The first sales reports are coming in and it looks like Gears of War 2 is doing very well indeed. The release of Gears of War 2 was pushed back from to the 7th of November due to the US elections and so it’s launch stats were always going to be lower than expected however it didn’t seem to do …

We were seriously considering just shutting up shop today and putting up a sign saying Out to Gears Be back Monday But apparently not everyone is taking the day off and so I guess it would be rude to ignore our none Gears fans. However if you are a Gears fan then you have no excuse for being at work …

I really hope that I get proven wrong on this one because if I don't, it will be a pretty sad piece of news for us South Africans. As you all know, a few South Africans have been able to get their hands on copies of Gears of War 2 a few days early. I got the chance to speak to someone who has already gotten a copy and has played a sneaky multiplayer session with a few other of the lucky folks who got it early as well. The problem is that none of them could find the "Flashback Map Pack" code in their Gears of War 2 boxes. Say it ain't so. More after the jump. While there is a small chance that the early copies didn't have the codes, I very highly doubt that there is any difference between those copies and the ones that will be available on Friday. If this is true, it may mean that South Africans are going to completely miss out on the recreated maps from the original Gears of War. The truth is that South Africa isn't officially supported for Xbox Live but one would think that because we get the same stock as Europe, we would have the codes packaged in. At this point I am just sincerely hoping that the guys I spoke to were just hopelessly blind and couldn't find the codes that are actually there. Problem is that it isn't really likely. If we are lucky, the maps will become available over Xbox Live to everyone after a short while, even though a lot of South Africans will need to resort to special measures to bypass the region block on all of the Gears of War 2 content.

Whilst browsing around the gametrailers.com website, I happened to find a neat little video in the user uploads section of a graphics comparison between Gears of War 1 and Gears of War 2. While it is initially difficult to see the major differences between the two games, you will find that a short while later it becomes heavily apparent that the upgrade to the Unreal 3 engine has really spruced the games visuals quite nicely. The original Gears of War already had some very impressive graphics to start with, so the fact the Epic was able to actually make it look even better whilst keeping the framerate the same or even better is quite a feat in itself. Well, it's only a short while now until we all get to see for ourselves, so let the excitement begin. I hate all of the people that have already got a copy, only because I am not one of them.

The Sci-Fi channel is going to be airing a Gears of War 2 documentary about Delta Squad this Friday. The preview is looking really great and seems to go quite in depth on a lot of the characters and the roles that they play in the game. They also discuss the locust attack as well as the entire story in general.

Could everyone please give a round of applause to CNA for breaking a street date on an important title yet again. News came in yesterday via the Prophecy forums when forum member "Thrawn" posted that while out having dinner with his fiancee at Centurion Mall, they wondered into the local CNA only to find Gears of War 2 sitting on the shelves. Is it really that difficult to keep a couple of games in a storeroom until the release date. I can understand that mistakes happen but why does it always turn out to be CNA? Are they doing it on purpose or are the staff really just incapable of understanding how street dates work. All I know is that Microsoft should lay down a hefty fine on them to make them learn their lesson. For all of you that are already halfway out the door, the forum member reckons that the game will probably be off the shelves by 10:00 - 10:30AM so don't get your hopes up.

This is sad. A reality TV show is coming to Spike in the US and is going to be "based" on Gear of War 2. The show will have two teams going through hell and performing acts from the game as well as learning to work together as team. If you ask me, this is nothing more than a seriously lame cash-in on the franchises success as well as nothing more than a promotional tool to sell the game, as it is airing the day before Gears of War 2's release. It doesn't really look like its going to be anything like the game and I really think that Epic has sold out on this one.

Often if a gaming magazine or website is given an advanced copy of a game they are asked to sign a NDA (non-disclosure agreement), these NDA’s will then have expiry dates on them and after that time you will be able to talk about what you saw. Well obviously today is the date that Gears of War 2 reviews are …