Is Gears of War 2 not interesting enough for you? Cliff Bleszisnki, the lead designer from Epic Games, who's working on the title, is releasing more and more information regarding the game that's designed to attract the people who played the first edition of the series. Now it seems that Gears of War 2 will make good use of the Achievements that you have unlocked in the first Gears of War.

Cliff has named the concept "linked Achievements" and described the way they work at ComicCon 2008 in San Diego. Most of the people who played Gears of War unlocked a host of Achievements, some of them more important than others. All the significant ones are linked with unlockable content in Gears of War 2, basically giving a hardcore gamer a head start in the second game in the series.

Bleszinki even went so far as to provide a list of the "linked Achievements" which are implemented at the moment. Check them out below:

"Complete Act One in Gears Of War, unlock a playable Anthony Carmine in Gears of War 2."

"Find 10 COG tags in Gears Of War, unlock Minh Young Kim in Gears of War 2."

"Kill Raam in Gears Of War, unlock a playable Raam in Gears of War 2."

It's likely that the unlockable characters will only be playable in multiplayer games, as the single player will probably be reserved for series icon Marcus Fenix. But it's great to see that Epic, as a developer, is interested in keeping the fan base of the first game interested in the second one. After all, the success of Gears of War 2 depends less on the "more of everything" design approach which has been laid out by Epic and more on returning the attention of fans of the first game. It might even temp some people to pick up and play the original in preparation for the upcoming release of Gears of War 2.