Lookin' Good...

 CH-CH-CHAINSAWS is what every game needs. But alas we can't always get what we want.  Luckily for me (and you) Gears of War 3 delivered (the chainsaw that is) plus a little more. Along with some other additions this game is looking really good. Really Really Good.

Last Thursday (April 7th) I was lucky enough to attend the Gears of War 3 Multiplayer Beta Preview, at Microsoft Canada. This is the second time I have had a chance to attended a preview event such as this. The first being Halo: REACH in September. Which was a little different. But this was only a beta preview where as when we saw Halo:REACH it was ready to ship and I had already been able to play the public BETA for that at home.

So as we arrive at Microsoft Canada here in Toronto, we are greeted and while enjoying "refreshments" we are placed on 5 person teams for a DeathMatch tournament. Shortly after we are given the pleasure of having a brief presentation by EPICs own Executive Producer, Rod Fergusson (follow him on Twitter @GearsViking) about what to expect in the new GoW3.  Now here is the thing that really blew me away. Rod Fergusson loves Gears of War.  Now I say this because, when I worked as a Video Game Tester at VMC in Montreal, none of the producers be it executive or otherwise that I talked to about the games I was working on had never played any of the games that were being discussed.  So it was a very refreshing experience to see him talk about the game in way that showed he actually had played it and also ENJOYED playing it! After he told us about the games new features and answered some questions from the attendees, it was on to  the game.

The tournament was played out in 5v5 Death Match, best 2 out of 3 rounds of 10 respawns a side. Locust vs COG. The level was Trenches and it was fought fast and furious. Unfortunately for me, my team was eliminated during the first round of play. So all in all I had about ten minutes of actual game play. :'(  The only new feature I had a good chance to see in action was the new Tac-COM which is an amazing improvement from previous versions. Not only does it display a map of the level your playing and where your team mates our on it. It also shows you the positions of the weapons on the map! Blew my mind! We were also told about some new finishers but in the heat of battle trying to do them was a little harder then I thought. Also the new weapons were fun too, a super close range sawed off shotgun and the Pendulum Wars Lancer with the bad ass bayonet. Several tournament rounds later a winner was decided and they were presented with the spoils of war....Cool trophy bro!

After all was said and done it was a very well done event and it was quite evident that everybody had one hell of a good time! Thanks to everybody who worked so hard to make it a killer party! I look forward to more of the multiplayer beta and seeing the new campaign in the fall. Which I'm sure I will talk about in great detail.

-Brad Out!

 Also, the cup cakes were DELICIOUS!!!