Gears of War is one of those games that if you have an Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, your friends might hate you if you don’t own the game.  Gears of War brought us the chainsaw kill, which is arguably one of the greatest ways to kill an opponent in video game history.

With fluid controls, chainsaw kills, grenade tags, heads that go boom, an amazing cover system, and a very balanced weapon system, Gears of War has won the hearts of many.  For all that we love Gears of War, there are quite a few things that make us despise it at times.

We posed a simple question on our users a few weeks back, "What are the top five things you would want fixed or added to Gears of War 2?"  Our site has quite a few dedicated Gears of War veterans, and they came up with a few good ideas.

Glitches

Thegoldglove07, one of our more experienced Gears of War players, was one of the first of many to point out the need for the glitches to be toned down quite a bit.  "The abundance of glitches in this game makes it just terrible at some moments. Epic Games needs to make sure that when they release GoW2, they have had some of the most experienced testers find any and every glitch the game has before releasing it to the public."

While we all realize that the chances of a "glitchless" game are nearly impossible, the plethora of glitches that plague Gears of War are one of the major turn-offs about it.  I believe that Epic realizes this, and will take the appropriate measures minimize them as much as possible.

Character Customization

Let’s face it, we’ve all been ruined by games such as Saints Row, the Rainbow Six Vegas series, and soon to be Grand Theft Auto IV that allow us to customize our own player.  We’re not sure exactly how far would be too far for this, but the majority of us would love to be able to create our own version of the COG soldiers.

Thegoldglove07 chimed in again with another detailed response, "Personally, I would love to customize my own online character. Even if there weren’t very many settings and certain guidelines were to be followed, I think character customization could be pulled off fairly well. Lets just see what Cliffy B & Company has in store for us."

Game Types

Users also sounded off about the small amount of game types that were included with Gears of War.  While the game types that were included were done rather well, gamers have been spoiled by having a plethora to choose from in other popular Xbox Live games.  Imagine a game type similar to capture the flag in Gears of War, but rather than going with something conventional, we would love to see Epic come up with something truly original for the series.

Weapon Selection

The weapons in Gears of War were balanced, and the fact that gamers get a standad selection to start with and only one or two special weapons strategically placed throughout the map is absolutely brilliant.  Weapons such as the Boomshot or the Torque bow seem to be some of the favorite in the series, and we would love to see even more creative weapons from Epic.  Maybe a boomerang type grenade that can be thrown with force across the map and stuck to an opponent, or something that would make the chainsaw kill seem weak.

Tougher Boss Battles & Longer Singleplayer

Face it, as much as we may have loved the singleplayer, the only boss battle that really had  you jumping out of your seat was the battle with Berserker.  If Epic can make each boss battle as much fun as the battle with the Berserker was, they could truly have one of the better singleplayer games in the past couple of years.

The singleplayer itself seemed somewhat short, though it was rather enjoyable.  We’re hoping that Epic clears up quite a few details pertaining to actual story, but keeps the singleplayer as action packed as the first one.

With the announcement that the Brumak would be a boss that you actually get to fight in this year’s version, the game has true potential to throw some very difficult battles at you.  Looking at footage of the new parts to the Epic engine, we’re hoping for a huge Locust battle to be included in the game somewhere as well.

The other popular responses we received were along the lines of longer singleplayer, better matchmaking, and expanding the amount of players to six versus six as the maximum.

Gears of War 2 has quite a bit of pressure coming its way, and once the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV has come and went, the eye of the gaming community will soon jump to Gears of War 2.  Having a game like GTA IV take the pressure off of Epic for a few months could be a blessing, as they can take the time to focus more on the game itself than the actual marketing of the product as gamers scream for content.

We’re anxiously anticipating the release of Gears of War 2 this holiday season, and we’re looking forward to hearing what Epic has in store for us in the latest version.  We also wanted to take the time to mention that Gears of War 2 is confirmed to have 5 v 5 multiplayer, and a brand new camera angle as well.  Have a great idea for the wishlist that we didn’t include?  Be sure to leave a comment and let us know!