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.

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.

I saw an interesting news story showing that the popular American retailer "Circuit City" is going to be offering 1600 free Xbox Live points to anyone who buys Gears of War 2 from one of their stores. Ok, I though, this doesn't really apply to us South Africans so I don't need to bother posting the news. Then it dawned on me, this is very relevant to us because I want to know why we aren't getting cool deals like this. As a South African, any of us have quite a large amount of stores to choose from when buying a new game for our favorite console or handheld. Some go to certain stores for a better price, or because they like the service and most, well, most probably just pick whichever is closest. So with gaming picking up in the country and the potential for sales being huge this Christmas season, why in the hell aren't any of them using any methods to get us to buy from them instead of their rivals. Damn it. I want 1600 free points when I go buy my Gears of War 2, or a free keyring, or pat on the back, or something. I'm sure that you do too. Most of us have our favorite stores but if there is one that is offering something like this along with the game then you know damn straight that it will be there store that I go to when the game gets released. C'mon local stores, when are you going to realise that we all want free stuff and you all want more sales, it makes sense doesn't it?

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.

Not too long ago, we reported that Gears of War 2 had been leaked and was already available for download on the internet. A tip has come in today, telling us that a local, with the incredibly elegant gamertag: Balsak66 was already spotted playing Gears of War 2 last night while connected to Xbox Live. A damn shame that some members of our local gaming community are supporting piracy and for all we know there are more although some of them may have actually made some sort of effort to hide their crime. Piracy really is starting to become a serious problem in the console gaming industry and if we support it then we are going to slowly kill off the very thing that we all have in common, games. More after the jump. Come on guys, be a man (or woman) and do the right thing. Wait the wait and fork out the cash for the game that so many of us have been waiting for for such a long time. PC gaming is already suffering with Crytek announcing that they will no longer be creating games exclusively for PC as well as Epic Games announcing that they will not be releasing a port of Gears of War 2. Gaming has just become the new "Hollywood" and already so many people are making such an active effort to destroy it by pirating games.