Gears of War 2 Thoughts.

So last night the first game play footage of Gears of War 2 was revealed. How was it you ask? Well calm down and I'll tell you.

First off all that talk of the Unreal Engine 3 looking way better for Gears of War 2 is really kind of non sense. While it is true the graphics are better they are only slightly so. That's not a bad thing as Gears is still one of the best looking games out there.

What is impressive is the amount of things going on at once without even a hint of slowdown. I think that's where Epic has truly gotten the Unreal Engine to shine. The video depicts an area of the game in which you are aboard a armored walker of sorts heading into Locust infested territory. What results is absolute chaos. Looking off the side of the Derrick as the armored vehicle is called you can see 20-30 locust running around trying to take the vehicle down. Also multiple Brumacks and Seeders firing those nasty exploding missile pod things. Oh and yours is not the only Derrick entering this fight. So as you can see a lot is going on and there wasn't even a hint of slowdown anywhere and that's very very impressive.

As far as game play goes there are a few interesting things to take note of. First it seemed as though there may have been a new weapon, an automatic pistol of sorts. Second there was the ability to use a downed Locust as a living shield. Third was of course the chain saw duel. Basically how it looks like it pans out is that if both players chain saw at the same time they will mash the B button and the one who does it faster wins and gains the kill. It will be interesting to see how that works out in Multi-player as the animation takes a bit and if the characters are invincible during the animation it may become a bit unbalanced.

Before seeing this video I wasn't at all excited about Gears 2. I thought it would be simply a rehash with new missions and that's it ala Unreal Tournament. However I was pleasantly surprised and am now excited for the games release. I'm anxious to find out what other changes and improvements Epic has in store. If you've yet to see the video you and find it at GameTrailers.com or on the Xbox Video Marketplace. Go check it out.