Gears of War 3 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. Originally due for release in April 2011, the game was delayed and eventually released on September 20, 2011. Gears of War 3 made over one million pre-orders and was one of the most anticipated games of 2011. It is the third installment of the Gears of War series, and the final game in the current story arc. The story was written by science fiction author Karen Traviss, who has authored four Gears novels and is working on the next one. So Basically, I played the game when it first came out, I got it ordered to my house. I set up a party of four including, myself, my friends Byram and Vickii and also my Gears obsessed partner Kyle. Our party of four was for no other reason but to play the 4 player co-op campaign together. As we all have different times when we are available it took us a very long time to play our way through. But last night we spent four hours simply just staying focused on the campaign and we managed to complete it as we'd already gotten quite far. I have to say, it was amazing. The campaign is thrilling, entertaining and emotional. They have written it extremely well and have kept to the same story line through out all of the games. I was happy to see the return of many characters from the previous games. Epic has changed the look of the characters a lot, out of my group of friends I seem to be the only one who's noticed this. The characters don't look as 'cheesy' so to say. They are much more detailed and look a lot less fake and bulky like a Space Marine from Warhammer 40k, now they actually look Human, well as Human as a game character can be. Baird's hair is much more bushier, his Goggles are brighter and his muscles have been toned. Cole's head seems to be a different shape but he's kept to his same body shape. Marcus unveils his hair at the end of the campaign, and guess what? It looks exactly like the classic Action Man hair! As well as changing the hair and design of the characters, Epic have made one big change to my favorite game mode King of the Hill. This annoyed me, basically they've changed the mode so that it's basically Annex. The capture points move, like Annex and also the fighting has Warzone moves which means you don't have to go up to the characters and execute them. This upset me as King of the Hill was my favorite game mode since the first Gears of War. This isn't King of the Hill. This is Annex. All in all, I am impressed with what the team has managed to do, and I am really proud how far they have come with the company. The only thing I have to fault with the game or the company is the fact that they've done what every other company have seemed to do recently. They've managed to turn the game into a 'Cash Cow'. This basically means they are trying to milk as much money out of the game as possible by trying to sell individual weapon skins for about 270 microsoft points, which I personally feel is a lot for something so small in game. I was hugely disappointed with this, I thought they were different from the rest. As we all know, this is not the last game, there has been information leaked about a game called Gears of War: Excile which will follow some new characters. Also, there is DLC coming for Gears of War 3 following the story of a character from the Graphic Novels, stick around for more news.

Battlefield 3 (commonly abbreviated to BF3) is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released in the US on October 25, 2011 and in the UK on October 28, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and EA Mobile confirmed a port for the iOS platform. It is a direct sequel to 2005's Battlefield 2, and the eleventh installment in the Battlefield franchise. The game sold 5 million copies in its first week of release, and was released to critical acclaim from most game reviewers. In campaign mode, players take on the personas of various military roles; including a special forces soldier, an F-18 systems officer, and a SPETSNAZ operative. The campaign takes place at various locations, including Iran, and follows the story of Sergeant Blackburn and later, Dimitri Mayakovsky. I have to say, this game is both thrilling and entertaining but there are many points I need to make about this game. For one thing, I don't think people should say Battlefield is a bad game just because they are a Call of Duty fan. Both games are good in their own way and we should sit back and respect our fellow gamers views. Call of Duty is quick, fast paced and always fun to play with a party of friends, where as Battlefield is realistic, graphical and slow pace. It depends what type of game you're into and personally, I like them both but my heart will always choose Battlefield first. Vehicles, realistic weapon sounds and building destruction is something i've always liked in games. I love the fact that you can jump in a Tank and blow up a building for no other reason except to fuffil your needs. Personally, I think EA should of waited longer to release Battlefield. I am a huge fan but found myself quite dissapointed that the game wasn't how I expected it to be. The Frostbite 2 engine was made out to be amazing before the game was released, and I guess that was a lie. I played the Battlefield 3 alpha at the Leeds Festival EA booth, I was told in there that this was just an alpha so the graphics would most definitely be tuned up... Well, this was obviously a lie, as the game just looks the same. I expected it to have every leaf, blade of grass and brick detailed, but this was obviously never going to happen. It should of done though, they explained it like it was going to be this amazing engine that would blow other games graphics out of the water. Now, I know I said I love building destruction, which I do, but I was expecting more from Battlefield 3. On one map you spawn next to a Tank, so what do I do? I jump into it and begin frantically shooting at the nearest building. The tank shells destroy some of the outer building but it never fell down or collapsed, and this was after 5 minutes of me trying to shoot it. They were trying too hard to beat the famous Modern Warfare series and seemed to push the production too fast. The multiplayer servers for Xbox didn't work at first and kept either kicking people from the game or just not connecting in the first place. Also, the Beta didn't really help the game at all. There were so many bugs and that is something you should sort before the Beta was released but once again, they said it was a copy of the game from months ago.. So why not release a newer version and give people good impressions? The map they chose was too big, too buggy and didn't show the one thing that makes Battlefield unique, the vehicles. Also, on the PC you have to load the game through a web browser, which is a great idea if played out right. They couldn't even make this work. Most of the time it doesn't load up correctly and freezes. The chat that EA supply for Battlefield is also very bad, the sound quality is appauling so your best bet is to buy Ventrillo or use Skype to contact your friends with. Although I am saying this, and have slated the game quite badly, the PC graphics are amazing but still not as good as I expected. All in all, I do love Battlefield but I have to admit, Battlefield Bad Company 2 was way better. This is just personal opinion, you may not agree but I thought that was the best shooter game I've played on. On the otherhand, I refuse to pick up a copy of Modern Warfare 3, this seems like a huge waste of money as they haven't done much to the game (or even made a new graphics enginge) which I think is ridiculously lazy. I will still play Battlefield, but EA, you ruined my expectations and let me down.