' 13 Days of Gears ' Promotion Starting Feb. 1

Microsoft has announced a new promotional event for Gears of War 2 that’ll kick off on February 1, as if the game really needed fancy contests to get any more people playing it online.

Dubbed the "13 Days of Gears" contest, the event will give away prize packages for (you guessed it) 13 consecutive days. Here’s how it works: First, register for the promotion online, which you can do now through Xbox.com/wbgow (registration ends January 31). Prizes will be given away each day from February 1-13, and to be eligible to win on any given day, you have to play at least one match in the designated game mode for that day. Here are the days and multiplayer modes you have to play to be eligible:

Sunday, Feb. 1 -- Annex
Monday, Feb. 2 -- Submission
Tuesday, Feb. 3 -- Execution
Wednesday, Feb 4. -- Horde
Thursday, Feb. 5 -- King of the Hill
Friday, Feb. 6 -- Guardian
Saturday, Feb. 7 -- Warzone
Sunday, Feb. 8 -- Wingman
Monday, Feb. 9 -- King of the Hill
Tuesday, Feb. 10 -- Wingman
Wednesday, Feb. 11 -- Wingman
Thursday, Feb. 12 -- Horde
Friday, Feb. 13 -- Horde

So what do you have a chance of winning for all your trouble? Quite a bit, actually -- a grand prize package will be awarded each day, which includes the following:

A Samsung 40" 1080p LCD HDTV
An Xbox 360 Limited Edition Red Wireless Controller
A Marcus Fenix bronze statue from Mindzeye Studios
A life-size Locust drone maquette from TriForce Sales
The "Gears of War 2" video game soundtrack from Sumthing Else
The Gears of War Aspho Fields novel from Random House imprint, Del Rey
Codes to download the golden Hammerburst and Lancer
A "Gears of War 2" poster signed by members of the development team

On top of that, five first place packages will be given away each day as well, which brings the soundtrack, novel, in-game golden weapons, and poster. So if you’re feeling lucky, might as well sign up. After all, you were probably going to play Gears 2 most of those days anyway, weren’t you?