Preview: Gears of War 3

{sidebar id=1}It's usually a safe bet that Cliff Bleszinski, lead game designer of Epic Games, will make an appearance during Microsoft's E3 press conference to talk about Gears of War in some fashion, and this year is no different. Many people were expecting some sort of Kinect support for the upcoming Gears of War 3 title, but no such announcement was made. We did, however, get to see a live demo of the game as played by Ice-T, who lends his voice to a new character named Griffin.

What we saw was very traditional Gears of War gameplay. There were chainsaw guns. There were chest-high walls. There were grainy-voiced, muscle-y men yelling at big monsters. Gears of War, as a franchise, has become very successful and popular, to the point where there are tons of third-person shooters out there that try really hard to emulate that certain "I-don't-know-what" that Gears of War has managed to exude onto its players. Gears of War 3 is getting some serious stage time at E3 following its recent multiplayer beta, so it's time to check out just how accessible this game is looking to be.

As mentioned, this game is a cover-based, third-person shooter. Past games have utilized pretty much the entirety of the Xbox 360 controller for one action or another. They've done a decent job of providing a few different controller options for the player, but never completely customizable controls. The Gears of War games have always been about a lot of action, so quick reflexes and strong precision are generally needed. This looks to remain the same in the third installment. There hasn't been any type of auto-aim, either, though there does seem to be a slight aim-assist that slows down your aiming movement when over an enemy.

The on-stage demo was not subtitled, though the games themselves have always had the option. Hearing-impaired gamers will likely be greeted with standard closed captioning for the story dialogue and perhaps random one-liners that the crew shouts during the actual gameplay.

Color hasn't always been Gears of War's strong point. The first game had an extreme case of brown, making it really hard to distinguish certain objects from the background. The game wasn't unplayable, but it was a rather large inconvenience. The second game suffered from the same drab fate, though some of the environments were a bit more colorful. The E3 demo and recent screenshots from Gears of War 3 make the game look like it's taken a step forward with its color palettes. While the enemies and protagonists are still covered in bland, washed out colors, some of the environments seem to be colorful and bright. Whether or not these are in the majority or the minority is still yet to be seen.

Gears of War 3 is one of the biggest titles that's set to come to the Xbox 360 this fall season. The series has had a pretty poor history with accessibility, especially in the color and mobility departments. Gears of War 3 could, of course, change all of this with new additions that address these issues. We'll find out if Marcus Fenix and his muscle-bound friends can step up to the accessibility plate when Gears of War 3 is released this September.