Posting in Epic forums, Senior Producer Rod Fergusson has announced that, this July 4th (or Independence Day to the United States citizens in the room), you’ll be rewarded for playing Gears of War 2 multiplayer by receiving double XP. From the post:

“It’s time to celebrate Independence Day!” 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.”

Fergusson also reminded everybody that Title Update 4 for Gears of War 2 should also be available by this weekend, with the promise of earning multiplayer experience while playing the Horde mode, thirteen new Achievements (worth 325 points) as well as the obligatory bug/exploit fixes

The Gears of War 2 Independence Day event will end on Monday morning (July 6th).