To make a long story short, this game kicks much ass! I loved the first one and have been waiting for part two ever since. This game picks up five years after the first game. The Locust have had a chance to not only regroup but mobilize an even larger army in an attempt to destroy Jacinto, humanity’s last bastion of safety on the planet Sera. It’s your mission head underground and try to save what’s left of the human race.

While the multiplayer aspect of the game is a lot of fun it’s in single player that this game truly shines, ESPECIALLY if you can play through it in co-op. The first game I played through by myself and I had a blast. In fact, when my friend suggested playing Gears of War 2 in co-op I was a little unsure. Having beaten the game playing co-op I wouldn’t recommend playing it any other way. I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun in a game as I did here. There are so many great moments in this game and they become that much cooler when you can experience them with someone else. I want to give more details but I don’t think I could without spoiling it for anyone who hasn’t played it yet. Needless to say I’m anxiously awaiting part 3!

As I said before, multiplayer is a LOT of fun but not without it’s issues. The main problem right now is matchmaking. There are time when it can literally take 10-15 minutes to get into a game. It’s my understanding that the folks at Epic are working on this and hopefully they will fix it and get a patch out soon.

One of the new multiplayer modes is called Horde. You and four others team up to try and survive wave after wave of Locust. Each wave gets progressively harder and, so far, I’ve only managed to make it up to wave 17. You get an achievement at 10 and another at 50. Any team that makes it all the way to 50 should be feared! Sticking together is of key importance as you need to be near your comrades in case you go down, but not out.

My other favorite mode is King of the Hill. I had a great match the other day on the map Avalanche. The “hill” was down in the center of this map inside this little building. It was a constant rush into this small space and it turned into a non-stop chainsaw massacre. I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time. It’s also a great place to work on your Crossing Swords achievement. As for the other modes they are fun but would probably be a lot more so if I didn’t suck so bad at the game.

There are so many cool things about this game that I can’t help but wonder what they can possibly do in the next game to top this. Meat Shields are a great idea. Using a downed enemy to absorb bullets while you lay the smack down on people is very satisfying, as is breaking their neck once they’ve served their purpose! Of the new weapons I love the Boomshield. Similar to a meatshield but can absorb a LOT more damage; you’re essentially indestructable behind this thing, at least from the front. When using either of the shields the game offers nothing beats having the Gorgon Pistol in hand. This gun shoots bursts of 5 shots and two bursts are enough to bring down your typical locust baddy. The Mortar is, of course, great for wracking up a lot of kills when your enemies are in close quarters. Then there’s that ever so satisfying feeling you get after popping someones head like a gore filled balloon with the sniper rifle, or watching them explode after being stuck with the Torque Bow. But nothing still comes close to the thrill of cutting someone in half with the chainsaw!

While this game is loads of fun it’s also that season where tons of titles are coming out so this game is not going to get the attention it deserves, at least not from me. I’ll probably get another week or so out of it before I venture back into the world of Azeroth.

It was a long and occassionally tedious journey, but I finally hit level 80 in Age of Conan. Having seen the entire game from level 1 through 80 there were definitely a lot of things done wrong but there were some things they got right as well. Overall, my single player experience with the game was pretty “blah” and I would strongly suggest anyone who picks up this game to try and find a good guild. The end game is woefully lacking in content and without a guild to run instances with you’ll find yourself grinding Villa’s over and over and over and over again because you simply have no other quests to do and that’s the best source of XP. Without my guild, which now has it’s own website, I’m not sure I would have had the patience to even make it to level 80.

Sadly, I will be leaving the guild behind once my subscription runs out in a few more days. They are a great bunch and if anyone wants to pick this game up, join the Thog server and look them up. They’re well on their way to having a tier 2 city and they run instances pretty regularly. I want to thank them for all the fun and experiences I never would have had without them. Who knows, maybe I’ll see some of them around once Wrath of the Lich King comes out.

I’m tempted to write a long review detailing all the things I liked and disliked, but to truly cover 80 levels would take hours to write and, the fact is, anyone who wanted to play this game already has. Not to mention the dozens of other reviews that would point out the exact same things. I would have liked things to have turned out differently for this game. I was excited by a lot of the features when it first came out but most of them never made it into the game. I’m still hopefully that Funcom will be able to turn things around and the last patch they put out was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately for them, I think the only thing they can hope to do at this point is to try and keep more people from leaving. With other MMOs on the horizon, the recent release of Warhammer and the behemoth that is World of Warcraft, there’s simply no way you can have a substandard game at launch and have any hope of competing.

To keep me busy until Wrath of the Lich King comes out, I’ve acquired Gears of War 2. I’ve been playing it co-op with a friend and, it’s just as good as the first one. How can any game where your character says “Look Ma, no face!” after turning some locust’s head into paste not be awesome! We’re almost done with Act 3 and my only beef with the game so far as that my friend hasn’t bought a stupid communicator yet!

Before I leave Age of Conan behind forever, I leave you with one last thing… because I can: