I did not play through GOW.  Do you guys feel that is it worth my time to Play through the first one with the Second not far from release?

My time can be limited play M-rated games to late at night.  I have 3 year old and 1 year old.  That I refuse to show/play any FPS games with them around.  So keeping that in mind to get through a 8 hour game it will still take quite a while.  An added point, I am oncall a lot for work.  So I am not always promised a good nights sleep.

This is just a post.  I dont know that yall will even make my mind up.  It is just a problem that I am facing.  I want to play both!

I'd probably skip it. Any minor references or call backs to the first game's almost non-existent game's storyline you can just catch up with online.

Still, the first Gears has a pretty short campaign though, and if you really want to get through while you're kids are asleep you could just play on casual to speed things up a little more.

Gears was the last 360 game i owned and played and i still get urges to play it. I loved it. Great game. Id replay it because it will only make Gears 2 more enjoyable with the upgrades and story and whatnot. Play it!

Great game, if you can play through it fully, I would recommend it. If you dont own it, and have a friend you could barrow it from, or rent it, it might be worth it. It would help build the anticipation, and keep things fresh in your mind.

If anything you could get a little practice in before Friday. On-Line is going to be intense. Some of the new mechanics such as chainsaw duel, mobile cover, new weapons, shouldn't take you very long to pick-up.

True,  and I am hoping that any referances to Gears 1 will provide a flashback or something... fingers grossed.

Gears had some pretty good parts, and pretty funny too! I would play through it if you could, the graphics still look pretty good also.

I restarted Gears 1 last night, and it's still pretty mindblowing! Youn can skip it, but I can see buying both and not being let down. The online community is still pretty big. Even so, Gears 2 will recap Gears 1's story in about 30 seconds. You shouldn't be lost. There is no wrong answer.

If all else fails, you can Google search a synopsis for the plot of the first game to fill in any holes.

I have a GameFly account.  I actually don’t buy games anymore cause after they are beat I typically don’t play them again.  Only real exception has been Burnout Paradise which Criterion keeps patching.  I am leaning to going through, but I just don’t know.  If it is worth it I think I will then.  I am assuming I will need the LB button. :( mine is broken and I will need a replacement controller before I do anything if it is heavily used.  Most games I just avoid pressing or find a way around using it.

Actually the LB is practically worthless. It shows you where your teammates are, but that isn't overly helpful in the campaign since they're usually close anyways, and when you hold LB you can give them commands, which they typically ignore, or screw up. So yeah, you can easily go the whole game without ever touching the left bumper.

If you’ve got a Gamefly account you could stick the game on casual and probably go through the entire campaign in one big sitting over about six hours.