Playing with friends on this game seems to be the key to its great success online. But since you have so many im sure you will be playing this game for a long time. Since my friends have all fucked off I guess i wont be playing online.

it looks so awesome.

Yes, it is a great game and much like yourself I will be playing this one with friends for some time. ;)

I wish I could play, but I need to get a 360 first...

I finished the campaign over the weekend and all I have to say is that the game is absolutely fan-fucking-tastic.

Haven't finished it yet but its great thus far but MP I played last night and this morning and it was full of win and lolz also.  Will play the campaign on Insane with you or part of it when the time comes.

Gears of War 2 sounds great. I just don't think any game will affect me like GeoW does with you.

I'm mostly impressed with the narrative improvements this game has over its predecessor. 

I mean, by most accounts, I don't think I could tell you what is going on in the original Gears of War past Act 3.  At least the sequel's narrative is intelligible. 

It is pretty clear the writing team attempted, at the very least, to develop the characters from their one-dimensional, oft-sterotypical starting points.  I came away from the first Gears hating Marcus, but now I find him sort of interesting, and I think the general sharpness of the dialogue--predominantly Marcus's connection to the new Carmine--did a lot to sway my opinion. 

I still don't know if I'm sold on the whole Lambent-Locust v. Normal Locust thing yet.  It's possible the third game will help clear that plot up, but I can't help but feel Epic is starting to multiply entities beyond necessity.  It's like they finally noticed what Halo did with the separate warring factions and lifted a page from Bungie's bible, so to speak. 

yes, yes it is

yeah, amazing game, hoping to finish it tommorrow

The story was sort of a lulz for me. One part made me simultaneously happy and sad, but other than that -- they still just left everything unanswered. But yes, awesome.

I'm far behind the next-gen, having gotten my 360 about 2 weeks or so ago for my birthday (Which I got Gears of War for).

So far, I really am enjoying GOW 1. I'm almost certain I'm going to pick up GOW 2 at some point, it sounds amazing.

1 of my biggest complaints about gears of war 1 was that the whole game felt like 4 guys fighting an entire and to me that felt really lame, but after reading this blog I guess they really did make seem more like a war for gears 2. Also the multiplayer was absolute crap, 4 on 4 and no respawns.....to me that was really,really boring. 5 on 5 seems a little better for gears 2 and the horde mode seems fun, but I don't know. If my friend has it I might go over to his place to check this game out, I dont know if I will like it but who knows!

Holy crap, I didn't expect the story to be that good, I need to play it now.  Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'm leaving horde alone for a while, possibly. The story is, however, pretty awesome. I do enjoy.

You're killing me!  I gotta play this game.

As if we expected anything less than excellence. :D Hope the multiplayer is just as fun!

Pretty much the same feelings here. They really pulled out the big guns for the sequels, pun intended.

The "There's a Time for Us" scene was especially powerful. I think it's one of my favorite scenes in a videogame.

I haven't finished the campaign yet, but what I have played (about half) is damn amazing, and way better than what the first game offered. Multiplayer was a blast tonight. As long as you guys keep playing it I think I may have found the game to replace Call of Duty 4 as my main online fix.

You said the magic word: scale. The first Gears of War just felt like a bunch a small skirmishes. But Gears of War 2 feels like a war that the entire human race is fighting. From the beginning to fighting with "Betty" to seeing entire buildings crumple in the distance to the final Brumak sequence, the scale is just so immense. It really is amazing.

No, it was made by Epic. It is, in fact, raw sewage.

Can't say I agree at all on the story part (it was good, but nothing great imo), but I do agree that Gears 2 is absolutely fantastic. MP tonight was fun. MOAR GARZ!

See what I mean? This is a phenomenal campaign full of variety and story telling. This-is-art, even if it has bad-ass characters with large-ass guns.

Can we play co-op on insane at some time? Insane is freaking hard by yourself, especially since your buds can't revive you.

Tonight, I completed the campaign in Gears of War 2 with my good buddy and wing mate James "jimb0" Logan by my side.

One word can summarize my final impressions: Wow.

I was pleasantly surprised at how refined and well-paced the story was in this game compared to the first Gears.  Although many questions are left unanswered, the story delves more into the personal lives of Marcus and Dom, revealing a side to both characters that we never got to see in the first game.  We also get to experience the war between the Locust Horde on a much grander scale, as we see humanity's fight for survival unfold before our very eyes.

A key word here is "scale".  The game looks and feels much bigger than the first one.  Once you leave the hospital in the very first Chapter of the first Act, you get to experience the grandeur of the fight you will face in Gears 2.  Some of the battle scenes are amazingly epic and reminded me of a Hollywood blockbuster.  As I've mentioned before, you really feel like you're in an army fighting against another army in this game, instead of an army of 4 COG super-soldiers taking on the entire Horde.

Aside from the grandeur and epic feel of the game, there's it's story.  I am being very honest here when I say it is one of the best stories I've witnessed in a very long time.  It made me laugh and, hell, it even jerked a couple of tears out of me, two things that are rarely accomplished in video games these days.  Without revealing anything, there is one cinematic sequence involving Dom that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

So, there you have it, my impressions on the campaign in Gears of War 2.  I definitely want to go back and play it again, this time on the hardest difficulty setting, just to relive the grandeur and awesomeness of it all.  If any of you guys out there are ready to take on the Horde with me, just let me know.  Oh, and of course, there's still the fantastic multiplayer to be played.

I don't see myself putting this game away for a long, long time.