I agree with every bullet point you made. Just got to Cole's big entrance last night. Awesome shit.

My only complaints thus far are the lack of big intense battles and I'm on Hardcore. They toss a few guys here, a few guys there but nothing like the fountain in the original Gears(multiple emergence holes) or even the stairway battle with all the sandbags with guys coming from all around you. The train car with exploding Wretches coming at you from both directions was also intense. Gears 2 just seems pretty linear with a bunch of dead time getting from battle A to battle B.

Didn’t know if anyone else tried or not, but I was able to return the 1600 points card at CC since it rung up regular price. So the limited edition only cost a cool $50

I agree that there are not that many "big battles" GOW had:
Gas Station
Felix House
Fountain

However - I do like the lack of exploding wrenches and Doom like battles in tight spaces. I hated emergence holes. I like that in this game we are the ones attacking!

Do not like when you have to drive a car or fly away from things. I bought this game to shoot stuff. If I wanted to drive and fly stuff - I would have bought that kind of game.

Overall - Fantastic!!!

Can't wait to play it again on Hardcore.

Damn I need sonic boom on my grenades. Seems like I throw it at their feet and they take little to no damage.

Horde mode is nuts.

Having finished it - at least on normal - it seems as though they wanted to go for - not quite as many enemies - but some of them are a lot bigger and badder and harder to kill - the "riders" and the dudes with the shields for instance - the priests take a LOT of damage as well comparatively speaking.

There's also a bit more variety than the first game - some areas just beg for you to use the chainsaw "regularly", while a couple others require a bit more strategy forcing you to stick with pistols, but thankfully giving you unlimited ammo.

That said, it also seems to depend on how you want to play. In some of the battles (thinking of act 4/5 myself), if you want to even the odds or make it a bit easier, you can pull utilize the heavy weapons conveniently lying around (getting better with the mortar), but if you want a challenge, you can opt out.

Still, I would have liked to see more grub holes in a lot of the urban/city settings like Landsdown at the beginning and again, further on.

Has this game been crasing on anyone? Its crashed on me at least 3 or 4 time on the Mt. Kadar stage.

No crashes for me yet. Textures are delayed loading sometimes but not a big deal.

Horde mode is quite a winner...great execution of the gametype.

I was part of a great group of VGTalkers and DHGs that made it to Level 50 for the achievement last night...it took us like 3 hours. But it was damn fun...even though I'm paying for it today with only 4 hours of sleep.

Can't wait for more. BTW, I'm halfway through Act 2, on hardcore on my own, in case anyone wants to jump on co-op with me.

I getting very frustrated with the multi-player matchmaking. It takes forever to get into a game. Only then to get stuck with some losers that can't survive horde mode past the second wave. They game needs to have the option like Halo 3 where you can "party up" at the of the match and continue with the same team.

I've only gotten to the 10th wave so far. This is a great new multi-player mode.

Yeah, I turned someone down here from last night. I was getting in another chapter of the campaign before bed.

3 hours for Horde mode? What difficulty? We did Normal and it took us a few hours on two nights. Of course we aren't hardcore Gears players like the folks here.

made it to level 21 last night. thats my best so far.

I don't like co-op compared to the first game. In that game, you would see a list of people and where they were at in the game. Now, you specify what level and location you want and hope that somebody else is at that exact spot?

I played the first gears in pieces...in fact, I had played from Act 2 through 4 then act 1, then act 5 (i think), because I played coop with a few different people. Then I went back through and grabbed all the cogs in order.

I appreciate the detail as to where others are...I just don't want to jump around this time.

You always got the detail of where other players were. Now, you have to pick where you want to join and prey to the GOW gods that there's somebody out there who just happens to be hosting a coop game at that exact spot and difficulty.

Kudos on getting to LVL 50 on the Horde. Best I have done is 17 with 2 other buddies.

We made it to level 46 last night before we had to quit for the night. Of course we are playing on Hardcore, not those other pansy difficulty levels . Hopefully we can beat it tonight but I know 47 and above are going to be a nightmare.

I think we may have been on normal...but either way, I felt that 47 was the toughest of 45-50, and that 49 and 50 were easy. The Mid 30's were the hardest, IMO. I like how it's staggered so that the early rounds of each set of 10 are easier, so you can stock up on ammo and such. great 'big picture' design.

I think I recall 47 being the toughest as well and it let up for 48 & 49, but 50 was up there with 47.

So how long before we see a patch or DLC that takes it to 100? 200?

Just finished this tonight having played through the full game on co-op with a friend of mine. The very final boss battle was a bit of a let down but everything leading up to it was so badass its forgivable. Tackling Horde mode next and cannot wait...tried it the other night and i thought it was awesome.

So, playing co-op. It's different. I should say it feels different than the first one. Not in a bad way and not in a good way, either. I think it's because the levels are so much bigger and there is more open space in them. So far, I'm not finding hardcore to be as difficult as hardcore on the first one, but maybe it's just me.

Not sure how the final boss would even work with co-op unless you're both just using the same weapon. That was really a weird fight - but at least it wasn't a quick-time event!

Just beat it. Will go through again on hardcore in co-op this weekend.

I loved the first game, and I can honestly say that I feel Gears 2 is a bit better. They really made an effort to make the game feel like Gears of War, but still a different game. People are complaining in a lot of reviews of Call of Duty WOW that it feels to much like the other games in the series. GOW2 feels different, but still the same GOW we love. Good job Epic.

One problem I noticed was my teammates would move on without me many times, and clear a room before I got there. That was frustrating, but I realized it had a lot to do with me looking for collectibles. I have always hated collectibles in games. Part of me can’t stand them, but the other part just HAS to search for them. In this game, looking for these led to many dead ends, and your teammates running ahead of you to much.

Also, I think each ACT racked up the intensity slowly. The first Gears hit you over the head early on, but this game, each act seems to get more intense. Toward the end, the battles were awesome. The last chapter alone was worth the admission price. I can not wait until I go through this on Hardcore with a friend.

I do miss Berserkers. Even though once you figured them out they were easy, no one forgets the first time you met one. I guess they figured people would make short work of them this time.

Loved the flying part. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but I really felt like I was on the seat of my pants with that one.

Overall the single player is second only to Fallout 3 for game of the year. Of course, after the 10-15 hours of co-op, 10 hours or so of Horde, and the many hours of multiplayer, this could easily catch up. Great few weeks for games.

Finally took some time away from Horde to finish the SP campaign(Normal) this morning. Easily one of the best games I've ever played. I got hooked into the story and had to keep playing until I finished.
The game felt easier than the first one did on Normal, but I think it's because a)I'm used to the game mechanics now and b)the squad AI is improved from the first game. Throughout GOW1 I felt like I killed every single enemy myself(thanks to Dom spending the majority of the game firing into a sandbag or crawling on his knees), while in GOW2 the squad actually unleashes considerable damage upon the Horde. I'm hoping that Hardcore and Insane will provide a greater challenge.
There weren't as many frantic firefights, instead throwing the characters into varied action sequences, which were awesome, especially the final chapter. It not only made up for the easy final battle, but the complete lack of a fight with that creature in the first game.
New enemies were a plus, and the Mauler proved to be as much a headache in the campaign as he can be in Horde.
Intense action sequences, stellar ending, intriguing story, and Horde mode - I couldn't ask for much more than that. Definitely one of the absolute best games I've bought in years.

47 was definitely the toughest...we died a bunch on that one. We breezed through 48-50 though.

That's probably because there wasn't a 'Normal' setting in the first game.