It’s 5 days and counting until the launch of one of the most anticipated titles of the year, Gears of War 2. Trailers are popping up all over the place now and it’s becoming hard to keep track, this one is obviously a gamestop specific one but it’s still awesome. Last Updated: November 3, 2008

Only 4 sleepies left until Gears of War 2 hits the shelves and indeed most of our disc drivers. To help ease the pain of the wait, or for that matter, possibly make it worse, we have a montage of a lot of the multiplayer maps, courtesy of IGN. The wait is almost finally over for the sequel to Microsoft's big hit of 2006. The only thing easing my pain at the moment is the barrage of big titles that came out this previous weekend.

1UP Specials: Artist Formerly Known as CliffyB 1/3 Cliff Bleszinski talks about his start in the business with Jazz Jackrabbit on PC. It’s quite interesting to see how the Gears of War poster boy started his career in games. Part 2 of the interview is after the jump, where Cliffy talks about Unreal’s effect on the industry and how it’s …

This latest developer diary from Epic doesn't really focus on anything specific but rather talks about a lot of the different aspects that make up the game. They also discuss the fans and the media as well as what they are doing to try improve the game as well as attract new audiences. Just a week and a bit left till the destruction begins and these videos aren't helping to make the wait go quicker.

A new TV spot for Gears of War 2 aired today in the United States titled "Last Day". Keeping with the feeling of the Mad World trailer that was released for the original Gears of War, the trailer plays out with sombre tunes and muted tones, the beginning really is quite lovely. It's obvious that by now the hype for Gears of War 2 has reached a mad height. Xbox Live friends lists are sitting chock and block with people all playing the original Gears of War again so that they can brush up on their skills or only just because they need to play the closest thing that they can find to the sequel. It's time has nearly come. November 7th draws nearer and all we can do is wait. It's a good thing so many good games are coming out today, they will help ease the pain.

As most of you know, Gears of War 2 will be releasing with a code that will allow gamers to download the Flashback Map Pack that contains remade versions of maps from the original Gears of War. While we already knew about Gridlock, the new maps also include Tyro Station, Subway, Canals and Mansion. While having the older maps back is a great and all, I didn't fully understand how incredible they were going to look. Canals in the snow and Mansion without all of the stormy weather? Looking mighty fine. Don't believe me? Then check out all of the comparison images after the jump.

Lucky for us we got to sit down at RAGE and get in some good time with the most anticipated title for the Xbox 360 this holiday. After a solid hour or so of multiplayer, it was obvious Epic Games were not just resting on their success with Gears 1. Last Updated: October 6, 2008

Joshua Ortega is a former comics writer that was brought in by Epic to ‘flesh’ out the Gears of War world. Apparently it wasn’t long before he started asking those all important realistic questions that we as gamers ignore. The one he mentions is, Why does the Gears world have so much ammo lying around? But he could have easily …