GDC08: Microsoft and Epic announce Gears of War 2 for Nov. '08

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Feb 20th 2008 at 2:40PM }

In what could only be considered as good news for the franchise's cult following, Microsoft and Epic Games have announced their intention to give Gears of War another go. Despite only scraping by with a couple of million units sold, Microsoft is determined to help the motley bunch of macho marines break into the niche shooter market with an Xbox 360 sequel, Gears of War 2.

The game was officially announced by Epic's CliffyB during Microsoft's GDC keynote entitled, "A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Commnunity ... and then give them Chainsaws." The game will be coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in November, 2008. We'll bring you more information as soon as we can get it.

Tags: BreakingNews, CliffyB, Epic, Epic-Games, EpicGames, GDC08, Gears-of-War, Gears-of-War-2, GearsofWar, Mark-Rein, Microsoft-Game-Studios

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

JJ @ Feb 20th 2008 2:43PM

Bah who ever heard of Gears of War?

You can quote me on this:

This game will do Turok numbers at best

RokkaMan @ Feb 20th 2008 2:57PM

"This game will do Turok numbers at best"

There.

Fanboy @ Feb 20th 2008 2:48PM

your an idiot if you honestly think that

JJ @ Feb 20th 2008 2:50PM

and you're equally one if you thought i was being serious =)

Vol @ Feb 20th 2008 2:53PM

There is a video going up on the marketplace later today.

NATO_Duke @ Feb 20th 2008 2:53PM

Your sarcasm seemed to shoot right past people. I chuckled.

Lone Starr @ Feb 20th 2008 2:57PM

Sarcasm doesn't translate well on the Tubes, FYI.

pkpk523 @ Feb 20th 2008 2:57PM

People voted you down? I'm pretty sure he was kidding, guys. Sheesh.
Unfortunately, this looks like one of the few games I'm looking forward to on my 360 this year. Let's hope Microsoft suprises me with others otherwise this will be a flip flop of 2007 where I got 10 games for my 360, 3 for my PS3

upz @ Feb 20th 2008 4:08PM

"Sarcasm doesn't translate well on the Tubes, FYI."

It translates fine. It just takes an intelligence level slightly higher than Forest Gump-iness to detect.

DP @ Feb 20th 2008 4:09PM

"Bah who has ever heard of Gears of War?"

Mighty clever, I too chuckled.

Ash @ Feb 20th 2008 2:45PM

Surprise!!

Killzone2 VS Gears 2

KayRazy Ken Kutaragi @ Feb 20th 2008 2:48PM

Gears vs. Killzone2 AND Resistance2. I will take 2 for 1 Alex

itsburnsie @ Feb 20th 2008 2:49PM

At the risk of sounding like a TOTAL fanboy (though I try not to be), that's not much of a matchup.

The first Gears was a huge hit, a mega-seller, critically acclaimed, and was the first killer app for the 360.

Killzone one... well, speaks for itself.

Granted Killzone two looks like it has potential, but it has a lot to prove. Gears 2 is almost a guaranteed slam-dunk for Epic and Microsoft.

FidliousWong @ Feb 20th 2008 2:53PM

"Killzone one... well, speaks for itself."

As a guy currently playing through Killzone 1, basically to see if it was as bad as everyone says, I can officially say "don't believe the hype." The graphics are phenominal, performance dramatically improved via PS3, and it's a very cinematic game. My main complaint is a few weapons are not as accurate as I want and checkpoints are way too far between each other. But Killzone is turning out to be better than I thought.

itsburnsie @ Feb 20th 2008 2:56PM

@FidliousWong

Hey, if you could enjoy Killzone one, kudos. After your description of the game, however, I have a hard time shaking the idea that you and I played totally different games.

ViagraFiend @ Feb 20th 2008 2:58PM

First vs. third person is not a very good match up.

Besides Half Life 2, Resistance is my favorite fps.

Gears is my favorite 3ps.

If I had to pick between the two though, I'd probably pick Resistance because Gears was so short. Hopefully 2 will be much longer. If it is, it may just be the greatest shooter ever. I take that back, I still don't know if it could come close to HL2.

FidliousWong @ Feb 20th 2008 3:21PM

When I first tried Killzone, on PS2, it ran like a hog. I have no doubts the game was running well beyond PS2's capabilities so I shelfed it. Mainly because I had, on for instances, died between frames.

So a friend of mine borrowed it from me when he saw it on my shelf and told me he didn't know what the hell I was talking about (I had previously made it to the point where the Jet Bike makes it's first appearance... yes, that early in the game...). He was playing it through his PS3 and since we had already proven via Twisted Metal Black, PS2 games can run better on PS3, I decided to unshelf it and give it a real go instead of the half-hearted "This was $5" chance I gave it last time.

Jackal @ Feb 20th 2008 3:26PM

FidiousWong,

I don't think Killzone is quite as bad as people make it out to be, but it wasn't all that great by any stretch of the imagination. The story had some potential, but the execution was pretty poor IMHO. The environments were repetitive (the shipping yards were worse than the library in Halo...and I hated the library) and having three audio clips for the Helghast would've been fine if one wasn't a scream and the other wasn't, "He's just a boy!". I mean, the second one is perfectly fine as long as you don't hear it every thirty second like I did (it damn near drove me to the brink of madness).

I hope the second rectifies the mistakes of its predecessor (I'm sure it will), but it has to be phenomenal in order to win back all the gamers who bought and subsequently hated the first game. I mean, it has to since both of its competitors (Resistance and Gears) are critically acclaimed multi-million unit sellers that are guaranteed successes.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Feb 20th 2008 3:36PM

So you're saying that for a certain game for PS2 to be any good it had to be on PS3?

I'm really not quite sure what to say to that.

BIGGEN @ Feb 20th 2008 3:38PM

i liked killzone better than halo2. but, i liked gears better than halo3. maybe i just don't like halo, maybe i just coincidentally liked the other two better. but i will say this, damn, lost it........

ExMcCloud @ Feb 20th 2008 3:49PM

Yeah Killzone 1 was a disater especially since it was supposed to be the Halo killer...That didn't work out to well....Resistance 2 is a hell of a game though so thats gonna be a great matchup....Here's hoping GOW 2 has 4 player co-op!!

Mr Khan @ Feb 20th 2008 3:52PM

Right. Killzone isn't a bad game, much like Red Steel wasn't a bad game, they just promised the moon and gave us some kind of rock

samfish @ Feb 20th 2008 3:54PM

"Gears vs. Killzone2 AND Resistance2. I will take 2 for 1 Alex"

It's not really a twofer if you're paying twice the price, chief...

Wonderflex @ Feb 20th 2008 4:30PM

KillGear 2?

rv @ Feb 20th 2008 5:10PM

GEARS OF WAR 2!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
curbstomp!

Snipermike @ Feb 20th 2008 2:45PM

But.....But.... its supposed to be ps3's time to shine =(

The Artist formally known as Jesus @ Feb 20th 2008 2:58PM

maybe 2009?

Tranando @ Feb 20th 2008 3:15PM

Killzone2, Resistance2, MGS4 and soforth.

If Gears2 is the best the 360 can muster, it's in even more trouble, that we has previously imagined.

Tranando @ Feb 20th 2008 3:15PM

Killzone2, Resistance2, MGS4 and soforth.

If Gears2 is the best the 360 can muster, it's in even more trouble, that we has previously imagined.

Jackal @ Feb 20th 2008 3:34PM

Tranando,

Alan Wake, Fable 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Halo Wars, Splinter Cell Conviction, etc. would happily disagree with you.

konajinx @ Feb 20th 2008 5:16PM

Tranando,

Even more trouble than your terrible ?Syntax Error in 0?

ThornedVenom (Ludwig Defense Force) @ Feb 21st 2008 1:51AM

When I saw that Linebeck head and your comments getting voted down, for a moment there I thought you were Fernando. =)

Noka @ Feb 20th 2008 2:45PM

Surprise surprise.

Delgado @ Feb 20th 2008 2:45PM

Hurrah!

John McPoop @ Feb 20th 2008 6:05PM

@Delgado

I agree! I don't know why all of the PS3 fanboys are so quick to hate on it just like don't understand why the 360 x-bots are so quick to trash it. I admit I own all 3 consoles and Gears was a great Multi-Player game until all of the glitching and cheating made the game unplayable. I hope this game has a much better multi-player and is actually fun outside of multi-player. The first Gears turned into a glorified chatroom. Lets hope my 360 doesn't RROD AGAIN (6 times!!!!!!)and they eliminate the glitches. Maybe they will also give us a campaign worth a flip to.

As much crap as the PS3 shooters get Resistance 1 had a 1000000000 X better campaign mode than gears as will MGS:4. But then again MGS:4 is a single player game.

It also cracks me up the same X-Bots hating on UT:3 (because its on PS3 and better due to user created Mods over PSN) are the very same retards chanting for this game. You people make me sick sometimes.

(not you delgado just throwing it out there).

BennyBox @ Feb 20th 2008 2:47PM

While this is really really exciting (I love Gears), I can't help but long for a few more new titles to be announced for this year...

Cutty @ Feb 20th 2008 2:46PM

Great news! The first Gears of War was epic... =D

Microswirl @ Feb 20th 2008 3:02PM

Epic indeed, it still is an Epic game. Epic... Epic...

A-Troll-Named-Slickback (Yes the A Troll Named part, and yes every time!) @ Feb 20th 2008 5:57PM

Gears was average.. too much stop and go... the cover system wasn't smooth at all... 6 weapons only? Lets hope they up the ante and make it 8 v 8, ZOMG!

COV3RT SN1P3R @ Feb 20th 2008 2:47PM

Trailer to be up on XBLM later today.
http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/02/20/gears-of-war-2-coming-in-november-2008.aspx

BennyBox @ Feb 20th 2008 3:16PM

It's up now.

But the accompanying theme BURNS MY EYES.

Organic_Shadow @ Feb 20th 2008 2:47PM

I'll wait for the PC version. :)

Fanboy @ Feb 20th 2008 2:50PM

I concur

JJ @ Feb 20th 2008 2:50PM

seconded...especially if they add more to it

Ryan @ Feb 20th 2008 9:57PM

I've got to be the only person on that planet that actually wishes Gears 2 would NOT come out this year.

I'm still having too much fun with Gears 1 for 10+ hours every week, and have too many other games to catch up on (I literally have 4 unopened games sitting on my shelf and at least another 6 or so that I want to pick up, and that's not even counting the games that haven't come out yet like GTA4, NG2, Fable 2, Fallout 3, and Force Unleashed), and I know when Gears 2 comes out I won't touch anything else for months.

Oh well, I guess it's about time I win the lotto and quit my job so I can catch up on all these games.