Marcus Fenix would not be caught dead wearing that shirt

I have been busy adding some new features to the site based on your feedback as readers, so please continue sending me your feedback about annoying ads, broken links, and pretty much anything you think can help us to improve the site.

That said, I am just NOW getting a chance to sit down and watch the leaked UT3 Xbox 360 Gears of War 2 exclusive multiplayer video. The footage was originally intended to be a bonus, available only to those who bought the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 game for the Xbox 360, however as things often do, it found its way on to the web.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, here’s your chance to process it along with my impressions after the jump.

Bigger. Better. More Bad-ass. As cheesy as that sounds (and it sounds very cheesy) C-Blaz has every reason in the world to continue pounding us with the catch phrase. The second installment of Gears proves that Epic processed tons of feedback from gamers and put it into effect instead of just doing the minimal effort needed to crank out another sequel (cough EA cough).

New weapons like the flame-thrower and poison grenades will no doubt be sweet additions, but the ability to plant grenades on structural objects in the game and use them as proximity bombs will add a whole new level of complexity to the game. While I am excited about giving them a shot (and I will), I have a disturbing feeling that this feature will somehow be abused in tight quarters and areas of high traffic. Hopefully Epic has planned for this, and will allow for some sort of counter — i.e. tossing a grenade into a suspected area to set off the proximity bomb.

If defense is your thing, then you will likely enjoy being able to create cover on the fly with the introduction of shields. Not sure how I feel about this one personally, but I can understand the benefit and assume that more than a few gamers thought this would be a good idea. On the plus side, it seems you will be limited to a pistol fire arm while in what I will call “your not touching me, your not touching me” mode.

Crawling while you are down — another big addition that could mean the difference between life and death on the Gears battlefield. I can not tell you how many times I laid helpless, calling out to my buddy (you know who you are) for help, only to hear “I can’t make it over to you, they will kill me too!”. Simply having the opportunity to crawl a few feet to gain cover may not seem like much to some, but it will void certain “bait” situations used by the enemy, and for that reason alone, I welcome its addition.

Most shooters are all about the headshots, but I can honestly say that with the addition of several new brutal execution moves, I will be more interested in downing a player so that I can get up close and personal to finish them off. And on days where I feel a little more forgiving, I may choose to spare their life (initially) by taking advantage of the new “meat shield” feature, which will allow gamers to pick up a downed enemy and use them as a walking shield. Of course if you get bored of walking around with your new pal, you can always snap his neck and find a new toy to play with.

Cliffy acknowledges that the popular chainsaw feature had its short comings the first time around by stating that the team didn’t put much thought into head-to-head chainsaw encounters in the first Gears, and that the victor “was essentially random”. While the addition of a dueling chainsaw mechanic that puts control back into the hands of the gamer will likely ensure that the right man walks away, the gamer on the short end of the stick will probably still complain that they were robbed and smash their controller.

Last but not least, the game also boasts larger multiplayer maps and 5 player slots per team to help fill them. How can you not be excited about playing this game? Share your thoughts about the trailer below.

Video Source: xbox360fanboy.com

Tags: Cliffy-B, Epic-Games, Exclusive, Gears-of-War-2, multiplayer, UT3

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