Gears of War 3 Message Board

The Gears of War franchise has boomed to over 19 million sales, up a further million from the last figure disclosed back in July. Microsoft revealed the new milestone to us today.

The publisher wouldn't confirm Gears of War 3's sales figures to us, but we know the game surpassed 3 million in its first week at retail. Back in June 2011, former Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski told IndustryGamers the Gears 3 sales target was "definitely over 6 million," with the interview noting Gears 1 & 2 combined sales being over 12 million. This is only speculation, but today's reveal suggest Gears 3 is nearing if not already over its target.

#gearsofwar3 "I raped you." More »

Epic Games has turned 20 years old, and to celebrate the company is giving away a free album of tunes from its games over the past two decades. You can pick up the tracks from the official blog right now. The set includes everything from the Main Theme of Unreal and the Menu Song of Jazz Jackrabbit, all the way up to tracks from Infinity Blade 2 and Gears of War 3.

And what, you might ask, did they include as a bonus track? Perhaps the pinnacle of Epic Games' musical gifts to the world at large? It's the Cole Train Rap from the first Gears of War, of course. Woo baby! Bring it on sucka! Etc.

A quick note for all the Gears of War 3 players out there: The "Forces of Nature" map pack is now available on Xbox Live. The pack contains the three new maps Aftermath, Artillery and Cover, as well as the return of Raven Down and Jacinto. It also tosses in several new multiplayer characters.

Forces of Nature is free to season pass holders. For everyone else, it's 800 MS Points ($10). See a ludicrous number of map videos after the break.

#watchthis The casual observer of the Xbox 360's Gears of War 3 may notice the grunting warriors, the characters shooting each other to bloody bits or chainsawing each other in half. More »

The Forces of Nature map pack's biggest change to Gears of War 3 is new ways to obscure lines of sight. No longer can you pop off heads from across the map (in a lot of cases), you instead must rely on your instincts for close-quarters battles. Outside of that feature (which varies level to level), ...

#gearsofwar Prop-builder and artist Ryan Palser, whose Portal turret wowed the internet last year, returns with a replica Gears of War weapon so real you'd think you could play a minigame just to reload it quicker. More »

The fourth major title update for Gears of War 3 is set to drop tomorrow, offering players yet another round of tweaks and bug fixes. For one, Savage Grenadiers and Savage Drones can now perform SWAT turns in Beast Mode.

King of the Hill is also tended to -- ring locations are now visibile in spectator mode, and on some levels the ring locations have been moved. Other multiplayer tweaks include balancing the pistol fire rate between hosts and non-host players. And one particular glitch involving the elevator area on the map Hotel has been fixed.

The minor maintenance, which goes live at 2AM PT tomorrow, precedes the launch of the Forces of Nature DLC pack next week. For the full update notes, check the source link below.

#gearsofwar There are five maps in Gears of War 3's "Forces of Nature," the game's fifth downloadable content pack, which publisher Microsoft will release on March 27. More »

#watchthis Featuring a once-funny Jason Mewes and a Michael Cera look-alike—and a special Adam Sessler appearance!—is this ghastly trailer that will apparently be an actual film at some point (this Summer). More »

Epic Games has announced Forces of Nature, the last Gears of War 3 map add-on, for release this March. The downloadable content pack features five maps, new weapons for Horde mode, and additional character skins for use in multiplayer...

A new set of downloadable content for Gears of War 3, Forces of Nature, will be out on March 27. It includes three new character skins, three new maps, two old maps, seven weapon skins and Gears of War 2's Guardian Mode. Forces of Nature will cost 800 MSP. [GameTrailers] More »

Here we were thinking the battle for humanity was wrapped up in the Gears of War universe and Epic Games goes and ruins our celebration with new downloadable content! Revealed on GTTV tonight [via Side Mission], the "Forces of Nature" DLC will add three new maps to Gears of War 3 dubbed Aftermath, Artillery, and Cove along with two returning locales, Jacinto and Raven Down.

Revealed by Epic executive produce Rod Fergusson, each map is described as taking place in the middle of or in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Gears of War 3 'Season Pass' holders will get the content free when it launches on March 27. No price was established for the DLC, but previous multiplayer DLC was made available for 800MS Points ($10).

In addition to the maps, Epic has included four new character models (seen after the break), five new weapon skins for immediate use, and two skins only unlockable via the Forces of Nature content. It's a good thing we didn't bronze our Lancers, because it looks like more grubs need killing.

Gears of War 3 the video game may be targeted at mature adults, but Gears of War 3 the toy? Ages 8 and up. Sure, the kids pretending to shove chainsaw bayonets into Locust chest cavities may get the hands-on enjoyment of alien mutilation, but at least they're not watching it on a screen.

A series of Gears of War 3 toys were spotted at the Toy Fair in New York, produced by Meccano and including the Armadillo APC (£24.99), the Centaur Tank (£34.99) and the King Raven helicopter (£39.99). The toys are still being approved by Epic Games, with plans to hit stores in August.

Fenix Rising, the third DLC installment of four in the Gears of War 3 $30 Season Pass, is available now for 800 MS Points ($10). Fenix Rising adds five new maps, three of which you can fly through in the videos below. The above video just shows some exploding Locusts and stuff.

Fenix Rising, the third DLC installment of four in the Gears of War 3 $30 Season Pass, is available now for 800 MS Points ($10). Fenix Rising adds five new maps, three of which you can fly through in the videos below. The above video just shows some exploding Locusts and stuff.

A while back, we'd detailed the new experience system that the latest Gears of War 3 DLC will be introducing. Well, the Fenix Rising add-on goes live today, so you can start your journey to 3x Gold icons in the new maps of Epic Games' threequel. Let's see how fast it'll take the first Gears players to max out on re-ups. [Fenix Rising Map Pack] More »

Sick and tired of people hiding in that one spot on Mercy and, well, mercilessly gunning you down? Well, Epic's finally fixed that (among other things) in its third title update for Gears of War 3.

You'll be prompted to download the update upon booting up your game today. It also addresses ghost camera issues and allows players to prime a revive for a DBNO (down but not out) teammate by holding in the Y button before they approach. It's basically the same thing as holding in the X button before approaching a weapon pickup.

Random Quickmatch playlist map order is another addition, as is non-Versus mode weapon swaps in Horde mode. Now, players will find the default weapons on each map that were available when the game initially shipped, as opposed to the current weapon assignments found in online versus multiplayer matches.

[Thanks, Steve D.]

Later this month, Microsoft and Epic Games will unleash the next downloadable content pack for the final installment of the Gears of War trilogy. Fenix Rising adds in new suite of multiplayer features and maps, including Academy...

If my life were a book, the chapter covering the last quarter of 2011 would be one page long and contain one phrase, in bold: Gears of War 3. In reality, lots of things happened to me over the last couple months, but aside from a brief affair with Skyrim, most of my time was spent going to farmers markets and crafts fairs with Gears of War 3. You know, committed relationship couple-type stuff.

Today's Xbox Live Marketplace holiday promotion covers Gears of War 3, with discounts on in-game content and at least one soon-to-be-discontinued Avatar prop.

The highlight of today's deals is the Gears of War 3 "Season Pass," which grants access to four DLC packs (two already available, two upcoming) for 1800 MSP ($22.50), which is 25 percent off the regular price. There's also a 50 percent discount on the "Gears 3 Skins Launch Collection," also priced today for 1800 MSP.

Microsoft will discontinue "gun-like Avatar items" from the Xbox Marketplace on January 1, 2012. This means here's your last chance to get the Gears of War Gold Lancer prop -- not only at a 50 percent discount of 160 MSP ($2) -- but, like, ever. The Gears Boomshield prop appears to be safe from delisting, and is also available for 160 MSP.

Try before you buy. It's a concept we're entirely behind, and in modern gaming, it's not out of the ordinary for a demo to release prior to a game's launch. For Gears of War 3, it's the opposite.

A demo of the "Shipwreck" mission in Gears of War 3 is now available for download on Xbox Live, exclusive to all Gold subscribers. The mission takes place during the first chapter of the second act on Gumdrop mountain, as Delta squad defends the butterscotch fountain from the evil armies of -- okay, you got us. The mission takes place after a shipwreck.

An official post on the Epic Games forums states that the Lancer and Hammerbust items for Xbox Avatars will not be available starting January 1, 2012. Those who have purchased the items prior to the new year are in the clear and can keep them.

The post notes that the removal of the Lancer and Hammerburst are part of a new policy going into effect for "gun-like avatar items" on the Marketplace. It would appear that this is just the latest addition to the list of things Avatars can't have or do.

We've contacted Microsoft to receive a comprehensive list of "gun-like" items being removed.

[Thanks, Steven]

We covered a lot of ground in our Gears of War 3 Fenix Rising interview this morning, but let's get the facts straight...

The "Fenix Rising" map pack for Gears of War 3 will decorate players who are already well-versed in rolling shotguns. The new add-on, due on January 17, 2012, for 800 MSP ($10), adds five new maps, four character skins and "Re-up," the Gears version of Call of Duty's "Prestige." Here, it allows players to rank through level 100 multiple times for "exclusive emblems and weapon skins."

The Re-up can be done three times to unlock the following weapon skins:

• Re-Up Plasma - Animated flowing plasma in gold.
• Re-Up Omen - Shiny, red Omen.
• Re-Up Electric - Animated, golden electric shocks.

"Fenix Rising" is the third of four packs bundled with the $30 Gears Season Pass. The "underdeveloped" campaign DLC, RAAM's Shadow, was the most recent release, coming after the co-op focused "Horde Command Pack."

On January 17, Epic will launch the third downloadable content pack for Gears of War 3. Dubbed "Fenix Rising", the new pack will offer a slew of new maps, including the classic Escalation from the original Gears of War and a return to Azura in Depths. Additionally, the pack brings in new character skins and a "Re-up" feature that allows players to reset their number rank and unlock new bonuses...

Gears of War 3 warranted some pretty enthusiastic adjective usage: "polished," "well-paced," "fantastic," even. I'd go so far as to call it the most refined, well-put-together shooter of 2011. So when the first piece of add-on campaign DLC, RAAM's Shadow, was announced, I was excited for it. More Gears 3, but set before the first game? It sounded great.

Unfortunately, RAAM's Shadow elicits some different adjectives: "sloppy," and "underdeveloped."

Epic Games sold over 3 million copies of Gears of War 3 in its first week at retail, bringing the franchise total to over 16 million copies sold worldwide. The final game in the initial Gears trilogy garnered a 9.0 from IGN and positive fan reaction. Rod Fergusson, director of production at Epic Games, looks back at the conclusion of the Gears trilogy in this exclusive interview...

They just aren't the holidays without an active-reloaded Gnasher. Epic is ringing in the festive season with twelve days of custom playlists in Gears of War 3 and prizes, kicking off tomorrow at 5AM Eastern. Sorry, guys, the party's BYOEG (Bring Your Own Egg Nog).

Hit the source link below for the list of what's happening in Gears of War 3, though we should point out the list may change at Epic's discretion. As for prizes, Epic's not talking yet.