Gears of War 3 DLC: expect Barrick

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 28 September, 2011

Cliffy B responds to story discussion.

Gears of War 3 campaign downloadable content will feature spin-off character Michael Barrick, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has confirmed.

Barrick, star of the Gears of War comic series Hollow, was a former Stranded who enlisted with the COG.

"No, it won't be the graphic novel," Cliffy B wrote on NeoGAF in response to the suggestion that the Gears graphic novel will be turned into DLC.

"But it will have all new campaign content that doesn't have Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird in it. Expect Barrick and more..."

Meanwhile, Cliffy B took to NeoGAF to respond to some users who compared Gears of War 3's writing to other "serious" games they claimed had better writing.

There may be spoilers ahead.

"I'm not going to defend our story here, those who love it and get it truly adore it," he said. "You can find plot holes in nearly anything, from Lord of the Rings to Dark Knight. Story, like any art, can be somewhat subjective and is easy to pick on.

"The GAF crowd can be somewhat cynical. If you go to YouTube and look up many of the cutscenes deemed 'silly' or 'cheesy' on here the majority of the comments over there cite how the scenes moved them, made them misty eyed, or out and out made them cry.

"And those of you citing Cole as some bad stereotype - guys, that's just Lester being Lester. We introduced Jace as a more laid back character as a contrast to Cole's enthusiasm (which, after playing his sequence, is his way of overcompensating for not being the centre of the universe and having to risk his neck for a can of beans now along with some aches and pains).

"I believe we're getting better at storytelling with each effort and the critical consensus is that this is the best Gears narrative yet, and we'll keep doing better in the future. You can pick anything to shreds on the internet because you've got the time and balls afforded to you by a keyboard and monitor. ;)"

And then: "And no, we're not going to answer everything. Creatives often leave certain questions unanswered so they can answer them later or let the hive mind of the internet to figure it out. The Gearspedia has already solved a lot of these questions."

Cliffy B's comments echo those made by Gears of War 3 writer Karen Traviss, who told Eurogamer those looking for all the various strands of the Gears of War story to be neatly tied up in the latest installment of Epic's franchise might come away disappointed.

"You're never going to please everybody," she said. "You're always going to have the people that want to do a fact sheet on Wikipedia with everything answered. You're never going to get that.

However, she insisted there's a "definite end to the story" and that players can expect "a definite answer".

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • iHAZaCHEEZ3burger #1 8 months ago

    I want to know whats on that bloody disc!

  • Tomahawk #2 8 months ago

    The only thing that moved me to tears in this game is the overpowered Sawed-off in multiplayer.

  • BurningEclipse #3 8 months ago

    Tomahawk...

    It's not overpowered IMHO... It can be frustrating to walk around a corned and be killed in 1 shot, but the Gnasher does the same thing essentially. Plus, if it's 2 on 1 against someone with a DBS, their guaranteed dead. A Gnasher user stands a much better chance. Range on it is pathetic too, if you die by the DBS, you got too close.

  • TelexStar #4 8 months ago

    +1 on hatred of the Sawed off shotgun.

  • Dr_Cowley #5 8 months ago

    @Tomahawk

    SOS is fine, if you get hit by it you suck, if they miss you have a free kill. The Gnasher Has twice as many rounds in its clip than it shoud do and can usually outclass the lancer at mid range. That is overpowered

    How can they give us such a brilliant and more balanced beta than the actual game. I hated gears one and two for its simple 'roll around with a shotgun and do nothing else' gameplay, after the beta I thought they had changed it. How wrong I was.

    The company behind the Unreal Series should not have put its name on the unbalanced mess

  • adofessex #6 8 months ago

    Well I for one enjoyed the storyline, yes the plot holes are glaring but I enjoyed it. The end of Act 3 being a particular highlight.

  • Scurrminator #7 8 months ago

    Well how about you tell us why the locust queen is human!? Geez

  • WeakOrbit #8 8 months ago

    I liked the plotline. I suppose if you want more you can always buy the books. And yeah Act 3 was great. Very similar to a certain Half Life 2 segment I thought as well.

    But still on the topic of plot holes. What about the Sires from 2?
    Edited by WeakOrbit at 28/09/11 @ 10:35

  • metalangel #9 8 months ago

    Mataki enabled for multiplayer or GTFO, frankly.

  • Primatori #10 8 months ago

    The multiplayer in gears 3 is just out of this world. IMO they have got everything just right, no longer are the rifles useless and you win by simply rolling around with a shotgun. The SOS is not overpowered at all. On launch day everyone was using the SOS because it was new but soon found that it really is hard to use and gets you killed alot due to the reload time and the low ammo amount. Sure, if you are hit, you die BUT if it misses you and you have a Gnasher then they are as good as dead. Gnasher is the better gun hands down.

    I love multiplayer this time around.

  • BSMR #11 8 months ago

    Am I the only one who thinks the queen is Marcus's Mum?
    Edited by BSMR at 28/09/11 @ 10:11

  • AdamAsunder #12 8 months ago

    For me at least the effort for poignancy sat really uneasy with the gratuitous violence. It would be like if Braindead had scenes that tried to make you cry.

    That being said the third installment definitely delivered a better story than the others no matter how little I ultimately cared, I was too busy popping heads like watermelons.

  • TeaFiend #13 8 months ago

    Poor Cliffy B always acting so defensive. People have opinions, he needs to accept this rather than going "no, you are wrong".

  • Gaol #14 8 months ago

    Nothing wrong with the Gears plot. It's a pulp boys-own adventure and knows it, playing out like an Amercian comic book melodrama. I like it's honesty, and it's a welcome relief after all the pretentious moralizing at the end of Deus Ex.

  • Ultrasoundwave #15 8 months ago

    Very happy with this news. More games need to do single-player DLC......

    / Narrows eyes at Red Dead Redemption

  • Sicho_666 #16 8 months ago

    @11 I've been thinking the exact same thing, especially with events before her disappearance in the books, but I suppose it's gonna be for Epic and Karen Traviss to leave us to make our own assumptions.

  • Ror1984 #17 8 months ago

    Marcus and Adam Fenix found Elain Fenix's body in the Locust tunnels. Myrrah is not Marcus' mother.

  • theonlyix #18 8 months ago

    @Ror1984 No no, that was the remains of the Sony Playstation franchise they found in the tunnels. Unloved and rotting away.
    After seing the graphics of Gears 3, everyone sold their PS3 and bought a 360. End of story!

  • addugg #19 8 months ago

    @Scurrminator

    I loved the story but I still don't get why she's human. They even refer to the Locust as "her people." I could understand the beehive hierarchy if she was half human, half Locust, but she isn't. She's a human in Locust armour. Locust in drag if you will.

  • DwarfyP #20 8 months ago

    +1 hatred of ALL the shotguns in Multiplayer. Shotgun gaming is not fun.

  • Bullet_Tunnel #21 8 months ago

    is the locust queen a former researcher with dr fenix?, or is she locust, and somehow is able to take a human form for communication puposes, i was expecting her to do the old.."marcus... i am your mother" near the end? i....must....know...

  • scuffpuppies #22 8 months ago

    Did anyone honestly play the Gears series for the story? The gameplay is fantastic....the narrative is f**king awful. I've read a more complex story on the back on my CoCo Pops cereal packet.

  • Primatori #23 8 months ago

    @scuffpuppies... Gear of War is like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. You don't watch them for the script or the story. You watch them because they kick ass and have lots of guns! Gears of War is an unreal game and the multiplayer this time around it out of this world.

  • pualhorse #24 8 months ago

    "You can find plot holes in nearly anything, from Lord of the Rings to Dark Knight."

    Yes - that covers the full range of great narrative art...
    Edited by pualhorse at 28/09/11 @ 16:23