GEARS OF WAR 2

Storyline:

Gears of War 2 takes place six months after the detonation of the Lightmass Bomb at the end of the first game. Though most of the Locust Horde was destroyed, the explosion also caused much of the liquid Imulsion underground to vaporize, causing a fatal disease called "Rust Lung" to spread among the diminished human population. While the humans dealt with their casualties, the surviving Locust found a way to build huge sinkholes under the remaining human strongholds. The once impenetrable Jacinto Plateau, one of the last remaining refuges for humans, is showing signs that the same fate awaits it. In order to stop the fall of Jacinto, Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, and a new Delta Squad spearhead the counterattack against the Locust. Senior Producer Rod Fergusson says "In order to save Jacinto, they (the COG) have no choice but to take the war to the locust. Comic writer Josh Ortega says "The stakes are raised. This is humanity's last stand. Everything is at risk. Nothing is safe."

Gameplay:

The cover story in the May 2008 issue of Game Informer revealed several new gameplay features. Players can now play on individual co-op play settings. One player may, for instance, play on Casual while the teammate plays on Hardcore. A "communal combat system" will adapt to give a player at a lower difficulty an equivalently fair challenge at the player at higher difficulty. The player will be able to maintain multiple save files that work with the drop-in/drop-out co-op features. There will also be a fourth difficulty level that is a level below Casual; senior producer Rod Fergusson admitted that â€" for the first game â€" "We overshot on difficulty and a game that was a little harder than we intended." Some of the Xbox Live achievements can be completed through both play in single player and multiplayer mode, such as achieving 1,000 headshots. New enemy creatures are planned on being added, including one described by Cliff Bleszinski as one "that the Brumak look like a baby panda bear." Also a Halo-like matchmaking system will be used for online multiplayer.

New weapons have been announced as well as the return of weapons from the previous game. The accuracy and function of several weapons has been altered, and all grenades can now be used as mines by placing them on walls or floors, and will detonate when approached by enemies. Cliff Bleszinski has also announced that there will be more vehicle missions in the campaign than before, such as the Centaur tank which Cliff describes as a "tank with monster truck wheels.


You can also check out this. Some new footage of the gameplay is available.

http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-162772.aspx

The game will be released sometime in December this year so it will be perfect to play over the christmas holidays.