Gears of War 3 Wind-Up DLC and Other Stories from the Frontlines

Every now and then a game will be released that has a deeper presence than at first it seems...

Appearances, as they say, can be deceiving, and even when you think you understand the nature of a title and the scope and depth of what it has to offer you as a gamer, they sometimes surprise you like an LOLZ Cat hanging onto the mailman with one paw and a cheeszbrrgrz with the other -- which to bite first?

With the subject being the final title in the three- game story arc that is Gears of War the phrase "blindsided" comes to mind -- and by this late date nothing that we say in this piece is likely to constitute a spoiler since by now everyone will have experienced the story in its fullness (and sadness) which is something of a relief, because now we can talk about everything without having to fear that we will ruin the entertainment experience for anyone.

On the off-chance that you are one of the three people who were trapped in that partially-collapsed coal mine in Hungary since last May and are only now free and able to play your Xbox 360, well, damn! Sorry but we might end up spoiling the game and story for you here...

Before we go any further along this path, the conversation that we are having about the game assumes you are aware of all of this, there are some articles that you may want to read so that we are all shooting with the same Sniper Rifle, at the same target, in the same blind, and for the same cause -- well, that and it lets me ring my bell a little, which is always nice...

In addition to writing this piece, I also wrote the Game Preview for Gears 3 for Gaming Update, the Game Review for both Gaming Update and SuperCheats as well... I mention all this so you know I did not just read the back of the box and then start writing this.

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So there is the preview and two reviews, but I also wrote the news piece marking the game launch and a couple of perspective features -- one called Gears of War 3 Public Beta First Impressions in which I am sure you can imagine I provided my first impressions of the Public Beta Test of the game that took place back in April -- and a piece called Swimming with Sharks: Multi-Player Gears 3 in which I take a critical look at the scaled multi-player side of the game that was published a few days prior to the official launch day (I had my review copy of the game a full two weeks before its street date) and within which I examine the co-op side of the game as well as the versus and come away favorably impressed...

The last thing that you should probably be aware of is that in addition to all of that noted above, I also wrote the Walkthrough and Guide for the game -- specifically what we call "The Unofficial SuperCheats Walkthrough and Guide for Gears of War 3" that is published on SuperCheats as well as making an appearance as an Android App -- though I have not actually seen the app version and am not sure where one would look to find it...

But that is not the point here -- the point here is that in the process of first playing the Beta and then the game a couple of weeks early -- and playing the hell out of the game including pretty much every nook and cranny in order to write the guide, well, it is safe to say that in the process I became something of an expert on Gears of War 3.

Perhaps expert is too strong a word, but I certainly know where everything is -- in fact I expect that I know the roads and city layouts in G3 almost as well as I know the roads and city layout in my home town, and that is saying something!