So earlier today we had the first screens from Gears of War 3.  The pictures looked great and the artwork was interesting (and colourful for a change!).  Although, the old adage did not ring true, these pictures did not tell us a thousand words.  Instead they confused us with Russian articles and weird squiggles.

Luckily we live in a digital age and some good fellows over at the Epic forums have translated the whole shooting match for the world at large.  The main points are contained below but I will say – be careful as there are spoilers within.

• Other than Anya, there will be more female characters in the game – these are not explained.
• Lambent are now seen as the main enemy and are also able to charge up to at least three Gears at a time whenever they’re close to dying and explode.
• New weapons include a grenade launcher that contain earth-drilling rounds and a riffle that shoots single round and a double-barrelled shotgun.
• Due to not enough people finishing the earlier GOW games Cliffy B says the difficulty in the game will be lowered, with story and character development also included.
• Multiplayer environments will also change and will constantly shift during a match.
• Ammo will be generic to weapon types
• It takes place a year-and-a-half after Gears 2. After the fall of Jacinto, the government and COG collapsed with it.
• Ravens Nest seems to be the name of the man-made island that is in the sea. It also has the ability to travel.
• Prescott disappears, but soon shows up at an airbase on the man-made island.
• A recording from Adam Fenix, Marcus’ father, tells him how to save Sera. Oh, and here’s the kicker: Adam’s still alive.
• Cole and Baird now have their own storyline.
• Bullets do cumulative damage
• Gears 3 will end Marcus Fenix’s trilogy, but the series will continue in the forms of spin-offs, prequels and even “a transition to a new genre”.

Now I don’t know about you but I thought Gears and Gears 2 were anything but difficult.  In fact they were a little short and easy for my liking.  To say that 60% of people failed to finish the single player campaign is of no surprise as a huge number of people just picked up Gear of War & Gears of War 2 for the multiplayer aspects alone.

The ability to not have to worry about ammo hogs will be a nice touch in the new 4 player co-op play.  This should take some of the frustration out of that aspect at least.

As mentioned before expect more on this as E3 comes up.  Gears of War 3 will be released April 8, 2011 in Europe, with an American release on April 5 some three days before.