Gears of War 2 battle cry of your death

So just posting a quick question really. I played a lot of Gears of War online. Enough to get the Serious Achievement. That game was rather broken in more then one way but still enjoyable for the most part. I recently bought Gears of War 2, which I missed out on due to a COD4 addiction/itch/face-melting experience. Well, there is a pretty big difference between the two games. I didn't really expect much but after playing a bit online have to say that they really amped up the whole team aspect of the game. Really forcing you to either move in packs or set up ambushes of sorts. Enjoyable over all and something I plan on playing a lot of in the future. My only complaint, what would a blog be if I took things just as they were and didn't complain about something. The shotgun, I loved Gears of Wars shotgun. I have to say that it was probably the most enjoyable way to get a kill next to popping someones head with either a pistol or sniper rifle. Immediate differences I've noticed between the two games is that the shotgun in Gears 2 shoots slower and does a significantly less amount of damage. It also seems to lag more in Gears 2 than it did in Gears1, not all the time though; I guess who's hosting the game plays into how well the shotgun is.  
 
Question for fans: If you played Gears1 and Gears2 what are your thoughts on this? Also state whether you prefer the Gears 1 or Gears 2 shotgun and state why if you can.

So just posting a quick question really. I played a lot of Gears of War online. Enough to get the Serious Achievement. That game was rather broken in more then one way but still enjoyable for the most part. I recently bought Gears of War 2, which I missed out on due to a COD4 addiction/itch/face-melting experience. Well, there is a pretty big difference between the two games. I didn't really expect much but after playing a bit online have to say that they really amped up the whole team aspect of the game. Really forcing you to either move in packs or set up ambushes of sorts. Enjoyable over all and something I plan on playing a lot of in the future. My only complaint, what would a blog be if I took things just as they were and didn't complain about something. The shotgun, I loved Gears of Wars shotgun. I have to say that it was probably the most enjoyable way to get a kill next to popping someones head with either a pistol or sniper rifle. Immediate differences I've noticed between the two games is that the shotgun in Gears 2 shoots slower and does a significantly less amount of damage. It also seems to lag more in Gears 2 than it did in Gears1, not all the time though; I guess who's hosting the game plays into how well the shotgun is.  
 
Question for fans: If you played Gears1 and Gears2 what are your thoughts on this? Also state whether you prefer the Gears 1 or Gears 2 shotgun and state why if you can.

I thought Gears 2 was one of the worst multiplayer games I've ever played, aside from Horde mode which didn't really have much staying power.
And Im a huge Gears fan.

Can you go into detail as to why that is? Not here to disprove your comment just curious as to what you didn't like and what you did/

Matchmaking took three hours to find a game, and when it did the game was laggy as hell. Plus the second your team even started to win half the enemy team would leave. I've had games where the team with less humans won cause it was so laggy that the bots would just rape everything. 

not a fan of the series at all and I would gladly go without another one ever being made, but that won't happen. I played co-op and horde a bit with my girlfriend and some friends some, but other than that, I had no interest in it at all and I've never seen its appeal.

The only reasons that I've heard from someone that says that the multiplayer sucked is that the matchmaking took forever and the servers sucked.  Obviously, these people tried once or twice in the first week and gave up.  It's a big, hyped up release...  Of course it's going to have server issues!  After the patches, I'm now getting matched up and put in a game in about 30 seconds.

I really like GoW 1-2 but the online was just broken when it came out, lag and quitters. To the point where I just gave up. O hope for GoW 3 they fix it.

The shotgun was overpowered in the first game anyway, it was waay too easy to use. So I don't consider it a big deal. But also Gears' online just doesn't cut it for me anymore. Feels a bit sluggish compared to everything out there now. And a similar experience can be had with Uncharted 2, and I found the extra maneuverability made worlds of difference. 

You have to go through matchmaking every time you want to play a game. Not a massive problem, Halo pulls it off fine, the problem is that matchmaking didn't work half of the time and when it did the games would be mega laggy. Also, I never played anything but Warzone in Gears 1 (atleast in ranked matches) Now I have to run the risk of ending up in an execution lobbby. 
 
Chainsaw bayonet is stronger, in Gears 1 you could stun a guy with a bullet from anything and it worked great. In Gears 2 yo needed 3 bullets atleast IIRC. 
 
The maps aren't as good as Gears 1, although I haven't touched any of the DLC maps, maybe they are better. 
 
Gears 2 is a perfect example of trying to fix what isn't broken. OK, bad metaphor, Gears 1 was pretty broken.... but it wasn't unplayable.

The multiplayer in Gears Of War is garbage. They should just work on making the single player longer and better.

" I thought Gears 2 was one of the worst multiplayer games I've ever played, aside from Horde mode which didn't really have much staying power. And Im a huge Gears fan. "

" Matchmaking took three hours to find a game, and when it did the game was laggy as hell. Plus the second your team even started to win half the enemy team would leave. I've had games where the team with less humans won cause it was so laggy that the bots would just rape everything.  "

" @Bonzi2387: It actually does, as the lag + the horrible client-side hit detection makes stuff like point blank shotgun shots "miss". I last played Gears 2 around November, wasn't fixed then. The shotgun in Gears 2 isn't as good as the one in the original Gears, but its still the better than the Lancer/Hammerburst.   "

There's a delay in the cross-hair by the way.
If you line up a shotgun shot look at where the player is stood as oppose to the cross hair.
Man it's been a while since I played that game.

I played a lot of Gears 2 online, and although I will admit it has it's faults, the game is still a blast to play. It definitely has a unique feeling more so then other shooters. I just hope they make a better matchmaking system when Gears 3 comes out. It blows when you are stuck in a laggy game with no way out or if the game is about to end and the host quits (asshole). They should have host migration like in Halo 3. Cliffy B needs to give Bungie a call.

Anyone who left Gears 2, come back. As an Aussie who not only had to suffer through a lack of localised matchmaking on top of the game's numerous bugs, they've come a LOOOOOOONG way.