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Who wouldn't want to test that out? Microsoft today announced that the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta will "kick off" in mid-April -- presumably for early-access Bulletstorm owners. The public tryout will feature three "new" versus modes and four maps (to be decided by a community vote this month). No end date for the beta has been announced.

Voting for the beta maps begins today on the Gears of War Facebook page and ends February 28.

Aside from the opportunity to test out Gears of War 3's multiplayer before its retail release, the forthcoming beta will feature at least one additional incentive for Gears heads to enter: an unlockable, gold-plated version of the Retro Lancer (modeled above by Cole Train). This new (old) rifle, with bayonet, made a cameo appearance in Gears 2 and will feature in the new game.

Epic hasn't decided exactly how the gold Retro Lancer will be unlocked in the beta for use in the retail version of Gears 3, but, during a press event this week, producer Rod Fergusson offered a rough idea of what it might take. "If you play -- right now, we're still fiddling with the numbers -- but right now we're talking like 90 matches," Fergusson said. "If you play 90 matches and get, say, 100 kills with [the Retro Lancer] weapon, [the gold version is] yours. There's no other place to get it." Fergusson also promised there would be additional unlockables in the beta, though he didn't go into specifics.

The Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta will launch some time before the game's September 20 release. Early access to the beta can be secured by purchasing the limited-run, "Epic Edition" of Bulletstorm, available now.

#xbox360 I played the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta. I executed other players by swinging the butt end of a bulky rifle at their Locust skull. I even chainsawed Anya. Xbox 360 owners, you'll be able to do the same soon. More »

When Gears of War 2 launched, its mutliplayer community quickly singled out two distinct issues: the nerfed shotgun and a mess of glitches, including a host exploit that was allowing unscrupulous players to gain an unfair advantage. Epic would eventually address these issues through title updates, but one serious problem remained: all of those damn cheaters.

These ne'er-do-wells plagued the community until the bottom fell out, leaving only a dedicated core group of players. You won't find too many folks playing much Gears 2 these days.

For this year's Gears of Wars 3 multipalyer, Epic is adding dedicated servers, the community's most requested feature, which design director Cliff Bleszinski describes as "the best way" to combat cheating.

Start saving your cash and begin building up your mental tolerance for gore. Microsoft just announced that Gears of War 3 will be released worldwide on September 20. If your calendar isn't at hand, don't worry about marking the date -- we're quite certain Microsoft will spend more than the GDP of some countries on Gears advertising. Later this summer, you won't be able to not see the Gears of War 3 date.

In the meantime there's Bulletstorm, which serves both as a way to build up that mental tolerance and as a delivery system for the upcoming Gears 3 beta.

Fenix rises this September.

Tomorrow (or midnight tonight, depending on your level of enthusiasm), Bulletstorm will launch across the country. For a select group of Xbox 360 owners, this purchase will be partially driven by the desire to play Gears of War 3 early -- specifically, the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta that's included with Bulletstorm's "Epic Edition."

Epic's Rod Fergusson warned Twitter users that a code alone wouldn't secure early entry in the multiplayer beta. Entering the code actually adds an option to Bulletstorm's main menu, which will grant access to the multiplayer beta when it becomes available. Just like Crackdown hosted the Halo 3 beta, the Bulletstorm disc is needed to play the Gears 3 beta.

While we're on the topic, Fergusson has also promised more news on the multiplayer beta will be available later this week. Keep your eyes on the 'Stiq for it.

Tomorrow (or midnight tonight, depending on your level of enthusiasm), Bulletstorm will launch across the country. For a select group, this purchase will be driven by the desire to play Gears of War 3 early -- specifically, the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta code. To that group, we must say: don't throw away that disc!

Epic's Rod Fergusson warned Twitter users that a code alone wouldn't secure early entry in the multiplayer beta. Entering the code actually adds an option to Bulletstorm's main menu, which will grant access to the multiplayer beta when the time is right. Remember Crackdown and Halo 3? Yep, just like those -- i.e., you'll need the Bulletstorm disc to play the Gears 3 beta.

While we're on the topic, Fergusson has also promised more news on the multiplayer beta will be available later this week. Keep your eyes on the 'Stiq for it.

#screenshots A trio of new Gears of War 3 screenshots appear in a new Gamespot blurb for the game. Here's one. Gears 3 hits Xbox 360s late this year. [Gears of War 3 Gamespot blurb] More »

Mad Catz has announced an agreement with Epic Games allowing the peripheral company to produce Gears of War 3 branded accessories for Xbox 360. Gear of Gears of War, if you will. The accessories, planned for release this holiday season alongside the game, include "specialty controllers, headphones" and other unspecified peripherals.

Unfortunately, the company has yet to release images, so for now you'll just have to imagine, like, a totally manly headset, and an Xbox controller from which Marcus Fenix's face grimaces at you.

Mad Catz and Epic previously partnered on carrying cases and "skinz" for Gears of War and Gears of War 2.

Mad Catz is in the process of creating a range of Gears of War 3 branded specialty controllers, headphones and peripherals for the Xbox 360 title, the company said today. Among the Gears' items will be console skins, faceplates and a create for transporting and storing your console. More »

The UNCTV report posted after the jump is noteworthy for two reasons: First, it shows off a bunch of Gears of War 3 multiplayer during a tour of Epic Games' HQ. Second, it's a mainstream news report about video games that isn't awkward and condescending enough to peel the flesh off your bones.

#clips A seemingly harmless report from UNCTV in North Carolina on the local video game business has an unexpected treat: quite a bit of footage of people playing Gears of War 3's multiplayer. More »

Gears of War 3 senior gameplay designer, Lee Perry, has revealed a surprising trend in the gameplay habits of Gears-heads. He told OXM UK that the most-played Gears 2 maps have one thing in common: They're bright.

"You can almost rank how much [maps are] played by how bright they are," Perry told OXM. "The darker, dreary, more depressing maps tend to be on the bottom." Hmm, maybe if they weren't so dreary or depressing?

Perry said this knowledge has served Epic well in developing next April's holiday's Gears 3. The third installment sports a new lighting model, which has helped in the creation of brighter maps. "Even the maps that are 'dark,' they're 'movie dark,'" he explained. "It just means they're more blue than dark." You know, blue can still be pretty darned dreary and depressing -- just saying!

Additionally, comments from lead multiplayer level designer Jim Brown suggest Gears 3 might rethink how it presents downloadable maps to users. The Gears of War 2 Flashback map pack, bundled with all new copies of that game at launch, was downloaded by less than 30 percent of the people who played the game -- a figure that puzzles Brown. "It was free, in the box, they just never bothered to do it," he said. "Is it a matter of accessibility? Is it people don't like typing in a 16-digit code? What's the reason?" We'll posit that it was actually because most people never took the manual out of the case.

Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has tweeted that Gears of War 3 will feature some "special unlocks" for fans of other games the company has had a hand in, including Unreal Tournament 3, the upcoming Bulletstorm and Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex. Don't worry if you don't happen to own one of those, though, as Epic tells Joystiq directly that Bleszinski was talking about "unlockable content" for everyone rather than something specifically for owners of those other games. "Everybody gets the content," we were told, but "those 'in the know' will just 'get it.'"

As in "get a little more excitement out of it," because Epic fans will understand the references. In fact, Epic even added one more title to the list of references that the third Gears of War game will make: its iOS hit Infinity Blade. And if you don't know your God King from your Jason Flemming, or what an Impact Hammer is, then you've got plenty of time to find out before Gears 3 debuts later on in 2011.

Not sure how you feel about the we-hope-it's-satire taste level in Epic's Bulletstorm? Allow us to help you make peace with the shooter: Buying the newly-announced "Epic Edition" for Xbox 360 will grant you early access to a Gears of War 3 beta. Yum yum beta juice. The beta is scheduled to begin sometime this year. Bulletstorm is still on for February 22.

The limited-run, 360-exclusive Epic Edition will retail for the same $60 price as the standard edition and includes in-game extras in addition to that all-important beta access -- like 25,000 bonus experience points, "visual upgrades" for your leash, new boots and armor, and the "Peace Maker Carbine."

Microsoft's expected but unexpected reveal of new Gears of War gameplay at tonight's Spike TV Video Game Awards has been delayed. Major Nelson promises the eventual reveal will "definitely be worth the wait." More »

#graphics Whenever I see a new look at the Unreal Engine, I wonder: How will they use this in the next Gears of War? I did that in March. I'm doing it again with this brand-new look at the updated Engine. More »

#culturesmash When I was thirteen, Ice-T was the baddest dude on the planet, rapping about pushing dope and killing cops. There were no musicians who seemed as hard as him. The guy was scary. Now? More »

Epic dished out some footage of the various new executions in Gears of War 3's updated multiplayer mode. Since you won't get to try out the new murder techniques until next year, we've put together this video to give you a taste. So what are you waiting for?

Mantle on past the break and check it out!

#clips There were so much discussion and so many questions spurred by the two videos I posted from Gears of War 3 this morning that I went back to Microsoft for a walk-through of everything we were seeing in clips. More »

#xbox360 New weapons, new maps, new characters. Gears of War 3 has them all. More »

#news Gears of War 3 is getting a public beta early next year, Epic Games revealed at an event this week at their studio. More »

While you will have to wait an extra five months to get the full version of Gears of War 3 at retail, Epic Games is offering up a concession in the form of a free multiplayer public beta. You'll be able to check out the new multiplayer well before the game ships, although Epic has not released the exact date yet. And the extra development time will allow the developer to take full advantage of feedback from players and implement that information into the final version of the game.

"A big part of what we're trying to do is embrace the different play styles that people have, so this public beta is going to be a very big chance for us to throw it out in the wild and see how well we've met the needs of what players want in order to use different tactics," said Lee Perry, senior gameplay designer, Epic Games.

Epic held an open house, showing off its newly expanded digs in Cary, North Carolina and offering a first taste and hands-on gameplay with a trio of multiplayer maps - Checkout, Trenches and Overpass. Each map showcases a different aspect of gameplay strategy: Checkout is set inside a large market; Trenches is a map focused on trench warfare that has a large hill at its central point that leads to a very powerful sniper position; Overpass is a section of street with buildings on one side and a bus stop on the other with a large overpass dividing the two sides of the road.

Who said delays weren't good for something? In an effort to fill the intervening months between Gears of War 3's one-time April 2011 release and its new "holiday season" 2011 release, publisher Microsoft issued the following terse announcement: "We plan to host a public multiplayer beta for Gears of War 3 in 2011 featuring dedicated servers." With all that extra development time between release and the beta, Epic should be able to implement feedback from gamers into the final boxed product.

We don't have many other details regarding the beta, but we do have a preview of the game's multiplayer component, in which lead level designer Jim Brown told us that dedicated servers should level the playing field for gamers and help the dev circumvent the issues Gears of War 2 experienced at launch.

New weapons, new modes, and a whole lot of bombshells.

#xbox360 It looks like Epic's Cliff Bleszinski was more than just three days off when he told Jimmy Fallon on national TV that Gears of War 3 was hitting on April 8. More »

It's begun. As was the case earlier this year, next year's Spring lineup is densely packed with high-profile games. As such, the inevitable migration to the holiday season begins with Microsoft's announcement that Gears of War 3 - one third of its blockbuster trifecta at this year's E3 - will be relocated from its already announced April 5, 2011 release to later in the year. "The teams at Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games have done great work thus far readying the title for release in the Spring of 2011," a statement released by Microsoft said. "However, we've elected to move the launch of Gears of War 3 until Fall 2011 to make it the marquee title for the holiday season."

The move is ostensibly designed to better position the third installment in the pachydude simulator and, we imagine, pad out Microsoft's holiday 2011 releases. That doesn't leave a lot of room for E3 surprises if Gears 3 is the Xbox's "marquee title" for the 2011 holiday season. No bother, we're still holding out for that Blinx: The Time Sweeper HD update.

Microsoft chooses its next big holiday title.