Definitely Bigger and Badder... (The new Gears 2 footage)

Last night was the world premiere reveal of first gameplay for Gears of War 2 and just like what CliffyB said in the beginning, it is definitely bigger and badder than ever. Graphically, it is marginally improved from Gears 1 as the big debate in the NeoGAF thread about this is whether or not this game is running at 60 frames per second. From what I seen, it seems like 60 fps, but it won't stick to it throughout the game. One of the significant improvements is the scale of the battle scenes since there would be more levels similar to the last level in Gears 1 of riding in vehicles taking out numerous Locust forces. The amount of Locust running on the ground that battle is crazy and Epic is nailing what they showed off at GDC with their Unreal Engine 3.5 demo (insert meat box joke). The lighting has also been improved as well since that level is perfect to show it off.

As for the gameplay, it is typical Gears with the infamous stop and pop style even though there is not enough of that in this level, which is okay. The weapons in this video have received some changes like the Lancer getting a new look, the Hammerburst being more semi-automatic, and the pistol being more of a burst style. They added enemy shields to Gears 2 now and that's cool how it will play out in both campaign and multiplayer, which makes the pistol more versatile than it should be. Along with the human shields, Marcus can break their necks for more satisfactory killing. The chainsaw duel is also in this video where you have to mash B the quickest to eliminate the enemy, which makes me curious how this will be handled on multiplayer. Lots of Brumaks in this level which is awesome and an example of the improved scale of the action and this seems to be an early level in the game, which means Epic is straight up starting big with the campaign and the action keeps rising and rising till the end with more big and bad bosses we never seen yet. For the sound, it is the same as Gears 1 with the one-liner dialogue (there's not much of that in this video) and the fact a surround sound system is destined to make this game be awesome. 

Overall, this gameplay footage of Gears 2 is living up to what Epic wants it to be and that's good to me. The elements that made Gears 1 amazing are here and not tampered that much, but better. The action is more intense because of the improved scale of the battles and the new weapon changes so far has made fans happy. I was a little worried that Gears 2 may not deliver the same impact as the first one, but boy I'm wrong and this fall is going to be great for this 360 exclusive killer app. Might as well start the hype machine now for this one even though it won't have the same gigantic success as GTA4 sales-wise.