In the most un-surprising news event of the year, Microsoft has announced the sequel to Gears of War during its GDC keynote in San Francisco.
The real surprise is that it's coming this November as an Xbox 360 exclusive, far earlier than anyone expected.
Update: You can see the Gear 2 teaser trailer on Marketplace RIGHT NOW. It's called Duel and can be found under the 'Game Videos' tab. It doesn't show anything at all though. There are also two new themes on there too.
The news was first leaked from Microsoft Italy and was then confirmed by Epic's Cliffy B during Microsoft VP John Schappert's keynote address in San Francisco. The Gears man dramatically burst onto the stage wielding a chainsaw-ing Lancer.
There's not much info on the second game yet, except that it "continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad in an epic saga of survival, loss and retribution." But what did you expect?
Epic president Mike Capps also took to the stage to show off some stunning improvements in the Unreal Engine, including an upgraded version of Gears sporting improved fluid dynamics, soft-body physics and over a hundred enemies on screen. Now there's a plague of locusts we can't wait to see.