Gears of War 3 Horde 2.0 Gameplay Briefing (HD 1080p)

All i'll say is watch the video. It looks like all the stops are being pulled out to make Horde 2.0 stand head and shoulders above the original, which is still a class act. I'll still be shit at it, but at least i'll have a load of keep myself busy with while i'm getting a Brumak rogering me senseless!

Gear of War 3 is sheduled for release on September 20th, 2011.

A look at the Gears of War 3 beta (now with added profanity)

*WARNING. THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE, INCLUDING A NOT SO NICE REFERENCE TO A LADIES PART*

Hey guys, Tony here, yet again bringing you another video, this time its a quick peek at the Gears of War 3 beta.

You may be already playing this if you kept your copy of Bulletstorm, or managed to blag a code from Twitter.....or indeed by performing sexual favours for someone. If, however, you pre-ordered the game your code isn't valid for a good few days yet, so here's a quick look at what you'll get in the beta.

Firstly, you WILL be playing this a whole lot. Not just because of the quality of the game, but because their are various unlockables that can be carried into the full game. Some of these are just flaming versions of the weapons, you get an outfit for Cole after playing something like 100 matches, there are weapon specific unlocks and you get a medal that you can only pick up from playing a game on the beta.....so get playing! It's nice that they have included these, it's a great touch. You can also unlock different characters for the maps by racking up games, such as unlocking Anya for playing 10 games of the beta.

The maps themselves are great. The one I'm showing you here is called "Thrashball", which is set in a derelict Thrashball court. It's quite a symmetrical level, with the open play field littered with walls, and spectator areas at each side, with tunnels and chambers linking them up. Spawn points are at each end of the pitch, which as you'll see in the video hold up a team in there and it could spell a whole heap of trouble. Above the pitch is a scoreboard, which you can shoot the ropes off, sending it crashing to the floor, and basically leaving anyone found underneath it a nice bloody, meaty stain on the floor.

Graphically it's a not leaps and bounds above Gears 2, but that says more about the quality of the graphics in the second game than a criticism of this one. Textures are clearer and more varied, it seems to have a bit more ooomph to it framerate wise, but slap the sound effects and voices in there and it does seem like an improvement.

Anyway, i'm waffling enough. Have a look at the video. Excuse the moments of silence as i'm playing, I kept forgetting I was doing a live commentary because I was getting into the game so much. It's full of foul language as well, which although I don't apologise for, could upset and little ones, old people and Christians, so be warned.



Pretty cool game eh? I'll get another video recorded today of the second map in the beta, the claustrophobic shopping fest "Checkout", which should get you fully prepared for playing if you're still waiting to get into the beta.

Please feel free to chat about the game, or drop me your Gamertag if you fancy like hooking up over the period that the beta is running. The beta is scheduled to end on May 5-15, or somewhere in between. I've heard the fifth, but some people online reckon it's the 15th.

Whatever the end is, get in on the beta. It's Gears through and through....loud, brash, violent and oh lordy, so much fun!

(and if the guy who I called a c**t is reading this.....I love you really)

Gears of War 3 is due for release on September 20th, 2011.

I'm still here......

Sorry about the lack of updates over the last few days you guys, i've just been spending some quality time with mother nature. When the weather is nice, the sun is shining and life is breezy occasionally.....VERY occasionally gaming takes a back seat. I'll be back with a vengeance this week however.

Coming up on gamefreakblog will be a veritable cornucopia of gaming goodness. I'll be looking at the Gears of War 3 beta, looking back at some old games, including a double whammy of Star Wars goodness, more Call of duty average gamer footage, a couple of requests in the form of some Mass Effect 2 missions and some reader requests, some of which i'm not looking forward to at all.

Remember, this is YOUR blog just as much as it's mine.....I can't do anything without you lovely people reading my ramblings, so please keep the requests coming. If you want to hear my take on a certain game, let me know and i'll do a review (system permitting). Check out the vids on Youtube, and by all means if you have a channel let me know and i'll give you a shout out.

So remember to tune in tomorrow for the skinny on the Gears 3 beta and the first "Gamefreak revisits" of this week.

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

R.I.P Cliffy B 1975-2011

Like me, you're more than likely completely devastated having woken up to the sad, tragic news that Cliff Bleszinski, the force behind the Gears of Wars series and one of the leading lights in the gaming industry, passed away at the early hours of this morning. He was 35.

Cliff Bleszinski, or "Dude Huge" as his enemies called him, was a playful scamp. He brought a much needed injection of youth and humour into an industry that can be stale and boring. But it wasn't always this way for Cliff.

His early life was blighted by tragedy. A little known fact about Cliff was that he was born with an atrophied arm of a twin that never developed on his left side, and at school he was constantly teased, with bullies attempting to make him juggle with it. This exclusion by the other kids led him to turn insular, go into himself and create "imaginary" friends. When these imaginary friends also took the piss out of him, Cliff broke down. He started to go into the local woods near to where he lived, building little dens, lighting fires and strangling small animals. One day whilst playing in a local car park, Cliff was locked in, and he struggled to get out as he couldn't manage to get over a wall about chest high.....this event would subconsciously effect Cliff in all of his future work.

Cliff has his first taste of video games when he saw a local kid playing with a Gameboy. The child, seeing Cliff emerge from the woods covered in mouse guts, dropped the Gameboy allowing Cliffy to look at the console. As soon as he started to play he realised his future was in the games industry.

Early days in the gaming world were a struggle for Cliff. Starting off his career with Microsoft, his first job was being Steve Ballmer's wig. Finding this a bit easy, he was then passed around from office to office, making coffee, dishing out handjobs, and on special days he was allowed to sniff Bill Gates chair. Cliff, seeing this was going no-where, left the industry for the bright lights of Hollywood.

Acting also came hard to a young Cliff. He struggled to find any jobs at all, his first brake being on set on the X-men film, where he was Bryan Singer's chair. However, a maturing cliff soon saw himself landing better roles, with his highlight playing the part of a gay vegan waiter in the film "Grandma's boy"



Having cracked the acting world, a newly-confident Cliffy went back to his first love, the games industry. Having blown some very powerful people, Cliff could now start to call the shots. Slaving away for years, his labour of love being the Gears of War games and the recently released "Bulletstorm", Cliff was riding that wave when tragedy struck. In a phone call to a friend last night, a deranged Cliffy B was heard to shout "I......fucking......love.....ah......this......fucking.....gu" and the line went dead. Rushing around to his apartment, Cliffy was found with his hands handcuffed behind his back, a bag on his head and a gold-plated replica Lancer stuck up his rear end.

The funeral service is being held this weekend, where Dude Huge himself will be shot into space. He leaves a loving family, a devastated games industry, and a blood-stained Lancer.

Cliff Bleszinski.......Who died today.

R.I.P

My first dabble in the Bulletstorm multi-player.

Hey guys, just a quick one.

I don't really know why i'm putting this up. It's not like i'm there, racking up the kills into the billions or doing anything stylish. Oh no, far from it.

This is just a quick vid of my first tentative steps into the online portion of Bulletstorm, the fabby, violent dick-em-up by Epic games and People may fly.

The game has been out for a few weeks now, so i'd imagine most of you have played it. For me though, I didn't get round to really getting in to the online side of things until earlier this week....as is the usual case for me I have so many games on the go at the same time I just haven't found the time to play this online that much. I had a few quick attempts for review, but no real epic session.

I played with a few guys from a gaming website I visit called The Third Schism. It's a great little community which I recommend you pop along and join. You can usually find some real nice peeps to have a game with on there, so go on and join them.

Anyway...enough blabbing. Here's one round that I took from one of our games. It's fast, furious, violent, confusing.....but oh so much fun!



It's a great laugh, so go try it out for size.

Just be prepared to screw up as much as I did....

Bulletstorm is available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.