(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Gears of War 3 on Jimmy Fallon
Cliff Bleszinski shows a new trailer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Tonight Epic Games' design director Cliff Bleszinski managed to break out from the usual gaming media to score an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It's a big win for the gaming industry and for industry PR folks who have been trying to get exposure for their designers on Fallon's show. But given Bleszinski's reason for appearing on the show, the real winners tonight are gamers. Epic will be showing 73 seconds from the upcoming Gears of War 3, the last in Epic's celebrated trilogy.

During the first half of the show, MajorNelson's Twitter posted "Notice the double barrel shotgun, female soldiers and more. Gears of War 3 coming April 2011."

Bleszinski talked about his early inspiration seeing Space Invaders on an Atari 2600 at a neighbor's house and getting into the first issue of Nintendo Power for getting a high score on Super Mario Bros. When asked what makes a good game, Bleszinski answered, "Graphics are the thing that initially pulls people in, but what uptimately matters is gameplay."

The new trailer premiered on Fallon's show is called "Ashes to Ashes" and, in Bleszinski's words, "outlines the world you're going to see in Gears of War 3."

The clip starts on a ruined urban setting, with ash raining down on frozen figures turned to ash in the midst of trying to escape the city. A grizzled COG soldier runs through the ruins, darting past the still, grey figures. He bashes through one as bullets impact on the ground new him. He falls and turns to us and we see it's Dom. Just then a Locust soldier approaches. Just before he fires, a gunshot rings out from off screen and the Locust falls to the ground dead. Marcus Fenix walks in from the right.

The camera shifts to a large firefight between the Locusts and COG. A female soldier who looks a lot like Anya walks up and hands Dom a rifle. The action cuts back to the Locusts just as they're attacked by a massive, tentacled Lambent. Bleszinski calls them "Crazy tentacle monsters that can mutate while you're fighting them."

The COG soldiers are making a final stand, taking out the remaining Locust and holding strong as the Lambent approaches. The trailer fades to black and the words "Brothers to the end" appear on the screen.

Bleszinski also confirmed that double barrel shotguns and female soldiers will be in the new game and announced that the game is currently scheduled for release on April 8, 2011.

You must login or register to view this content.

Source: You must login or register to view this content.


Gears of War 3 Includes 4-Player Co-op, New Weapons
New gameplay details emerge.

Gears of War 3 was officially unveiled last night. Fans got their first glimpse at the game in a minute-long trailer, which featured long-standing COG members Marcus Fenix, and his grizzled partner Dominic Santiago fighting a swarm of Locust enemies and new Lambent tentacle monsters.

But new details have emerged this morning, courtesy of Spanish gaming website MeriStation. In an interview, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski confirmed several new additions and details for Gears of War 3.

Bleszinski said the plot of Gears of War 3 picks up 18 months after the end of Gears 2, and will close the book on the trilogy.

"You can expect that we'll answer the majority of the questions that players have about the history of the world and what's going on," Bleszinski said. "We're not going to answer everything, but I can tell you this will be the conclusion to a trilogy."

In the same interview, Bleszinski confirmed two new weapons for Gears 3: A sawed-off double-barrel shotgun, which is more powerful than the standard shotgun, but has longer reload times and less range, and the Pendulum Lancer, the precursor to the chainsaw Lancer. This new lancer "kicks like a mule when it fires" and includes a large blade at the end that makes for nasty executions.

Bleszinski also said the team will continue to refine the cover system of Gears 3, making it the best in the industry. The game will finally include female characters. Anya, who was a "pencil pusher" in the previous Gears games, will now be fighting alongside the Delta Squad in the new game.

The biggest addition to multiplayer is 4-player online co-op in the story mode. Bleszinski said players can now take control of the other Delta Squad members Baird and Cole in the campaign.

"When you play Gears 1 and 2, Player 1 is Marcus, and Player 2 is Dom. The only way to play as Dom in the campaign is to be Player 2," he said. "That cascades down to Players 3 and 4. If you want to play as Baird or Cole in the campaign, the only way you can do that is to play 3 or 4 player co-op."

Bleszinski also noted the team has switched up the storytelling in Gears 3.

"At some point in the campaign, you're not going to be Marcus and Dom. You're going to be another squad, and you're going to experience their section, and you'll see some overlap and they'll merge Pulp Fiction style, which is one of the ways were playing with the stories this time," he said.

There will also be several multiplayer improvements. Bleszinski promised Gears of War 3 will include better region filtering to allow for less laggy games. Fans will also see the return of several old Gears of War multiplayer maps, but he could not say which ones.

Bleszinski also hinted at a possible new squad command system for multiplayer.

"We definitely want to improve the player's ability to play together with their friends and stick together in a party, but we're not announcing how that will work right now."

Source: You must login or register to view this content.

You must login or register to view this content.

You must login or register to view this content.

You must login or register to view this content.

You must login or register to view this content.

Can't wait for this.