Gears of War 2 Official Details

Xbox Focus has compiled the following list of details that Epic has officially confirmed (and denied):

Confirmed

• There will, in fact, be chainsaw dueling in single player as well as multiplayer.
• There is a new poison grenade, which will kill anybody it hits and slowly drain the health of anybody around it.
• The story begins six months after the original ends.
• A new pistol called the "Gorgon Pistol" is available, firing a six-round burst much like the hammerburst from the original.
• The hammerburst is now a semi-automatic gun.
• There is now a larger difference in active-reloading from gun to gun.
• Drop-in/drop-out co-op.
• Blood trails will allow you to track your prey much more effectively in case they decide it's time to run away.
• A much more emotionally evocative story that will be much deeper and more interesting than in Gears.
• Difficulty settings modified. Casual is now much easier, while Insane is harder.
• Gridlock is a multiplayer map.
• The ability to have each player use their own difficulty setting in co-op mode.
• More usage of vehicles in campaign.
• A new "dynamic-conversation camera" used during cutscenes to give them a cinematic feel.
• Assassination game-type renamed to "Guardian.
• Matchmaking! New game-type dubbed "Meat Flag." Sort of like Capture-the-flag but the flag is a human player who stays in the center of the map. Each team must down this player to be able to drag him back to their base.
• Getting damaged slows you down. You can now choose which weapon to spawn with in multiplayer: Lancer or Hammerburst. Portable cover. These are big metal things that you can carry around and shove into the ground to act as make-shift cover. You can only use your pistol while carrying one, and they can be destroyed by enemies that get too close.
• Grenades can be manually stuck to anything, meaning you have to "tag" the object like you would a person in the original Gears.
• Smoke grenades now stun enemies as well.
• One confirmed new map: Security

Denied

• Co-op specific cut-scenes.
• Chainsaws-only multiplayer mode.
• Stamina bars that affect movement.

Unconfirmed

• Carmine's return.
• Whether or not Dom's wife Maria Santiago will be an actual character or simply referred to.

This is literally only HALF of the list! To see all confirmed, denied, and unconfirmed details, check out the full list!