I have both games, but Ive never played Gears 2 online so I am just comparing the campaigns on both games.

-Gears 1 was shorter, but better. It kept me wanting more. Gears 2 in comparison felt like it was dragging on and on way too much.

-Gears 2 had some awful level design. Fighting in a monsters belly? Ugh.

-Gears 2 had a horrible ending/boss fight. What the heck was THAT? I respect Epic, but it seemed as if they were just like "meh, we've worked on this game long enough, let's just end it with a half assed boss battle. The sad thing is -- I was HAPPY to finish, as I felt a constant "is this game over yet?" rather than "I dont want this game to ever end" that I felt with Gears 1

-Gears 2 felt choppy. Bad frame rate at times.

-While playing through Gears 2, I only ran out of ammo ONCE the entire campaign. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing, but I do recall ammo being more scarce in the first game.

-Gears 2 IMO had too many "let's steal the Locusts reavers/whatever and use it against them" moments. Too many vehicle/point-and-shoot parts in the game, whereas Gears 1 was a pure cover and kill, Third Person Shooter. Just my opinion, as I realise some people may actually prefer that.

QUESTIONS:

1. Which Gears game did you enjoy more?

2. Since Ive never played Gears 2 online...is it any better, or different than Gears 1 online?

Personally, as a Gears of War fan, I must admittedly agree with you that I felt Gears 2 went on too long. I too was asking myself when would it end? I enjoyed how they constantly threw new things at you from a gameplay aspect but they did little to extend the enjoyment of the game because most of these sequences sucked. I hated the controls of carrying the charge, it was frustrating as hell. I hated driving the vehicles because they didn't control well and the sequences were lackluster. And it had possibly the worst ending/boss fight in any game ever. That being said, the graphics were the best on 360 and still are arguably to date. I enjoyed the new guns and mechancis added. Even though little add-ons the inclusion of the meat shield and more finishes was great and welcomed additions. The game felt smoother when switching between cover, although I still found myself doing the wrong action every now and then with everything assigned to the A button. I also loved some of the boss fights. The water monster and Skorge fights were awesome.

To sum it up, I preffered Gears of War 1's campeign BUT I prefer Gears 2 overall because it added bots, new additing multiplayer modes and the INCREADIBLE Horde mode. This all almost negated by the fact that playing online with other players has been beyond frustrating and broken. It's had nothing but problems since release, it even took a minimum of 30 minutes for me to find a laggy room at release. It's still pretty awful.

Gears 1 definitely had a better campaign. Part of this was because at the time Gears gameplay was fresh and the graphics were just sick (and still are). As I finished the campaign I was ready to fire up another round on expert.

Gears 2 had a good campaign, bigger battles, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as the first one. The end boss was the biggest let down I've had in a game. You face this huge boss and all you have to do is hold down the fire button to defeat him? I know this was done for the story but still, a little challenge would have been nice.

Gears 2 has the horde mode which helps make up for the campaign's faults. It is awesome. That by itself made Gears 2's online better than the first.

Gears 2 was much better (IMO), longer game, better weapons, better online, more character story/development. Horde mode and online multi-player is awesome. I enjoyed 2 more.

Quick question........I noticed that your game collection is (6) PS3 games.

Do you/did you have a 360?

What do you base your "expertise" comparison of Gears 1 vs Gears 2.......please, please, don't answer with....."I have extensive play time at my friends/brothers house".

If you are going to write a comparison, or base an OP on the game, usually the opinion comes from someone who.......owns the game perhaps, or has extensive time playing it.....just curious, not doubting you, however, these days some people tend to read reviews of info on the net, and then base a comparison article.

Thanks for the write up. I actually forgot about "carrying the charge" and how awful that part was.

As for graphics, I thought Gears 1 and 2 are identical. The difference is the level design in Gears 1 was much better. Levels like the one where your in the belly of the beast in Gears 2, I was just seeing pure red. Gears 1 had beautifully run down cathedrals and buildings.

I personally did not enjoy the Boss battle on the boat, but that's just my opinion and I know some others may have liked it.

Yes I own both games and a 360. My copy of Gears 2 is a "back up", which explains why I never play it online.

Concerning character development - I wasnt a fan of the whole MARIA storyline. It was just too predictable and dragged on for too long. It was decent, but I thought it was focused on far too much throughout the campaign.

 Ugh. I forgot about the inside the beast level. Yuck. That was an aweful level. How many hearts did you have to destroy? Really? What was the point in that? You know, with so many things I disliked in the game, I'm surprised I still loved it so much. lol

Yeah, I enjoyed Gears 2 as well. But not nearly as much as Gears 1. I was disappointed with Gears 2, but still had fun playing it.

I wish some FPS would switch to TPS, as I feel like I'm sometimes running into walls non-stop in FPS games lol. That's a whole other discussion though.

gears 1 ismuch better than gears 2 i played gears 2 first. because i bought my 360 last year after i bought my ps3.But really after playing gears 1 i realized gears 1 is much better than gears 2 because of good campaign and better gamelay than gears 2.

Personally Gears 2 destroys Gears 1 in every way. The single player had more depth without going over the top. The graphics were much better on a much bigger scale. The added gameplay elements of on rails sections really broke up the gameplay, as well as looking amazing. Also the Horde mode is quite possibly one of the best MP games Ive ever played.

Gears 1 was good.

Gears 2 was amazing. Best shooter behind Halo 3 this gen.