Gears of War 3: MAMMOTH screen and fact blowout!

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Just before E3 2010, we've got a deluge of weapon, character, enemy and story details. Read 'em!

We alreadysuspected that Gears of War 3 was going to great. After all the first two were pretty good, right? But now we suspect that it's going to be really great. Epic have released - via GameInformer -a terrifying number of new screens and pieces of production art, and by scouring through picture upon detail upon note, we've found out one hell of a lot more about Delta Squad's next escapade. In fact Gears fans, it's Christmas.

Want to know what we know? It's right here.

New enemies

Gears 3's line-up of bullet-fodder sees radically new enemies crouching in cover beside the old favourites. Key to this change is the spread of the Lambent infection seen in Gears of War 2. The substance has spread throughout Sera, seemingly infecting flora, fauna and Locust alike. Here are the new additions we know about.

Lambent Stalks - The beanstalk from Jack's nightmares. These can burst from the ground at will, andwhile horribly intimidating on their own, they grow glowing Lambent pods that can spawn a whole host of other enemies. They're like Forrest Gump's chocolate box, only whatever you're going to get will always be horrible and try to kill you.

Lambent Polyps - These skittery, spider-like buggers look a bit like Gears' previous Wretches and Tickers. They'll rattle along the ground, wall and ceilings towards you and will explode at close range. They'll also spit out acrid Lambent goo when threatened, and can spawn from Stalk pods or Drudges, the latter of which we'll detail next.

Lambent Drudges - Drudges are standard Locust grubs heavily infected with Lambent, and possibly the more 'evolved' state of the glowing Lambent Locust we saw in Gears 2. They can spawn from Stalk pods, will charge straight at you, and will explode if shot, so make sure to nail them before they get too close. They can also mutate into towering, tentacled beasties, and sometimes their snakelike heads will survive even if you destroy the rest of them. Nasty bastards.

Savage Locust - These guys are Lambent-free, but they're still a step up from standard grubs. After the sinking of Jacinto, it wasn't just humanity that lost its home. The Locust have been cast out into the scorched wasteland as well, and many of them have gone feral. These new Stranded will dig shallow tunnel for habitation, and also colonise dark, abandoned human buildings that remind them of home, meaning that wherever you are, they'll probably never be far away. We're assuming this means that the old sink-hole warning probably won't save you half as much this time.

Next up: Weapons!

David Houghton
David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.