Final Gears of War 3 multiplayer map revealed with three new gameplay videos

With a less than a month to go before Gears of War 3 hits shelves, the last of the ten multiplayer maps has been revealed. Gridlock is a remade version of a classic map from both Gears 1 and 2 that adds new weapon spawns and shifts the clock from day to night. The idea is that it Gridlock was once a bustling hub of a city filled with cafes, restaurants, and color, but is now a ruinous pile of rubble filled with mostly gray and brown. It's up to you to give everything a vibrant coat of red. Check out the footage that Epic released below.

All ten maps will be compatible with versus, Beast, and Horde mode, so there should be plenty of mileage to get out of them before the first byte of the inevitable DLC needs to be downloaded. And Epic is hard at work tweaking and balancing the launch line-up based on the 1.2 million beta participants' feedback. Thanks to the testing, Epic has finalized the designs of Thrashball, which has been adjusted to prevent spawn camping, and Trenches, which has been given a new combat area to change the dynamic of firefights. A bit of carnage from each is below.

With this reveal, the full-list of maps breaks down like this: Checkout, Drydock, Gridlock, Hotel, Mercy, Old Town, Overpass, Sandbar, Thrashball, and Trenches. Gears of War 3 is set to launch Sep 20, 2011. If you're new to the series and the above action is a bit befuddling, don't worry. The game will include a casual multiplayer mode to give people who have never played a Gears title a chance to learn the basics before being dropped into the deep end of a pool filled with chainsaws and Locust dismemberment.

Aug 26, 2011