This weekend will be a great time to fire up Gears of War 2 and jump into the fray to grab some extra XP. Epic Games has announced that from Friday morning until Monday morning, players will be getting double XP, with the winning teams also getting a 500 XP bonus. That's not all. Tickers will also figure prominently along with another surprise: title update 4.

Interesting week for Microsoft, wouldn't you say. If you take a look at the bullets for each category after the jump, you'll see that they're pretty even, yes, both Gaming and Industry news are. Usually Industry news will be just a couple of bullets, but not this week. Yep, it's been yet another exciting week for the big MS. More record-breakers are here, anticipated demos, BioShock 2 updates, new maps, price cuts, trailers and a certain bird that is apparently also the word. Word.

Gears of War 2 executive producer Rod Fergusson has revealed that an all-new experience-based ranking system is coming with the game's third title update, acting as a precursor to the upcoming Snowblind map pack. Title Update 3 will also have a new auto-balancing feature that swaps in bots to replace players who drop out in the middle of a match and four new maps. Details after the jump.

In an interview with the PC team of IGN, Epic Games' lead designer Cliff Bleszinski and producer Rod Fergusson claimed that the PC version of Gears of War, dubbed Gears of War for Windows, is being created over a later iteration of Unreal Engine 3.

Fergusson said, "Gears of War for Windows was not created with the same version of Unreal Engine 3 as Gears of War for 360. We wanted to take advantage of all the latest and greatest optimizations and features that are constantly being added to UE3." Back in the E3 Media & Business Summit, hopes of avid fans were shot down after the Epic stated that the new PC content was exclusive.

It appears that aside from giving PC gamers some love, Epic revealed that the effort would be technically unfeasible. "There is no plan to provide the PC exclusive content to Xbox 360 gamers for a number of technical reasons. One is simply the size and scope of the new content which would be difficult to deliver as an update," said Fergusson.

The other, as it seems, is than the new content will be taking advantage of the enhancements and therefore is not compatible with the older Xbox 360 version. The new content is reportedly coming with a slew of new story missions, including a segment where PC players will be able to face a Brumack - a "monster tank" Xbox 360 gamers ran from in their version - and take it down.

As a gamer, which do you prefer first - fun or innovation? For Epic Games Producer Rod Fergusson, he's after the "fun" factor and he is clearly dismayed by the criticisms Gears of War is getting from people who think that the video game lacks innovation. The official even said that the gaming industry doesn't impose a mandate on making innovative titles.

Fergusson shared these sentiments during the GO3 Conference held this past weekend in Australia. He suggested that you can't focus on innovation too much because that will totally take away the fun. It's about finding that sweet spot between the two, the producer added. Then he moved on and talked about evolution and revolution,

By taking more evolutionary steps rather than revolutionary ones, it allows you to take something gamers know and improve on it. And I think that's what a lot of the game industry is about. Gears was able to say OK, we're going to take this, and we're going to evolve it and make it stronger. And I think a lot of games do that.

Somehow conceding, Fergusson said that on some level, the industry needs revolution. But that should be left to independent video game developers because, according to Epic's official, these people don't have to worry about selling millions of copies. According to Rod Fergusson, this is the price to pay for working with giant companies and all the commercial pressure they are imposing.

After that, Rod Fergusson somewhat shifted gears (no pun intended) and mentioned that Microsoft has been good at executing its marketing strategy for GoW. He said in length,

I think this is one of the strengths of Microsoft, that they have this continuity of message, this idea of having visual identities, making sure that their marketing is consistent. It's something relatively new but they're executing well on it. There are not a lot of games that you can put an icon up and have people immediately recognize what game it is, but we have that with the Crimson Omen.

Lastly, the game producer talked freely on the upcoming movie adaptation for Gears of War. According to Fergusson, the film would carry on the same themes as the video game but they are giving a lot of creative space to the film company handling the movie. He commented,

We had to come up with some creative guidelines where we set out the do's and don'ts of our IP. But ultimately, you have to give control to the creatives in that medium, and let them do what's best for that medium. Is it scary? Sure. But you have to allow them to create in their own space.

Is this commlink working right, Max?... You getting - okay, it's fine now. *Ahem* Good afternoon, Euro Xbox Live gamers. This is your mission, should you choose to accept it:

Epic Games is inviting you to challenge its people in a Gears of War developer showdown from 1900 to 2100 GMT this Saturday, February 24. Epic shall be led by Lead Designer CliffyB (Cliff Bleszinski) and Vice President Mark Rein in an all-out effort to to perform battlefield surgery on your corpse with their chainsaws (rumor has it they've been practicing medical malpractice with Trauma Center to hone their skills - of course we kid on that detail).

Tempted? Below are the GamerTags of the various Epic staff who will make their presence felt in multiplayer. Add them to your Friends list, keep a sharp eye out for them, and rev up that saw and slap a fresh magazine in. Oh, and here's some intel we found on the opposition (and we quote the interview):

And if you must ask, as Planet Gears of War asked Cliff and Mark, the best Gears player in the Epic office is AI programmer Steve Superville (it goes with the name, don'cha think?). And the worst? According to CliffyB, none other than Mark Rein himself. And we quote him: "Mark Rein is, without a doubt, the worst Gears player I have ever laid eyes on."

Oh, this is going to be so much fun.

Epic staff GamerTags after the jump, soldier.