Everyone expects shooters these days to receive downloadable content down the line; it helps keep the multiplayer community going while bringing in the bucks. Gears of War 3 even went so far as to allow players to prepurchase its first four DLC packages at a discount as part of a Season Pass. The fourth and final Season Pass component, 'Forces of Nature' just launched this week. It packs five maps, four character skins, numerous weapon skins, the classic Guardian multiplayer mode, and of course, 250 GamerScore of Achievements. For players without a season pass, 'Forces of Nature' costs 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Nobody can say Gears of War 3 doesn't have staying power. Not only is it massive to begin with, but Epic keeps pushing out downloadable content and title updates. In fact, the fourth and latest title update has just appeared, a week ahead of the 'Forces of Nature' DLC (pictured). It contains a number of minor tweaks and bug fixes, all of which should make the multiplayer experience more enjoyable.

Amazon's deal of the day today is Gears of War 3 available for the low price of just $29.99.  It's a title we felt was one of the best games available last year, giving it an Editor's Choice as well as awarding it our Co-Op Game of the Year for 2011.  With four player campaign co-op and five player online Horde and Beast modes, as well as plenty of couch and online options we couldn't help but fall in love with Gears 3. 

A new title update is out now for Gears of War 3 on the Xbox 360 and with it comes numerous tweaks, fixes, and balancing improvements for both Horde and versus gameplay modes.  The title update should be out now, just in time for the Fenix Rising DLC which should hit Xbox Live tomorrow.

Microsoft's one day Xbox Live deals are moving right along this year and today's deal is for our Co-Op Game of the Year in 2011, Gears of War 3.  On sale are some Gears of War 3 avatar items as well as the obscenely priced skins collection.  But the real gem of the bunch is the Gears of War Season Pass, on sale for 1800  down from 2400 .  

The third piece of Gears of War 3 DLC has been announced, detailed, priced, and dated.  Titled "Fenix Rising," the new content will feature five new multiplayer maps, four new player skins, three new weapons skins, two turtle doves*, and one brand-spanking-new experience system.

Gears of War 3 has received two, count'em, two new DLC's in past few (okay, six) weeks.  The first was the Horde Command Pack, which features new multiplayer characters, weapon skins, Horde mode upgrades, and a few new maps.  That's all well and good, but the meatier of the two DLC's came out yesterday.  RAAM's Shadow offers a whole new co-operative campaign which takes place before the events of the first Gears of War.  

Didn't some pessimistic jerk just claim that there's nothing coming out this week?  Man, I'll have to talk to the boss about him.  Anyway - Gear of War 3 DLC is coming out tomorrow, December 13th.  It's titled "RAAM's Shadow" and it's a prequel to the trilogy we all know and love.  You'll experience a new take on the Gears universe as you step into the heavy boots of the Locust General and unleash hell on the COG forces.  That's right, this additional storyline will include a campaign from the Locust perspective.  Not only that, the whole thing will support two player local co-op and four player online co-op.

By now many of you would have completed the Gears of War 3 campaign and it was pretty awesome. Perhaps some of you joined the Co-Optimus team on their recent 4 player jaunt through the game on Insane Arcade mode (this mode is also excellent and feels like a different gaming experience.) However, if you still crave more, some co-op campaign DLC is on the way in the form of RAAM's Shadow. Check out the first gameplay trailer courtesy of G4TV.

While Gears of War 3 wrapped up the story of Marcus, Dom and crew quite nicely - rumors are already circulating about more games in the series.  The Official Xbox Magazine has the pulse on what seems to be a likely scenario - a new trilogy of Gears of War games set before the current in true Star Wars fashion.  

Gears of War 3 is a fantastic co-op title, overflowing with modes and content. Games with major online components like that usually require some tweaks after the fact in order to keep things fair, balanced, and fun. Thankfully Epic is on top of things, recently releasing a title update with some fixes. The many changes include: a new spectator mode, the removal of several exploits, better host migration in Horde mode, and lots more.

The Gears of War 3 Horde Command Pack, the first piece of DLC set for release for the co-op game, has been delayed at the last minute due to technical glitch according to the game's community manager raczilla.  The content, which is priced at 800 , was set to go live today.

A second Gears of War 3 add-on has been announced.  Titled "RAAM's Shadow," it's a prequel to the original Gears of War.  Everyone likes prequels, right?  Ahem.  Unholy trilogies aside, "RAAM's Shadow" will obviously support co-op!   As Epic's Senior PR Manager, Dana Cowley, tweeted to our own intrepid Nick Puleo:

Gears of War 3's co-op Horde mode seems to be causing some Xbox 360 consoles to freeze, specifically when playing the game in split-screen with two profiles.  What makes things worse, when the glitch does hit, one of the profiles becomes corrupted and is unable to get into any of the game's modes.

In the midst of the Great Gaming Avalanche of 2011, two of Co-Optimus’s intrepid staff members took some time out of their ridiculously busy schedules to blast through Gears of War 3’s Beast Mode.  It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it!