Gears of War 3 Updated Impressions

Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski took to the stage at Microsoft's E3 2010 press conference to show off the first four-player co-op action from Gears 3.

Gears of War 3 will feature four player co-op for the first time in the series, and Epic Games' charismatic Cliff Bleszinski used E3 to show it off. He was joined by fellow Epic man Rod Ferguson on stage as well as two other people to play as familiar characters Marcus and Dom, as well as new female characters Anya and Sam.

The demo was set in Anvil Gate, a leafy, green environment that features a base where the Gears were aiming to regroup. Unfortunately, standing between them were a bunch of angry Lambent enemies--mutated versions of the famous Locust from the other games. The E3 demo began with Marcus awakening from some sort of trauma, to find the rest of his team laying down surprising gunfire.

One enemy could be seen ripping off a human limb and beating the corpse with it--signaling the level of threat to Marcus and the rest of his team. We watched as the co-op players swapped weapons with each other, and in one cool moment, Marcus took a hostage, attached a grenade, and kicked him forward into other enemies.

The highlight was the Lambent Locust though, who would come out of the ground, breathing fire, releasing small creatures and using their multiple limbs to toss huge objects around. The Lambent Beserker threw a car at Marcus which he could then use for cover, but he wasn't able to stay still for long, as the Beserker would charge at him, forcing him to time his roll to the side.

Racing to the human base, the team managed to regroup with more Gears--what looked like seven members in total, including more female soldiers. They thought they were safe, but the Beserker jumped over the fence and down onto the camera, signalling the end of the demo. Bleszinski teased a new gameplay mode called Beast, saying, "We think you're gonna like it." We'll be sure to drop by the Microsoft booth tomorrow to find out more.