Called it.

Fuck yeah !! Another Happy Birthday for me then.

LAME

I'm sorry but theres no way Gears 2 is going to live up to Gears in that short, short, period of time.

awesome

Boom. This game better be at least twice as long.

Meh. Unless they actually improve the game I'm indifferent.

But I'm guessing Epic will and it will probably rock my socks off. Yay.

OH its all about the hype right mr CliffyB

lets make a big song and dance and then have a PRguy in Europe mess it all up

@3xch4ng3:
It'll be 2 years since GOW. Thats plenty of time to make a good game considering the engine is already complete.

@3xch4ng3:

Short period of time? From what Ive seen it's actually rare for a sequel to a game to come out more than 2 years after the first.

Loved Gears, but this damn better not be another 5 hour game like so many 360 shooters have been.

Wonder if it is Tsunoda (spelling) who is working on it and not Cliffy B.

@3xch4ng3: Yeah right, think of it like this, rather than develop an entire engine they are now just tweaking it and improving it, rather than make everything from scratch weapons, some multiplayer maps, the health system and stuff can all be used again. It's gonna rock and it comes out sooner than expected only because it's not being completely reworked and having a new engine etc.

@3xch4ng3: It would be lame if they didn't improve the cover system and didn't add party/clan support. Other than that, in no way is it lame. Give 360 owners something to look forward to and make Fall console battle a tad spicy.

All sony fanboys who have been getting hyped up by recent kotaku posts...look in shock!>!!>!

Hopefully I will be caught up from all the games I still have to play from last November. I'll buy it regardless.

So this is why UT3's been such a disaster for Epic. They've been working on this at the same time and probably siphoning resources out of UT3 and into Gears 2. Bleh, the first game had not one redeeming quality in my mind anyways, so I can't see much good coming from a sequel.

I guess the 360 kiddies need their sniper rifles though.

@qbix: gear was repetitive enough as it was... you want it to be longer?

better have at least 4-player co-op, 16+ multi player, more game modes and being modable like UT III wud be nice.

No comment!

I hope its fun this time around...

Nice! Don't care about length either. Keep 'em coming!

I'm sorry but I'm finding it harder and harder to get hyped for Xbox 360 "exclusives" when I know they're going to be coming to PC with additional content as well. Well, I'm still hyped but I'm leaning towards waiting until the PC version comes out since I plan on buying a new PC in a few months. :)

If they fix the glitchy, bugged, and plain ... oh i dunno how to say it.. "cheater paradise"??.. Yeah fix it.

I tried to play Gears last night.. and every match i got into it was either boosting, or people exploiting the game.

I have laryngitis.

NO PC VERSION?! *sigh* *puts down saw gun and takes off GoW costume*

*waits*

@lifeinthefridge:

Holy crap! Gears of War 2 is actually coming out? I am shocked!

@Lanhoj:

4-player co-op is nice. Don't know if I'd like 16+ multiplayer.

8 v 8, round based games take forever when there's always one or two people hiding somewhere, especially in TDM. More than that is even worse, see Socom 3.

4 v 4 on the current size maps, might be the sweet spot.

PC VERSION CONFIRMED...

Considering all of the other Xbox 360 "exclusives"...

I just hope they actually make the multiplayer into a quality experience, unlike the hackjob they threw together for the first one.

@Buttah:

If you wanna put up with the headaches/cost of playing brand new games on PC, then you're right, there's no use in owning a 360 or a PS3. However, as a PC gamer, I know that everything works fine until you try to install the newest game. Then you spend hours troubleshooting each problem...

Gears of war 2, Lost oddyssey, Ninja gaiden 2 and Fable 2 should be good for this year. I hope they do announce more still though since I could do with a bit more still to keep me entertained.

Even though we all knew it was coming, it's nice to get a release time frame and know it's going to be here by the end of this year. I enjoyed the first game, and I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

@lifeinthefridge:

And all insecure MS fanboys who think Kotaku has been conspiring against their readers by posting Sony stories and then dropping this story as some major bomb of information just to upset Sony fanboys, and enjoy hearing how people who can't afford both a 360 & PS3 won't get to enjoy a great game due to stupid exclusivity......please go away.

Wasnt the first one a 360 exclusive? then announced for the PC a while later?

@Archaotic:

No redeeming qualities?! None?! You must not like shooters then. But I bet you looooooved Uncharted, which borrowed heavily from Gears and its no redeeming qualities.

Ah, November. The magic month of gaming.

@Mally:
Yep, and that's probably exactly how it'll go this time around too. Pretty much every major 360 exclusive goes to PC eventually. Look at Mass Effect.

I hope it'll have more story than the first; it's one of the two things that needs to change for me to be a fan.

Wow - this is going to be great. I'll be picking up the 360 version for sure. This and CoD4 have been the only truly addictive multiplayer experiences on the console so far. I hope they incorporate some sort of levelling system a la CoD4 and maybe allow for more than just team deathmatch and team deathmatch II (disguised as Annex). A free-for-all Gears 2 would be AWESOME.

Microsoft milks an 'okay' shooter franchise?!?!?!

This is entirely revealing & new information!

@lifeinthefridge: yea cos no one saw this shocker of an announcement coming

@Gray665: +1

@Gray665:
I enjoyed Uncharted because it was entertaining story-wise, the platforming was fun, the graphics were amazing, and the voice acting was solid.

The only mechanic it borrowed from Gears was the cover system, and at least Drake's low health made sense. Drake's a snarky dude in a t-shirt, he's not going to be able to sponge off bullets. Fenix is a wall of meat in power armor, and he goes down FASTER than Drake. It was frustrating, and the unlikeable cast and boring gray level designs dropped it down even further in my book.

And for the record, you're right. I don't like shooters. I much prefer plotty RPGs and action games like Devil May Cry over anything with a first person perspective and a space marine protagonist.

So in other words we can expect Gears of War 2 in about November 2009, since obviously it will get delayed.

@7ucky:

I liked it better when you said "No comment" earlier. You made your point then.

@Archaotic:

Have fun building a stable rig that will play this game, and then play Mass Effect 2 when it releases, and then play ID's next game when it releases... Seriously, there's a reason that some of the biggest competitors in PC manufactoring are teaming up... and that's because PC gaming is a clusterfuck compared to console gaming.

@Mr.Waffleton: MS will never allow that. They need Gears this year to be the big must have game. Really this just means the game is likely going to be another 5 hour game to meet deadlines.

@Archaotic:

If you don't like the game at all, why do you keep coming in a post about the game? Oh yea, you're a troll.

@Gray665: It had none for me either. PC gamer & CStrike addict here, plus yes I loved Uncharted. Not because of anything it "borrowed" from Gears (3rd person shooting? Yea.....totally borrowed). Shocked?

Gears is simply mediocre for some who are used to GOOD shooters, deal with it. I even prefer Prey to it anyday.

No surprise.

[kotaku.com]
7UCKY Holy cow, that made my day

seems 360 fans are popping up again. hm. or its just one person, but, bring on the games! the more the merrier!

@Archaotic:
Third person perspective. Sorry. I got into a groove and my fingers moved faster than my brain again.

Make the end boss better than RAAM was, and give me a eason to not fall back on the chainsaw 90% of the time, and I'll be fully hyped. I loved the first game, but those two things bug the hell out of me.

Also: Multiplayer. Fix it. Nao.

@Lot krotan (wut?):
Not a troll, I'm just honestly disheartened by this announcement. Not everyone who doesn't like the same games you do is a troll, man. Some people just honestly don't like Gears, and Kotaku doesn't exist so every comment thread is just people saying 'YAY I LOVE THIS' to every piece of news and announcement that comes out.

@Archaotic:

Gears isn't first person. As for the speed in which you go down, well I guess that depends on the difficulty level you play on. I actually like when it only takes a few shots to take the player down. Power armor or not, getting shot a few times will take just about anyone down. And that's not even taking into consideration the futuristic weapons. As for the gray level design, I actually thought it was pretty varied as far as Unreal Engine 3 games are concerned, especially considering it was the first one. Eh, to each his own.

Yawn.

First one was so boring I didn' bother finishing it. Looked phenominal though.

easily sells 2 Million

@Lot krotan (wut?): and I liked it better when you shut the hell the up and quit scanning for easily attackable comments.

I kid, of course! Everyone's entitled to an opinion (or two as the case may be). Did you take offense to my posting because you disagree or did it just flat out annoy you? Care to elaborate?

Oh, and I'll be sure ask you next time I decided to share more than one idea on a single post, though. Again, VERY sorry about that.

A game like Gears of War was only missing a few pieces that kept it from being everything most wanted it to be. Fix those few issues, rework the engine a small bit, add new enemies and locales and boom you have a sequel 2 years later. This worked so well for Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter I wondered why no other franchises try to get stuff out faster.

Some times with some games we simply want more. More story, more enemies, more weapons, more game length. If you want every new installment of a franchise to be an evolutionary leap, wait for FFXIII.

I am sure that the new Resistance Fall of Man will be more of the same, only bigger, with more new weapons and enemies.

@Archaotic: Uncharted good but gears not? Graphically they're roughly the same, Gears is better at the covering system since you can move between different covers easier and faster with blind fire and aimed fire above or around them. Voice acting was fine on Gears aswell.

So low health only makes sense if your not wearing a armour? What about the fact they're being shot at by big guns, does that not validate low health? It did have too much grey scenery but that doesn't ruin a game on it's own, it still had amazing level design with all the protruding and decorative stone statues and non-symmetrical design.

He wasn't a space marine XP

@3xch4ng3:

I'd be willing to bet they've been working on it since the first became such a hit. They've just been keeping it quiet and just now confirming it.

Besides, it's a huge name release. Don't expect it to reach release date on time. :)

@Lot krotan (wut?):
why get it for 360 when most of the exclusive is better on PC, that FPS is much better on pc than on console. 360 have way more pc port than ps3. I can't think a ps3 exclusive that's on PC at moment.

@