Epic Games has announced the 'Forces of Nature' DLC for Gears of War 3 will be available on March 27.
The DLC was announced by executive producer Rod Fergusson on GameTrailers, who also provided a breakdown of how they've been designed.
Here's a description of each map:
- Aftermath: A government park after a tsunami. There is seaweed and wreckage everywhere, and the main play space sits under a huge cargo ship which was deposited on top of a building during the storm. The area floods and quakes during gameplay, as the whole thing is teetering on the edge of falling into the water below. This has gameplay implications as it is difficult to aim during the quakes, and difficult to be stealthy while splashing through the water.
- Artillery : Starts out looking like an ordinary military base, but during gameplay a storm kicks up. Lightning begins to flash on the horizon and eventually a tornado develops and sweeps near the play space. Dust and debris are kicked up making it difficult to see, and the buffeting winds can mask your approach.
- Cove: A is a small port that the Stranded have taken over and turned into a little village. The map is very open with long lines of sight, but there is a really, really heavy layer of fog that masks just about everything. There's a really nice sniper nest inside a central ship, but the sniper's form is silhouetted by the low angle light shining through the fog.
- Jacinto: It was a beautiful city, but huge stalks have popped up through the buildings and flooded the entire area with Imulsion. Half of the map is dead and crumbling, with Imulsion fumes hanging in the air. To make matters worse, the drizzle that is present when a match begins quickly develops into a heavy rain storm that impedes visibility and lines of sight as water starts sheeting off the buildings.
- Raven Down: A very small crossroads that is blanketed in a blinding snow storm. A Raven helicopter has crashed in the storm, and crashed through an elevated train on its way down, so there's train wreckage to deal with as well. The snowstorm ebbs occasionally, but is more often so heavy that it's difficult to see more than a few meters ahead at any given time.
Fergusson also revealed that the DLC will include four weapons hidden in the maps called "Elemental Cleavers". He provided an example by describing the "snow cleaver", which sends an icy gust at the enemy that stuns them. The "emulsion cleaver" explodes on impact and does a small amount burn damage to nearby enemies. Achievements have been tied to these new weapons.
Epic hasn't put a price tag on the Forces of Nature DLC, but season pass holders will receive it for free.
Comments
14 comments so far...
Coulson1990 on 17 Feb '12 said:
Jacinto? oh god no...
Worst map since bloc from COD 4.
eastldn on 17 Feb '12 said:
so why is that out of contex video on the page?
cloakedvengance on 17 Feb '12 said:
Whilst I certainly welcome more DLC for this excellent game, are we sure there are more achievements? I only ask as i'm sure I read some where that MS had imposed a limit of 1750 gs for a game with DLC? I may be wrong of course, perhaps some one could enlighten me.
zombiesinmyhead on 17 Feb '12 said:
Jacinto was a babs map.
Four characters are also included, but they're not new or exclusive, they're the preorder bonus skins, commando dom, mechanic baird, mardy kantus and transgender drone. Or something.
I think this is a bit gash, I've already got the Dom skin, and I don't like paying for it again. I also had a look on ebay on launch day, and those skins were going for up to £30. Sucks to be one of the muppets who forked out that much for one.
Aer0Smith360 on 17 Feb '12 said:
MS has brought up the achievements to 2000 for GOW 3. Epic seemingly asked MS to up the amount of achievements when the game was still in development. However I'm unsure if other games will follow or will still be capt to 1750?
dicky1993 on 17 Feb '12 said:
i'm dissapointed was expecting something big to go out with considering it's the last dlc to make up achievements/season pass, 1 with held content, 1 map pack (poor), RAAMS SHADOW (decent), and a map pack,
dissapointed
zombiesinmyhead on 17 Feb '12 said:
Pretty much.
wwinterj on 17 Feb '12 said:
Having not bought any Gears 3 DLC I'll wait for the Game of The Year version. This DLC so far doesn't do anything for me.
gmcb007 on 17 Feb '12 said:
Hmm some of these maps sound like they'll use the exact same layout as previous maps just with a different reskin.
chunkysatsuma on 17 Feb '12 said:
Yes they do reuse old layouts as two of them are old maps being brought back!
Considering COD charges 1200 for 3 maps - getting 5 maps, new achievements, new weapons and (for those that dont have them) new character skins for 800 seems very reasonable
The DLC so far has been pretty good, people still mistake the first bit - the horde command pack dlc was for all the additional building types/weapons on horde (these were not on disc) the horde command pack also gave you early access to the three maps that were released for free later.
Raams Shadow was awesome, loved playing through that and the Fenix Rising map pack has one of the best maps in any gears game (Anvil).
Genuinly awesome game and I like how it has been supported post release - specially since it doesnt force you to download the DLC to play online (like some games do)
a3HeadedMonkey on 17 Feb '12 said:
Epic has put a price tag on this DLC. It's 800 points or free to season pass holders. There's also a fly-by video of the re-skinned Jacinto map.
http://epicgames.com/community/2012/02/ ... lythrough/
fitterthanmost on 17 Feb '12 said:
Hate Raven down! Where's Fuel depot? Come on epic how about some War Machine too
KK-Headcharge78 on 17 Feb '12 said:
Deadly more Gears! Liked the last map pack and the Raam DLC was epic. Bring it!!
Imaduck on 19 Feb '12 said:
Yay! More fun times!