Gearheads of War

^Looks almost like a baby Brumak^

Ok now to business...

No one has posted to this yet to my knowledge and I ran across it last night on the very few times I delve into G4s video stash.

The video is, as the title states, the Gears of War 2 panel at Leipzig GC, hosted by Mike Capps of Epic.  The panel, The Making of Gears of War 2 (So far), covers from their planning process to possibly a demo at the end (I haven't finished watching it for the following reason).  The video is fairly long, clocking just under 48 minutes, but it has a wealth of information and insight.

http://www.g4tv.com/thepile/videos/27921/Leipzig_Making_of_Gears_of_War_2.html

Here's an outline of the entire video:

Gears of War and planning the sequel

-What worked and didn't work in Gears of War.
-How to win an arms race.
-The PA comic about Epic making a 'train rifle' or w/e the heck it was called.
-Cliff backhanding Capps whenever he's upset.
-New, Better, More slogan in comparison to Bigger, Better, More Badass.

*Gameplay Themes

-The multitude of enemies is explained a bit better so that no one isn't being mislead.  There will be a multitude of enemies in the background, like in both the GC and E3 demos, which are on a fixed path and have similar animations, etc etc.
-Destruction of cover
-More, yet-less in your face, emphasis on the theme of destroyed beauty, such as the new Gridlock and destructible cover

*Co-op

-Co-op control on monster trucks (Centaur probably) and Reavers.
-Mentioning of the party system, individual difficulties in co-op, more save slots, and jump-in/drop-out in co-op.
-More asymmetry in co-op, aka more splitting up.
-More co-op puzzles
-More flanking paths, such as flanking a troika

*Multiplayer

-The success of Gears of War multiplayer
-AI Bot support...can train with bots on your own.
-Wingman > Deathmatch
-Meatflag...er, Submission, > CTF
-Better matchmaking
-Better and simpler party system (Bold claim)
-They wanted 16vs16 so Gears would be more level with UT, but it didn't quite fit the playing style well, so it was brought down to 5v5.
-Mike Capps, whether to be purposely misleading or it was a slip up, mentioned the Centaur in multiplayer...wouldn't look too much into it though.
-Horde mode

*Gameplay

-What Gears was known for
-Chainsaw Duels
-Dynamic cover: Meatshield (Capps says 'Meatbag'), Rockworms, and the Boomshield
-About 400 improvement tweaks to the cover system
-More options during the down-but-not-out sequences
-Better friendly A.I. *cough Dom cough
-More minibosses such as the Reavers, Maulers...but no reveals of the big bosses!
-More executions
-Enemy variety
-Ladders!

*DEMO!!!

-Was one shown behind closed doors at E3
-Please work! is the hope.
-Some changes were made, or improvements if you're politically correct.
-Get a look at the main menu and pause menu
-Oh...its the same Sinkhole level.
-This time it is being played live...hence Capps pausing every 3 seconds to explain that.
-The video is unfocused at some of the better parts.
-UFC execution
-The Grenadier after the Reaver encounter needs some work on his A.I...pretty hilarious actually.
-Dom died (committed suicide Cliff style), yet Capps is still playing, so perhaps you can continue throughout the level until player 1 or the last player dies.
-Charring effect from the Scorcher is still in play.
-Ticker blast radius seems to be toned down.
-Dom appears at the next checkpoint, so players won't have to go through the entire level alone if all their A.I. buddies get whacked early on.
-First time the Kantus' special ability of reviving the fallen is shown.
-Battery pack dying in Capps' controller
-200 rounds can be seen in the Gorgon Burst, though that was probably an exploit for the purpose of the demo.
-Oh, the monster truck reference may be the Brumak, not the Centaur.  Kinda hard to tell with Capps being drowned out by the game.