Gears of War 3 Message Board older than one year ago

Co-op gameplay introduced by Cliff Bleszinski at E3 2011!

#lessonslearned There wasn't going to be a Gears of War 3 beta last month. More »

#watchthis It's not the brown that sells this or the over-the-shoulder documentary style fan flick. It's the production value. Just look at these backgrounds! Stunning stuff. More »

For us, the most exciting part of the Champions League Final was when that grotesque tentacle-necked monster started tossing cars around, while Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" played in the background.

Or did that happen in the Gears of War 3 campaign trailer that premiered after the game? We might be getting the two mixed up. We'll watch the trailer again (after the break) to straighten the situation out.

Get a rocking look at the Gears of War 3 campaign in this quick trailer.

#watchthis Airing moments ago in Europe and Mexico following the UEFA Champions' League Final, here is the full Gears of War 3 E3 trailer, with special musical guest Black Sabbath performing "War Pigs." More »

#wasdeadspinright LeBron James, first you upset the people of Cleveland by abandoning their basketball team. Now you've helped the Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls in five games, closing the series out last night with an 83-80 victory. That means there's no sixth game for the NBA Eastern Conference Finals this Saturday. More »

I (virtually) sat down with Executive Producer Rod Fergusson and Lead Level Designer Jim Brown from Epic Games to gain some insight on the lessons learned, statistics, and changes coming to Gears of War 3 as it makes the long journey from post-beta to retail release...

#retrolancer Think you're a hardcore Gears fan for preordering the $149.99 Epic Edition of Gears of War 3? Drop an extra $80 on the Retro Lancer bundle and then we'll talk. More »

#betamaster Two years ago, gamer Aldo Cauvi started losing his hearing. Then, things got worse. Last year, he lost his hearing completely. And his job. This year, he needed something to keep going. That was Gears of War 3. More »

The gang's all here, and sporting some new looks, for this latest installment.

Catch a glimpse of Marcus and see the world premiere of Gears of War 3 Saturday, May 28.

Somehow, we expected Marcus Fenix's dad to have a thicker neck, but his brief appearance in the tease for next week's big Gears of War 3 TV spot depicts a man with a svelter torso than his offspring. Head past the break for details on the TV spot and to see old man Fenix for yourself.

#glimpses The new Gears of War 3 trailer is short. Vryshrt. It's just a tease of another trailer that will debut on May 28 during the Champions League Final Match (soccer, right?) and during Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals in the U.S. More »

Gears of War 3 has officially passed 1,000,000 pre-orders...

#gearsofwar3 Microsoft is crowing this morning about Gears of War 3 becoming the fastest pre-ordered video game in history, which is one of the silliest-sounding records any marketing team has ever claimed for a game, up there with whenever some suit decides to wrap a game in tin foil and declare it the shiniest game ever. More »

The cogs did their part, as 1.29 million fans enlisted in the recent Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta and pre-ordered the game in hordes. In all, Epic gathered 249 years worth of match-time data from players spanning 145 countries during the four-week public testing phase, which wrapped up this past Sunday. And it was all up and running, for the first time, on dedicated servers. (Oorah!)

While neither Microsoft nor Epic specified how many beta testers got in early through their "Epic Edition" copies of Bulletstorm, the two were quite pleased to announce that Gears of War 3 has surpassed one million pre-orders (the other ticket into the beta) -- and we're still four months away from the game's September 20 launch. That's got to be some kind of record, right?

Uh-huh. Gears 3 now holds the distinguished honor of being "the fastest pre-ordered Xbox exclusive title to reach this milestone in the history of the platform." (*Golf clap*)

Pore over some more beta stats after the break.

#watchthis You can win a match in the Gears of War 3 beta without firing a shot. It's impressive, if not the most exciting thing to watch. Good work, folks (the featured players here are from the pro gaming team Amazyn, we think), and hat tip to Gears czar Cliff Bleszinski for Tweeting it to our attention. More »

At two in the morning last night the Gears of War 3 beta shut down. It's been an exciting few weeks and everyone here at IGN has had a blast -- literally and figuratively -- upping their kill counts, capturing leaders, and generally trouncing the online competition. But with all the fun we had, that isn't to say the beta was perfect. We've been brainstorming around the office to gather up all the elements we felt demand attention and should be fixed before the game ships in September...

Listen, everyone -- your desk simply isn't intimidating enough. What you need, what you've got to have is an 11-inch statue of a muscle-bound future-marine. That's just one of the many, many bonuses include in the $150 Epic Edition of Gears of War 3; a monstrous package that encapsulates the aforementioned statue; a 96-page book penned by Tom Bissell (author of "Extra Lives") about the art and design of the shooter; an "Octus Service Medal;" and everything else pictured above. (Is that Adam Fenix's will? It certainly is.)

Shoppers will also have the option of purchasing the game's $80 Limited Edition, which includes the Service Medal, a COG flag, some Fenix family documents and an exclusive Adam Fenix multiplayer skin. No statue, though; so who's going to keep your mug full of pens from stepping out of line? Check out the full list of the extras in the Epic and Limited Editions -- as well as a video demonstration of that statue -- after the break!

#specialeditions On September 10, 2011, you will be able to buy Gears of War 3 for $60. But maybe that's not enough for you. Maybe you'll want more Gears in your life than a boring game disc. More »

Step inside the workshop for this behind-the-scenes look at Gears of War 3!

#watchthis Gears of War 3 will offer a novelty big-head mode, and those in the game's multiplayer beta saw it in action yesterday. In addition to quadrupling the dome size, COG and Locust will speak in higher pitched voices. This should make headshots a lot sillier. More »

The Gears of War 3 Beta is chock full of visceral rewards. Line up a Longshot sniper shot just right, and you're rewarded with a beautiful burst of gore. Dome-popping in Gears is so pleasing, in fact, that it's even satisfying on the receiving end. Getting your head blown off by a shotgun, Boltok pistol or rifle is sad, sure. But it's also cool to the core. Someone's face just exploded. Even if it's yours, that's still pretty amazing...

Curious as to why the Xbox 360's two biggest exclusive shooters never managed to fuse, forming some kind of chimera made of space armor and hilariously disproportionate guns? Wonder no more -- in a recent interview with Complex, Gears of War' designer Cliff Bleszinski revealed, "I actually approached Microsoft on getting Master Chief into the game, but those guys are kind of squeamish." He jokingly added, "If you had to break it down, I'd say that Gears is like Mortal Kombat and Halo is like Street Fighter."

From there, things get ... a little grisly. Bleszinski said, "if we were to get Master Chief, we'd get his model, put him in a COG suit, make it blow up, and do some test animation work. We'd have to see what his head looks like being blown to smithereens or how his arm would look getting sawed off." We're not sure the ol' arm-saw technique's gonna work on MC. After all, this is the same guy who can get shot point blank by a rocket-propelled grenade without suffering any structural damage.

The "Never Fight Alone" phase of the Gears of War 3 beta will begin May 8, allowing players to invite friends into the foray. Participants in the beta will earn "buddy tokens" by finishing challenges or completing tasks ... like giving Microsoft more money.

Every person who has played a game in the Gears beta will receive a buddy token. Additional ways to obtain a token are by purchasing any Gears content off the Xbox Live Marketplace or by adding a 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription to your account. Tokens can also be earned by having played 20 hours or more of the Gears 3 beta -- time already spent does count -- and by playing more than 100 hours of "any Gears of War title, lifetime to date."

Players have until May 4 (this Wednesday!) to complete the tasks and earn up to five tokens. Participants don't need to take any addition action for their tokens, and the alpha-numeric codes will be distributed by email starting May 8 (so make sure your account details are up to date). This will give players a week to team up with their buddies for some Gears 3 action before the beta ends on May 15.

#softm Epic Games characters have appeared into other games before - Lost Planet 2, for example. The studio's willing to consider any reasonable tie-in with its own games, too, so you're not the first to wonder how awesome it'd be to have a Master Chief skin in Gears of War. More »

You've already read IGN's Gears of War 3 beta impressions. You've toured the maps and you've watched us play the game. Now it's time to take a look at what other people have to say. I sent out a call to action via my Twitter account (@steimer) and posted a portion of the responses below. Some folks love it, others aren't too keen on it and there are an awful lot of people who think the shotguns are overpowered. Loving It! @ScottKirchhofer says.....

Are you concerned that Gears of War 3 is too violent? Or are you tired of being ripped in half by shotguns before you can even make it across the map? Either way, we have some ideas for you to try out while testing out the Gears of War beta, and none of them involve killing other members of the community...