The games narrative was much more about character development and its themes centered on brotherhood in the face of insurmountable odds. The story was non-existant, but I thought it had some of the most endearing characters I've encountered in an action game.

Hearing Marcus say "ahhh nuts!" when he failed a reload, just make me realize how much I like his character.

An innovation of the first Gears was the active reload system.

ZenfoldorVGI, sorry but i read the header and the words "the benchmark" were used. Right now i think the benchmark for FPS is COD4, it got more people playing, for longer than any other shooter this gen. If Gears sells similar numbers and its pre owned price holds because no one trades it in (COD4) with players raving about it being the best online experience then yea its the bench mark. Just drives me crazy seeing people say yea this is the bench mark when they haven't even played the game.

I would have to decline that Gears 2 is a benchmark/standard in terms of graphics for all game Developers to look at.

Yes, the graphics are amazing, I'm not saying that. But, not everyone likes that type of "art style".

Take MGS4, the art style used in it is much different than Gears 2. They both look amazing in their own way.

That;s my 2 cents;

A bechmark for video games in general, no.

A benchmark XBOX 360 games, or FPS games in genertal, that is very possible.

Though I don't own a 360, so I can't make the final judgement.

LBP has a higher average review...

I am going to wait until I play it to decide

Outside of Halo, this is the 360's largest franchise and in that alone, it IS the benchmark that other platforms would measure themselves up against.

Hell game isn't even officially out yet and there have been a million threads about how R2 or KZ2 are going to beat it graphically, etc.

So the real question I think is, is this game deserving of this status? The high volume of extremely positive reviews would suggest that indeed, it is.

This isn't a FPS, FYI, nor should it be compared to one.

Gamespy says yes:

While it's certainly open to debate, we're going to go out on a limb and call Gears of War 2 the most visually impressive game of all-time. It actually looks quite a bit better than its predecessor, which most Gears of War fans would agree is quite a feat.


So, yes.

You'd be surprised who has already played this.

Anyway, again, it's not a First Person Shooter. You know that right? It's a TPS. Max Payne, Gears, RE4. These games are amazing in that genre. RE5 copies directly from Gears 1.

The games I've mentioned are benchmarks for TPS. The benchmarks.

G2 might set several benchmarks, but if you're asking if it is "the benchmark," and could make that list, we won't be able to know for a few years.

Damn, lol, Gamespy out the back with the 3 pointer.

Interesting comments.