ya gas I was like you i needed something new for the summer dry spell but was holdin out for the best game out now. So I finally dropped 60 on red faction a few weeks ago and have no regrets. the single player is suprisintly immersive once it gets going and the multiplayer is on point. I already got my moneys worth. personaly i like RFG better than GOW2 for the multiplayer, but the Gears single player was pretty top notch, so in the end they even out as being equally as good for different reasons imo.
Yeah i feel the same way on the Gears and Red Faction comparison..
Honestly i was going into Red Faction expecting to not even play the singleplayer.. I played the multiplayer for the first few weeks, then that day xbox live went down for 24hours i figured what the fuck and got into the singleplayer.. and glad am i ever.. it is FUN as fuck! every Red Faction Uprising, Transport Mission, House Arrest Mission, and Story Mission (besides the last one before you liberate parker that mission annoyed me) i've played have been fun from begenning to end.. It's just a steady pace of killing and destruction..
With that said it's really lacking character development, from the limited amount of cut scenes Alec seems like a good main character and overall bad ass but they don't try to develop that.. Even after his brother dies he sorta jus shrugs it off; i really couldn't relate with him.. And since theres barley any cut scenes it just makes Red Factions story seem like its going at a snails pace.. But yeah, there is some kind of story with the single player, but it defiantly isn't anything to run home about.. But that dosn't matter because the gameplay and missions are jus so kick ass and rewarding..
Gear's of War 2 had a great story and great gameplay.. Awsome block buster cut-scenes and character developement.. Buuuuuuut the experience i had playing Gears Of War 2 was no where as fun as my experience i had playin thru Red Faction.. And honestly thats how i feel about the multiplayer too..
Gears Of War 2's multiplayer has way too many bugs at the moment.. They keep releasing patch after patch which just makes the game worse and worse.. The lag is unbearable 50% of the games.. And host is unbeatable 90% of the time..
In Red Faction i've lagged maybe 4 games the whole entire time.. And i simpley just sign out and sign back in and join another game and its perfectly fine.. But sometimes Red Faction does this weird thing where it says "Finding Server" and then respawns everyone.. But once again that's only happened to me like 4 times.. Also in Red Faction the host is not super beefed up, everyone is on the same playing feild..
Gears Of War 2 is just more of a "serious" game, while Red Faction is more of a "have fun" kinda game.. Red Faction is really not afraid to think outside of the box and it shows with their playing modes, especially with Siege which might be one of the best multiplayer modes i've ever played... In Gears Of War 2 you lose and gain rank, but in Red Faction you just gain it.. If i'm getting owned in Gears Of War 2 i get hella frustrated and sometimes gotta wait it out 5 minutes while 2 other pussies go at it, but in Red Faction even if my teams loseing i'm having a blast because in Red Faction when you die, a few seconds later you respawn and you're always in the action.. Throw in COMPLETLEY destructable enviroments and a dozen backpack's that make it seem like you're changeing character classes mid-game and Red Faction is simply shitting on Gears Of War 2 when it comes to the online component..
Just my 2cents.