The screenshots I've seen for Gears 2 look amazing. I'm picking it up along with Mirror's Edge this weekend, but for now I just can't seem to stop playing Fallout 3.
I'm using an X-fi card along with a TonePort DI with no problem. I just have the Soundblaster set as the audio device in Windows and setup FL and Cubase to use the Toneport as the ASIO device.