Every time something major is set to launch in the land of the Xbox 360 you can almost guarantee a super sweet special edition console will arrive with it. Gears of War 3 is no exception and with the launch just over a week away, Pocket-lint has been lucky enough to get its grubby mits on one of the pimped up consoles. 

Until now the Kinect Star Wars console has reigned supreme in our cool books, closely followed by the yet to be released Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360. It looks, however, like this is all about to change with this blood red Gears of War Xbox special.

Open up the console box and you are immediately greeted with a red and black matte finished 320GB Xbox 360, complete with blood splattered COG symbol and Gears of War logo on the front. This was cool enough, but what catapulted things into the stratosphere was the special GOW startup sound and audio played when opening and closing the disc tray. 

The included pair of 360 controllers keep up the splattered aesthetic, following the same matte crimson colour scheme as the console. Short of the special colour scheme there isn't much else to say about the controllers, they are the same Xbox setup that you will likely be used to playing with. 

Also inside is a bundled copy of the new Gears of War 3 game and a special download code which grants you five bonus weapon skins and Adam Fenix as a playable character in multiplayer. A standard black Xbox 360 headset is also thrown in for good measure.

For £269, this 320GB console, with pair of controllers and game is pretty decent value for money, let alone a deal sweetener for Gears of War fans. If you don't fancy shelling out any of your own hard-earned pennies/dollars/yen or whatever currency you choose to enjoy, you could always enter our very special Tweet based competition, which will see one lucky winner take home a console. 

We like the special edition approach that Microsoft has started taking with its Xbox console, it definitely makes things more exciting than the standard shiny or matte approach. 

The included copy of Gears of War 3 has us seriously distracted right now, with the special startup noise gearing us up... ahem... for a major Locust bashing session. 

Like the limited edition Xbox 360s? Or you not so excited?