GDC 08: Gears of War 2 Hitting in November

February 20, 2008 11:41 AM

The sequel to Epic Games' Gears of War will be hitting stores this November as an Xbox 360 exclusive.

The news was confirmed by Epic's Cliff Bleszinski during the Microsoft keynote address at the Game Developers Conference. A short teaser, viewable below, was also shown.

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Epic also showed off a few new features of the Unreal Engine currently in development, including far improved fluid dynamics, high-density crowds, and characters with soft-body physics.

Chris Faylor and Nick Breckon

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aggressor

 reply
February 20, 2008 10:58 AM

Wow, that is pretty fast. Though I'm guessing since Epic hyped how Gears of War maximized the 360, it won't look any better than the original. Not that it matters, but maybe that explains why they can put out a sequel so fast.
- RomSteady
  
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  February 20, 2008 11:01 AM
  
  A lot of what takes time nowadays is the initial creation of assets (textures, models, etc.)
  
  The Epic team built a lot of assets for "Gears of War," and probably half to two-thirds made it into the game.
  
  While level design and scripting and new creature creation will still take some time, having an existing asset library can significantly reduce the time to market for a title.
  - sharkII
    
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    February 20, 2008 12:45 PM
    
    ...that plus not needing as much engine development time this go around I would imagine.
- valcan_s
  
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  February 20, 2008 11:02 AM
  
  No shit that was fast, I guess it is just essentialy a mod aka add on... well sort of. Need more details, I am sure there will be more characters and different levels and weps which suits me fine.
  
  I am freeking happy either way, very awesome news, I wonder if any optimization where done to the engine and if a pc port will be released around the same time gap as number 1.
  
  Good times again this year for gaming I can taste it.
  - valcan_s
    
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    February 20, 2008 11:05 AM
    
    Crap I take that back, it will be two years exactly when number 2 is released that is allot of time to make a game and is just right so it may have better graphics etc.
    
    Man time flys now a days.
    - fmp sousuke
      
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      February 20, 2008 11:08 AM
      
      Well with a finished engine, I guess things can only get better. They probably have a few new tricks on their sleeve as far as graphics go on the 360.
- astonish
  
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  February 20, 2008 11:16 AM
  
  Remember there is a 3rd one that is supposed to come out before the 360 hits end of life so they gotta crank them out pretty fast.
  - kodt
    
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    February 20, 2008 1:18 PM
    
    yah that it what I was thinking, 360 is only supposed to have a 5 year lifespan.
- Boxelder
  
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  February 20, 2008 11:17 AM
  
  It could also be because Epic is the king of the half-sequel. I hope the difference are bigger than they are in the UT series.
- GilesH
  
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  February 20, 2008 11:32 AM
  
  A two year development time now counts as fast? (And that assumes they didn't overlap the projects, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were collecting ideas for a sequel in the closing months of the first one.)
  - aggressor
    
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    February 20, 2008 11:48 AM
    
    Um, yes, 2 years is pretty speedy unless it's more of an expansion pack than a sequel. Making AAA titles is pretty time consuming these days with everything that goes into them
    - dedgecko
      
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      February 20, 2008 11:54 AM
      
      god of war 2 was finished in the same time frame, and it was pretty awesome.
- skinlab133
  
   reply
  February 20, 2008 11:54 AM
  
  Paging 40licks (I think that was his name)
  - the city
    
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    February 20, 2008 1:14 PM
    
    Good fucking god that douchebag was annoying.