Official Gears of War 2 Discussion Thread

[Vengeance]

Oh my god this game looks so damn awesome. I mean, the new features in it are just staggering. For all you who say "the game's going to be just like the original" well you are completely wrong, the game uses a completely improved Unreal Engine 3, shown at GDC08. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkcM4djkvLI

ambient occlusion, adding more realistic and dynamic shadows to objects.
advanced character lighting, self explanatory...
high density crowds, allowing tons more characters to be rendered in the same area, (all in real time) the video shows about a billion Locust rampaging through Gridlock. Note that this will most likely allow more players to participate in multiplayer matches.
dynamic fluid surfaces, making water physics and reflections much more realistic.
matinee improvements, giving the producers cinematic movie-like control over cutscenes.
soft body physics, making some objects (like the meat block and the helium ball) look much more fluidy and elasticy. Players can interact with the objects and bounce them around etc.
destructible environments, allowing players to break up and destroy parts of the scenery. this adds much more strategy and tactics to the cover system, because your stone block could be useless if you're not careful.

and that's just the new engine...

According to a Game Informer preview,[3] Gears of War 2 takes place six months after the detonation of the lightmass bomb triggered at the end of the first game. Though most of the Locust Horde was destroyed, the explosion also caused the liquid Immulsion to vaporize, inflicting much of the remaining human population with a fatal disease called "Rust Lung". While the humans dealt with their casualties, the Locust found a way to build huge sinkholes under the remaining human outposts. Jacinto Plateau, the last remaining refuge for humans which was thought to be safe from such attacks, is showing signs that the same fate awaits it. In order to stop the fall of Jacinto, Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago lead a new Delta Squad into the Locust nest.

While other characters from the first game, including Cole and Baird, the previous members of Delta Squad, new characters will be introduced, and more of Dom's storyline will be developed, among other more personal stories alongside the Locust war.

they better bring Baird back, because he was my favourite. We get to learn much more about their pasts and hopefully more about Adam Fenix's fate as well as Marcus' trial.

John DiMaggio, the voice actor of the game's main character, Marcus Fenix, confirmed to IGN that players would be able to fight the large, alien Brumaks in Gears of War 2. He also revealed there will be a deeper story with new characters, new weapons, and new enemies. The game will also include the ability for a player to duel with an AI or human opponent when both use the chainsaw attachment of the Lancer, as seen in the 2008 Game Developer's Conference promotional video, later confirmed in informal interviews with developers and a Game Informer preview.

Hell yes, we can finally fight Brumaks outside the PC version, and CHAINSAW DUELING!!! it doesn't get much better than that.

A cover story in Game Informer revealed new gameplay features, including:

Players can now play on individual co-op play settings. One player may, for instance, play on Casual while the teammate plays on Hardcore. A "communal combat system" will adapt to give a player at a lower difficulty an equivalently fair challenge at the player at higher difficulty. The player will be able to maintain multiple save files that work with the drop-in/drop-out co-op features.
There will also be a fourth difficulty level that is a level below Casual; senior producer Rod Fergusson admited that for the first game, "We overshot on [the Casual] difficulty and a game that was a little harder than we intended."
New creatures, including one described by Cliff Bleszinski as one "that [makes] the Brumak look like a baby panda bear." Foes will now be able to revive themselves in a similar manner to the player reviving a non-player character, and will have a larger arsenal of weapons that the player may be able to acquire.
The collection of COG tags has been expanded to include the collection of story-based items such as personal letters and medical records; a "war journal" will track which collectibles have been found and where missing ones can be located.
Cutscenes now feature interactive conversation trees. The cut-scenes will use the better facial rendering technology of the Epic engine, and will use more dramatic angles for the conversation, as well as using a video screen on Jack (the all-purpose robot used by Marcus) to talk with their commanders "face-to-face".
New multiplayer features, including new co-op modes and multiplayer battles that take advantage of the new engine's ability to feature dozens of characters at once.
Some of the Xbox Live achievements can be completed through both play in single player and multiplayer mode, such as achieving 1,000 headshots

For the story, they've got Joshua Ortega (I'm not sure how he's involved with it, but w/e) who worked on various comic books such as Star Wars, Spiderman, The Escapist, Necromancer, etc.



the collector's edition will include a poster, concept art, a bonus multiplayer map and a making-of DVD.

...

basically this game is going to be amazing. GOTY 2008? Probably not, but it's a contender.

oh, and if you quote this ENTIRE post, I am going to kill you. Please, for the love of god, at least break it down to the parts you are actually REPLYING to.

oh, and no flaming plz.

[yummybrains]

Everything about this game looks wow. If it lives up to the original it will definatly be a contender for GOTY. I'll so get the collectors edition.

[DeathSpawn11]

yea, this comes out a month after my b-day so this is what I'm getting
oh and it's going to fucking pwn!

[xIAMHUNTERx]

yea, this comes out a month after my b-day so this is what I'm getting
oh and it's going to fucking pwn!

You + Me = Co-op insanity.

[Vengeance]

guys, check out IGN's article. I command you.

[Vekta101]

I never really got into the original game but I'm extremely excited to see what they can pull off with the updated Unreal Engine 3.0

The only thing that seems shotty at the moment is the flock AI, you can continually see them bumping into objects, they should add a dynamic system where if you're not moving yet people near you are then you should instantly move in the direction they are.

[Vengeance]

hey guys, new videos

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35843.html (gameplay)
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35834.html (interview)
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35679.html (multiplayer behind the scenes)

you can now use a shield as a portable cover, you can kick/punch enemies on the ground, you can crawl when you're dying, you can grab semi-dead enemies and use them as a meat shield, more playable characters, A FLAMETHROWER, Carmine's back (don't ask how...), you can smack downed enemies with the back of your weapon (like a golf club) and so much more... it's gonna kick ass!

oh, and new screens too

http://www.tothegame.com/screenshot.asp?id=7700

[Don'tbanmeI'mavirgin!]

I blew a load at the multiplayer vid.

This game is my second-most anticipated title of the year behind Borderlands.

Greg, you better get Live before it hits this November. =P

EDIT: Wow, I hate everybody on Gametrailers. -____- OF COURSE IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE THE ORIGINAL, IT'S A SEQUEL. JEBUS.

[LastLeg]

That multiplayer trailer looks sweet, specially the finishing moves.