As the Gears 3 Beta stands, it practically ready for retail.

There are currently a total of 4 maps to choose from. Unfortunately, unless it's because I just started the Beta, I can only play 2 out of 4 - Thrashball and Checkout. The former being a sports-type complex honoring the glory days of Augustus Cole, and the latter being a supermarket inspired map. Both are fantastic maps with a great look and feel.

Thrashball is very open in the center with a higher area on one side and lower trenchy area on the opposite side. A big jumbotron in the middle that is interactive (take a guess what you can do) with waist-high walls and other walls of various heights scattered about in the center.

Checkout is very close quartered with tight aisles and many obstacles littered everywhere...just like a supermarket; great for wall bouncing and flanking.


Also, there are currently 3 online modes, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Leader, and King of the Hill. With the former of the 3 being the only playable one at the moment.

Team Deathmatch takes a unique Gears spin. It's basically "Warzone" mode rules, but each team is alotted 15 lives. As you can guess it, each death decreases that counter by 1 until you're left with none, and you can't respawn. This leads to some explosive, exciting gameplay. While I expect many fans to have some complaints here, I really welcome this change. I just don't miss those times when I had to be uber careful not to get killed in Warzone and Execution when it's very easy to get gibbed. And you have to factor in the instability of online play from Gears 2. Not enjoyable; yet, this is.

Thankfully, they turned on the dedicated servers starting this past Monday, April 18th. So let me just say that it is an absolutely blessing to have this as it's really made online fun again. Finally, we can look past the old **** host connection days. I hope that many other developers and shooter IPs take note of this implementation, it really is a gamebreaker.


And finally, the weapons. Back are the old school Lancer, Gnasher (Shotty), and a redesigned Hammerburst with iron sight scope. Newcomers are:

Retro Lancer (a.k.a. Pendulum Lancer) with higher damage than the other long range rifles, yet with decreased accuracy. It's a pain to aim, but it's great for stopping charging enemies. The other fun part of this gun is the bayonet attachment, which as you can guess, you can use to kill others. You do this by holding the B button charging at a distance, and it forks them like a nice Fourth of July skewer.

Sawed-Off Shotgun is a very powerful, melee-range weapon. It has a higher damage output than the Gnasher, but it's range is much shorter. It forces you to close-quarter combat, flanking, and sneaking up on opponents as you watch them disintegrate from a single hip shot; no aiming required. The only caveat is that this weapon starts off with 4 bullets, and if you dare to miss your shot (Let's hope not), you have an excruciatingly long reload time. So, be prepared to jump and dodge your way until you're cocked and loaded to rain havoc once again.

Digger is coined as an anti-camping weapon, which does a good job of that. It's basically a live animal that shoots into the ground and into a straight path of your choosing. The first contact it meets, it releases itself from the ground and explodes taking anyone with it.

Incendiary Grenade is like its Ink Grenade counterpart, yet just flames.

Overall impression: Very, very impressed. I'm glad that they had time to do this Beta because after the online disaster of Gears of War 2, I really was hoping for a polished rendition of its successor; and, they delivered very well.

Hope to see you online.

After years of studying the English language and plugging my nimble fingers away at controllers/keyboards while pleasing my eyes to the wonderous visuals of video gaming, I figured it was finally time to combine these two arts and express my truest feelings about the games that I have experienced thus far, and undoubtedly will continue to enjoy in the future. So without further ado, please enjoy, despise, and ultimately dissect, if you so kindly could, any of my reviews your eyes are willing to read.

Thank you.