Gears of War 3 DLC: expect Barrick

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".