CliffyB officially announced Gears of War 2 at the end of the Microsoft Keynote Speech at GDC 2008.
Tim Sweeney was previously on stage to demonstrate four key new features in Unreal Engine 3 for Xbox 360. These new effects were shown in a Gears of War setting so it’s probably safe to assume what was shown is what we’re going to get in Gears of War 2.
New for the engine is Advanced Character lighting. This new lighting technique dramatically improves shadow highlights. On the screen was shown some before and after pictures presumable of what it looks like in Gears 1 vs Gears 2.
Large crowds are also a new feature in the updated engine. On screen was shown a huge crowd of Locusts fluidly running through the Gears of War environments.
More realistic Dynamic Fluids are also new to the engine. To demonstrate this, a highly rendered Marcus shoots his lancer into the water with the bullets producing very realistic splashes and ripples.
Lastly there will be much better structural damage in the new engine. To demonstrate this, Marcus shot a torque bow at a pillar and chunks of cement came exploding outwards.
To wrap up the Keynote Speech, Cliffy B burst onto stage to announce Gears of War 2 will be released November 2008 in his true wanna be rock star fashion. Excited yet?
(images courtesy of joystiq)