Microsoft and Epic Games have revealed that the Xbox 360 flagship shooter, Gears of War has gone gold, with a new cinematic trailer and launch events planned for its Emergence Day on Xbox Live.

The Xbox 360 online service will celebrate Gears' November 12 US release date with 24 hours of events, including hourly sweepstakes for HD tellies, an exclusive Gears of War theme and gamerpic, a special Emergence Day video from Mr. Cliffy B and a 24-hour leaderboard tournament where the winner swags - get this - a special Gears of War guitar. Rock on!

As far as us in poor old blighty are concerned, it looks like we're going to have to wait for official word from Microsoft's UK operation, which was unfortunately unavailable for comment when we picked up the CVG bat-phone.

Oh, and a word of warning before you watch the new trailer; you might want to grab a hanky - it's quite sad.

Trailer Here