The Gears of War 3 beta officially kicks off next Monday, April 18, for Bulletstorm "Epic Edition" owners, followed by the April 25 entrance of those who pre-ordered the game from GameStop. As the first public taste of Gears 3, there's a lot of content for fans to digest -- and that's where this handy guide and video preview come in! So rev up the old Lancer and roll past the break to take it all in.



Whether you are a Gears fanatic or a new-comer to the series ( I consider myself somewhere in-between) you're going to be able to enjoy this game right off the bat. From a gameplay standpoint, this may be Epic's best work yet for the franchise, if just for how amazing the game looks. But looks aren't everything, and even in this early stage of beta testing, the game is playing incredibly smooth with a much more intense feeling than previous iterations.

Having played very little "Gears of War" multiplayer since the franchise's sophomore outing, I was pleased to
find the game's basic workings comfortably familiar. You're still attaching neck-deficient Cogs to cover, blasting away at the enemy with traditional (and new) "Gears" weaponry, and trying your damnedest to hit the reload button again within that little white mark. The controls have essentially remained the same as they were in "Gears of War 2," albeit with a few minor additions to allow for some new features, but there are no surprising changes to the game's base structure.

Team Deathmatch -- This one is pretty self-explanatory. Each team has a shared pool of respawns. Once that pool is depleted, each team member has only one life left. Down and kill members of the opposing teams until all respawns are gone. The last team standing wins.

Capture the Leader -- One member of each team is designated the leader. Down the opposing team's leader and capture him (or her) by using them as a human shield. Hold onto the leader for a set amount of time to win the round. Free your team's leader by either killing or stunning the captor.

King of the Hill -- Defend the highlighted area of the map for the designated amount of time. Each team has infinite respawns.