In order to kick this Independence Day off Gears of War-style, Epic Games' Rod Fergusson has informed Gears of War 2 players via the game's official forums that a double XP weekend will begin Friday, July 3rd.

Running through until Monday, July 6th, players will be able to grab Title Update 4 before the proceedings start, which adds in multiplayer experience to the Horde mode. Watch out for a massive increase in those exploding Tickers, too:
Starting Friday morning you'll be receiving double XP as well as a 500 XP bonus awarded to the winning team. And to give a little extra bang to Horde we're bringing the Ticker squad (a group of Tickers that all spawn at the same time) into full effect.

They'll be showing up a lot more throughout all the waves of Horde and they've completely infested every 10th wave with nothing but Tickers. So if you've been having trouble with Bloodmounts, this weekend is a good time to get your Horde on and get further than ever before. And don't forget that TU4 will give you experience for every wave you beat.
Title Update 4 also serves as a preemptive patch for the July 28th release of Gears of War 2's Dark Corners map pack -- which has 325 new achievement points, seven new multiplayer maps and the Road to Ruin campaign chapter.

Cole and Baird are ready. Are you?



Bryn says: I suppose it's time to part with yet more hard-earned pennies to buy up some Microsoft Points. I'll definitely be playing this weekend as double XP is too good to pass up. I'm looking forward to the new Road to Ruin chapter more so than the new multiplayer content, strangely.

For those Gears players out there, what's the most exciting part of the Dark Corners map pack to you?