Yeah, this game kicks ass. It's everything I like about the mindless action genre. Lots of killing, beautiful settings, not a lot of dialogue to get in the way of my rampage of death and destruction.

Perfect controls and somewhat humorous one-liners don't hurt, that's for sure.

You know what amazes me? That Epic can get so damned much out of the UE3 engine while other developers struggle. There's nary a hitch in this game's play, graphics, or loading. Sure, they made the engine, but it shows just how well it can be implemented in the right hands.

After a day of arguing with the ex-wife over stupid shit, exploding Locust heads is just what I needed.

It's nice to see that a game like this can almost completely lack a story and still carry itself so well through excellent gameplay, non-stop action, perfect pacing, and... Exploding heads.

wait towards the end
It get better and better
The action is mind blowing

Agreed, it feels like playing a summer blockbuster movie: good mindless fun.

I'm glad you find headshotting Locusts as satisfying as I do. Few things fill me with warmth like hearing Marcus say, "Look ma, no face." It's only topped by the "achievement unlocked" bloop!

go gears 2!

You touched upon an aspect of Gears 2 that I love. The load times are next to none for me. Love it.

Wait until Cole raps (or makes a cool-ass speech), hehe! =P

 yeah..it's awesome!

Those of you who know me realize how much of a stickler I am about video game storylines, but Gears always gets a reprieve from my wrath.

Why? Because I respect someone who doesn't even bother trying to appease that side of me more than I respect someone who does try and fails miserably. I was worried when I heard there was "more story" to Gears 2. Thus far, it hasn't been a problem. It's still the same "20 seconds while you walk" stuff of the first, leaving the vast majority of the game open to killing things in the most spectacular way possible.

That's what I want from an action game. It must be hard to do because very few manage to do it (Gears... Maybe Halo can be thrown in there because Master Chief is so fuggin' cool). I'll take that any day of the week over Kojima and his tireless, repetitive dialogue... But before I get flamed, I liked MGS4. I thought it had some gameplay bits that were above and beyond anything seen in video games. His use of Postmodernism in games is some of the finest Postmodern work I've ever seen (the final battle is OMG epic, even though the controls are rubbish).

Anyway, enough about MGS. Gears 2 is playing out just how I wanted it to and I'm very, very happy about that.

Damn, I really suck at online now. It's been a LONG time since I played much online anything, much less Gears, which has its distinct flavor and method of playing.

I propose a co-op session over the weekend with lots of drinking pig. What say you?