Gears of War 3

[GamerMan316]

yeah i know, and even with dedicated servers i bet people still moan about host advantage!

No doubt even though nobody will have host advantage, idiots will always be idiots I guess. 

[GamerMan316]

Part 1 of xbox360achievements tour of Epic Studios.

Part 2

[GamerMan316]

MS helping with Gears 3 "server farm"

Gears of War 3 will have dedicated online servers - something Halo and Call of Duty have been without for years on console. How? Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski said Microsoft was "helping us out".

"Dedicated servers will be a huge help," Bleszinksi told 1UP. "You can't always guarantee a perfect game in the wild, though.

"I've had lag in [Halo] Reach, I've had lag in Call of Duty. Lag is a reality of the internet when you have millions of people connecting. That said, as a developer, it's your job to do whatever you can to bulletproof a new game as much as possible and dedicated servers, again, will help that.

"It's more about online performance because when you have a client-server architecture with Gears, you have somebody hosting and that host has somewhat of an inherent advantage over everybody else, which becomes this big [negative] thing. Like, in Gears or in Counter-Strike, if somebody kicked your ass, you claimed they were wall-hacking even though they weren't. And now if you win in Gears it's, 'You have host advantage!'" he added.

"But by removing [client servers] you suddenly have a level playing field for everybody. We have a server farm that Microsoft is helping us out with, so people will have a level playing field. "

The release of Gears of War 3 was recently pushed back from April 2011 to autumn 2011. The reason: to be the "marquee title" next Christmas. But the game isn't finished, and Epic will put the extra time to good use.

"Thankfully, with the release date shift, we have time to do a proper beta for Gears 3, which I think will get a lot of goodwill with the community," said Bleszinksi. "It's one of the things I learned over the years, with [Unreal Tournament 1] and UT4, that community is everything, and those fans will support you if you talk to them, if you engage them, if you treat them with respect. And Blizzard knows this, but it's something we really figured out over the last couple of years."

Bleszinksi went on to reveal that theatre mode will not return in Gears of War 3, nor will the ability to take photos of the action. Both features were only used by a small number of gamers., apparently.

A Gears of War 3 beta will begin in early 2011. No specific dates have been announced.

[GamerMan316]

[GamerMan316]

[markav]

Robbed this from the Epic forums 

Modes

* Gears of War 3 will exceed the multiplayer mode offerings of Gears of War 2

* Warzone / Execution
Both are returning unchanged.

* Team Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch with a Gears style twist - your team spawns with 20 lives, and each death on your team takes a life away from that pool. Once all lives are expired, you can no longer respawn. If you are consistantly dying, you will be spawned nearer to your teammates or take slightly
longer to spawn to counteract any potential issues of one person draining a team of lives.

* Capture the Leader
Guardian meets Submission - the leader now cannot be killed, but instead must be meatshielded for 30 seconds to gain the victory. Leaders can struggle using the B button at certain intervals to put off the captives aim. Leaders also gain leadership vision through the Tac/Com, which allows them to see both friend and foe. The new leaders are Queen Myrrah for the Locust, and Chairman Prescott for the COG.

* King of the Hill (Revamp)
King of the Hill has been revamped into a merge of Annex and King of the Hill. The objective now is to hold a ring until your score for that ring hits 100% (the enemy capturing the ring only increases their percentage captured for the ring, and does not decrease your teams percentage). Once one team hits 100% captured, they gain a point and the ring moves. KOTH now uses the Wingman spawn locations to prevent spawn blocking.

* Wingman
Confirmed to be returning, but now involves FOUR teams of two rather than FIVE teams of two.

Ranking and Progression System

* Gears of War 3 will have an XP based ranking system similar to Gears 2, but with unlocks including weapon customisation and multiple skins for characters.
* In a match, you can earn "Ribbons" for things like kill streaks, saving someone's life, killing your nemesis and such. These will earn you extra XP towards your level.
* Your in game accomplishments also count towards "Medals", which are longer term versions of Ribbons that you build towards match over match, such as a medal related to weapon usage. Once a medal is levelled to a certain point, it unlocks a "Title" for use in multiplayer.
* Some Executions will only be avaliable at a certain level. Once earned, you can earn the ability to continue an execution beyond the normal length of time by earning medals with the weapon related to that execution.
* Executions earn you higher XP than a standard kill. Using extended executions earns you more XP for as long as you stand over them, which obviously leaves you extremely vulnerable.
* Epic will store your entire profile data on their own servers to ensure no profile corruptions / rank losses that happened for some Gears 2 players.
* You can level offline, but it is noticeably slower.

Features

Balancing

* New players to Gears of War 3, who have been detected as having never played Gears 1 or 2 AND have died three times consecutively without a kill, will recieve double health and a damage boost for their first 10 kills to help them integrate into multiplayer. As they get closer to ten kills, their bonus will degenerate until disappearing completely at 10 kills.

Matchmaking

* Cliff confirmed they are tackling the bad matchmaking issues in Gears of War 3 in the Meristation TV interview. He mentions improved region filtering as one of the ways they are addressing this issue. Dedicated server based multiplayer will have the strongest matchmaking experience yet.
* There will be a new feature that allows players to stay together as a party. You can now play in seperate games across seperate modes but remain in a party, allowing you to stick with your friends even if you want to play something different.

Other

* You can now "call out" an enemy in multiplayer, which allows you to place a marker over their head with the press of a button. This only lasts three seconds, but earns you extra XP.
* Tac/Com now shows weapon spawns
* Players can now bring up an overhead map showing weapon spawns ect in the middle of the game. Wording makes it difficult to confirm if this is for new players only or for all players.

New Weapons

* The Retro Lancer (aka. the Pendulum Lancer)
Described as the midpoint between rifle play and shotgun play, the Retro Lancer is a high stopping power, high recoil weapon. It is most effective at ranges just outside the Gnasher's effective range usage. Holding the B button allows you to use the bayonet on the front in a roadie run style charge, which lands you a kill if you can connect with your opponent. However, this charge must build up momentum first with at least 4 or 5 steps otherwise landing the charge will just bounce you off your opponent.

* Sawed Off Shotgun
The Sawed Off is a one shot, extremely long reload, extremely high powered shotgun with a wide spread. The Sawed Off has the ability to gib multiple people at once at close range, but it's effective range is very very small (described as almost point blank). The reload is also much longer than expected, and with one shot, it's a make it count kind of weapon.

* The Digger Launcher
A new locust weapon that fires a locust "Piranha-like" creature into the ground, which then emerges and explodes. When fired, dirt is kicked up as it moves along it's trajectory to give an indication of it's attack destination. If you are killed by it, your head explodes.

* The One Shot
A recoilless rifle that can take down almost any enemy in the game with, as the name says, one shot. It's a heavy weapon that needs to be "deployed" to be fired according to recent previews - it also projects a laser where it's going to shoot because it's satellite guided, so your enemy will know when it's aimed directly at them. The One Shot also has a very low ammo count.

* Incendary Grenade
A new grenade from the COG that acts like a molotov cocktail with no warning - it explodes on impact. Throw it on the ceiling to rain fire in front of a doorway, or throw it directly on someone to set them alight.

* The Multi-Turret
A new fixed weapon that can have its four weapon slots traded for almost any weapon you currently hold. By standard, it holds four Pendulum Lancers.

Returning Weapons

* Lancer Assault Rifle
Confirmed to be returning. The chainsaw has now been buffed, and you no longer stumble when revving the saw. Chainsaw kills can now only be stopped in the first few moments of the revving animation, as it now takes time to rev it up to full speed

* Hammerburst Assault Rifle
The Hammerburst remains an accurate semi automatic rifle, but now has the addition of iron sights. This added level of zoom takes you into a first person view for precision shooting - articles have also confirmed that the last shot required to down someone will give you a headshot kill if the last hit lands on the head.

* Gnasher Shotgun
Confirmed to be returning.

* Boltok Pistol
Confirmed to be returning.

* Gorgon Pistol
Returns under the new name "Gorgon SMG", having changed from a burst fire pistol to a fully automatic pistol.

* Grenades
All three types have been confirmed to be returning. The Ink grenade now gives off no warning beeps to make it a little more useful.

Miscellaneous

* Character Movement Speed (CMS) has been increased from the Gears 2 CMS
* There is an Events Calender in game that lists all upcoming XP events ect for Gears
* Photo mode from Gears 2 is not included in Gears 3
* The "Training Grounds", a bot based mode designed to ease people into Gears multiplayer, can now be played in co-op

Of the returning weapons on that list i see no hammer of dawn, no boomshot, no torque. Classic gears weapons that make gears so special. I will be sad to see any of these weapons missing

[Failed]

I wouldn't worry too much about it, i'm sure they will return, theres no Sniper, Mulcher or Mortar (and the shitty lil' COG pistol) listed either and they aren't gonna leave that out.

I think they were just mentioning the ones people might not have been sure on, Gorgon is an unloved weapon and people might of no tbeen sure if it was returning.

[GamerMan316]

New Gears vid coming

[GamerMan316]

The announcement at the VGA's was cancelled and will now be made next year, I see a pattern forming.   

[Handshakes]

Gears of War 3 VGA announcement not what you're expecting.

I have to give it to them, the announcement that the announcement is canceled really wasn't what I was expecting.

[GamerMan316]

Why did Gears of War miss the VGAs?

Epic Games' hotly anticipated Spike Video Game Awards Gears of War announcement failed to show. Why?

"One thing I've learned in the world of video games, it's a war out there," Gears design director Cliff Bleszinski told 1UP.

"There's a lot of strategizing going on and at any point something may shift due to a strategic move that needs to happen. So I came out here potentially announcing something.

"It turns out the timing's not right."

Reports in the run up to the show indicated epic would reveal a Kinect-enabled Gears game.

"We'll be showing off some new Gears of War gameplay. It's going to be awesome. You're going to love it. It's not what you're expecting," Bleszinski said.

The announcement would have "everyone talking".

But mere hours before the show was due to begin, Microsoft's Major Nelson posted on his blog to confirm Gears' absence from the US show.

"I have just learned of a decision to postpone our planned Gears of War news from Epic Games for the Spike Video Game Awards this weekend," he wrote. "I wanted to share this with you and let you know that while these are never easy decisions, we can tell you that what we have to share for the franchise in 2011 will definitely be worth the wait and we look forward to working with our partner at Spike on sharing this world premier news when it is ready."

Both Bleszinski and executive producer of the Gears of War franchise Rod Fergusson then took to Twitter to comment on the delay.

"To be clear, the VGA announcement delay comes from Microsoft, not us," Fergusson tweeted.

"I appreciate everyone's patience," Bleszinski added. "I'm flattered that people are upset about an announcement about something that was so vague. Have faith!"

The last-minute cancellation sparked speculation that Microsoft had pulled the plug because of the star billing given to Sony's Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.

Bleszinski refuted that suggestion on Twitter, saying, "No. Also, I want that game and I want Drake to have my manbabies."

[Handshakes]

Uncharted wishes it was Gears.

[GamerMan316]

Gears of War 3 beta 'sometime around April'
Should mean there's no repeat of Gears 2's multiplayer issues, says Epic

The Gears of War 3 beta is likely to launch "sometime around April", according to Epic Games president Mike Capps.

The exec told GameSpot that the online beta - which will be bundled with the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm - should ensure that the game doesn't encounter the same multiplayer stability issues as its predecessor.

"We've been saying spring," Capps said of the beta's launch date. "My guess is it will be sometime around April or so. It's going to be early enough so it really impacts Gears [of War 3's] development, but we want to make sure everyone has the chance to play Bulletstorm before they jump right into the beta.

"I think everybody knows we had some multiplayer stability issues with Gears 2 multiplayer out of the box," he added. "While we fixed those later, the opportunity to be really, really sure that our new dedicated server infrastructure is going to be operational on day one with Gears 3 was totally worth the time to make the beta."

Gears of War 3 itself was originally scheduled to launch in April next year, but was pushed back to autumn 2011 'for business reasons'.

[Failed]

No one cares anymore Ballinski

[GamerMan316]

Epic fans to receive special Gears 3 unlocks

Owners of past Epic Games productions will receive "special unlocks" in Gears of War 3, design director Cliff Bleszisnki has said.

There's no word on the kinds of rewards you can expect, but the unlocks will apparently cross publisher lines – so even fans of Midway's Unreal Tournament III can expect recognition in the Microsoft-backed Gears 3.

"Look for special unlocks in Gears 3 for those of you who have played other Epic games such as Shadow Complex, UT3, Gears, and Bulletstorm," Bleszinski tweeted overnight.

Shadow Complex, developed by Epic-owned Chair Entertainment, was one of Eurogamer's games of 2009, while Bulletstorm is due out from Electronic Arts on 22nd February 2011 and is developed by People Can Fly, another Epic-owned studio.