Oooh shit, it's finally been announced officially. How rad is that? (Pretty rad imo)

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/splash/g/gearsofwar2/default.htm

I have been waiting for this for such a long time. The trailer is not anything special and doesn't even show any gameplay footage (unless you can actually do that whole chainsaw stand off and the flip thing in game which would be probably pretty annoying since I am used to just getting them straight in the back and not having to worry about them fighting back.)

Anyway the GAME FEATURES doesn't really tell us many features of the game save for:

Gears of War 2 continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad, locked in an increasingly desperate battle against the nightmarish Locust Horde for the survival of humanity. Gears of War 2 is an larger-than-life saga of survival, loss, and retribution.

Which just leaves us to hope that Dom, Cole and Baird are all along for the ride.

To add some credibility to this topic, while searching for some info on gears 2 I found an article with a gears of war 2 wish list. All the things people want to see from Gears or War 2. I'll post it here, I'll post my own and then you can post yours.

http://features.teamxbox.com/xbox/1785/Our-Gears-of-War-2-Wishlist/p2/

Some of these I agree with, some I disagree with but here's some things I'd really like to see in GoW2.

Specialist Melee Weapons
Sure there is the chainsaw but when it comes to the point where I have to choose between Longshot, Hammerburst, Lancer. I ditch the Lancer for the most part. When someone has to sacrifice a weapon for the Hammer of Dawn I'll usually ditch the Lancer. I don't always carry that with me. Currently there are your two primary weapon slots, your pistol weapon slot and your grenade weapon slot. How awesome would it be to add a melee weapon slot? You could pick up Baseball bats or smashed bottles and things from the surroundings rather than being limited to either HUGE HUMAN GUNS or HUGE LOCUST GUNS.

Capture The Flag / Balanced Maps
I am not so good at gears of war online. (I am not very good at all.) So I'd really like to see some objective missions like Capture the flag in more balanced maps. The maps at the moment seem pretty unbalanced to me. There are ways that specific teams can obtain advantages and there are maps that let people just free for all from all angles. All it takes is one person to be able to slip behind you undetected and you're a goner. I'd like, combined with the current maps, more maps that force you into face to face situations rather than providing you with 10 different routes that allow you to get behind your enemy.

Roll on November.

Also close combat is pretty bizzare, either someone gets the kill instantly with the chainsaw, or both of you are strafing and diving around each other missing point blanc shots.

Nothing beats point blanking someone in the face with a shotgun for 0 DAMAGE and then having them kill you in a one hit melee with the pistol.

Better/More Multiplayer Modes
Branching Single Player (or longer than 5 hours like FPSs are nowadays)
Include Carbine
Shotgun less powerful/inconsistent
More emphasis on ACTUALLY USING COVER in multiplayer.
4-player co-op (duh)

They have a lot of work to do.

I could care less about GoW 2. The first one was fun, but there was nothing "OMG WOW" about it. It was just kinda fun. There are a multitude of other games I'm looking forward to this year FAR more than GoW 2, such as Spore and LittleBigPlanet, just to name a few.