Gears of War 2

Alongside standard graphical improvements over the original and a longer, Epic Games have added a slew of tweaks and touches which keep the core gameplay perfectly intact, but fix a few of the niggles that arose with the first game.

The game plays out with you ducking and weaving your way through various battles, fighting against the evil and alien (maybe?) locust. The single button 'run and cover' system (which is genius) returns and is, thankfully, unaltered. Aiming remains a simple affair and you instantly dive back into cover when not aiming for your ugly enemy's mug. Which combined makes every battle a painless (ahem) but intense affair, which anyone can get to grips with relatively quickly. Weapon selection is via the directional pad; and the seminal 'active reload' system also makes a welcome return. This allows you to tap reload twice (within a specific timing window) for a much faster reload and damage boost.

The battles in-game are more varied, but still as hectic as before, with a real and intuitive use of cover required to progress through those bastard hordes at any pace. And what a load of hordes there are! The single player game is considerably larger this time round, making Gears 2 even more bang, duck, cover, rev and chop for your money than you could imagine.

Co-op is as solid as ever, and still the only real way to play. Splitscreen or online.

Gears of War 2 is a prime example of "if it ain't broke, tweak it". No major changes appear, but why would they? And a load of small improvements only add to the experience. So if you need to kill something, grab your Lancer and get a chopping, you won't regret it.