5. War is a beautiful thing
We deliberately left this comment until last, for fear that we'd be labelled graphics whores. But after playing our session, there's simply no denying that GRAW2 is to the first game as Jessica Simpson is to Ashlee. Much, much, much hotter. At first glance the differences aren't huge, but it doesn't take long for them to shine through. The devs have dived into the 360's hardware to crank up the anti-aliasing, leading to much fewer jaggies than the first game. It's crystal clear as far as the eye can see, yet performance remains smoother than a polished 7.62mm cartridge.
Dust and debris effects have been pumped through the roof, and watching the smoke from a burning truck getting shifted by the downwash of an incoming chopper is a subtle, yet very realistic effect. In fact, all smoke effects are now subject to wind change, be it from a gentle North Easterly or a slightly more immediate explosion.
Heat rippling in the distance has been exaggerated greatly, and objects seem to cast a strange shadow, even while floating through the air. We've never seen this strange shadow in real life (except after rather heavy partying), but it looks cool in the game. Even the character animations look smoother, with better blending and less jerky time between different moves....
But where the graphics have improved most are the explosions, which now punch you in the retina like no game before. Instead of just the standard flamey, smokey components to a bomb blast, explosions are comprised of multiple graphical elements. First there's the rapidly expanding shockwave, flinging a shower of smoke-trailing debris through the air. This is then followed by the usual smokey, flamey bits.
We had minutes of fun slowly destroying cars with our machine guns. Fire a few rounds into a tire and it'll deflate, tilting the entire car. A few more rounds and the wheel falls off. Aiming at the windows resulted in the expected shattering, and even the doors could be shot off. After a good magazine or two, the car starts to smoulder, and then "Whump", she's in flames. Finish it off with another clip and the car explodes end over end. If we were to review GRAW2 from the perspective of a demolition derby driver, it'd get at least a nine.
