The two laptops you're looking at will do fine, but don't expect any big graphics performance from either of them unless you upgrade to one the beefier graphics card options. I can't speak to the Gateway FX, but it looks like a pretty solid deal.
As far as name brands go, it's really up to you. I've personally had some great laptops from ASUS, so I'll suggest this one for $1049:
Newegg.com - ASUS N51Vf-X1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8600(2.40GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M - Laptops / Notebooks
To answer your name brand question, Lenovo tends to design for business users, Acer is pretty good for cheaper laptops, and Sony makes some damn sexy high-performance laptops, but you're going to pay about double what it's actually worth. Those are some pretty general statements, but that's been my experience in a nutshell.
edit: I'll second shakran, Sager makes some great performance laptops too.