Gears of War 2: Game of the Year Edition

Gears of War 2 is a 2008 third-person shooter video game for the Xbox 360, developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is the second installment of the Gears of War series and was developed by Cliff Bleszinski. The game was officially released on November 7, 2008 in North America, Europe and Australia, and was released in Japan on July 30, 2009. The game technically builds on the previous game by using a modified Unreal Engine 3 engine. The development team brought in comic book writer Joshua Ortega to write the storyline for the game. In Gears of War 2, the COG continues its fight against the Locust Horde, which is trying to sink all the cities on the planet Sera. Sergeant Marcus Fenix leads Delta Squad into the depths of the planet to try and stop the Locust during their assault on Locust territory. Players control Fenix in the main mission campaign and have the option to play cooperatively with a second player who controls Fenix's best friend and squad mate Dominic "Dom" Santiago. The game includes several existing and new multiplayer modes, including five-on-five battles between humans and Locust squads and a "Horde" mode that pits up to five players against increasingly powerful Locust waves. New weapons and game mechanics such as "chainsaw duels" and the ability to use downed enemies as "meat shields" have been added to the game. On its release weekend, Gears of War 2 sold over two million copies, and within two months of its release, it had already sold four million copies. It was the seventh best-selling video game of 2009 and received several awards. The game received similar praise as its predecessor, with the new gameplay and multiplayer modes being considered outstanding additions.