Well I guess I shouldn’t have copy pasted your post as I really don’t think genre should have any say in this, especially between 2 shooter genres who’s only difference is where the camera is…

But anyways,

Gears 1 and 2 innovations in the TPS genre:

-Mechanics new to TPS:

-Chainsaw battle mini-game. Resident Evil 4 has button mashing mini games. This is an evolution of it involving a chainsaw as opposed to bar hands. (Though sometimes the enemy had a chainsaw)

-Reload Mini-game. Almost every TPS has automatic and manual reloading, this is an evolution.

-team-mate revival. Revival has been around for a long time, in old TPS’s it consisted of waiting a few seconds to respawn, this is an improvement on that method.

-Low run and breathe movement. You can run in almost all TPS. And lots of them have sound effects but I don’t want to replay all my old games to find out which ones.

-first person viewpoint angle. Don’t know exactly what you mean here, but you can view down the sites of many guns in a first person viewpoint angle. Example, tribes 2.

-multiple fatality buttons You can kill enemies in most TPS’s, lets go with tribes again, this is an evolution letting you kill them in a more brutal fashion.

-Weapon wheel with directional pad. Any tribes game has a “weapon wheel” in the form of hotkeys that you can make into a wheel.

-pick up/finisher and opponent animations while they are crawling (4 button choice) Isn’t this the same as multiple fatality buttons?

-crawling to be revived mini-game (sometimes you actually come back to life by tapping a as fast as you can if you weren't killed). Tapping to come back to life is basically tapping to stay alive, which RE4 did when an enemy grappled you. Crawling to be revived is an evolution of walking away from danger when you have 5% health left to get healing. Re: any other TPS.

-Amazing amounts of gore and blood. Not even going to find a game for this one… how can this possibly be an innovation. Improvement maybe, evolution, ect, but not innovative.

- Innovative Weaponry to TPS: Pick any TPS you want, it had guns, therefore these you listed are evolutions of those, not innovations.

-Lancer assault rifle (Chainsaw Bayonet)

-Torque bow (Explosive arrows that go through opponents body before exploding)

- Boom Shield. (Can be used to block pathways and shield you from enemy fire)

- Hammer of Dawn/Hammer Satellite

- Ink Grenade

- Turning grenades into proximity mines

Innovative Maps: One of the tribes games probably covered these, but either way, hundreds and hundreds of multiplayer levels are already in existence, these are improvements on those, not innovations.

-Avalanche (Massive avalanche occurs falling over the battle ground)

-Security (Area blocked off with lasers so enemies cannot get toward you)

Well I guess its safe to say from here on out no new game will ever have any innovation. I'm glad you guys have debunked the ideas of anything being remotely innovative. So with that garbage out of the way Gears of War is an amazing game which is fun and almost flawlessly executed how a TPS with cover should play. Uncharted I do not know since I have not played it. Neither game is better than the other from what I've gathered so this is a moot point. And the comparison done in the op is the biggest joke I've ever read.

wth is that article, this is so arbitrary...
so out of their 3 criteria I would have gears win just because I think nathan looks like an average joe and marcus has charisma...

While i give the graphical nod to uncharted 2 i still like prefer Gears of War more.

"Show me proof of these mini-games. They must  be exactly like the chainsaw battles. A chainsaw battle and winner cuts the other person in half."

And there we have it, that's all I was looking for. A game is innovative unless everything it includes is exactly like another game. Therefor both Gears and Uncharted are innovative. Thank you for your time.

I have Uncharted and it has nothing in and of its own. It is what I call a safe game because the developers took no risk with it.

So if adding something as specific as Chainsaw Button Mashing Battles is enough to be innovative why don't you tell me of a game that has a smashed up train in the snow with an event that one of the trains falls as a map. Hell, why don't you just show me any game before Uncharted 2 that had those snow effects?

Seems you just want to find innovations in Gears and whitewash Uncharted 2 as a "safe game". Look at all of the things you listed as innovations for Gears: Amazing amounts of gore and blood, why don't I just list "Amazing amounts of awesome man ass" as a innovation for Uncharted?

Sorry I won't get into STAGE's love fest with Gears. I do agree it expanded on some themes as did Uncharted. I think both games had innovation. You people can fight it out and have fun just keep playing nice.

"I have a PS3 and 360 and the major difference I see between the two systems games are PS3 titles feel like thrill ride blockbusters with gameplay and 360 games feel like games. " This one I have to disagree with though STAGE. I disagree 100% except in that it is your opinion only and mine is the opposite. I have had more "GAME" feelings from PS3 titles than I have on any console. I am not saying X360 doesn't have them but you are very wrong in my book in saying that only 360 games feel like games. To each their own but I had to get my 2 cents out there since yours had been put on the table.

Well I have not played Gears 1\2, as I do not own a 360, and my only friend who owns one sold it because he thinks "Third person shooters are weird" -.-

That being said, U2 was a great experience for me, I loved it. I played the first and loved the story, I played the second and loved all of it. It converted me to TPSs.
There ARE some things that I would love in U2 that gears has, split screen co-op would be #1.
That being said, when my brother buys his 360 in a month or so, Gow1\2 will be day 1s for me.
$.02