Gears of War 2  

(Contains Gears of War 1 Spoilers)
Gears of War 2 is the sequal to Gears of War, a game which got well over 30 Game of the Year awards due to its amazing visuals, gore, and dark humour! But war never changes according to Marcus Fenix (the main charactor of Gears of War 1/2).At the end of the Gears of War 1 you will remember the main charactors hitting the Locusts Heart via the Lightmass Bomb (The big bomb-like thing on the train at the end cutscene after you have killed General Raam), but if you used your ears you would of heard the Locust Queen say the war is never over until the human race is destroyed etc!

The Plot
GOW 2 (Gears of War 2) is carry off from the end of Gears of War 1 and with the help of your fellow soldiers including Dom, Benjamin Carmine (Yes, Anthony's brother!), Cole "Train" (Baby!) and Baird you are once again set off to destroy the Locust, but this time your heading for the Queen herself, to try and put an end to the war and bring the human race back to there former glory!

Key Features
Well there is plenty of shooters out on the market but i personally think Gears of War stands out the most! It has a epic but quite short storyline with coop and features like Horde which is basically waves of Locust coming at your group of up to 5 and you have to try and get as many points (via kills) as possible!

Multiplayer
GOW2 has plenty of multiplayer options including 3 DLC's (Downloadable Content) called Snowblind, Flashback and Combustable (all map packs) along with the new Dark Fronts coming out soon! Here is a list of gametypes available on Gears of War 2.
Guardian - Simple objective, kill enemy team leader while keeping yours alive! Your leader is basically your spawning agent, if he/she dies you cant respawn!
Submission- Capture the man in the middle of the map (beware he is armed!) then take him to your objective!
Wingman- A basic game of 5 teams of 2! Like team doubles but there is more than 4 players in the game.
Annex- Annex is a basic capture the holding point and protect it from the enemy to collect points kind of game! The capturing point changes after the current holding point is emptied from its points!
King of the Hill- One very simple objective, capture the holding point and stay in it! You have to have at least one person on your team inside the ring or you won't get points!
Warzone- 5v5 Team Deathmatch, you can kill the enemy team from a distance, or up close and personal!
Execution- Similar to Warzone but you must elimate the enemy team via execution moves or one hit kills!

Graphics and Sound
The graphics are amazing, if your playing in HD with Earforce or a good surround sound it feels like your almost fighting the war yourself! Sounds are quite good too as the Locust each have there own individual voices. This game is one of them games you have to have on your collection!

Overall Opinion
Well i would recomend Gears of War 2 to anybody who wants a fun game to play and are more interested in the multiplayer side of gaming! Gears of War sold over 2 million copys during its debut weekend which is an acheivement in its self. (Acheivement Unlocked- Power Seller- 50gs) The only flaws of this game is that the multiplayer is often laggy and some people have an unfair advantage (the host).

Graphics/Sound: 9/10 - Amazing graphics and the sound is really good too!
Gameplay: 8/10- Really simple controls make it effective and easy to play!
Multiplayer: 6/10- I enjoy it but i sometimes feel like throwing my Xbox out the window due to lag!
Lasting Appeal: 7/10- Can last a long time (I had mine from release!) if your prepared to get stressed out online!

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 Great game, fantastic visuals but multiplayer lets it down a bit, i would recomend GOW1 if you want multiplayer!