Gears of War 3 "Forces of Nature" Unveiled

If you missed Spike's episode of GT.TV, Epic Game's Director Rod Fergusson revealed info on the final map pack for Gears of War 3 "Forces of Nature"


This pack will feature 5 maps, each with it's own "nature" based theme, 4 Character Models, 7 weapon skins, achievements a returning game mode and a very special Easter Egg for each map. Here are the details.

Aftermath
A former Government park that was hit by a tsunami, During the match there will be several earthquakes that will make it hard to aim, as well as some flooding that will cause some splashing, making it difficult to sneak up on enemies.


Artillery

What seems like a quiet abandoned military base, will "shock" you when a mighty lightning storm kicks up, then causing a mighty tornado that will kick up loads of dust and debris, blurring your vision but also your foes as well.


Cove

The Stranded took over this port after the locust invasion. There's lots of open spaces and clear shots, but the map is clouded by a dense fog that will make things harder to see from the distance. The sniper nest is a great spot but you'll have to trust your feelings for those long distance targets.


Jacinto

Returning from Gears of War 2, this was one of of my favorite maps. Once the last shining beacon of Sera's hope, The Coalition sunk this city to flood the locust hollow putting an end to the war for good, but it didn't. Things will only get worse as the map's rainstorm picks up and blinds everyone on the map. Keep you Gnasher equipped when it starts pouring.


Raven Down

A fan favorite from Gears of War, this is the smallest map in the series' history. Now returning with a chilly snow storm. Occasionally the winds will pick up impairing your vision for a while, which shouldn't be a problem considering how small this map is.


This Pack will have four new characters. Sadly. three of them are just "limited edition" recolors from Pre-Order Character Skins.

-Commando Dom (Limited Edition)
-Mechanic Baird (Limited Edition)
-Savage Grenadier Elite (Limited Edition)
-Savage Hunter


Epic made a big boo-boo with the last DLC by showing the wrong image of the Savage Marauder and left players confused when we got to guy above (3rd to the left) This is the real Savage Hunter.


Brought back by popular demand is the game mode guardian from the first two. Very Similar mode to the new Capture the Leader, One person is randomly assigned the leader (They will be Myrrah or Prescott for Locust and COG respectively). The goal of this game is to kill the enemy teams leader then the remainder of the squad. The leaders team will have infinite re-spawns until the leader is killed, then they're kaput.


This map will feature five new weapon skins ready to use, however 2 skins, which was created by the Gears community, must be unlocked through the DLC. While they haven't showed anything yet, I'm curious to see the community created ones.

For the final part of this DLC, Epic has hidden "Elemental Cleavers" on each map that can be found on Horde and Beast Mode. Each cleaver has an elemental effect including one that stirs up a blizzard and an immulsion one that will explode on impact causing an area of affect. Finding all these weapons and getting 25 kills with each of them will unlock the achievement "Elemental".

Speaking of Achievements, this DLC will have 10 new achievements worth a total of 250 Gamerscore. However non of them has been revealed yet except for the one I mentioned above.

While it's not what I was expecting, I'm glad to see Epic really listened to their fans for this one, especially since this will be the last pack available for free for season pass holders. The pack will be released on March 27th for 800 MS points to those without the Season Pass.


Another thing I should point out this will be the last map pack Epic will be releasing for Gears of War 3, good to get them all out before too many people lose interest. However this wont be the last piece of downloadable content they'll be making for the game, Chances are they are also planning to have more campaign DLC featuring Gears 2 baddie Skorge (He was confirmed to be a DLC Character a while ago) but nothing is set in stone.