While Xbox Live might’ve termed it ‘The Most Anticipated Game of 2011’, that might be a bit of a stretch, I’d certainly been looking forward to it. I very much enjoyed the first Gears of War and the follow up with the introduction of ‘Horde Mode’. The insistence on not straying too far from what worked kept the series close to my heart. So how does the 3rd and ‘final’ entry in the series fair? Read on. *Warning: Skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers for Gears of War 1, 2, and 3* Tons of trilogies in history have been a crap shoot. You’ve usually got a solid first entry and the 2nd and 3rd are anyone’s guess. So where does Gears 3 fall? Is it Matrix Revolutions or Return of the Jedi? Honestly, it’s somewhere in between. Gears 1 was all about eradicating the locust horde in their home after detonating a light mass bomb and the sequel continued that competently with the locust retaliation through the sinking of human cities. Gears 3 begins with a throwback dream sequence wherein Marcus is once again trying to save his father. While it certainly bridges the gap with its nostalgia, it also felt a bit tacked on somehow. It’s one thing to tastefully reference a past battle for the fans to connect with and another to ask them to play through the same thing AGAIN. Thankfully it’s a brief sequence and the rest of the story progresses at a solid pace, as Marcus and Dom (noticeably more grizzled than their last outing) begin the battle once more, trying to unify the remaining and disparate colonies humanity has left. While the story might dip in a few spots, the action is still as solid as ever. Inclusion...