What?? Only 2 gamemodes in multiplayer?? Really? They really scrapped most of the old gametypes? That pisses me off. Everything else looks nice, especially that epilogue.

Man that campaign gameplay footage looks sic. Multiplayer actually looks pretty sweet, too. Only multiplayer I've ever enjoyed has been Uncharted (amazing, especially U3) and Killzone 3 (less amazing, but still quality); but i think Gears could change that.

I really think i might end up buying a 360 someday for the sole reason of being able to play the GeoW series.

The last scene with all the fire is from the global Hammer Strikes. That would be amazing to see.

Since its only 30 days after emergence, the buildings are still more or less new and maintained (that havent been blown up).

Gears 1-3 is 15 years after....buildings are faded and crumbled from 0 maintanance

OXMUK

Remember the bloodlust-satiating thrill that came with opening an ugly Locust from brain to belly with a chainsaw bayonet? How about the hair-raising fear you felt the first time a Berserker came calling? And let's not forget that overwhelming sense of relief we've all experienced when a last-ditch Hammer of Dawn attack turns a previously unbeatable baddie into a black pavement scar and allows us to live... at least for another few minutes.

These moments have not only shaped the Gears of War franchise, they've also moulded the third-person shooter market as a whole. And while driving a Lancer's buzzing business-end through the thick skull of a too-close Locust is still loads of fun, it doesn't pack quite the same visceral punch it did back in 2006.

In Judgment, a series prequel that benches go-to Gears' protagonist Marcus Fenix for fan-favourite supporting ass-kicker Damon Baird, Epic - with help from co-developer People Can Fly - aims to bring back the sweaty-palmed intensity of the original game. Or, as senior producer Alan Van Slyke sums it up: "We're really trying to make this the most intense Gears that you've seen so far."
Rather than adopting the bigger-is-better approach so many other sequels, prequels and spin-offs have relied upon, Judgment's taking a very specific path back to the franchise's nail-biting beginnings. Van Slyke explains: "We're evolving the franchise and trying new things out... faster gameplay, optimised control structures, and new ways of storytelling."

"Where Gears 3 was set 15-plus years after Emergence Day when everything was destroyed, Judgement takes place just 30 days after the event," says Van Slyke. "This allowed us to do a lot more with the environment and storytelling. Everything is freshly destroyed, there are still things on fire... you'll see freshly packed suitcases that maybe somebody didn't get a chance to take before they were evacuated."

Rough justice

We got a firsthand taste of this tweaked storytelling almost as soon as we loaded our Lancers. Each of Judgment's missions begins in a courtroom, where a handcuffed Kilo Squad - made up of Baird and Augustus Cole, as well as newcomers Sofia Hendrik and Garron Paduk - are being charged with desertion, cowardice, trespassing, theft of experimental military technology, treason and probably unpaid parking tickets, too.

As each steps up to offer their testimony, players - solo or as part of a four-member co-op squad - are transported back to the mission that character is narrating. In our demo, that's Halvo Bay's Museum of Military Glory, where Baird and his team are tasked with fending off the Locust Horde, still an unfamiliar threat so soon after E-Day.

As Baird begins his testimony, we're immediately immersed in that renewed intensity promised by Van Slyke. While navigating the claustrophobic confines of a dark tunnel, the ground rumbles beneath our feet and we quickly find ourselves recalling those nerve-fraying scenes from Jurassic Park, when the characters start sensing the T-Rex's presence.

Of course, as we later learn, the monster that's rocking Judgment's world is far more menacing than anything Spielberg's ever committed to celluloid. As we exit the tunnel and make our way to a courtyard, we discover a recently-ruined convoy: destroyed vehicles, mangled corpses and burning trees hint at the hell that's about to be unleashed.

Continuing forward, we're completely enveloped by the disturbing environment before finding ourselves face-to-ugly-reptilian-face with our first foes. It takes just a second to grasp the streamlined control scheme (see Taking Control, right), and before long we're roadie-running, curb stomping, utilising cover and using our Lancers to cut through Locusts like kindling.

Having cleared the courtyard, we make our way into the museum's wine cellar where a corpse still clings to a Markza, one of Judgment's many new weapons. The semi-automatic, ten-round sniper rifle serves us well when attempting to breach an enemy outpost back outside. Scoring head-shots with the Union of Independent Republics-manufactured widow-maker is especially rewarding, as each skull-ventilating penetration packs the sort of satisfying punch you'd ordinarily get from a closer-ranged weapon.

Before we can get too comfortable with this new toy, however, we're forced to trade it for another: Sentries - mobile turrets that can be placed strategically for maximum monster massacring. More than just a new way to paint walls with enemy entrails, Sentries play an integral role in Judgment's new Defense Scenarios. "The Locusts are banging down the door, and you have a small window of opportunity to set up some defences with these Sentries before they bust in," Van Slyke explains.
While Gears 3 teased us with a few of these hold-the-fort moments, Judgment makes them deeper and more varied. During our demo we're tasked with defending the museum's great hall against two increasingly aggressive waves of baddies. We're given three Sentries and just over a minute to set them up. With one positioned directly in front of the door, another on the stairs leading to the balcony, and a third on the balcony itself, we're confident our new bullet-spraying buddies will quickly transform all comers into pulpy puddles.

However, varied enemy types (turns out everything from Tickers to Boomers were just outside) and the fact Sentries need to be reloaded manually ensure we barely survive the initial attack. We're only given a fraction of the time to prep for the second onslaught - but our newfound knowledge that turrets come in Gnasher, machine gun, and flamethrower varieties helps us turn the hall into a Locust morgue.

Wrath of Karn

Before finishing this first mission, we're afforded a teasing glimpse of Karn, Judgment's chief protagonist. The Locust general is mounted on a screen-filling, spidery steed named Shibboleth. Seeing that he's capable of cracking bodies like Twiglets beneath Shibboleth's massive appendages, Baird and the rest of Kilo Squad decide that following orders may not be the best course of action. This narrative shift begins to shed some light on why they're ultimately charged with treason, while also setting up our next campaign mission.

Now playing from the perspective of Paduk, a former UIR soldier whose severe facial scar speaks volumes about a past encounter with Karn, we're challenged with infiltrating a mansion. Before breaching the posh estate, owned by a professor who may hold the key to crushing Karn, we're subjected to more sights and sounds that serve as effective reminders of the Locust Horde's very recent arrival.

Emergency broadcasts blare over loudspeakers, while half-packed suitcases and vehicles left in the middle of streets look recently abandoned. Less subtle signs of the fresh invasion include Bloodmounts rampaging through the suburbs, religious statues swallowed by Emergence Holes, and blood and limb trails leading from residences.

Despite strong resistance from Boomers and Serapedes, we make our way into the enemy-filled mansion. Adding insult to apocalypse, the new threats are using smoke grenades, making it difficult to work out exactly what we're up against. We swipe a Mulcher from a downed foe and score a stash of Stim-Gas grenades from the floor. The former allows us to shred the invisible menaces into fleshy confetti, while the latter, a new grenade type, keeps us healthy when tossed at our feet.

Pushing through the mansion's interior and exterior, we encounter the familiar (a Torque Bow begging to be picked up) and the foreign (a new enemy dubbed the Rager that lead level designer Jim Brown claims will "turn into the Hulk and try to maul you to death after it's taken enough damage").

The mighty Booshka

What strikes us most, however, is the mission's adrenaline-pumping pacing. We experience it first when trying to eliminate a mortar squad, protected by Scorcher-wielding Grenadiers no less, outside the mansion, and again during the mission's final moments while defending a JACK bot as it hacks into the professor's security system.

The latter scenario's especially memorable because it's where we meet our latest life-siphoning love, the Booshka. Another new addition to Gears' growing arsenal, it's a grenade launcher-like weapon that tosses out pipe bombs which turn their targets into meaty chunks on contact.

The only thing more rewarding than butchering baddies with this hand-cannon is screaming its namesake just as its payload turns your buddies into sirloin tips (apparently a favourite pastime within the walls of Epic Games' multiplayer test labs). Of course the Booshka provides just one of many excuses for Judgment's players to add to their trash-talking vocabulary.

As with the campaign, Gears' multiplayer is also getting a makeover, complete with new modes and a focus on faster, more intense gameplay. Epic's hoping to hammer these points home by simplifying the controls, increasing character movement speed, and making maps more vertical and interactive. Coupling these changes as well as some subtler ones - such as auto ammo pick-ups - with a mix of old and new modes, it's aiming to offer the franchise's deepest yet most accessible multiplayer experience to date.

On top of the Beast-meets-Horde OverRun mode and the Deathmatch-like Free For All, Judgment adds Domination to its roster of online competitive challenges. An evolution of Gears 3's King of the Hill, Domination tasks two opposing teams with racking up 250 points by controlling a trio of rings spread across the map. What stands out most about this mode is how its dynamic maps seem tailor-made to the action.

Playing on Streets, a far cry from the flat battlefields that have hosted previous Gears' multiplayer melees, we're able to scale structures, dive through windows, and generally leverage the layered, vertical nature of the environment. Strategic advantages aside, there are few things more satisfying than leaping from a rooftop, bayonet revving, and landing on some unsuspecting mark.

As our stay at Epic comes to a close, Van Slyke reiterates some of his opening points: "One of our big goals with Judgment is revisiting that intensity you experienced in Gears 1. It's darker in terms of visual identity and art direction, and the Locust are fresh." More than the enthusiastic dev's words though, it's the reddened indentation on our index finger, the slight stress on our nerves and, most of all, the smile on our face that has us confident Judgment is a proper, full-blooded Gears game.

http://www.oxm.co.uk/49602/previews/gears-of-war-judgment-a-brumak-sized-hands-on-with-campaign-and-multiplayer/?page=1

A closer look at the Rager