Seattle is known for two things: Rain, Coffee, and Microsoft. Well, that's three things, but two of Seattle's icons were out for the Gears of War 2 Release party in Bellevue, Washington. The Best Buy in Bellevue is just a stone's throw from Microsoft's Redmond campus, and was host to their previous Halo 3 launch party, which attracted national media like G4TV.

Seattle is known for its rainy days, but Thursday night was particularly wet, and hundreds of local Seattlites stood in line and braved the water for their chance to play the highly anticipated Gears of War 2. Since this was a Microsoft launch event, the developers and writers of the game were also there to meet the fans.

I was expecting more of a turnout, given that this was a Microsoft sponsored event. Previous launches of games and consoles had dedicated fans camping out in tents up to two days prior to the release. Some of the fans have started lining up since 7:00 earlier that evening, and their patience did not go unrewarded. Everyone in line received Gears of War 2 swag (like hats and T-shirts), but the first 3 in line were greeted by Josh Ortega.

You can read the entire article at OCModShop.