Gears of War 3, the third chapter in EPIC’s Gears of Wars saga, is going to be coming out later this year. In order for games to have a smooth multiplayer component at launch, many game developers include a public BETA program for people to partake, enjoy and report bugs within. EPIC are including such a scheme for all pre-ordering players who get their game from EBGames and they will be able to get into the program on April 25th.
The pre-order can be for any of the Editions of Gears of War 3 (Standard ($99.95), Limited ($129.95) and Epic ($199.95)) with the BETA scheduled to begin for pre-order players on the 25th of April, 2011. Though for the players who purchased Bulletstorm: EPIC Edition, the date is a little earlier, which is on the 18th of April, 2011.
Key Beta Dates:
- Bulletstorm Preview, April 18-24
Owners of “Bulletstorm: Epic Edition” are eligible for a one-week beta preview period featuring the new Team Deathmatch mode on four new maps (Thrashball, Checkout, Trenches and Old Town).
- Gears of War 3 Beta, April 25-May 15
The full public beta period begins April 25. Players can look forward to special events and playlists throughout the beta period. Two additional competitive game modes, Capture the Leader and King of the Hill, will be added over the course of the beta period.
- May 15 – Beta concludes.
Players of the BETA can look forward to unlocking some exclusive content to their account and/or full-game’s save file upon release, depending on their statistics based on the BETA. The unlockables are as follows:
Unlockables:
- Beta Tester Medal – Complete one match in the beta to unlock the Beta Tester medal, which will carry over to your gamer profile in the final game. The Beta Tester title will be featured in the Gears 3 multiplayer lobby as well.
- · Thrashball Cole – Complete 50 matches in any game type to unlock the Thrashball Cole character variant in the beta. Once unlocked, complete 10 matches as Thrashball Cole during the beta and the character will carry over to your gamer profile in the final game.
- · Gold-Plated Retro Lancer – Show your ultimate Gears of War fandom by unlocking the Gold-Plated Retro Lancer. Complete 90 matches in any game type to unlock it for the beta, and score 100 kills with it once unlocked to carry the exclusive weapon skin over to your gamer profile in the final game.
- · Flaming Hammerburst – Complete one match by Sunday, April 24 and unlock this weapon variant.
- · Flaming Lancer – Complete one match during the week of April 25 and unlock this weapon variant.
- · Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 2 to unlock this weapon variant.
- · Flaming Gnasher Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 9 to unlock this weapon variant.
Of course, the Multiplayer BETA isn’t just going to be Team-Deathmatch or some variant on it. EPIC looks to be releasing three brand new multiplayer gametypes and four new and exclusive maps to the program. Two such maps will be ‘Trenches’ and ‘Old Town’.
It should also be noted that owners of the Bulletstorm: Epic Edition will require the disc and BETA access tokens to join in on the Gears of War 3 BETA.
For more info visit Gears of War at Microsoft.
Or the Facebook page.
Maybe even Twitter.
