There is a solution to Gears of War right now from not crashing, it's quite simple and yet so stupid you would think they'd hammer that out on day one.
When you install the game, it does not install any icons or desktop shortcuts (which is retarded)... so most people go "Okay well let me put the DVD in and load it up"...
THAT is the reason it crashes. So if you are running vista, go into your Games folder and launch it through there, and you will be fine.
Now all they have to fix is the fucking graphics and the resource hogging that is going on causing massive chugging at any setting.