Gears of War 2: The best 360 shooter ever?

Microsoft's exclusive Gears of War II (rated R18) may be the most intense blood-spilling kick-ass third-person shooter game ever. It's a visually spectacular game on Xbox 360 and one of the most brilliantly satisfying.

It's the incredible pace that generates the adrenaline, making you come out at the end sweating - although the makers, Epic Games, have sensibly interwoven the pounding battles with occasional sections where you can briefly catch your breath. These sections include manning the gunnery seat in a variety of heavy vehicles or rapid-firing the locust swarm behind a Troika. The cut-scenes further the plot dramatically and portray a gripping storyline.

Improving on the big-selling original Gears of War, this one is well-detailed with bump mapping in the extensive underground and worm scenes. Whilst it could have done with a little motion capture and a touch of airbrushing on Lieutenant Anya, Gears of War 2 has polished up the detail of all the characters, providing a story of anger and grief with the rollercoaster plot.

Environment destruction plays a heavy feature and includes huge battlefields and landscapes that depict the visual aftermath of grizzly warfront action. The animations are smooth, and even multiplayer doesn't slow the pace.

It feels like being part of the action of a Hollywood blockbuster. In fact, I'm waiting for the movie!

This game is as close to a 10 out of 10 as they come.

Check it out here.

The sequel is still about an apocalyptic war with a subterranean species (the Locust Horde). The soldiers (known as the Delta Squad) and their leader, Marcus Fenix are trying to prevent the next invasion by the aliens who have survived the bomb blast in the original game.

While you can feel morally good about trying to save the human race, in reality this is a shotgun pumping shoot-up full of macho cursing and hulking great guys - trigger happy and bent on bug annihilation - as they spare nothing from their chainsaw lancers in cutting away at the enemy.

A difference with the sequel is that there is a stronger emotional story to show off a sentimental side to the central character. Marcus' best friend is desperate to discover where his wife is and, amid the shooting chaos, you become emotionally hooked into helping him.

New weapons include a flamethrower, the Gatling gun, and the Mulcher - in which bullets tear straight through the Locust. Vehicles like boats, reavers and the awesome turbo powered monster-truck styled tank lend interest to the entire length of the game.

The Locust city traps and technological revelations combine to add plenty of variety and multiplayer replayability against those mystery creatures - and don't forget to use the awesome extender shield. Wahoo!

You can also use the enemy as a shield against the rapid fire in battles. It is fun to use a wounded enemy as canon fodder and a special favourite of mine is implanting an enemy with a live grenade.

If that much blood spatter doesn't allure, there's multiplayer which includes a ‘Horde' mode in which you and four others online can battle wave after wave of intelligent Locust frenzy.

The single player ends abruptly, signalling the need for Gears of War 3. I can't wait.

MadGamer rating: 9.5 / 10

Thanks to a replacement disc from Microsoft, I'm back to enjoying Fable 2 again - which I loved and rate highly but reported on my blog I had

suffered a crash

after some hours playing

Don't be put off by my experience as it could have just been the unfortunate one in a million. A mate has played through both fully good and fully evil sides of the campaign and had no problem.

Fable 2 is a highly pleasurable and fully engrossing RPG that is hard to put down and quit playing.

Fable 2 and Gears of War 2 both qualify to be in my top 10 games of the year.

What's on your ‘best of the year' games list?

The Mad Gamer