Microsoft held a special Gears of War 2 reception at E3 on Monday, giving eager journalists a chance to play the game's multiplayer modes and test their mettle against other journalists. We're proud to say that we managed quite well against our competition, slamming active reloads all the while, though that's perhaps beside the point. You all want to hear about Gears 2, not about how awesome we are at it. Read on for our hands on impressions.

Want to add a little zing to the plain ol' white and black Xbox 360 color scheme? A Microsoft web page reveals a new limited edition red and black Xbox 360 controller coming on Sept. 30, 2008. The standard wireless controller will come with a matching red rechargeable battery and a play and charge kit for $64.99 (a $5 savings over purchasing them seperately!). We have no idea why Microsoft would reveal a new color so long before the controller is set to be available, but it's release is awfully close to the newly-revealed Gears of War 2 release date of Sept. 9 Nov. 7 [Update: Not sure how I made that ridiculous error. Jet lag, I suppose]. Hmmm ...

[Thanks, Scott]

Update: The Xbox press site also has images from a green version of the controller (shown below the jump along with a higher-res version of the red one). No information about this version, which is not even mentioned in the accompanying press release. [Thanks, jdkay20]

Gears of War 2 has a release date: November 7, 2008 -- that's right, Election Day is the new Emergence Day. Microsoft is showing the game off right now at E3, and there's more news to come. Apparently in addition to chainsaw duels, we'll all be riding Brumaks around, and "Horde" will be a five player co-op mode which will pit five lucky Gears against an onslaught of Locusts.

In the latest episode of GameTrailers TV, baby-faced Geoff Keighley got a chance to have a pow-wow with Gears of War 2's designer and poster boy, Cliff Bleszinski, who revealed some of the game's heretofore unannounced additions. Chief among said additions are a new multiplayer map titled "Day-One", which features a sizable emergence hole and its massive, treacherous occupant, and the inclusion of AI bots in the game's multiplayer modes, as featured in another of Epic's staple franchises, Unreal Tournament.

Other big reveals during the episode include the revivification of a map from the original Gears' "Hidden Fronts" DLC pack titled "Subway", the addition of player-controlled tanks, and a limited edition red, Gears of War 2-themed Xbox 360 to be released around the title's launch. With the veritable cornucopia of information already unleashed about Microsoft's holiday blockbuster, we're beginning to wonder if they've got any frags up their sleeves for next week's showcase.

In anticipation of next week's E3 Media and Business Summit, we've prepared bingo cards for each of the big press conferences, filled with some likely (and some not-so-likely) predictions for what each of the big three console makers intends to announce at arguably the biggest trade shows of the year.

Today's card is for Microsoft (special thanks to X3F). We're going out on a limb and giving Avatars away as the free space. Click on each of the slides above for more information about our predictions. Microsoft's E3 press conference is scheduled for next Monday at 10:30 am PT (that's 1:30 pm Joystiq Time / ET). As always, we'll be liveblogging the event, so you can play along in real-time with us.

Stay tuned for more press conference bingo cards in the days leading up to the conference. (Also: check out our bingo card for Sony's press conference.)

Download a copy (PNG file) and play along!

Update: Only hours after we post this ... N2, you hit my battleship!

Visiting the official Gears of War 2 page right now sends you to a splash page with the above image. The dog tags and the image name have the same numerical combination: 033-116-117-126-071. When converted from Octal to ASCII you get "ESC Nov 9" (ESC as in the control character). Microsoft hasn't issued a press release, but it's hard to argue against November 9 being the official release date for Gears of War 2. We expect a confirmation by next week, if not before.

[Via Epic Forums]

While most of the "new" gameplay elements and maps discussed in the above preview for Gears of War 2 aren't really "new" to the video game news consuming populous, it's still nice to see some of the game's fresh features in action. The preview is fairly comprehensive -- there's looks at some of the soon-to-be-covered-in-gore locales, the new gametypes (we absolutely cannot wait for meatflag), chainsaw duels, new weapons and executions, and brand new, colorful ways of describing acts of grisly violence from the game's all-growed-up iconic lead designer, Cliff Bleszinski. We can't think of a better way to spend eight and a half minutes of a Sunday afternoon than to watch beefy combatants get halved.

By the time you read this, there's a good chance the above video has already been pulled. However, if you're lucky enough to be reading Joystiq religiously (as you should), enjoy some leaked Gears of War 2 beta footage, care of Analog Hype.

Update: Now with more footage, including executions and "death crawls," after the break.

[Via X3F]

To accent the release of 1Up's Gears of War 2 multiplayer video, Microsoft has released a bundle of new screens and images of concept art from the game. Peruse the GoW 2 galleries below at your leisure, but fanboys, please try not to spill any Emulsion on the keyboard.

In an "epic"-ally long video with a lot of talking and not enough gameplay footage, 1Up's Dan Hsu interviews Epic's Cliff Bleszinski (no more CliffyB, remember?) about Gears of War 2's multiplayer. Bleszinski discusses various aspects of GoW 2's online chainsodomy, from god-mode animations, to hostage taking, to the new version of the Gridlock map. Although not confirming the final count, he also says about 10 multiplayer maps will ship with the game. Check it all out in the video after the break.

[Via X3F]

Update: Just to clarify, this video was shot in April before Hsu announced his resignation from Ziff.

With Emergence Day: Part Deux on the horizon, Gears of War on Xbox 360 and PC will experience a pricing curb stomp on June 4th, with the Xbox 360 version going down to $40 and the PC version dipping to $30.

If you haven't jumped into the Gears of War emulsion pool yet, it might be worth waiting a couple more weeks until June 24, when the special two-disc version of Gears is released for $40. The special edition contains the multiplayer map packs, along with several other extras (listed after the break). This new Xbox 360 version will not have the PC-exclusive Brumak battle, but we can wait until this holiday for GoW2, when the longing for a Brumak showdown on our Xbox will become but a distant memory.

We're usually pretty skeptical about rumored release dates as developers and publishers often keep that card close to their chests -- however, we can't help but put our complete faith in a man with a name as awesome as Lester "Mighty Rasta" Speight. Yes, Mr. Rasta, who voiced Gears of War's "Cole Train", recently made an appearance at the TriForce panel at Wizard World to shoot the breeze about the company's line of GoW-related replicas. When asked about the sequel's release date, the TriForce crew remained tight lipped, though Rasta suggested asking him again on November 16.

DS and Wii Fanboy's David Hinkle was at the panel to witness the football player-turned-actor's Q+A session, and hopes to further press Mr. Rasta to discover the accuracy of his claims. Given that it falls in the game's suggested November release window, we wouldn't be surprised if Speight's date was legit.

The latest EGM magazine features one final cover story by outgoing editor Dan Hsu, but boy does he go out with style. The main act is a rather detailed preview of Gears of War 2 with quite a bit of new details about the game. You will now be able to take pictures during the game and upload them to a website for sharing and voting.

Also noticed during their playtime was an Epic dev "watching a video," which is perhaps a hint at saved films. Other hinted features include 4-player co-op and AI bots for multiplayer. Our friends at X3F have some more details, including new weapons and what to do if you find yourself knocked down or stumble upon a downed enemy. The latest EGM, with GoW2 on the cover, should be on newsstands already.

Though other shooters have surpassed it in terms of Xbox Live activity, we still hold a dear, dear place in our heart for the multiplayer portion of Gears of War -- a place intricately carved by an enemy chainsaw. Sure, the character advancement of Call of Duty 4 and Vegas 2 led to a more compelling overall experience, but they lacked a certain panache that only a well-timed curb stomp can supply.

Imagine our excitement when we caught wind of the intimidating flood of details for the sequel's multiplayer component in the upcoming issue of UK's X360 magazine. There's a full list of said details on our Microsoft-related sister site, but to inspire you to continue reading, here's a few tantalizing buzzwords you'll find behind that link: Meatflag, Poison gas grenade, Flamethrower, Ten person multiplayer, Chainsaw duels, and last but certainly not least, Verandas. If that didn't sell you, we don't know what will.

[Via X3F]

Interested in seeing what you'll be playing on your Xbox 360 in the coming months? X3F has compiled the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook for you, a list of this year's exclusive graduating class with a detailed account of each title's current status and the stories surrounding them.

The 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook chronicles the graduates, like the soon-to-be released Ninja Gaiden II, and the titles that didn't make it to grad, like Alan Wake. Yep, he had to be held back for a semester or two. Or maybe three, we just don't know yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to introduce the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios graduating class ...