Maybe BP should try using a lightmass bomb to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?  Kidding aside, the Gulf scenario isn’t too far off from the problems still plaguing the fictional planet of Sera, where hordes of Locust Horde (like that?) are spilling out of the center of the planet like it’s cool, and the only solution to finally stop them won’t arrive until April 2011.  That being said, the spill on Sera might just be solved before the real one here on Earth!  Gears of War 3, which according to creators Epic Games will be the final edition to the series, is gearing up to put an emphatic explanation point on a trilogy that ultimately started as a diamond in the rough in the Xbox 360′s infancy.  Double tap the link below for what we know so far, what we’re hoping for, and the usual amount of sarcasm nestled in between.

What We Know Thus Far

The award-winning gameplay, for all intents and purposes, has remained the same.  That, and you had better agree with me, is a damn good thing.  Gears of War 2 in my opinion tended to have a mild case of sequelitis by straying from the gameplay that brought them so much success in the original GoW: running and gunning.  Hopefully in this third and final installment we’ll see a return to those true action roots.

Remember Anya?  The hot blonde, logistics-type officer that seemed to do everything behind the scenes for Delta Squad?  Well apparently she’s picked up a rifle; yup, it’s gotton that bad, folks.  At the end of Gears of War 2, [spoiler alert] Epic left gamers with a blossoming love story (wow that was arguably the gayest thing I’ve ever written) between Marcus and Anya; will we see this thing develop, or was it just a tease?  Personally I could care less, but with her now somehow as an elite member of Delta Squad, she’s going to be getting a lot more face time.  Oh, and there’s some random brunette chick that’s also part of the squad, you know, for those of us who prefer brunette over blondes.

Multiplayer has gotten a oool addition with Beast Mode now in the fold, where gamers can take control of any GoW monster they want and see if they can take down their friends as a Ticker, Mauler, or anything in between.  While I have yet to actually give it a whirl, the footage that I’ve seen looks like it’s a blast, and a real step up from Horde mode.

What We’re Hoping For in Gears of War 3

We know this isn’t made by Bioware, so my storyline expectations are minimal here.  The first two had cool/good-enough storylines in them, so hopefully the final episode can keep it going.  Now the voice-acting on the other hand, is outstanding, most notably with everyone’s favorite office linebacker, Terry Tate, aka Cole Train.  I have yet to receive confirmation on if Cole and his infamous one-liners will make an appearance, but this game will seriously take a hit if he’s left out.

Less driving, less flying, more running and gunning.  I’ve already mentioned my thing about sequelitis, so I’m not going to re-open that wound.  But seriously – if I could post only one wish for Gears of War 3, the conclusion to one of my all-time favorite game franchises, is that they go back to their roots – what got them here in the first place, and that’s just straight up, run-and-gun action.  I don’t want to shoot incoming mortars from a turret gun for three hours; fuck that.  Sure it’s fun, but it’s not Gears of War; that’s every other action game on the market!  This is coming from a gamer that has played through both Gears of War titles on every difficulty offered: that’s six total play-throughs!  If they follow the Gears of War 1 gameplan, this guy is going to be ecstatic next April.  If Epic follows the Gears of War 2 model, this guy will still be happy because it was a phenomenal game, but it will be a sad way to end the trilogy.

With that said, I don’t think this will be the end to Gears of War.  In fact I’d be willing to be a substantial amount of money on it.  We won’t see a fourth title in this console generation, but you can damn well expect it to be released a la God of War 3 once the Xbox 720, or whatever they call the damn thing, hits shelves in 2012/2013.

As usual, more info as it comes, right after Anya does.  Oh snap!