Here is a full spoiler free review of Gears of War 3. My first contribution to the site Click below to find out more.

First off, some single-player game play notes:

To begin, during my whole experience playing GoW3, the controls seemed to be a bit more responsive, though there were still a few times when I hit "A" to take cover, I would roll to the cover and just stand there. Also, when executing a downed locust, Marcus sometimes decided to ignore the button press, but not as often as in the past games.

Next, the 4 player co-op is a welcome addition. How many times have you been sitting there saying, "Well, damn. There are 2 other cogs that two more people could play … why the hell shouldn’t we get more people?”

In addition, the graphics are much crisper, cleaner and smoother as well. The dialogue still retains the same flair as the previous titles but at points it does seem to be dryly delivered. As always, there is a level where you drive and have to shoot the locust horde. This time, it is vastly improved over the driving levels in the first two GoWs. There are no more krill, and no more trying to avoid reavers while trying to navigate on ice with a vehicle that handles like a drunken squirrel on 10 Red Bulls. This time, the vehicles are driven by the NPCs. Also, this game features an underwater 'driving' level where you man the external turrets on a sub.

Unlike GoW2, the levels seem to flow into each other, actually showing HOW they got to each location, instead of what seemed to be just a random set of levels just thrown together like a badly Photoshopped picture. I find that showing the player how things are linked is very important to story development. There were times when I felt the game was going for more of a Resident Evil feel in terms of how the story developed toward the ending. Speaking of which, I felt a little let down with the ending - it was a good ending to the story (in my opinion, that is), but it could have been better. The same goes for the final boss battle - I felt it was still lacking something. After all has been said and done, I did enjoy the GoW story as a whole.

Now, on to the multi-player:

Once again, this game benefits from upgraded control performance. There are much fewer instances of your character not responding to the commands you enter. The customization options in multi-player are far beyond the previous games, while still sticking to the core mechanics. Your starting weapon is still the hammer bust or lancer, with the gnasher as your secondary - however, they have also added the retro lancer and the sawed off-shotgun as options. From beta to release, there have been many changes to the weapons made. The sawed-off can no longer kill a enemy who is at full health unless they are at point-blank range (the resulting melee smack will down them, though). The retro lancer is now less stable when firing from the hip, and is less accurate during sustained fire. Both the boom shot and torque bow’ shot explosion radii have been made smaller. The longshot is still a one-shot kill if it’s a head shot, but while you are zoomed in with the scope, you move more slowly, and firing from the hip is also less accurate. The scorcher in multi-player has never really been good except in the hands of a skilled pyro, and this is still the case. The digger is a nice addition to the weapons. It is a one-shot kill if it hits, but it is very easy to dodge if you see it coming. The only major change to the pistols (snub, blotok, and gorgan) is that the gorgan is no longer has a burst shot, but is now a fully automatic pistol. All the uber weapons (grinder, mortar, one-shot) now have very limited ammo and reduced movement, as well as losing the mantle ability.

Now, on to Horde 2.0:

I really enjoyed this version of Horde. The economic system is a welcome change. It allows for more defenses and easier choices in terms of weapons. To break this down a little, for every kill you get, you earn in-game money, which in turn you can use to buy new weapons/ammo/defenses. The weapons are essentially the same as in regular multi-player. The defenses are divided into a few groups: fences, decoys, and turrets. The more cash you spend on a particular type, the more it improves. You are also able to trade weapons and give cash to other players in your party, which is always a plus. Also, instead of just an insanely hard group of enemies every ten rounds, you now have not-so-insanely hard groups of enemies with some boss-type locusts thrown in. Finally, the lambent that show up will fight with the regular locusts if left alone. This can be a mixed blessing, as they kill your enemies and you save ammo, but you don’t get credit if they die this way.

And now on to Beast Mode:

 With Beast mode you get the chance to play as the locust in a version of horde mode. You start off with a choice of only a few options but as you kill the stranded and their defences you earn money to buy the higher ranked locusts. If you don’t kill the stranded in the set time how ever you will fail the round and the Hammer of Dawn rains down. However killing the stranded and destroying the defences earns you more time as well.

Als, in addition to the review don't forget that today we will be hosting our very own Gears of War game session. It all startas at 8pm UK/3pm EST where you can find us and play. Get in touch with eirther me (Elite Katt) Villan (DJ Villan) or Creepiz (Creepiz) on XBOX Live to be a part of the action.