Gears of War 3

Gears of War 3 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games, published by Microsoft Games Studios and released on Xbox 360 in September 2011. It is the third installment of the Gears of War series and concludes the trilogy.

Gameplay
Gears of War 3 will feature a four-player co-op mode and the introduction of three playable female characters: Samantha Byrne, Anya Stroud, and Bernadette Mataki, a character from the novels by Karen Traviss. Another new playable character is Jace Stratton, a battle-hardened soldier who appears in the comic series and is mentioned in the second game.

The game will feature new weapons, including a double-barreled shotgun and a Pendulum War Era Lancer, with a normal bayonet attached. In the June Issue of Game Informer, Epic revealed other new weapons such as an Incendiary Grenade, a new heavy weapon called the Digger Launcher that fires explosive piranha creatures that dig through the ground at high speeds. Another new heavy weapon, the One Shot, can take down any enemy with a single round. The Gorgon pistol is now a fully automatic weapon, and is known as the Gorgon SMG. Also, a new turret has been revealed that allows up to four of any weapon to be mounted on it.

A fully controllable "Mech" suit will be available for use in certain parts of the game, armed with a machine gun and rocket launcher. It has two operating modes, in assault mode it is controlled like a standard character, in stationary mode, it locks into position and deploys its armor, as well as cover for other Gears from its legs.

Hip-hop stars Drake and Ice-T will be the voices of Jace Stratton and Griffin, respectively. Claudia Black will be the voice of Sam Byrne. The Locust have also expanded with the addition of the Savage Grenadier, the Digger Boomer, the Locust Siege Beast, and a new variant of Kantus.

New moves in the game include the ability to swap weapons with squadmates and knock over enemies while going over cover, as seen in the live demo. Players will also be able to kick Lambent enemies away after they have been killed by the chainsaw or bayonet.

Multiplayer
Gears of War 3 will include a new mode called Beast mode. It is the opposite of Horde Mode in Gears of War 2, the player instead attacking COG members as Locust. Tokens are earned for killing enemies, allowing the player to upgrade their character to a stronger class of Locust. Horde Mode will also reappear in the third installment.

Synopsis
Eighteen months after the fall of Jacinto, the Gears have moved to the island of Vectes and are living aboard a converted aircraft carrier called the Raven's Nest. The government disbanded and the imulsion that powered Sera's cities has infected and mutated members of the Locust, causing them to become Lambent. The Lambent are evolving into a new enemy that threatens both the Locust and humanity. The Stranded also live on the island along with other survivors from E-Day.

According to Cliff Bleszinski, the game will "answer the majority of the questions that players have about the history of the world and what's going on". The story is being written by noted Star Wars Expanded Universe novel author Karen Traviss, who has authored three Gears novels and is working on the next two.

Epic revealed that Clayton Carmine, brother of Anthony and Benjamin, of the previous two games, will appear in Gears of War 3. A vote was held between July 29 and September 6 to see if Carmine will live or die, based on Xbox avatar T-Shirts available for purchase on Xbox live. Additionally, real life t-shirts were available from San Diego Comic-Con with all purchases counting towards the vote. The voting campaign raised over $150,000, which was all donated to Child's Play charity.

Marketing
Gears of War 3 was officially unveiled on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by Cliff Bleszinski, with a teaser trailer. Before the official reveal, an ad for the game was accidentally leaked on the Xbox Live platform. The song featured in the trailer is 'Heron Blue' by Sun Kil Moon. The teaser trailer was also unveiled on the Xbox 360 Dashboard on April 14, 2010. A live demo was presented at Microsoft's keynote presentation at E3 2010.