Before Epic Games‘ Cliff Bleszinski began playing his own demo of “Gears of War 2” for reporters at the Microsoft gaming event in San Francisco yesterday he had to boot up the game.

He navigated through a menu screen, selecting his level. This was a real in-game menu, as far as I could tell, done up in red and black like all real “Gears” interfaces. At moments like this, a game reporter’s job is to speed-read the menu screen, searching for features that the designers would rather you not notice just yet.

I spotted a prompt to press a “What’s Up” button.

I jotted down a note and asked Bleszinski about it after the session. He stonewalled. He wouldn’t say.

What could a “What’s Up” button on a menu screen be for?

The wheels in my mind are turning.