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For gamers today marks the day that many have been looking forward to, the release of Gears Of War 2. Exactly two years ago today the first Gears Of War launched and went on to be a huge success. Will Gears 2 live up to the first…I think so.

Last night was the launch event for the game, which was held at lower Bay Station, the unused Bay subway station where all the movies are shot in. This was a perfect venue for event since it had bins with fake fire, flickering lights and the atmosphere was very Gears like. With ceiling tiles missing/limbering, exposed electrical wires and Gears Of War 2 on about 20 LCD HDTV’s it made it feel like you were walking in a map featured on Gears that was destroyed by locusts.

The game has been improved in many ways. Some of the improvements include an update to the Unreal Engine 3 which added graphics that are a lot more sharp and crisp.

During the event they had a few solo campaigns going with a huge 10 person multiplayer game going. There were a number of chainsaw attacks that not only drew large crowds around the station but also exerted some screams/yells of joy for winning the battle. I had the opportunity to play a bit of the solo campaign and got through a couple of checkpoints. What I noticed so far is that there is a lot more gore involved in Gears 2 which will definitely add to the excitement of the game. A few new features were added to the sequel that weren’t present in the first Gears. The first is the shield effect. This feature allows you to pick up the corpse of an enemy and use their body as your shield. I can see this being useful during a battle with a tone of locusts.

The second new feature allows you to be recovered if you’ve been shot and are near to death. If you remember during the first Gears if one of your team mates got injured you were allowed walk over to them and to save them, well this feature is the same thing but now it works for the player playing the game. For instance if you happen to get shot a number of times and are near death you can crawl to a safe spot and wait for one of your Delta Squad members to save you. The key though is to crawl quickly because if your enemy finds you down and crawling I can guarantee that you’ll get your head smashed into the ground.

The third isn’t as much as a feature as it is an addition. The addition of new characters, enemies, and weapons will definitely make the story line interesting and more enjoyable. Being a fan of the first Gears there is no doubt that Gears Of War 2 will be a hit and will be a must have for the holiday season.

Check out some pictures of the launch event last night.