Videogamer: Gears of War 2 Hands-on

Videogamer: "Meeting Lester Speight, aka Private Augustus Cole, aka 'The Cole Train', is intimidating enough. He towers over almost everyone in the trendy down town Los Angeles night club, huge arms bulging and chest tearing through his tight shirt. But imagine having him, along with his boisterous American entourage, watch your every move while playing as his virtual counterpart in a high octane game of Horde, Gears of War 2's new five-player cooperative game mode? "Who's playin' me?" he booms. I slowly raise my hand. "This is Lester Speight right here ladies and gentlemen!" announces one of his enthusiastic aides. I have one hell of an audience, and the pressure is on.

It's important, though, that I concentrate on the game, on working out whether the new Horde mode, which sees up to five COG players face off against wave after wave of increasingly tough Locust, is good enough to make up for the fact that Gears of War 2, which we now know is coming out on November 7 exclusively on Xbox 360, won't have four-player co-op campaign play. I toil somewhat over this position, agonising as I sink three hours into game after game, sucking on free Coronas MS has generously laid on for the assembled press. At the end of it all, I decide that it is not."