Gears of War: Judgment pre-orders include pre-launch multiplayer demo access for GameStop rewards members

GameStop PowerUp Rewards members who pre-order Gears of War: Judgment at the retailer will receive three days of early access to the game's demo, which features Overrun, the new multiplayer mode, Microsoft announced today.

The exclusive demo period for PowerUp Rewards pre-orders runs for the three days leading up to the game's March 19 launch: 2:59 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 16, through 2:59 a.m. ET on Tuesday, March 19. The demo won't be available to the rest of the public on Xbox Live until launch day, after that exclusivity period expires.

Those who play the demo will be able to carry over any XP they've earned to the full game — as long as they buy it during its first week of release.

Anybody who pre-orders Gears of War: Judgment from GameStop will also receive two exclusive multiplayer items: a Young Marcus character skin, showing off the soldier as he was during Emergence Day, and a Lambent weapon skin. They'll also get the worldwide pre-order bonus, the Classic Hammerburst weapon.

Overrun is an objective-based five-on-five mode that pits humans against Locust; each race offers a number of classes to choose from, with the humans attempting to defend a generator from the invading aliens. For more details on Overrun, check out our preview from E3 2012, as well as this video tutorial with a voice-over from Baird. And for information on the story, read our interview with the game's writers, Tom Bissell and Rob Auten.