#gameclub
Gather up people. It's week four of our Gears of War 3 talks at the Kotaku Game Club. In our final discussion, we're going to see what everyone thinks about the overhauled Horde mode and its counterpart, the brand new Beast mode. More »
Remember to come join the Kotaku Game Club for our discussion of Gears of War 3's Horde and Beast modes tomorrow at 4pm Eastern. It's the last meeting for Gears 3 so bring your idea for our next game too. More »
This isn't going to make the rollin' shotties crowd happy. Effective today, the sawed-off shotgun in Gears of War 3 no longer results in "gibs" at a range further than the gnasher. Epic shared that little detail along with weapon stat slides that showed, among other things, that shotguns comprised 72 percent of quick match kills.
"Pretty much, 45 percent of the kills are caused by gnasher [in quick match]," Epic's Senior Gameplay Programmer Pete Knepley explains in the video. "Gnasher domination is still continuing, but it's not as bad as Gears 2, where it was pretty much 10 to 1 against the lancer."
If you're looking to avoid the Gears shotgun frustration fest(R), head into a "ranked match" instead of "quick match" to reduce the odds of being shredded.
Gears of War 3's "Horde Command" DLC arrives on November 1, and X-Play has a clip detailing the contents. The video explains the new command center fortification, along with the Onyx Guard decoy, fire turret and Silverback upgrades.
Horde Command will be available for 800 MSP ($10) standalone, or unlocked with the Gears of War 3 season pass. Check out X-Play's video after the break.
Gears of War 3 players are flooding the Epic forums with complaints of freezing issues, which occur when players attempt to load a game mode. Specifically, it seems to be limited to splitscreen Horde play with two profiles -- when the glitch hits, it permanently alters one of the profiles, making it impossible to enter any game mode. So ... that's not a great bug.
Epic is aware of it; in fact, Epic rep Rykard posted a questionnaire attempting to nail down the exact issue. We're checking in with Epic for an ETA on the fix. Until then ... try not to play Horde mode in splitscreen.
Every editor at IGN wishes he or she had the time to personally respond to every semi-sane comment from the message boards, but we don't. However, in an effort to raise the level of discourse, we've decided to pick out some of the most interesting comments from Casey Lynch's recent Gears of War 3 re...
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Things are grim on Sera in Gears of War 3. People—important ones, even—are dying. The Lambent seem to be ready to overrun the entire planet. The whole game's one big emo-pocalypse. More »
#gameclub
I hope you're ready, ladies and gents. It's Versus mode week here at the Kotaku Game Club. Today we'll be sharing our experiences playing the competitive multiplayer modes of Gears of War 3. More »
Gears of War has come a long way since its debut in 2006. The series has become richer, larger and more detailed as it's evolved over the years, expanding nearly every facet of gameplay. When the trilogy's final installment released last month, IGN gave it a 9.0...
Gears of War 3's first DLC pack, "Horde Command," will enter the fray on November 1. Available for 800 MSP ($10), or through the game's "season pass," the DLC includes three new maps, a few characters (Onyx Guard, Big Rig Dizzy, Bernie), weapon skins and, most exciting, new fortifications for Horde mode.
The new fortifications include a command center that allows players to call in support from snipers, mortars or Hammers of Dawn. A decoy upgrade that can create a fighting Onyx Guard bot, a sentry upgrade that adds a fire bolt for more damage and is really helpful against berserkers, and a Silverback upgrade with rockets and repair cost reduction.
#gearsofwar
Now that Gears of War 3 is out and reviewed, it's time to talk about future Gears games. Because, why not? Those games make cashola! And Gears designer Cliff Bleszinski isn't sick of them. Yet. More »
We've been known to have a bit of a penchant for LEGO ourselves, but the kits we snap together usually come with diagramed instructions and have more to do with fanciful medieval castles than brutal alien slaughter, and they sure as hell aren't life-size, functionalengineering marvels.
PlumBrothers' 1:1 scale Lancer is one of the most impressive LEGO builds we've seen in a long, long time, partly due to its aesthetically accurate construction, but mostly because of the boggling amount of engineering that went into this thing. Not only is it a working rubber-band gun, but the weapon's rubber payload is loaded into working clips. Once the safety (!!) is disabled, the user has their choice of single or burst firing modes at their disposal. The chainsaw even moves and everything.
#xbox360
Gears of War 3 is the latest in an increasingly long list of games that include the ability to filter out adult language and gore through the game's settings. More »
#gearsofwar
To get the hardest achievement on the Xbox 360, Marcus Fenix had to do more than just kill a few Locust. He had to get his hands dirty. He had to put in some time. More »
#gameclub
Welcome back everyone! During today's meeting of the Kotaku Game Club, we'll be discussing the later three acts of the Gears of War 3 campaign. Warning: For all you Gears players who haven't finished the campaign yet, there will definitely be spoilers below. More »
Microsoft announced this morning that Gears of War 3 surpassed three million sales during its first week at retail. The publisher also reveled in this small window of opportunity to say that Gears 3, in just one week, "has already grossed more than any 2011 video game to date." That's a record it'll be lucky to hold past November 8 when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 drops.
The success of the latest sequel also pushes the Gears of War franchise over the billion dollar mark in lifetime sales, Microsoft claims. It is also the only Xbox 360-exclusive franchise to reach this milestone after being introduced during the current console generation -- ruling out the longer-running Halo for that ultra-specific sales commendation.
Gears of War 3 sold more than three million copies in the first week since its release, publisher Microsoft said today. The Xbox 360 exclusive is now the top grossing game of 2011, a record that more than a few games will be gunning to topple in the coming months. More »
If you haven't heard, the Kotaku Game Club will be discussing the second half of the Gears of War 3 campaign at Kotaku tomorrow at 4pm Eastern here on the site. If you've been playing Gears 3, check it out! More »
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Good ol' commenter Uncle Jesse returns to the Speak Up on Kotaku spotlight today, wondering if any of you actually use those convenient microphones they attach to today's newfangled headsets. More »
We know to expect the voice of Aisha Tyler in upcoming Gears of War 3 campaign DLC, but the rest of the cast remains a mystery. Posting in a NeoGAF thread, designer Cliff Bleszinski shared some additional details, explaining that the story won't be focused on the game's core cast.
And though it won't be based on the Gears of War graphic novels either, former Stranded-turned-COG Michael Barrick will appear. "No, it won't be the graphic novel, but it will have all new campaign content that doesn't have Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird in it," Bleszinski wrote. "Expect Barrick and more..."
We're assuming Aisha Tyler won't be the one playing Barrick.
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains massive plot spoilers from the Gears of War 3 campaign.
In retrospect, it makes sense that the most memorable moment in Gears of War 3 is a suicide.
Two years after having killed his wife because she had some brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disor...
#wellplayed
It's like clockwork; Moments after popping open any game that has a mature rating, my 10-year-old son seems to appear at my elbow to ask if he can play it with me. More »
#gearsofwar
Ayaman Japan is a trio of girls who love to party. There's Ayaman, the outfit's leader and "Crotch Boss" (the group also has a "Boob Boss" and an "Ass Boss"). The Boob Boss, Asami Sakurada, used to moonlight as a game event companion. Now, she emcees game launch events. More »
Standard issue anything is such a drag, you know? These days, you have to accessorize and customize just to get noticed on the battlefield, and even then it's become such a chore to stand out while staying alive. Sure, golden Lancers are cool and everything, but experienced COGs know that flashy blinged-out weapons only exist to give away your position and get you killed.
What's a Gear like you to do, then? Well friend, take it from the fashionistas over at GameFront: Chickens are the new black. Their helpful how-to video (above) details every little thing you need to do in order to unlock the Cluckshot, Gears of War 3's avian-themed (and rather literal) easter-egg weapon. With this trendy new weapon, you'll be the cock of the walk, and those fashion-backward Locusts will have egg on their faces!
Gears of War 3 may not see its first infusion of downloadable goodness until November, but the xenophobic chainsaw sculpting simulator may have already given us a glimpse at the battles yet to come: Tucked away in the leaderboards are listings for three unannounced and unaccessible maps: Rustlung, Azura, and Blood Drive.
Now, we're not entirely prepared to call this thing a duck, despite its rather convincing quacking. These maps could be part of a future DLC pack, true, but they could just as easily be developer levels used for testing; maps which will never, ever be released to the public. For now, all we can do is wait, and speculate.
