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Unlockables: Beyond the default characters in MP, there are additional playable characters in that are unlocked as you achieve certain milestones within the campaign of Gears 2:
—Dizzy Wallin: Unlock by completing Act 1 on any difficulty
—Kantus: Unlock by completing Act 2 on any difficulty
—Tai Kaliso: Unlock by completing Act 3 on any difficulty
—Flame Grenadier: Unlock by completing Act 4 on any difficulty
—Skorge: Unlock by completing Act 5 on any difficulty

As a way to reward players who have completed varying levels of content in Gears 1, we are providing unlockable multiplayer skins in Gears 2 as a reward for those dedicated fans. Gears 2 is the first game on Xbox 360 to offer this unique reward system through Xbox LIVE. The unlockables consist of the following:
—Complete Act 1 in “Gears of War:” Unlock Anthony Carmine multiplayer skin in “Gears of War 2”
—Find 10 COG tags in “Gears of War:” Unlock Minh Young Kim multiplayer skin in “Gears of War 2”
—Defeat RAAM in “Gears of War:” Unlock RAAM multiplayer skin in “Gears of War 2”

New things to do when dead in a MP match:
—New battle cameras now move smoothly from one camera to another and auto focus on the nearest action. Allows players to learn the map while watching.
—The new “ghost camera” allows the spectator the ability to fly around the map and watch whatever action they want.
—You can still use the player cameras to follow a teammate to watch their play.
—Now you can take screenshots using any of those cameras and save them locally where they will get a score based upon the quality of their screenshot (how much action is on the screen, etc.) and in the War Journal they can upload their photos to the web site GearsofWar.com.

Party system: Gears 2 contains an all-new party system that allows players to fully customize their Multiplayer experience. The Party system allows players to team up with their friends in full or partial teams and stay grouped together from match to match in multiplayer and Horde modes. This is one of the most demanded features for Gears 2.

What’s Up: We’ve added the What’s Up feature, an innovative LIVE integration feature that allows friends to easily contact their friends and pull together a party in “Gears of War 2” without needing to access the Xbox Guide. With one button press you can see all of your friends who are playing “Gears of War 2,” and with another you can invite them all to join you in a party. There’s never been a faster way to get all your friends together for some MP Gears action!

New Competitive Multiplayer Modes: Gears 2 retains all of the popular competitive multiplayer game types from Gears, in addition to several new modes:
—Guardian (a highly modified form of Assassination from Gears 1) – Each team has a leader. Players re-spawn as long as their leader is alive, so protect him at all costs! The goal is to eliminate the other team’s leader and then the members of the opposing team before your opponents do the same. Teams must carefully balance their tactics to protect their leader while managing to execute the opposing leader in a timely fashion. The location of the opposing team leader appears as a blip on a player’s radar.
—King of the Hill (originally only payable in Gears of War for Windows) – Hold down one strategic location on the map. Execution rules are in effect, so enemies revive unless you kill them at close-range or with a one-shot kill. The team that does not control the point will re-spawn after being killed. If your team controls the point, you will have to wait until the active point is neutral or in enemy hands to re-spawn. Teams must completely control and stay within the objective target circle to score points.
—Wingman – Up to five two-player teams compete against each other until one team reaches the target amount of points. Each team gets 1 point for every kill and a bonus point for being the last team alive at the end of a round. Execution rules in effect.
—Submission – A twist on capture the flag, where the flag can fight back! Players must down a neutral Stranded character, take him as an enemy shield, and carry him back to a set ring on the map.
—Horde: This is a new co-op mode that is playable on every Multiplayer map in the game. In this mode, up to 5 players can take on wave after wave of increasingly difficult Locust. The goal is to complete wave 50. Once a wave has been unlocked in any match type (public, private, system link, or local), players can restart from that wave in private, system link or local games. Public games always start from Wave 1.

Xbox LIVE: “Gears of War 2” benefits from the robust technology and features offered by Xbox LIVE, such as TrueSkill matchmaking for competitive multiplayer matches. “Gears of War 2” is one of the few games where the party system lets you match your team against a similar skilled team, as well we display your online rank next to your name so you can see your skill progress. And to make it clearer about which type of match to play and when, we've moved away from the terms “Ranked Match” and “Player Match” and now call them “Public” and “Private” matches.
Other LIVE features in “Gears of War 2” include extensive Leaderboard support for both private and ranked matches, and the ability to upload photos taken during multiplayer matches to GearsOfWar.com.
Achievements can be earned in both single-player and multiplayer games, and in ranked matches and private matches alike. This change will help players reach their Achievements faster. Players will also be able to view their Achievement progress from within the game. Additionally, player stats will be tracked for both ranked and private matches.

Maps: All maps in Gears 2 work with every MP mode, Horde included! Gears 2 comes with 10 all new multiplayer maps:
Avalanche
Blood Drive
Day One
Hail
Jacinto
Pavilion
River
Ruins
Security
Stasis

The Flashback Map Pack: included in every copy of “Gears of War 2” is an Xbox LIVE token to download the Flashback Map Pack for FREE. The Flashback Map Pack will be available immediately at launch, and consists of five popular maps from Gears 1. Each map has been specially updated with new graphics for Gears 2. The 5 maps are:
Canals
Gridlock
Mansion
Subway
Tyro Station

Golden guns: For gamers looking to distinguish themselves online in multiplayer matches, an Xbox LIVE token to unlock an in-game gold-plated version of the iconic Lancer Assault Rifle will be included in the Limited Edition of Gears 2.
Thanks to Kotaku for all the info

please don't say anything bad about Dom
Dom is my favorite character(after Carmine), i REALLY don't want to see him die(although he's always dying online......i don't know what will make the difference)

and that's what i was thinking with the Chainsaw Duels as well
but it will probably be A instead of B, since you use A for everything pretty much

I know i was fast to put this up and also verry happy xd
I really hope that they don't start to kill people off in the game cause Dom is my dude. crying crying
Also i think that was a normal locust, who knows the video was all red it was hard to notice the locust armer.
On a different note i can't wait to use the chainsaw in Gears 2!!! xd xd

That was a cool chainsaw battle, even though it had crapy animation. But what really got me going was that Marcus turned his chainsaw upside down, and sliced him upward. I was like... Woah.

So i will be putting up new stuff as it comes in for GOW2 but for now do you guys think that they are going to start to kill off characters in the game. ninja ninja

Do you think people that died off in GoW1 will return in multiplayer? What new characters will we be introduced with? So that might be saying good bye to General RAAM, Carmine, and Kim. though, I think RAAM will be replaced by the locust with a cape on at the end of the game.

That tech demo was sweet!
It could mean more players, but it could also mean a more intense campaign. Just imagine all those locusts running at you? I'd s**t myself. It wouldn't be fair if there were that many though.

Hey guys think they'll have new weapons or will they keep the same stuff again.