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Gears of War: Judgment will be a prequel to the established Gears series and even though the game is still a ways from release, (March 19, 2013), we want to know what sets this game apart from the previous Gears games. That question was answered at the Gears of War: Judgment panel at Comic-Con 2012. Cliff Bleszinski and Rod Fergusson had several new videos and announcements to give gamers exactly the Gears info they wanted.

Speaking of which, here are five ways Gears of War: Judgment will be different from Gears of War 1, 2 and 3.

1. Tone

Judgment's new tone is credited to its new writers, Rob Alten and Todd Bissel, both established writers in Hollywood and in gaming. Their writing style and mature sensibility will add another layer to the game. Brutality and the melancholy are both core themes of the series, and these themes will shape Judgment as well.

2. Classes

We already know OverRun will be class-based, but now we're learning more about each of the classes' roles. Each of the COG Defender classes will have specific and unique skills and loadouts. The Engineer will be able to build temporary sentries and repair vehicles. The soldier class can toss ammo crates, which will be vital for the rest of the team. The medic, who is female, can heal, and the Scout can access special sniping locations and add a tagging beacon.

The Locust have their own classes too. When you play as the Locust, you'll start as a Ticker and work your way up to new Locust by earning points. Tickers will be able to chomp, dash, and self destruct. The Wretch can stun the COG with its scream. The Grenadier throws frag grenades. The Kantus is the Locust healer and can heal everyone in his immediate vicinity. The Blood Mount can carry any Grenadier and now Kantuses too. Corpsers are armored and can burrow. Ceripeed attacks and spits poison, and of course the Mauler who has a shield and a giant knife. This time, the shield spins.

3, Fun Beats Cannon

Chainsaw lancers had not been invented during the time of Judgment and neither was the hammerburst. Both weapons will make an appearance in the game though. "Oh no! How could Epic make such a mistake?" It's not a mistake. Epic knows and appreciates the story's cannon, but in the end they feel it's more important for fun to win, than cannon.

4. Game Plays Faster

The grenades are now on the left bumper, which might cause many gamers to freak out. Epic felt that pressing the d-pad, choosing the grenade, winding it up, and then launching it took too much time. (Epic took their sweet time to come to that realization.) A valid concern will be how to plant a grenade with this new format.

5. Dedicated Servers

Epic learned a lot from the dedicated servers in Gears of War 3. So when it came to Gears of War: Judgment, Epic knew they had to repeat the success. So yes, Judgment will have them.

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/725939/the-evolution-of-gears-of-war-from-gears-of-war-judgment-comic-con-2012-panel/

boyahhhhh looks amazing!

Dat Graphics are insane already, cant imagine how good the campaign will look... Gears 3 was already outstanding, one of the best looking games ever made.

Hard to see but Halo 4 is actually topping it, must be the best looking game evah :b

free for all gameplay pax east 2012

different developers so not getting my hopes up, not a fan of completely different people working on a series made by someone else.

VG247

Gears of War: Judgment will give you sweaty palms while you play, or else Epic Game feels they’ve done something wrong. Part of this design philosphy comes from making the game much harder, and the Locust much scarier.

In an OXM interview, Epic’s Rod Fergusson discussed the studio’s approach to Gears of War: Judgment, and how People Can Fly fit in with its aspirations.

“One of our design principles was the idea of sweaty palms,” Fergusson explained, “when you play you’ve got to have sweaty palms or we’re not doing it right. So far in all of our playtests we’ve all got sweaty palms so that’s good.”

“And it’s about making the Locusts scary again,” Fergusson added, “when you spend eight years with the Locusts it feels a bit like Germans in a WWII game, after a while they just become a known enemy.”

“We wanted to bring back the terror of year one, and that’s what we’re trying to do in Judgement – it’s only a few weeks after E Day, these things are all new to us and we’re really scared of them, what does this all mean?” Fergusson added

Part of this tension stems from making Gears of War: Judgment much much harder, Fergusson added, “So we’ve changed [the Locust's] power and our health to make them more lethal – one Wretch can take you out so it’s a lot scarier. It’s that whole idea of feeling more cautious and feeling overwhelmed.”

Cheers again OXM.