RAD episode 230-Raam's Shadow
Birdman and Micah armed with retro lancers and a serious case of the ass kicks are ready mow down the latest Gears of War 3 DLC,Raam’s Shadow!
Gears of War 3
Players: 1-2 Offline Players, 2-10 Online Players
Publisher: Microsoft
Genres: Third-Person Shooter
Publisher: Microsoft
Genres: Third-Person Shooter
Release Date: September 20, 2011
Developer: Epic Games
MSRP: $59.99
Developer: Epic Games
MSRP: $59.99
Gears of War 3 is the final chapter in Epic's gritty shooter. Gears plunges players into a harrowing tale of hope, survival, and brotherhood. With the last human city destroyed and the remaining survivors stranded, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race from the jaws of extinction.
Gears of War 3: Week 1 Beta Impressions
Posted By Micah C. about 1 year, 1 month ago
You know the ladies love some Gears.
For the first time in the history of the franchise, Gears of War is finally bringing forth a public beta to select people on Xbox Live. Though I got in with a press code, anyone who bought the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm now has access to the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta, and the beta is also available to anyone who has preordered Gears of War 3. Since I’ve had a good amount of time with the beta myself, I’ll be bringing you fans of Blistered Thumbs the impressions that I’m getting during each week of play, with both video and impressions of every game mode and the balancing. So, let’s have a look at Team Deathmatch first, shall we?
Team Deathmatch doesn’t really differentiate itself from any other game in the franchise’s particular installment, but it does have a few new tweaks to it. The first is that it still maintains the old round structure, but now each team only gets a limited number of spawns, and there are less rounds. After a certain number of deaths are hit on each side, a “lives” counter will come up. Each player on the team gets one more life. Once you die, you’re out of the game. It’s sort of like dodgeball at that point, except with more bullets and blades being thrown around. That particular map you can see in the video should be noted as a great all-around map. I played every game type on it, and it’s incredibly well balanced. I can imagine that it’ll be great for Horde as well, what with all of the elevated areas that would be a challenge to properly fortify.
Next up is King of the Hill, which is essentially Annex from the previous games. You work to capture one control point, and once it’s captured, you can leave the ring and go kill everyone. The difference is that the ring is on a constant timer. Whether someone is in it or not, there are only 75 seconds to score points. The goal is to score a maximum of 170 points, and it’s a “best of three” round setup once again. Truthfully, this is probably the most fun game mode that I played in the beta. It probably takes the most strategy, and does a solid job of making you readjust your tactics on the fly, which is something that Gears has done exceptionally in its gameplay thus far. The only thing that I had against this particular map is that it has a few dead ends that didn’t really feel like they needed to be there, such as a couple of ill-placed fences. Still, there are chickens running around the map you can shoot!
Finally, there’s Capture the Leader. This particular mode plays like a mix between Submission from the second game, and Assassination from the original. The goal is to get to your enemy leader and capture him to use as a shield. Hold him (or her) for a certain amount of time, and you’ve won the round. What’s interesting about this particular game mode is that the leader can actually fight his way out of enemy hands, should he hit a button prompt when it comes up. It adds a bit of strategy to it, considering it can make it difficult for a lone wolf player to really make a difference. The map that I played in was a grocery store map, and it wasn’t too bad. It was a little too close-quarters for my taste, but people who love shotgun fights will dig it.
After week one, I can say that Epic has a really good start to the multiplayer of Gears of War 3. The dedicated servers make a huge difference in connectivity, and old tricks that people use to cheat in the second installment don’t work any more. The only real issue is with the weapon balancing. For some reason, the Sawed-off shotgun’s effectiveness is hit and miss, whereas the Gnasher shotgun is far, far too effective at medium range. It’s a situational weapon, but some players can use it like an assault rifle. Other than that, new weapons like the Digger Launcher and Pendulum War Era Lancer help to mix things up a bit, and the Pendulum Era Lancer’s melee charge is one of the most satisfying ways to kill someone in the series. It’s not perfect, but there’s quite a bit of fun to be had if things stay this way. I’ll be back with more impressions on how things are progressing at the end of next week!
Yes, Dom’s beard is very epic in the game.
-Micah C.
Follow me on Twitter to hear how the Beta is going!
Gears of War 3: Week 1 Beta Impressions
ince I've had a good amount of time with the beta myself, I'll be bringing you fans of Blistered Thumbs the impressions that I'm getting during each week of play, with both video and impressions of every game mode and the balancing.
Gears of War 3 Beta: Week 2 Impressions
Since I've already talked about each of those game modes at length, allow me to simply go over what's changed since I last dove into the murdertown that is Gears of War 3.
Gears of War 3 Beta First Impressions
Gears of war is one of the Xbox 360's Top selling franchises. With a beta of Gears 3 available, Sean analyzes his experience with the Beta.
Gears of War 3 Review
The Gears are back for the final installment in this Xbox exclusive trilogy from Epic Games. Yousif Alshaker has managed to wrangle himself a copy early and somehow kept quiet about it. Find out his thoughts on the game.
Gears of War 3 (Full Game) - Beast Mode and & Horde Mode First Impressions
Guru Larry and Ian Higton (a guy from a rival gaming TV show in the UK) get together to take a first ever look at the Beast mode and Horde mode on Gears of War 3 (Literally, this is their first ever go on it!) so true British wit and laughs aplenty guaranteed!!!
Gears of War 3 is AWESOME!
Testosterone spews from our boob caps as we play the very manly Gears of War 3 co-operatively!
Sage Reviews: Gears of War 3
More brown and gray than a UPS truck crashing into Strong Sad.
The Gears of War series in 5 seconds
Is the series that makes Xbox 360 owners proud so perfect compared to the competition ?
RAD episode 215-Gears of War 3
Armed with a retro lancer and a smile Birdman finishes up the Gears of war trilogy! We also have details on a new RAD contest as well.
RAD episode 230-Raam's Shadow
Birdman and Micah armed with retro lancers and a serious case of the ass kicks are ready mow down the latest Gears of War 3 DLC,Raam's Shadow!
Gears of War DLC Comes November 1st
For those of you aside from Yousif and myself who love chainsawing people with bayonets, there’s going to be some downloadable content coming our way.
RAD episode 215-Gears of War 3
Armed with a retro lancer and a smile Birdman finishes up the Gears of war trilogy! We also have details on a new RAD contest as well.
The Gears of War series in 5 seconds
Is the series that makes Xbox 360 owners proud so perfect compared to the competition ?
Gears of War 3 is AWESOME!
Testosterone spews from our boob caps as we play the very manly Gears of War 3 co-operatively!
Gears of War 3 (Full Game) - Beast Mode and & Horde Mode First Impressions
Guru Larry and Ian Higton (a guy from a rival gaming TV show in the UK) get together to take a first ever look at the Beast mode and Horde mode on Gears of War 3 (Literally, this is their first ever go on it!) so true British wit and laughs aplenty guaranteed!!!
Gears of War 3 Review
The Gears are back for the final installment in this Xbox exclusive trilogy from Epic Games. Yousif Alshaker has managed to wrangle himself a copy early and somehow kept quiet about it. Find out his thoughts on the game.
Gears of War DLC Comes November 1st
For those of you aside from Yousif and myself who love chainsawing people with bayonets, there’s going to be some downloadable content coming our way.
RAD episode 215-Gears of War 3
Armed with a retro lancer and a smile Birdman finishes up the Gears of war trilogy! We also have details on a new RAD contest as well.
The Gears of War series in 5 seconds
Is the series that makes Xbox 360 owners proud so perfect compared to the competition ?
Gears of War 3 is AWESOME!
Testosterone spews from our boob caps as we play the very manly Gears of War 3 co-operatively!
Gears of War 3 (Full Game) - Beast Mode and & Horde Mode First Impressions
Guru Larry and Ian Higton (a guy from a rival gaming TV show in the UK) get together to take a first ever look at the Beast mode and Horde mode on Gears of War 3 (Literally, this is their first ever go on it!) so true British wit and laughs aplenty guaranteed!!!
Gears of War 3 Review
The Gears are back for the final installment in this Xbox exclusive trilogy from Epic Games. Yousif Alshaker has managed to wrangle himself a copy early and somehow kept quiet about it. Find out his thoughts on the game.
Gears of War 3 "Five Against All" Trailer has Ice-T
You need to watch this trailer, if only to hear Ice-T yell, “Somebody make me a sandwich!”
Gears 3: RAAM’s Shadow Review
Posted By Micah C. about 5 months ago
Gears 3: RAAM’s Shadow Review
Despite the fact that the Gears of War series is at an end with the third installment, it doesn’t mean that there can’t be side stories told of the conflict on Sera. Released on December 13th for the Xbox 360, RAAM’s Shadow is a story campaign that serves as a prequel to the original Gears of War. As per usual, it’s time to answer the questions that often arise with downloadable content like this: What is in it, how much does it cost, and is it worth the price of entry? Well, allow me to answer these questions for you before you spend your hard-earned cash.
The setting of RAAM’s Shadow is, as I said before, prior to the events of the first Gears of War game. You play as Michael Barrick and Zeta team, which is lead by Lt. Kim from the original Gears. The team consists of the aforementioned Kim, Barrick (a character from the Gears of War comics), a younger, slimmer Tai Kaliso from Gears 2, and a new character named Alicia Valera who is voiced by Alicia Tyler. The story tells two sides simultaneously though, as you also control General RAAM and some of his elite soldiers as they prepare the way for the mass genocide of an entire city.
The story’s quality is solid for an action title. Though it’s not exactly a character driven story, it does keep a basic idea of what it wants to tell, and then molds the action around it. The thing about Epic and the Gears series is that they’ve become masters at telling a good story that allows them to blow things up in the same way that other major shooter developers do without compromising the quality of the plot. Thus, we get an airtight narrative with some great storytelling moments that don’t often break for a cutscene and a bathroom break. I often use the Predator reference with Gears, and I think it still holds true. You’ve got some cool characters that are a little more than archetype that are fun to be around, and you see them in dark scenarios fighting monsters.
For those long-time Gears fans and/or those who follow the expanded universe, you'll see some familiar faces.
The main purpose of the story, however, is to flesh out the Gears universe. What we see here is the beginning of the Locust slaughter, and there’s a reason I use the word “genocide.” These creatures are the lizard version of Nazis. They kill indiscriminately, and thus the story is very dark throughout. If you don’t like an action plot with serious moments or dark moments, you’ll hate this DLC. At the same time, you probably hate Gears for those same reasons, and should probably just walk away now. For those who enjoy this type of narrative, you’ll love it, because all the dark moments make the heroic moments and moments of success that much brighter.
Going on about developing the Gears universe, the great dialog that the series has shown throughout still applies to this downloadable content. Through regular banter between the Gears, we learn exactly what the COG is, and what life is like on Sera for these people. It’s a harsh, bloody world where death seems to be around every corner because your enemies are relentless monsters, and the government you serve is comparable to Soviet Russia. Even cooler is the fact you get to play as those aforementioned monsters. Playing as RAAM serves a point within the story, because you get to see exactly how malicious and evil these beasts are, on top of the power that they wield. Since I don’t really want to spoil what’s going on, let’s just say through him you learn the Locust military method, and see exactly how cold the Locust war machine is.
Lunch Money. Now.
Now that I’ve got all the story bits out of the way, let’s talk about the content of the DLC, considering the gameplay and presentation really haven’t changed too much. Were you to read a press release, it would sound simplistic. RAAM’s Shadow contains three and a half hours of a new campaign, six more multiplayer skins, and a few new weapons skins. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Wrong. There is quite a bit to enjoy here. The extra skins and weapons looks really are just icing on the cake. The meat of the DLC, the campaign itself, is right on par with the rest of Gears of War 3’s disc based single player.
RAAM’s Shadow is three plus hours of intense combat that gives you quite a bit of bang for your buck. Aside from the fact that you get to play as some awesome Locust units to mix things up, the scenarios that the game throws at you within the DLC are fantastic. Each new section is an action packed romp that delivers every thrill that the series has been able to give up to this date. The firefights are excellent, it’s a great little time for you and up to three more friends, and it never disappoints. The only problem is that sometimes the AI has issues, but Yousif already covered that in his review of the full title, and I’d suggest you read that review. My British friend was right on the money with it.
To close this one out, I think that the last thing that needs to be said is RAAM’s Shadow follows what should be considered the legacy of Gears of War. Though pretentious folk will make brown jokes and portray masculinity as a negative, those who see the game for what it is will see the best shooter series of this generation. RAAM’s Shadow is an excellent piece of DLC that is worth the price of entry. Most shooter expansions are sold on discs for forty bucks or more and give the same amount of content. In fact, I’d argue that this game contains as much content as Halo 3: ODST, but it’s one quarter of the cost. If you enjoy Gears of War, you need to pick up RAAM’s Shadow the minute you have the time. Then again, if you got the season pass, you get one of the best pieces of DLC I’ve played this year for free.
Kicking myself for not buying the season pass.
-Micah C.
Gears of War 3: RAAM’s Shadow was purchased by the reviewer for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). The campaign was completed in three hours and thirty minutes, give or take.
For more Gears goodness and other such stuffs, follow Micah C on Twitter!
9/10
Gears of War 3: Week 1 Beta Impressions
ince I've had a good amount of time with the beta myself, I'll be bringing you fans of Blistered Thumbs the impressions that I'm getting during each week of play, with both video and impressions of every game mode and the balancing.Gears of War 3 Beta: Week 2 Impressions
Since I've already talked about each of those game modes at length, allow me to simply go over what's changed since I last dove into the murdertown that is Gears of War 3.Gears of War 3 Beta First Impressions
Gears of war is one of the Xbox 360's Top selling franchises. With a beta of Gears 3 available, Sean analyzes his experience with the Beta.Gears of War 3 Review
The Gears are back for the final installment in this Xbox exclusive trilogy from Epic Games. Yousif Alshaker has managed to wrangle himself a copy early and somehow kept quiet about it. Find out his thoughts on the game.Gears of War 3 (Full Game) - Beast Mode and & Horde Mode First Impressions
Guru Larry and Ian Higton (a guy from a rival gaming TV show in the UK) get together to take a first ever look at the Beast mode and Horde mode on Gears of War 3 (Literally, this is their first ever go on it!) so true British wit and laughs aplenty guaranteed!!!Gears of War 3 is AWESOME!
Testosterone spews from our boob caps as we play the very manly Gears of War 3 co-operatively!Sage Reviews: Gears of War 3
More brown and gray than a UPS truck crashing into Strong Sad.The Gears of War series in 5 seconds
Is the series that makes Xbox 360 owners proud so perfect compared to the competition ?RAD episode 215-Gears of War 3
Armed with a retro lancer and a smile Birdman finishes up the Gears of war trilogy! We also have details on a new RAD contest as well.RAD episode 230-Raam's Shadow
Birdman and Micah armed with retro lancers and a serious case of the ass kicks are ready mow down the latest Gears of War 3 DLC,Raam's Shadow!- January 04, 2012 at 07:01am
“Error loading media
The requested item has been removed.”I keep getting this error message on Blistered Thumbs videos.
- January 01, 2012 at 11:58am
I really enjoyed the gears series and cant wait for the next installment(u know there will be more games since it sold so well) . I get people were not too crazy about the dialogue. It didn’t bother me, I’d prefer it be a serious story with bits of humor instead of the other way around ala bullet storm(the humor mostly from cole and barid, with barid providing a line that actually made me laugh out loud, something games rarely make me do no matter how hard they try.). This was the best effort of the gears games, and GOW has always been about high production value and tight gameplay so thats saying something. When a game sticks with you after you play it you know it did it’s job and gears 3 did that for me. I am looking forward to play ramms shadow and this review confirmed (for me at least) it is well worth the 15 dollars, hell reading some of the comments and the review ,this dlc has lots more value then a lot of other shooters out there. This is MY game of the year, just My humble opinion. Afterall i did think BF3 had a better campaign then MW3…
- December 18, 2011 at 03:38pm
It might be worth noting out that Alicia is voiced by Aisha Tyler, the actress and recent voice actress, not Alicia Tyler who according to Google is a porn star. Should we scratch this one up as a Freudian slip?
- December 18, 2011 at 05:33am
Brown jokes? About Gears of War? But it’s such a colourful game! /sarcasm
Honestly, the last few years games have gone under the slogan ‘The Future is Brown.’ Fallout series, RAGE, GoW, just to name a few. Bulletstorm was a breath of fresh air in that they at least put some colour into the game. Hell, even my bitter hatred of Halo is dampened by the fact it has colour.
I’m tired of staring into a sewer on my screen. Bring back colour! - December 23, 2011 at 02:33am
I’m gonna have to disagree. I mean I played both Bulletstorm and Gears of War 3, and honestly they have just about the same color palette. Also if you really believe Gears 3 is just brown, then you probably need to play it again, you haven’t played it or you’re just talking out of your ass.
- December 14, 2011 at 10:30am
I enjoyed this DLC. You get a good deal of content for the price, some full retail games have single player portions that are about as long as this DLC. I was mainly reminded how little I liked Kim & Jace and Tai is weird. Barrick is pretty cool badass even if I felt like his voice didn’t quite match his looks and Valera was okay I suppose. There was some well layed out and challenging shootouts (I played on hardcore, I might give it a go on insane at some point) but I disagree about nothing else being usable than Lancer as I played the whole thing with Longshot & Sawed-Off.
The bits where you got to play as RAAM were cool as hell, I would have liked to play more as him but then again I know it would have got repetetive as he doesn’t have all that many attacks in his arsenal so I guess it’s always better to have people asking for more than the other way around. He is overpowered but he should be, he was a complete pain to beat in Gears 1 and getting to play as him reflects that.
I had a good time returning to Gears as it is among my best games of the year. People love to rag on it about the story and characters and dialogue but it sets out the universe and tone well and executes telling the story very well, much better than most shooters. If anything I’d love the game to be cheesier, some times I feel like they try to cater to the people who don’t like the cheese-factor by adding too much serious drama into the narrative.
- December 14, 2011 at 09:16am
At first I was going to really like GOW3, but pretty much near the end, I felt like NC by saying “STOP F#$%ING FIGHTING!” Yeah, I got really tired of the last act since it was looking for an excuse to drag out the game with as many mundane shoot-outs as possible (and to agree with Sage, you might as well not bother with any other weapon since the Lancer and Hammer Burst Rifle are too powerful to begin with).
I also found that anytime they were trying to be dramatic, it seemed more really funny rather than dramatic, but I will give it this, the game really had a lot of effort behind it, I was expecting to hate this game yet I did end up somewhat enjoying it, but I didn’t hold on to it for too long. May be annoying to me, but I’ll let it pass.
- December 14, 2011 at 04:54am
After playing The Missing Link from DX3, I realised that the last thing I want from DLC is just more of the same from games where, by the end of the campaign, I was more than satisfied.
I liked Gears 3, but that last act, one of the most repetitive, soul-destroyingly mundane moments I’ve experienced all year, made me damn sure I was done with the series. I’ve had my fun, time for something else.
No Posts
RAD episode 230-Raam's Shadow
Birdman and Micah armed with retro lancers and a serious case of the ass kicks are ready mow down the latest Gears of War 3 DLC,Raam’s Shadow!
The Gears of War series in 5 seconds
Is the series that makes Xbox 360 owners proud so perfect compared to the competition ?
Gears of War 3 is AWESOME!
Testosterone spews from our boob caps as we play the very manly Gears of War 3 co-operatively!
Gears of War 3 (Full Game) - Beast Mode and & Horde Mode First Impressions
Guru Larry and Ian Higton (a guy from a rival gaming TV show in the UK) get together to take a first ever look at the Beast mode and Horde mode on Gears of War 3 (Literally, this is their first ever go on it!) so true British wit and laughs aplenty guaranteed!!!
Gears of War 3 Beta First Impressions
Gears of war is one of the Xbox 360′s Top selling franchises. With a beta of Gears 3 available, Sean analyzes his experience with the Beta.
RAD episode 230-Raam's Shadow
Birdman and Micah armed with retro lancers and a serious case of the ass kicks are ready mow down the latest Gears of War 3 DLC,Raam’s Shadow!
RAD episode 215-Gears of War 3
Armed with a retro lancer and a smile Birdman finishes up the Gears of war trilogy! We also have details on a new RAD contest as well.
Gears of War 3 (Full Game) - Beast Mode and & Horde Mode First Impressions
Guru Larry and Ian Higton (a guy from a rival gaming TV show in the UK) get together to take a first ever look at the Beast mode and Horde mode on Gears of War 3 (Literally, this is their first ever go on it!) so true British wit and laughs aplenty guaranteed!!!
Gears of War 3 Beta: Week 2 Impressions
Since I’ve already talked about each of those game modes at length, allow me to simply go over what’s changed since I last dove into the murdertown that is Gears of War 3.
Gears of War 3: Week 1 Beta Impressions
ince I’ve had a good amount of time with the beta myself, I’ll be bringing you fans of Blistered Thumbs the impressions that I’m getting during each week of play, with both video and impressions of every game mode and the balancing.
Gears of War 3: A Wishlist
There are several regrets that I have had in the course of my lifetime, and
Sweet.
Look’s awesome.
Love Gears… Not a perfect game, but pretty damn entertaining.
Multiplayer online is great and even 2 player split screen is awesome.
One of those games that I wish was multiplatform so everyone could check it out, not just 360 owners.
Maybe in a perfect world.