Gears of War 3 Fenix Rising Map Pack Xbox Live

Gears of War 3 Fenix Rising Map Pack Product Details

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• Gears of War was supposed to be "more thoughtful"

  With the Gears of War trilogy now behind him, creator Cliff "Cliffy B" Bleszinski has spoken out about the direction the series took. Those bull-necked ultra-macho tough nut soldiers we followed for so long weren't supposed to be quite so brutishly masculine, it seems.

  "If I were to pass Gears off to another studio, and they came back with a pitch of having a double-edged chainsaw, and the characters are more buff, and now you can pull off someone's head and s*** down their neck, and they had a character that makes Cole look tame... I would look at them and say no, you're going in the exact wrong direction," the B-man told Penny Arcade.

  Instead, he always imagined evolving the characters in "more of a Christopher Nolan way". The goal was to emulate Steven Spielberg's World War 2 drama Band of Brothers rather than the steroid-injected cartoon heroics of Predator. "That's one of the things that, in hindsight, if I could go back and change I would," mused B-Diddy.

  But fans responded to the bulked-up heroes and their action movie banter, so the developers gave the fans what they wanted, even though Cliff believes "a little bit of heart got lost" in doing so.

  "It became a negative stereotype in this generation," he said of Gears' violent bombast. "I want to be smarter about that in the future."

• "Never say never": Epic teases Gears of War first-person shooter

  Gears of War was developed from the ground up as a third-person shooter based around its duck and cover gameplay, but that doesn't mean that now the Gears universe is well established, the studio won't consider making an FPS set in that world, if fans demand it.

  "I'm a big believer in never say never," executive producer Rod Fergusson told Official Xbox Magazine in the current issue, out this week. "It's all about what's interesting in the industry at the time and where fans want us to take it. We don't want to say never but it's not on the top of my mind either. We look at what makes sense and move in that direction."

  Right now, all eyes are on Gears of War: Judgment, which sees Epic handing the series over to People Can Fly, the developer responsible for crazy shooter Bulletstorm. The change in developer has also led to a change in pace, thanks to a new AI system which changes the behaviour and location of enemies on each playthrough. "Our Gears game was heavily scripted - lots of cinematics, big storytelling stuff," Fergusson says. "People Can Fly is very much about things in level with a high replayability because of the Smart Spawn System, which brought to it by changing the AI. So yeah, PCF's campaign is a different campaign, but at its heart it's Kilo squad, and Lancers and taking cover - it's a Gears game."

  Gears of War: Judgment is set for release on Xbox 360 in March 2013.

  Published: 06/08/2012

• Games you can't afford to miss from 2011

  
  

  There's no denying it, we've been spoiled rotten by the flood of quality games this year. There isn't enough time in the day to get through them all! Fortunately, the Christmas holidays are here to give us a little more time to catch up on the best of 2011.

  We've hand-picked a selection of games from this year's release schedule that are all worthy of your Christmas Gaming time...

  Batman Arkham City

  

  A comic hero game that turned out to be very good? We were left speechless when Arkham Asylum was released in 2009. Even more incredibly, Rocksteady Studios' sequel managed to be even better than the first!

  Batman Arkham City sets you in a massive open world, players assume the role of a Batman imprisoned in the sprawling super-prison of Arkham City. Every nemesis you could hope for makes an appearance in the game - as well as an epic storyline offering dozens of hours of gameplay, there's a huge quantity of sidequests and missions to explore once you've put the baddies to bed.

  Uncharted 3

  

  This third outing for Nathan Drake is his grandest adventure yet. Set amongst deserts, lost cities and ruins, Uncharted 3 is a technically astonishing PlayStation 3 game that features all of the exploration, fighting and explosive set-pieces we've come to expect from the series.

  Better multiplayer, more customisation options and some of the most impressive motion-capture animations to hit gaming make Uncharted 3 an unmissable, cinematic rollercoaster. Don't miss out on one of gaming's finest adventures.

  The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

  

  If you can't get your money's worth out of a game like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, you're very hard to please indeed! Bethesda's follow-up to the best-selling game Oblivion left players and critics alike reeling. A gorgeously rendered, enormous world stuffed with terrifying dungeons, endless quest-lines and open-world dragon fights, Skyrim packs more content into a side-quest than most games manage full stop.

  Are you an archer, berserker, magician or rogue? Whatever your play-style, there's a highly customisable role for you in this most epic of RPGs. Hundreds of hours of gameplay are here for players to gorge themselves on, all spread across a game that is likely to become one of the most fondly remembered of this generation. The greatest RPG of all time? It might just be.

  Gears of War 3

  

  Tying up all the loose ends of the previous games, this climax to the best-selling Gears of Wars franchise sees Marcus Fenix and co set out to finish the Locust Horde once and for all in Gears of War 3. Some of the most awesome baddies the series has ever seen make their appearance in this conclusion, and there'll be no shortage of sweaty palms once the fighting's over.

  Multiplayer provides endless re-playability for the game, as you team up with friends to take on wave after wave of Locust forces. If you'd rather rip your friend's face off than lend a helping hand, you can now fight as the enemy, raining horrible destruction on your whole family once the Christmas pudding's gone down.

  FIFA 12

  

  Once mocked by gamers for churning out what often amounted to little more than annual updates, EA has been on a charm-offensive these last five years or so, bringing significant innovation and improvements to their flagship footie title every single time.

  FIFA 12 sees the introduction of a far more dynamic system for defending where you can link up with an AI defender to put pressure on attackers. Head to Head seasons allow you to take part in a highly competitive ladder tournament, while simply playing the game also adds points to your chosen club. It's as addictive as ever, and about as fully-featured a sports game as we could hope for.

  The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

  

  The perfect game to settle into while the family are having a good old row downstairs,The Ledgend of Zelda Skyward Sword will charm the pants off you with it's perfect telling of the classic Zelda tale, mixed with the best combat and world design the series has ever seen.

  Set prior to the events of the N64 (and now 3DS) classic Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword starts off in a beautiful cloud city by the name of Skyloft. Of course, it's not long until Link's childhood friend Zelda is whisked off into the lands below, beginning a fantastic journey of world exploration, soaring flight, and devilishly tricky dungeons. Skyward Sword is a must-play for any Zelda fans, past or present.

  Published: 14/12/2011

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