Does anyone know if Insane is available from the start this time, or do you have to beat it once first? (like gears 2) I just recently have been going back and doing the hardest runs on games I have already beaten (MW games and Halo games) which is difficult for me because I get bored easily doing another run on games. So this time I would like to just play right off on the hardest setting...

I pre-ordered from BB last night and picked up the game in store today. I traded in a couple of games since they were offering 40% additional credit towards a GOW3 purchase. I should be getting a character code in my email. BB also gave out a GOW3 beanie cap and a GOW3 lanyard (limited supply).

It would be nice if Insane was offered from the outset, especially with 4-player co-op. But it's been locked the last two times, I can't imagine they'll change that. It's the carrot of replayability.

And it doesn't matter how many times you have to play the game, you will. Whore.

lol...unfortunately there is some ring of truth to this...


I have a good amount of achievements, but I never really cared about them...I just had a lot because I played a lot of games...I do tend to get tired of a game easy though and move on...which is why I have played so many...

But over the last year or so achievements have become more and more important. While I still won't waste my time with some stupid collectibles (I am looking at you Mafia 2) I have started going back and playing older games to get the hard achievement... It started with Modern Warfare and now I have the bug...ugh

That being said, while I may and probably will play Gears 3 again...I can see it being a year before I do so...

It's gotten to the point that I almost can't imagine not playing through the campaign of any game at least twice nowadays. I refuse to play on the hardest difficulty the first time through and generally set it to the easiest, because I'm more interested in the story and don't want to deal with any frustration. Then I normally move on to the hardest difficulty right after that. I have absolutely no problem doing more than one playthrough with any good game like this one, because just like a good movie, there are tons of things you miss the first time around.

Consider the first runthrough your training for Insane mode.

Anyone jumping on the GoW 3 Season Pass? It seems kind of pricey at 2400 points, but I guess it's a good deal if you were going to get all the content anyway. From the description, it's four 800 point content packages, delivered quarterly stating in November.

Oh, and to answer the question, Insane is locked until you finish your first playthrough. In fact, if you try to select it on the beginning screen, it says "Are you crazy? For Gears elite only."

I'll probably do the season pass, but I might wait a while. They said it would be available at least until the first DLC is released. Also, it was mentioned that the content you get will be worth 3600 points when purchased separately, which probably means 3 800 point DLCs plus one 1200 pointer.

Basically, the only incentive to go ahead and get the season pass immediately is the included liquid metal weapon skin set.

Just to confirm I did not get a gimped copy, but the instruction manual is essentially the controller layout

Yup. Very brief.

They don't remove the story from harder modes, do they? What are you blabbing about?

I could see how dying over and over again and having to replay areas while on the hardest difficulty could take you out of the story.

That's putting it bluntly thx, I figured as much but wanted to be certain

Fuckin' noobs

I normally start off a game on normal and am able to get the whole story. Even on hard...I'm able to get the whole story.

I play the same way. Usually go through the first time on Easy or Normal. I don't want any frustration, playing the same segments over and over again. I just want to breeze through and enjoy the story. Then I go back and replay my favorite levels at a harder difficulty.

i played the horde mode for about 3 hours. fun. the money and upgrades are fun. i rock on a turret. i will just keep building that sucker and fixing it, because i can get between 5-10 kills on it a game. unfortunately, one dude dropped out from my foursome, and we only got to level 39. shit gets hard, quick.

They certainly don't! But it's difficult, for me at least, to focus on the story when replaying certain areas a couple dozen times on the harder modes, which sometimes leads so far as putting the game aside for a while due to frustration. I'm thinking more about strategy and gameplay than characters or story in those situations. The first time through, I want to breeze past the enemies and experience the story in a more cinematic way. Obviously a lot of developers these days design the hardest difficulty as an extra challenge for people who've already gone through the game, and they seem to agree that a single playthrough on max difficulty is not the optimal experience they want everyone to have. Or maybe they just want to be able to claim replayability to help their sales numbers (though, if that's the case, why don't they just go all-out-bastard and require a playthrough on every difficulty level to unlock the next one up?).

Either way, I don't really care. Just relating how I approach the situation, sorry you disagree.

Went to the midnight launch and picked up console and Epic edition.

So far so good, been playing campaign only. I'm at the start of Act 3, playing on hardcore, not really that hard, a lot of checkpoints, a lot of ammo, so just stay on cover a lot and you should do fine.

How did I miss the discussion on the free stickers?! Let's talk about the important shit, folks.

Game is epic... a few chapters into Act 2...4 player coop...best Gears yet so far...I highly recommend hardcore as your first play if you are doing coop as it seems to be about normal in difficulty...

ammo is a bitch at times though...

Played a bit of single player campaign and then some coop campaign with my buddy. So far i'd say it's been more of the same Gears, which isn't a bad thing at all.

I agree, this game is truly amazing in the visual department. I'm glad that they moved back towards the more polished look of the first game and away from the cartoonish style of GoW2. I've gotten killed a few times by just stopping to look around at the scenery.

Horde 2.0 is definitely more of a strategic challenge and designed for co-op. I enjoyed soloing some horde in the last game, but it'll be tougher to do this time. The footstep noises are a little odd - reminds me of playing Bioshock 2 multiplayer.

Also, just sold my Amazon Savage Kantus code on eBay for $30, so yay.

Holy crap. Beast Mode is so much fun.

My last match of the night, I managed to unlock Berserker Locust early because of amount of kills.

Then went into a straight laughter fit, because I could just plow through everyone and everything without ever dying.

Played mostly Horde most last night. We got to wave 37. It was a lot of fun. I started the campaign but have only just scratched the surface of that. I'll play through on normal and then come back to insane later on. The graphics are better than GOW2 but not that much from what I remember.