Phew. For a second, I thought you meant something Gears 2 related was happening on Friday morning!

Damn I whish I had Gear 2 already, the wait is unbearable... gonna take 2-3 days off when it's there. Then it's all about sex, drugs and Gears of War.^^

Microsoft has announced that Gears of War 2, the sequel to the fastest-selling game of 2006, has recently surpassed the total pre-order sales of the original game.

Additionally Microsoft has confirmed a host of promotions designed to support the game's launch. Over 200,000 retail stores worldwide are set to open at 12:01 am on November 7 as part of the Midnight Mayhem launch program. Everyone who purchases a copy of Gears of War 2 at participating retailers during this promotion will receive an Xbox LIVE token for an exclusive in-game gold-plated Hammerburst Assault Rifle for use in multiplayer gameplay.

Also set to begin on November 7 is a three-day Xbox LIVE weekend including special programming for Gears of War 2. This will include a Game with Fame where Xbox LIVE members can take on the Gears of War 2 development team at Epic Games and win prizes.

Microsoft has also confirmed a host of exclusive Xbox LIVE content as a special gift to fans:

Even if the game is only a small improvement over the first it's still gonna look great...

Gears looks fantastic so I don't understand where this is coming from.

Exactly. Gears of War 2 looks far from bad. In fact, it'll be the best looking console game ever once it's been released.

Full MP List an some SP Unlockables:

Unlockables:

Beyond the default characters in MP, there are additional playable characters in that are unlocked as you achieve certain milestones within the campaign of Gears 2:

—Dizzy Wallin: Unlock by completing Act 1 on any difficulty

—Kantus: Unlock by completing Act 2 on any difficulty

—Tai Kaliso: Unlock by completing Act 3 on any difficulty

—Flame Grenadier: Unlock by completing Act 4 on any difficulty

—Skorge: Unlock by completing Act 5 on any difficulty

As a way to reward players who have completed varying levels of content in Gears 1, we are providing unlockable multiplayer skins in Gears 2 as a reward for those dedicated fans. Gears 2 is the first game on Xbox 360 to offer this unique reward system through Xbox LIVE. The unlockables consist of the following:

—Complete Act 1 in “Gears of War:” Unlock Anthony Carmine multiplayer skin in “Gears of War 2”

—Find 10 COG tags in “Gears of War:” Unlock Minh Young Kim multiplayer skin in “Gears of War 2”

—Defeat RAAM in “Gears of War:” Unlock RAAM multiplayer skin in “Gears of War 2”


New things to do when dead in a MP match:

—New battle cameras now move smoothly from one camera to another and auto focus on the nearest action. Allows players to learn the map while watching.
—The new “ghost camera” allows the spectator the ability to fly around the map and watch whatever action they want.
—You can still use the player cameras to follow a teammate to watch their play.
—Now you can take screenshots using any of those cameras and save them locally where they will get a score based upon the quality of their screenshot (how much action is on the screen, etc.) and in the War Journal they can upload their photos to the web site GearsofWar.com.

Party system: Gears 2 contains an all-new party system that allows players to fully customize their Multiplayer experience. The Party system allows players to team up with their friends in full or partial teams and stay grouped together from match to match in multiplayer and Horde modes. This is one of the most demanded features for Gears 2.

What’s Up: We’ve added the What’s Up feature, an innovative LIVE integration feature that allows friends to easily contact their friends and pull together a party in “Gears of War 2” without needing to access the Xbox Guide. With one button press you can see all of your friends who are playing “Gears of War 2,” and with another you can invite them all to join you in a party. There’s never been a faster way to get all your friends together for some MP Gears action!

New Competitive Multiplayer Modes: Gears 2 retains all of the popular competitive multiplayer game types from Gears, in addition to several new modes:

—Guardian (a highly modified form of Assassination from Gears 1) – Each team has a leader. Players re-spawn as long as their leader is alive, so protect him at all costs! The goal is to eliminate the other team’s leader and then the members of the opposing team before your opponents do the same. Teams must carefully balance their tactics to protect their leader while managing to execute the opposing leader in a timely fashion. The location of the opposing team leader appears as a blip on a player’s radar.

—King of the Hill (originally only payable in Gears of War for Windows) – Hold down one strategic location on the map. Execution rules are in effect, so enemies revive unless you kill them at close-range or with a one-shot kill. The team that does not control the point will re-spawn after being killed. If your team controls the point, you will have to wait until the active point is neutral or in enemy hands to re-spawn. Teams must completely control and stay within the objective target circle to score points.

—Wingman – Up to five two-player teams compete against each other until one team reaches the target
amount of points. Each team gets 1 point for every kill and a bonus point for being the last team alive at the end of a round. Execution rules in effect.

—Submission – A twist on capture the flag, where the flag can fight back! Players must down a neutral Stranded character, take him as an enemy shield, and carry him back to a set ring on the map.

—Horde: This is a new co-op mode that is playable on every Multiplayer map in the game. In this mode, up to 5 players can take on wave after wave of increasingly difficult Locust. The goal is to complete wave 50. Once a wave has been unlocked in any match type (public, private, system link, or local), players can restart from that wave in private, system link or local games. Public games always start from Wave 1.

Xbox LIVE: “Gears of War 2” benefits from the robust technology and features offered by Xbox LIVE, such as TrueSkill matchmaking for competitive multiplayer matches. “Gears of War 2” is one of the few games where the party system lets you match your team against a similar skilled team, as well we display your online rank next to your name so you can see your skill progress. And to make it clearer about which type of match to play and when, we've moved away from the terms “Ranked Match” and “Player Match” and now call them “Public” and “Private” matches.

Other LIVE features in “Gears of War 2” include extensive Leaderboard support for both private and ranked matches, and the ability to upload photos taken during multiplayer matches to GearsOfWar.com.
Achievements can be earned in both single-player and multiplayer games, and in ranked matches and private matches alike. This change will help players reach their Achievements faster. Players will also be able to view their Achievement progress from within the game. Additionally, player stats will be tracked for both ranked and private matches.

Maps: All maps in Gears 2 work with every MP mode, Horde included! Gears 2 comes with 10 all new multiplayer maps:

Avalanche

Blood Drive

Day One

Hail

Jacinto

Pavilion

River

Ruins

Security

Stasis

The Flashback Map Pack:

included in every copy of “Gears of War 2” is an Xbox LIVE token to download the Flashback Map Pack for FREE. The Flashback Map Pack will be available immediately at launch, and consists of five popular maps from Gears 1. Each map has been specially updated with new graphics for Gears 2. The 5 maps are:

Canals

Gridlock

Mansion

Subway

Tyro Station

Golden guns: For gamers looking to distinguish themselves online in multiplayer matches, an Xbox LIVE token to unlock an in-game gold-plated version of the iconic Lancer Assault Rifle will be included in the Limited Edition of Gears 2.

Well, it's a matter of opinion really. I can't think of a better looking game, based on what I've seen.

Epic Games just released the sixth video in their Behind the scenes series for Gears of War 2, this one naimed 'A Pixel Is Worth 1,000 Words'. It presents the graphics and is by far the most impressive video I've seen of the game. Keep in mind that they are showing different environments in the game, and some of them might be more fun to watch for the first time by yourself when you play the game. It's worth a short sneak peak though!

http://www.pwnordie.com/blog/posts/4152

Just saw this, excellent stuff :)

Nice feature.

That was really epic - like a trailer for a movie. That's not like the 'official' TV Ad though, is it?