Gears of War 2 THREAD

[Himu]

I thought GoW1 was okay. It was fun on co-op, but aside that not exactly memorable. The enemies take too long to kill, I could only stand to play the game for 30 minutes at a time. How much improved is the sequel?

[demi]

go away

[Himu]

nawwww

[Beezy]

Horde on insane is fucking impossible. Hardcore seems possible, but the people I've been playing with so far keep messing around and won't stick together.

[Tieno]

When you play horde, do you pick one map to play all waves or does it cycle through them?

[Beezy]

you pick one map

[Beezy]

Anyone here have an extra code for the gold plated Lancer by any chance?

Oh and please, before we ever play any matches online together, DOWNLOAD THE FUCKING FLASHBACK MAP PACK GODDAMMIT!

[cool breeze]

I'll be up for EB horde, I just wanna be Baird.

I thought GoW1 was okay. It was fun on co-op, but aside that not exactly memorable. The enemies take too long to kill, I could only stand to play the game for 30 minutes at a time. How much improved is the sequel?

It's a huge improvement.  I wasn't a huge fan of the Gears 1 single player either (multiplayer was my thing for the game), but Gears 2 is so much fun.

[drohne]

holy shit i am superhumanly bad at gears multiplayer

[Darunia]

holy shit i am superhumanly bad at gears multiplayer

heh, you're not alone. I just don't bother anymore

[Beezy]

holy shit i am superhumanly bad at gears multiplayer

Lol that's how I felt on Friday, but I got much better by last night. I'm still not that great, but I don't feel completey worthless anymore.

[archie4208]

Is matchmaking really bad?  Was reading alot of complaints about it at GAF.

[cool breeze]

Yesterday I had a lot of problems with it.  20 minutes to get into a match, then it was unplayable because of the lag.  At night I had a better time and did find some good matches, but I don't know how it now kicks you out of the group you were playing with similar to Halo 3 or CoD4, except it's not executed well here.  I remember people complaining about Gears 1, but so far that was better than the Gears 2 system.  I wish more 360 games would have server lists.

[archie4208]

I'm kinda torn between buying it and renting it.  If the multiplayer isn't working that well I might as well just rent it.

[cool breeze]

Buy it.  Do it.  Buy it.  Even if the multiplayer occasionally works, when it does it's amazing.  The maps are better than the Gears 1 maps.

[Beezy]

I've had no problems with multiplayer, but I only play with people on my friends list.

[y2kev]

I've never actually played Gears MP I think. But I beat the single player and that was funzor!

[Don Flamenco]

I thought GoW1 was okay. It was fun on co-op, but aside that not exactly memorable. The enemies take too long to kill, I could only stand to play the game for 30 minutes at a time. How much improved is the sequel?

It's the same basic game with better graphics, new guns, and new enemies.  The levels are much bigger and the environments are more varied.  Otherwise, there's nothing new about the gameplay that'll change your mind--you go from spot to spot having cover-based firefights.  There are actually some long stretches where you don't do much but walk through, clicking switches or cutting intestines while fighting smaller enemies who die with 1 melee hit.  People who liked the first one will appreciate the improvements, people who didn't will notice the new stuff but probably not care that much.

The enemies still take a lot of lead.  Rather, it just seems like a long time, but you only need to lock them twice for a few seconds or so to kill them.  Except for the reavers, they do take a couple clips.  I don't mind that in Gears...the enemies are supposed to be ridiculous. 

As opposed to Uncharted, where impoverished south americans take like 5 bullets before they go down.

[Don Flamenco]

A couple clips? Where are you shooting them at?

The reavers?  In the mouth (around that area).  2 lancer clips with an active reload bonus.

[demi]

A couple clips? Where are you shooting them at?

I assume he is playing other than Normal

:smh

[Don Flamenco]

yeah, I'm playing on hardcore.  Forgot to mention that























...pussies.   

[trh]

Those things are not fun on Insane, they'll one shot you if you're exposed or if it's close to you. I've taken down most by blind firing circa 200 bullets from a rather long distance. And I'm just about to hit the part where you have to take down two in a row in a very cramped area with little cover.

[The Fake Shemp]

Is the multiplayer better, worse or the same as the original?  I just could not get into multiplayer for the original.

I also wonder if I'll abandon it entirely once Left 4 Dead hits.

[TVC15]

Is the multiplayer better, worse or the same as the original?  I just could not get into multiplayer for the original.

I also wonder if I'll abandon it entirely once Left 4 Dead hits.

Seems just about the same to me.  The same in that it takes way too many bullets to down another player.  That kinda kills multi for me.

[cool breeze]

Gears multiplayer was fun.  It's the reason I actually liked the first game.  Gears 2 is better because you can beat down civilians and  double their use as cover and a flag.

[FatalT]

I finished it last night on Hardcore. The campaign was better than the first one because of the more varied level environments and the larger sense of scale. Horde mode is pretty neat, too!

[Vizzys]

bloodmounts are so goddamn annoying I want to break my controller

Im past that flying shit near the end I think (fuck that sequence btw)

also defending the comm tower was bullshit

why is the teammate ai so fucking distinguished mentally-challenged, dom is a complete idiot who is constantly yelling "revive me!"

[Don Flamenco]

Brumak ride

Panzer Reaver Dragoon


beat it on hardcore, sold, back to fallout 3/ninja gaiden 2

[drohne]

horde

matchmaking

[trh]

I finished it on insane yesterday, by myself.

[Don Flamenco]

I finished it on insane yesterday, by myself.

I bet the rig scene on insane is impossible...like 10 cysts at once. 

[trh]

I finished it on insane yesterday, by myself.

I bet the rig scene on insane is impossible...like 10 cysts at once. 

Actually no, the number of cysts do not increase afaik. You can only take two hits though, and the first one can be really hard to hit.

[The Sceneman]

well I picked this game up and shit

fucking solid so far, looks way better than Gears 1 and they really listened to Chad Warden's design tips, TEARS OF WAR. Dom got so emo lol. Love all the new executions and yells while you chainsaw dudes, this is truly a mans game. Even the local 'hardcore' energy drink has teamed up with MS to promote the game



this weekend Im going to drink Demon and play heaps of Gears! I love advertising

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I was never a big fan of Gears and I wasn't sure when or if I'd pick up Gears 2 but when I was out today buying LBP I got Gears 2 for the hell of it.  99 of 100 people on my friends list were already playing it anyway, might as well join the party.  After an hour of LBP boredom (this is the game everybody's been jonesin for?  Seriously?) I half heartedly popped in Gears 2 not expecting a whole hell of a lot.  Now I've only scratched the surface at the single player campaign so far but I can already tell that it's leagues better than the first game and I can't wait to get back at it tomorrow. I'm freakin' blown away.  Best looking UE3 game I've ever seen and perhaps the best looking console game out there - there's some honestly impressive stuff going on here.

  Cliffy B

Gears 2

[demi]

i like the "fade" popin instead of actual popin. revolutionary!

[Kestastrophe]

I don't know how you can fuck up the multiplayer in a multi-million dollar sequel so bad. Worse in almost every way

[AdmiralViscen]

I only had online lag issues the first day or two the game was out, none at all since.

Matchmaking is a dream if you have a team of 5, it rarely takes more than 20 seconds in that case. If you have 4 people forget about it, it takes ages to fill that one gap before you can move on to finding opponents. No one plays alone I guess. I felt like the multi was worse than the originals that first night but now I like it a whole lot better. I guess if you play alone you would hate it but I always play with friends and it totally sucked trying to get 3-4 people into a match and then getting them on the right team between rounds.

I'm up to the start of Act 5, all on co-op with a good partner, and have no complaints about any part of the game. Fucking rocks.


If you want the achievement for having your hostage dying in your hands - stick him with a grenade and then pick him up as cover, it counts and it will not hurt you.

[ch1nchilla]

Getting near the end, and I think it's going kind of downhill graphically, and Dom is a fucking jackass. I recommend only playing through via online co-op.

Also, vehicle sections. Why why why?

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I still can't get over how much better this game is over the first one. 

  Gears 1

[Kestastrophe]

How is multiplayer fucked up exactly? I'm having alot more fun now because people aren't hiding behind corners with the chainsaw constantly revved or doing that roll + shotgun = instakill thing. My only complaints are that it takes to fucking long to get a match going and people are doing that thing where they lag on purpose to kill everyone.

Edit: What? How is Dom a jackass?

Let's see:
-It takes many more bullets to make an enemy stop revving the chainsaw
-Range on Chainsaw is ridiculous and worse than before. Button minigame is nice, but the outcome still seems random.
-Range on tags is still awful
-The splash damage on mortar is random

Those, along with the horrendous matchmaking, are my main complaints against the multiplayer. I do really like that you can shoot guys while chainsawing and what they did with the smoke grenades. And overall, the game is much more tactical than the first, which really turned into chainsaw/shotgun spamming. Parts of it still seem very random and not sharp.

[The Sceneman]

I cant wait to crank the insane co-op. Completing it nets you a cool 240 gamerscore

[demi]

I cant wait to crank the insane co-op. Completing it nets you a cool 240 gamerscore

Ha, apparently you dont even need co-op. Just start a local co-op game, with 2 controllers. You are Insane, the other guy is Casual. Just play as the Casual guy. Beat the game, you win.

[laesperanzapaz]

honest question:

Gears 1 for PC - yay or nay?

[The Sceneman]

I cant wait to crank the insane co-op. Completing it nets you a cool 240 gamerscore

Ha, apparently you dont even need co-op. Just start a local co-op game, with 2 controllers. You are Insane, the other guy is Casual. Just play as the Casual guy. Beat the game, you win.

haha, classic. I might resort to that if my co-op buddy bails out. I'd prefer to get the achievements the old fashioned way, Gears 1 Insane co-op was an awesome experience

[The Sceneman]

honest question:

Gears 1 for PC - yay or nay?

ask Borys (by PM preferably). I remember him saying it looked awesome on his 9" CGA monitor

[The Sceneman]

also, this is the first video game with a Maori character afaik

Rugby simulations dont count

[cool breeze]

Gears 1 is great on PC, but just understand that you still would want to play it with a controller.

[duckman2000]

Yeah, Gears is totally a controller game.

And Gears for PC is pretty hot, even if the added content is all sorts of shit.

[cool breeze]

I can't wait for Halo 3 and Gears 2 to come out on PC.  60 fps + getting rid of that nasty aliasing (specifically for H3)

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Honestly, who the fuck could go back to playing Gears 1 after they've played Gears 2?  PC or not, the leap in quality between the two games is enormous.

I don't know how the hell is Epic ever going to top this for Gears 3.

[cool breeze]

I felt the same way after playing God of War 2.  It's like, so much better than the first game that you don't think a huge leap like that could be done again, but you still want there to be.

[GilloD]

Fun. The 2nd level turret shit was heinous, but whatever. And who thought it was a good idea to replace THE COLE TRAIN with a faceless rookie?

[ch1nchilla]

Dom is a jackass because his AI is totally distinguished mentally-challenged. There were many, many instances during my playthrough on normal where he'd just sit there right next to me as I died. What the fuck? Also, he contributes nothing at all during the boss fights, he just stands behind cover. This is why I recommend going co-op only.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Yeah I've had Dom ignore me even though I was crawling right by his feet and there weren't anymore enemies around.  At first I thought it was because you only get one save per encounter but I was revived a couple of times in a row towards the end of the game so maybe it's just an incredibly shitty AI bug.

[Draft]

also, this is the first video game with a Maori character afaik

Rugby simulations dont count

The most awesome Sony franchise that time forgot.

[ch1nchilla]

Yeah I've had Dom ignore me even though I was crawling right by his feet and there weren't anymore enemies around.  At first I thought it was because you only get one save per encounter but I was revived a couple of times in a row towards the end of the game so maybe it's just an incredibly shitty AI bug.

I think we can all admit that the AI is pretty shitty in general, although it seems like your teammates' behavior is modeled after your own, so if true, that's kind of cool. But maybe I'm completely wrong.

[Draft]

Dom is worthless. The only thing he brings to the table is NPC toughness. He can apparently absorb about 3x as many bullets as I can, so when fighting a reaver or something, just try to let him get its attention and you'll be free to toss grenades.

[The Fake Shemp]

Really fun game.

[Tieno]

Just got the game played the "It's a trap" chapter. I do like how they present the achievements, it's always way cooler to have an in-game menu than rely on the guide.
Right from the start the game knows how to pull my strings to get my heart pumping, great opening cutscene. Also great how they introduced the other carmine, ever since the first Gears ended I wanted another one and he brings a lot to the game. At the end of the first chapter he awkwardly failed to "Hi-five" Tai in the background after Marcus gave him a compliment.
Also like the addition of the generic cogs fighting alongside you. Game starts off giving a better feeling of a populated world than the first one.

[Darunia]

Nearly finished with my insane co-op run. Whereas Gears 2's hardcore mode seems easier than the original, insane mode is incredibly brutal. The difficulty jump is huge. In the Centaur section the tank has little to no health, you have to take things out from like a mile away.

I have to say that playing on this mode has confirmed this game as goty for me though. The large encounters are epic: I went longshot exclusive while my buddy takes the bow. In act 4 we only saw meat flying and heads popping, it was amazing. The hammerburst and especially the lancer are too risky later on . Exposing yourself for 2 seconds on insane = certain death.

edit: agreed on the AI. Remember that epic split up encounter in act 4, where you both had to fight through hallways? I had Cole as an AI partner and he was serviceable, but my buddy's Baird went full on berserk as soon as he saw a flail Boomer. Every time we failed, it was because Baird got himself killed. Stupid that you get a game over for crappy AI.