x768 with no AA).  Try loading up Act IV.  Is the opening cutscene completely smooth?  When you finally land, try spinning the camera around (I'm using a 360 pad) and you'll notice drops while facing the main area.  That's just one example.  Also, it's a pain in the ass to get 5.1 sound of the PC version for some reason (most UE3 games have no issues with this).

Still, the PC version is very much worth playing.

Gears on PC supposedly scales the graphics according to your hardware, regardless of what you picked in the settings.  It's why some people with a low end 8800 claim to have completely smooth gameplay while people with faster GPUs get hitching and framedrops. 

On my previous 8800GTX SLI rig, I used to get some stuttering but once I swapped them with the 280 GTXEs, the game became completely smooth.  I think it's possible the engine gave the 8800s too much to handle whereas the 280s got just the right amount of work. 

[dark1x]

Gears on PC supposedly scales the graphics according to your hardware, regardless of what you picked in the settings.  It's why some people with a low end 8800 claim to have completely smooth gameplay while people with faster GPUs get hitching and framedrops. 

On my previous 8800GTX SLI rig, I used to get some stuttering but once I swapped them with the 280 GTXEs, the game became completely smooth.  I think it's possible the engine gave the 8800s too much to handle whereas the 280s got just the right amount of work. 

Still, you shouldn't need two GTX280 cards to get a perfect framerate in this game.  A GTX260 C216 should be more than enough to handle it at a perfect framerate.  I believe it is unoptimized simply because there are certain scenes that just refuse to run perfectly regardless of settings in use.  However, to be fair, it's 60 fps a good 99% of the time with odd loading hitches occuring between major areas.  It just annoys me that the framerate would drop at all but it's the loading pauses that annoy me the most.  What's I'm curious about is the beginning of Act 4.  If you get a chance, try loading up the beginning of Act 4 and watch the cutscene (the realtime scene).  Does it hitch at all?  It's a good example of what I'm talking about as it occurs at the beginning of an Act.  I've never seen this scene run completely smooth on any PC (framerate is fine, but the game "hitches" for some reason).  When I say completely smooth, I mean 100% 60 fps never a skip anywhere.

I'd imagine it all depends on how someone defines "smooth".

Fallout 3, for instance, has a setting enabled by default that results in a constant framerate hitching on ALL hardware.  There is a setting you can change in the INI file to fix this, but it requires your machine to hold 60 fps 100% of the time (else the gameplay speed moves at a slower rate).  This is no problem for me, fortunately.  However, I'm sure a lot of people are playing with the default settings and believe the game to be perfectly smooth despite the fact that it absolutely is not (this is a settings issue that occurs by default on all PCs).  I think FO3 perfectly demonstrates the differences in how people perceive framerates.

That's why it becomes so difficult to discuss framerate, however, as one persons "perfectly smooth" doesn't cut it for everyone.

[duckman2000]

Gears on PC supposedly scales the graphics according to your hardware, regardless of what you picked in the settings.  It's why some people with a low end 8800 claim to have completely smooth gameplay while people with faster GPUs get hitching and framedrops. 

That's possible, but the end result was a game that looked awesome, and ran smooth as hell. Not at the highest resolution, though, just 720p.

Disregarding the PC version though, I'm a bit surprised by the performance and quality issues in the first levels of Gears 2. The underground section has been flawless and quite nice looking so far, but I get the feeling that once they reintroduce daylight, the visuals will take another hit. It's a bit weird, since my memory likes to suggest that the outdoor areas in Gears 1 never suffered when compared to the indoors.

[dark1x]

Gears on PC supposedly scales the graphics according to your hardware, regardless of what you picked in the settings.  It's why some people with a low end 8800 claim to have completely smooth gameplay while people with faster GPUs get hitching and framedrops. 

That's possible, but the end result was a game that looked awesome, and ran smooth as hell. Not at the highest resolution, though, just 720p.

Disregarding the PC version though, I'm a bit surprised by the performance and quality issues in the first levels of Gears 2. The underground section has been flawless and quite nice looking so far, but I get the feeling that once they reintroduce daylight, the visuals will take another hit. It's a bit weird, since my memory likes to suggest that the outdoor areas in Gears 1 never suffered when compared to the indoors.

Eh, the outdoor areas in Gears 1 (part of Act 3 and most of Act 5) all look really good.  The outdoor areas used during Act 1, however, seemed a bit weak.  I don't think the game ever quite hits the high notes of Gears 1, but there are still some fantastic locales in there.

[duckman2000]

As said, I'm not that far into the game yet. Me and my fellow dudes have just discovered a really big creature, and everything underground has been good.

[GilloD]

Anyone interested in some co-op inside the worm tonight around 10est?

[Smooth Groove]

NM

[duckman2000]

So where is the screen capture tool?

[Mrbob]

Damn I thought I could post my thoughts at this forum without it acting like GAF lite.  I guess I won't play a shooter again. Jesus. 

And Dcharlie I said the other four levels weren't as good as the fifth chapter.    Of course, the worm part still felt a bit like jumping the shark to me but I digress!

Mainly my negativity is squared at the single player campaign.  I'll throw down with you guys in Horde mode anytime.  It is a blast! 

[Cormacaroni]

Finished it last night on Normal. Loved it from start to finish, with the possible exception of that bit where you had to shoot the reavers with the turret near the end. I swear the left turret is broken or something - i couldn't hit shit with it. Apart from that, the campaign was very smooth. Lots of variety, nothing frustrating or broken, just fun fun fun.

Also, it's waaaaaaaay easier than 1. You don't really need to use cover very much. I'm hoping to do a Hardcore co-op run after this to get really stuck into those firefights.

I don't know how you could nitpick the visuals unless you're comparing it to Crysis, maybe. This is the best-looking console game I've ever seen. I think it wastes Gears 1.

[The Sceneman]

So where is the screen capture tool?

where are the games for the PS3?

[The Sceneman]

okay I played some 5 player Horde last night with randoms and It was amazing. My dick is so hard for horde, if I see you dudes playing Im'a jump in, or invite me or something

Im actually keen to 1000/1000 this game  Hopefully the multiplayer gets fixed so I can actually play some Wingman

Love love love Gears 2

[Mrbob]

And Dcharlie I said the other four levels weren't as good as the fifth chapter.    Of course,

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the worm

[close]

part still felt a bit like jumping the shark to me but I digress!

that level is my biggest gripe in the game - no one on the planet wants to replay that level. NO ONE.

If anything, maybe Epic should take up the reigns and make a 3D contra sequel!  That part would have fit in perfectly in a contra game! 

[demi]

So where is the screen capture tool?

You can only do it in multiplayer games. It uploads itself to Gearsofwar.com website, probably linked to your Gamertag then

[fistfulofmetal]

I just got an invite from the person I played through Gears 1 with to play Gears 2

 :'(

[duckman2000]

I don't know how you could nitpick the visuals unless you're comparing it to Crysis, maybe. This is the best-looking console game I've ever seen. I think it wastes Gears 1.

I finally got to the first area that I'd say is genuinely spectacular looking (sunken city). Up until then, it had been really uneven in quality, with some areas feeling down right rough. They seem to be going for more variety though so I guess it's harder to pay attention to every detail.

On a different topic, didn't they say that they had increased the difficulty? I selected Normal despite feeling that Normal in Gears 1 was too easy, and this actually feels easier than that. I'm sure I'll regret saying that when I hit some choke point soon, though.

[Cormacaroni]

Not every area is spectacular - but thank christ for that. Most of the best gameplay is in the non-eye candy sections. The pure eye candy moments are though.

I kept expecting to hit a bottleneck but there was literally only that one spot near the end. And it doesn't seem to have been a problem for most people either. I got through most of Gears 1 on Hardcore in co-op so I really should have picked Hardcore this time around too. I just wanted to scoop the cream off the top this time. I shall be back for more later!

[Tieno]

I don't know how you could nitpick the visuals unless you're comparing it to Crysis, maybe. This is the best-looking console game I've ever seen. I think it wastes Gears 1.

I finally got to the first area that I'd say is genuinely spectacular looking (sunken city). Up until then, it had been really uneven in quality, with some areas feeling down right rough. They seem to be going for more variety though so I guess it's harder to pay attention to every detail.

On a different topic, didn't they say that they had increased the difficulty? I selected Normal despite feeling that Normal in Gears 1 was too easy, and this actually feels easier than that. I'm sure I'll regret saying that when I hit some choke point soon, though.

lol,

I played on Hardcore solo first time through. Had a lot of choke points.

[duckman2000]

So I should bump it up to hardcore then?

[demi]

lol, you're playing Normal

[duckman2000]

They said it would be normal normal. Not easy normal like Gears 1. 

[drew]

 

[Tieno]

We're in the casual age, duckman, you're a hardcore shooter fan who has plenty of experience with shooters. Hardcore should be much better suited for you.

I had a hard time on hardcore solo. Bit/lots of frustration on one of the bossfights and the defend the stuff before it blows up shit, but the combat was very good.

[The Sceneman]

there was like a total of 2 choke points on hardcore, it was cake

sounds like you guys are getting buttersoft

[The Sceneman]

just played online for a few hours. Jeez wingman is hard, havent got the multi tactics down yet. Got creamed every time. managed to win one match becuase I had a good partner.... tried a few rounds of Capture the Flag and King of the Hill. I did a bit better and won a few times. Gotta get these fucking achievements

and why did I pick a lame gamertag like Sceneman? why not VA6POUND3ER or beer111? I loled at those names

[dark1x]

I'm playing through insane right now and, really, it's not bad overall but that first rig section gave me a hard time.  Hitting all of the mortars with the shotgun wasn't bad (you can only miss one on insane), but that damn reaver was annoying as hell.  If he rams you three times you fail, but it was difficult to determine whether or not you were even doing real damage to him. You basically have to sit on the troika and make sure your aim is perfect.  The problem I had with that section is that I had to retry it like 10 times and every time you retry they force you to sit through a series of scripted events before you even get to the gameplay.

I have a feeling that the reaver riding near the end of the game is going to be a pain in the ass on insane, but I guess we'll see.  Haven't really run into any other difficult spots yet.  It just keeps you on your toes a bit more.

I must say, there seems to be a pretty huge difference between hardcore and insane this time around.  Really never had any problems on hardcore.

[AdmiralViscen]

What's with people on page 10 playing on normal and complaining that it's too easy?

[Cormacaroni]

What's with people on page 10 playing on normal and complaining that it's too easy?

i wasn't complaining, just stating an opinion. You seem to agree so let's be friends. Special EB friends.

As i said, i played GoW on both Normal and Hardcore, and i'll get round to the harder levels later. But i only have a limited time to play these days so i went for Normal.

[ch1nchilla]

Just finished it up last night, enjoyed it quite a bit and will be going back to play through hardcore co-op.

Also, the final boss

spoiler (click to show/hide)

was SUPER FUCKING EASY, and I didn't like playing through the final segment on the back of a fucking Brumak at all.

[close]

[Mrbob]

Yeah play it on hardcore, especially if you co op.  Anything less is too easy.

I will say I was wrong about the story.  I thought it was going one direction, and it really isn't anything like MGS4 at all.  One last small nitpick....why did Epic pussify the Brumak in Gears 2?  I remember in  being scared shitless of the beast in Gears 1, and they are all cannon fodder in Gears 2.  I had hopes to be able to fight one up close without a tank or heavy machine gun...I wanted an up close fight like what was offered in Gears PC.  There weren't any other Locust in Gears 2 which picked up the slack either in terms of bringing the fear factor the brumak did in Gears. 

[duckman2000]

Seriously. Having gone up against one of those beasts with only regular rifles in Gears PC, the Brumak encounters of Gears of War 2 have so far seemed pretty silly.

[demi]

[Bebpo]

I finished this today and it was fun game.  In some ways I'm happy with it, in other ways I'm disappointed.  In the end it was a fun action-y 12-15 hour game full of good room designs for good fights.  To me it didn't satisfy that fall/winter HUGE AAA title spot that Gears1 did when it came out.  But then Gears was new and fresh and looked amazing.  This is Gears...again, and it still looks amazing although not to the level above the competition that Gears1 was.

I'll get this out of the way:
Act 1 = looked weak, played weak
Act 2 = looked amazing, played amazing
Act 3 = looked great, played weak
Act 4 = looked boringly great, played great with no variety
Act 5 = looked amazing, played amazing outside final boss

+Having HUGE MONSTERS to mix up with grunts was excellent.  Gave the standard fighting more variety.  My favorite part was fighting a reaver in the graveyard in act.2 jumping from grave to grave to avoid its stabs.
+Shooting was still satsfying
+framerate was solid
+graphics were good.  The engine really shined with destroyed cities/caves/rain/darkness.  Not so hot at normal looking places in the daylight.  Never noticed the lack of AA in the first one because it was so ahead of everything else.  Now that standards have raised considerably this gen, IQ is a bit rough.  Motion blur was good again, though caused problems during the reaver ride at high speeds.
+Witty dialogue OUTSIDE OF CUTSCENES when walking and playing is very well written.  Makes for great memorable characters.
+Length was very good.  Game was meaty.
+Mortar was good
+Introducing some actual plot like the mysteries in act 3 added to the game and made it more than just doom in TPS

-Cutscenes were terrible, especially the dom story
-Story pacing was weird.  Normally you have a beginning, a middle, an end.  With antagonist and protagonist development.  Here I never had any idea where I was in the overall plot of the things.  Like when I got the clear game achievement I was like "wait, what?  That was the final boss?  The game just ends here?"  Seemed odd.
-Sadly game was seriously just Gears 1...again.  I'm surprised they didn't at least add a TON of new weapons or new gameplay system or something to differentiate it.  For most of the game you're moving behind covers using your chainsaw gun & sniper gun and shooting grunts who are hiding behind cover as well.  As I said above, throwing in the giant enemies helped mix it up.  But it really felt like it was more of the same (luckily Gears1 was excellent, so more of the same is still fun)
-Even though I'm glad the game was long.  I don't think they had enough variety to fill that length.  Some chapters really felt like they mixed it up (act 2) by having a new environment every hour.  But some chapters like act 4 were just filled with tons of fights that were all the same in a ton of areas that all looked the same >_<  The gameplay was strong, sure.  But it just wasn't very exciting because it lacked variety.
-The vehicle stuff ranged from terrible (tank), bad (reaver), ok but shallow (brumak).  Did not really add to the game.  Brumak scene was extremely similar to the Metal Gear Rex riding in MGS4.
-I HATED the 4 person system.  I don't really see why they did it if they weren't going to put in 4p coop.  Maybe they were trying for 4p coop but in the end couldn't do it in time or something.  But my problem with having 3 AI buddies is that THEY ARE TOO USEFUL.  Like I'll walk into a room and they're already in the middle of it having killed a few guys and drawing the attention of everyone else.  So I just pull out my gun and shoot all the enemies while they are firing at my buddies.  I DON'T LIKE THAT.  Too many parts of the game felt like what I don't like in war with buddy AI games:  I felt like I was hardly doing anything.  I was shooting a grunt here and there and there and then I'd hear the sound that everyone was dead and it's time to move to the next area.  I don't feel like I'm moving the game but rather that the game is scripted and moving on it's own and I'm just staying alive between scenes.  I strongly preferred the 2 person sections since Dom is useless and does nothing like Gears1.

So yeah, I actually really had a good time because the mechanics from Gears1 are so strong that 2 years later it's still fun shooting a thousand grunts and listening to the Gears say silly stuff.  At the same time I do feel like it was too safe of a sequel and more of the same to the point that it didn't give me that amazing game experience that the first did.  It was Gears...again and still fun.  I just hope Gears 3 greatly changes up something to give a new experience.

I haven't played Multi, so that's just my take on SP.

[The Sceneman]

okay online is fucked, Im going to have to give it a few days I guess. Its not every week that the NXE is rolled out lolz. In the meantime Im playing solo insane. WTF the rig part was not hard at all on insane, I died once in the whole chapter

[Vizzys]

I encountered a weird glitch in the last act

when fighting those two brumaks from far away with mortars I killed one when its standing next to the other and it kind of fell over on the other one and it looked like it was wearing a dead brumak as a stretchy coat or something, pretty amusing to look at

[drew]

OK, first impressions (brought to you by muckhole )

dom is a cigarillo

i am rusty as fuck, forget what button the roadie run is and how to change weapons smh

the new menu sucks ass

where the fuck are my graphic options besides brightness

[GilloD]

Am I almost at the end? I'm

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just at the Nexus

[close]

[demi]

There's 5 acts, you figure it out

[demi]

stupid span-exic-uertorican

[Don Flamenco]

Yeah play it on hardcore, especially if you co op.  Anything less is too easy.

I will say I was wrong about the story.  I thought it was going one direction, and it really isn't anything like MGS4 at all.  One last small nitpick....why did Epic pussify the Brumak in Gears 2?  I remember in  being scared shitless of the beast in Gears 1, and they are all cannon fodder in Gears 2.  I had hopes to be able to fight one up close without a tank or heavy machine gun...I wanted an up close fight like what was offered in Gears PC.  There weren't any other Locust in Gears 2 which picked up the slack either in terms of bringing the fear factor the brumak did in Gears. 

The Brumak was the biggest creature in Gears 1, so it naturally brought on that "holy shit" horror feeling.  In Gears 2, everything is huge and you tear through them like nothing...it's more based on huge spectacles and action than Gears 1.

[GilloD]

There's 5 acts, you figure it out

I have no idea what act I'm in. Just give someone a straight answer for once.

[drohne]

i don't know what 'the nexus' is and i just played this a couple weeks ago

every other place in every other game is called 'the nexus'

you can pretty easily figure out where you are using the war journal

[GilloD]

i don't know what 'the nexus' is and i just played this a couple weeks ago

every other place in every other game is called 'the nexus'

you can pretty easily figure out where you are using the war journal

Right afer

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dom finds Maria

[close]

[drew]

here i will unspoiler that for you gillo

Dom finds Maria

noone gives a shit

[drohne]

you are towards the beginning of act 4 i think

act 4 is awesome

act 5 is awesome when it's not throwing stupid minigames at you...which is too seldom

[Bebpo]

you are towards the beginning of act 4 i think

act 4 is awesome

act 5 is awesome when it's not throwing stupid minigames at you...which is too seldom

Act 5 has mini-games?

[drohne]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

panzer minigame, brumak rodeo, shitty final boss which might not even be up to minigame standards

[close]

[Bebpo]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

panzer minigame, brumak rodeo, shitty final boss which might not even be up to minigame standards

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Whoops, totally forgot about the panzer part.  If you count act 5 as starting after that it's a good chapter.  Even the rodeo part is okish.

[close]

[drew]

Picking this up tonight... this game is going to completely fuck my sleep schedule, but it's cool. Finally figured out how to connect the 360 to the internet through my MacBook Pro, so everything is ready!

HOW