Gears 3's Fenix Rising DLC Announced, Detailed, Priced and Dated

139
Lee Bradley

Microsoft has released details of the third batch of DLC for Epic's manly man-shooter, Gears of War 3. Called Fenix Rising, it features new maps, new character skins and a new XP system.

There are five new maps included in the pack, each of which draws from the history of the series. Academy is set in the military school Marcus was destined to attend, but defied tradition by skipping. Anvil takes place in the destroyed fortress of Anvegad, while Depths is where Marcus' dad, Adam Fenix, was held captive.

Meanwhile, Escalation takes place in and around the Fenix household and The Slab is the prison that Dom broke Marcus out of way back in Gears 1. All five of the maps are playable across Versus Multiplayer, Horde and Beast Mode.

The skins on offer are spread across COG and Locust designs. The pack offers up Recruit Clayton, Thrashball Cole, Savage Marauder and Savage Kantus character models.

Perhaps of most interest to the ultra-hardcore, however, is the new levelling system. This allows players to effectively "Prestige" once they hit level 100. Chose to do this and your experience and rank will be reset and your rank icon colour will change. This is possible up to three times, moving from Bronze to Red, Green and then Gold.

Furthermore, each Prestige level (Epic are calling it "Re-up") after Bronze also awards the player an exclusive, custom weapon skin. These are:

  • Re-Up Plasma – Animated flowing plasma in gold.
  • Re-Up Omen – Shiny, red Omen.
  • Re-Up Electric – Animated, golden electric shocks.

Out on Jan 17th, the Marcus Rising pack will set you back 800 MSP. Owners of the Season Pass get it for free.

Comments
139
  • Seems better than that MW3 DLC recently announced. Bring on more Gears!
  • Looks awsome cant wait to get back online so I can play gears again
  • sounds pretty sweet, cant wait for it :)
  • sounds bad ass can't wait to check them out.
  • ESCALATION! YESSS!
  • Someone needs to slap an "e" to the end of "th Season Pass (last paragraph).
  • 5 maps for 800 sounds very nice. The Season Pass has definitely been a good purchase :) Although, I am a little miffed that a previously beta-exclusive character (Cole Train) is now available for everyone, but I guess it was gonna happen sooner or later.
  • Re-up sounds good for the people that hit 100 and are getting exp for nothing. I wonder if it'll give them that exp back when they do it.
  • Excited for the new maps. Wish I had time to hit 100 even once, I hit 50 in the first couple weeks and stopped playing since. Too many games too little time
  • @6: Really? It's not a big deal especially when you understand the sentence -_- On topic, sounds cool but I doubt I will ever reach level 100 in the first place.
  • Sounds amazing. I sense a very difficult achievement coming...
  • Boy am I glad I bought the season pass, DLC after DLC and I love it. Keep it up, Epic! :D
  • @10, Yeah. I'm one of them grammer nasis. I doubt I'll ever reach lvl 100 as well, but something tells me Epic may throw in an achievement for "prestiging."
  • No cyclops yet
  • If you prestige and get to level 34 (for example) and *then* get all the Onyx medals, do you get the "Seriously 3.0" achievement or do you specifically have to be a Level 100 exactly?
  • @13 *You mean Grammar Nazis. Sorry, couldn't resist :P This seems fair enough... although won't leveling up be much slower for people, as I'd imagine they'd have a load of Onyx medals by this point :S
  • @15 I think they will change the Medal to hit 100 once or something?... Is'nt the Savage Kantus one of the Pre-order bonuses?
  • Sounds great!
  • Worst characters ever. Hopefully the story and maps will be good.
  • @18 U MAD BRO?
  • @18 Because COD Fanboys are Retards just like the Development team, Publisher and everything else that has to do with COD!
  • I bet there's an achievement for prestiging and getting to level 100 four times.
  • i agree with #18 you get old maps ported to the new gears game which is what they did in GoW2 as well...and then they added a prestige mode? I'm confused? old maps,skins,and prestige mode for a game delayed 9 months. and more DLC than most games put out in a year. next month,GoW3 hats!
  • No beast DLC yet... oh... ok. *Waits patiently* 800 for a few maps... If I didn't have season pass this would seem expensive, but i do, so this is a nice extra.
  • @24 none of these maps are from the older games and this is cheaper and for a GOOD game. unlike cod. @25 and all these maps are playable in beast...
  • @23 Yea that's what I was thinking (and afraid of). Epic have had a reputation of living up to the word "achievement"
  • @18 Don't bother, these kinds of people have CoD tourettes. It forces them to bitch about CoD in every news post. It's caused by a lack of any form of hobby, aside from internet raging, and tends to come out when not playing CoD is the most interesting thing they've ever done in their lives. @26 Escalation? Or did you not play Gears of War 1?
  • Gears season pass is probably the best dlc purchase ever. Lots of content and you actually save a bit of M$ points.
  • Season pass was definitely worth it!!
  • 5 maps and a bunch of other stuff for only 800 points? or free if you have the season pass!?!?! now this is how you do DLC...Activision could learn a thing from Epic.
  • The day I've feared so much is finally approaching - the Thrashball Cole skin previously available only to those who participated in the beta is now open to everybody. A bitchy elitist in me just shed a tear of disappointment.
  • can't you asshats get along? DLC should be free
  • yeah, it is kind of lame that thrashball cole and savage kantus are part of this, since i have both of them already from the beta, but here's hoping that this means they'll be releasing all the preorder bonus characters too. i want adam fenix, mechanic baird, and whoever else they released on launch day.
  • @18 U mad bro, stop whining because you can't afford the skins...or the DLC...
  • @23: NO! Please, for the love of all that is pure, holy, just, and true, don't jinx us man. The sad thing is, I can see Epic doing something like that X( They'd need to have 2-8X or more EXP events at least twice a month for week long periods for their not to be a massive revolt.
  • @18: $15 for 5 maps in CoD, or $10 for 5 maps, 4 character skins, and a new leveling system in Gears 3. Gee, which would would I rather buy? The one that costs more and includes less content, or the one that costs less and includes more content? Hmm... Going to go with costs less and includes more content.
  • sweet, judging by the fact savage kantus is included i guess we'll be seeing all the pre order dlc coming eventually then, little bit annoyed that yet another beta exclusive isnow no longer exclusive but hey i never use cole train anyway wonder how escalation will work in horde can see it being even easier than blooddrive/overpass
  • @39 wow still didn't know you trolled News Posts. Also surprised you haven't been banned yet.
  • Apparently the Thrashball Cole and the Savage Kantus skins included in this DLC will be shaded differently than the Beta and Pre-order skins. Also, Will "re-up"ing make it so you have to regain lvl 100 to unlock Seriously 3.0? (Even though I think you could get to lvl 100 4 times before unlocking Seriously 3.0).
  • @39 lmao 523 gamerscore
  • They've been hitting some home runs with the gears dlc. Seriously stoked for this
  • Nice! But i only want a Beast DLC with more Locust :(
  • @39 ha ha ha , mw3 shooter of the year in you dreams maybe,mw3 will win biggest let down of the year award cause its a pile of shite. anyway cant wait to play these maps sound realy good and i love the prestege colour thing pritty cool
  • @42 Who knows why its such a low score. he might be new to the system, he might have high score and it doesn't update properly on here or he could just suck, no matter what the case we all started that low before so i wouldn't be laughing at him, even if his comment was just as pathetic as the gamerscore. Not sure why the side gamercard doesn't update on here. I've got over 70,000 gamerscore now bu it says i am still only at 64,000.
  • I stand corrected. I checked his profile. http://live.xbox.com/en-US/Profile?gamertag=xRYXNxHXXRTxx gamerscore was reset due to cheating. When you have to cheat at games it makes you just that much more pathetic.
  • You called it Marcus Rising in the last line, just sayin'.
  • I may have chuckled at queers of war if you had spelt it right
  • http://epicgames.com/community/2011/12/gears-of-war-3-kicks-off-the-new-year-with-%E2%80%9Cfenix-rising%E2%80%9D/ This link has a lot more details
  • Sorry but @39 http://uk.gamespot.com/best-of-2011-awards/genre-awards/index.html?page=7 LOL! Gears of War 3 was pal!
  • The Epic press release says the Season Pass gives us the first four DLCs. So shall I assume we aren't getting one per quarter as originally advertised?
  • @#7 The Thrashball Cole in this DLC is described as a limited edition version. So I'm not sure if its the same Thrashball Cole from the beta.
  • Well #39 isn't the only cheater im sure, I found a Modern Borefare 3 banned player in Gears 3 the other day funny thing was he couldn't die unless chainsawed so me & some people could not kill him, so we filed a complaint like usual for moder's or whatever. But anyway yea good DLC, yippie I can get my Cole Train character back (Not that I even use him) but they did say it was some limited edition version, which doesn't make to much sense if you ask me.
  • Oops I forgot to mention the Limited edition comments where on a different website that posted this story hours before this.
  • Awesome! They're bringing back Escalation back!
  • @46 It's cuz mygamercard.net went down and is no longer running. To get an accurate count of your Gamerscore you're gonna need to find a creator and add it to your signature like I had to as well :/ There should be plenty of links to sites that let you do it in the "FAQ" section Of the forums
  • Sounds cool. But the title of 'Fenix Rising' sounded more like a SP DLC of Marcus's backstory so I was a little disappointed. I doubt I will ever reach level 100 and the maps are just more maps so a bit of a meh over all. @1 Can you stop being a fuckwit for a second. They have not even announced what the MW3 DLC will contain. Bowling said MP, SpecOps and other very varying content will be found in the DLC. So MP maps plus some cool SpecOps missions I think would make most people happy, maybe they will even throw in some more SP (See what happened to Foley and his squad in MW3 anyone? :D) which would be awesome.
  • Hmm, i wonder if there's an achievement for hitting 100 4 times. I'm already at least level 200 though.
  • Priced? Psssh. Season Pass'd.
  • I wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be achievements tied to re-leveling up; just imagine having to reach level 100 more than 3 or 4 times! O_o I also wouldn't be surprised if the next DLC is campaign based and tells a story from Aaron Griffin's perspective.
  • @46 It's cuz mygamercard.net went down and is no longer running. To get an accurate count of your Gamerscore you're gonna need to find a creator and add it to your signature like I had to as well :/ There should be plenty of links to sites that let you do it in the "FAQ" section Of the forums
  • "Thrashball Cole" Crap, there goes my beta exclusive!
  • Modern Warfare 3 sucks!!! Gears of War 3 all the way!! MW3 is same exact shit as Modern Warfare 2 and 4.. Only 4 was descent.. And as for the Fenix Rising DLC I can't wait!! Day one buy.. :D
  • Didn't Rod Fergusson said in a live stream video that previously "something" exclusive like Trashball Cole and Savage Kantus will be different in color in the DLCs for them to still remain as Beta Exclusives for example ?
  • Shame that its just maps/skins. Who is going to reach level '300'??
  • Sounds good but also sounds like the new experience system is gonna add some nasty achievements lol.
  • @66 Didn't hear that, thanks for the info.
  • @69 I guess my english isn't that good... I was just asking, not saying it as a fact =D I'll watch the live stream videos again and if I hear that info I'll post an update, because I'm not 100% sure about this. Sorry for the confusion
  • I'm not too worried about prestiging, will take a while to even hit 100. I always thought this system (prestige that is) was implemented with ppl that play only one game in mind. I do like to reach top rank in most games that are fun and have MP, but I was never bothered with prestige before. On the other hand if gears1 had prestige I would probably have hit max rank=P And one more thing - what's the point of prestige if there is a chance of your rank being randomly reset? I smell even bigger rages on epic's forums soon=)
  • Awesome new DLC EPIC. Time to get back into gears 3!
  • More campaign chapter DLC please.
  • I heard that thrashball cole and savage kantus are limited edition only, what does this mean? How can you have a limited edition dlc lol
  • achievement for 're-up'ing 3 times anyone?
  • Yay new maps! Escalation is gonna be great for Horde if the layout is the same. I am a little worried about the new xp system however. Won't mind it if they can fix the rank reset issue on the system that already exists, but oh well. At least I still have my backup save :)
  • @75 good, I'm sick of just chilling at level 100, I already have an extra 600k xp to do nothing with :/
  • RE: Comment #74 by Ostrowski Apparently the charterer models are the same, but the colors are different. http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/870261-3rd-DLC-Fenix-Rising-Announced-January-17-2012
  • yeah boyyy! keep rolling out the great dlc's epic. but please make the achivments not requare stupid things that take hours to do.
  • For those of you that dont know, Thrashball Cole (Limited ed) will have BLUE bottoms instead of the Beta White. and Savage Kantus (limited Ed) will have RED armour instead of brown from the preorder. So it is alittle different BUT its still the same character, maybe they could have at least done Battle Damaged Versions or somthing?
  • sweet prestige system looks class.. just hope the achievements are hard as fuck and to reach top rank just to piss off some of the whores in here
  • awesome :3
  • Wanted something like this on Gears for awhile!
  • Honestly, why are there so many Cole skins? Mix it up EPIC!!
  • The should bring out a campain from the locust point of view like RAAM shadow but ALL of it should be about locust.
  • Shibby is all I can think of. . . shibby.
  • cant wait sounds amazing
  • Hell yeah, Now i can max my level to 100 without caring.
  • is there a new campaign, and if Prestige, do loss all medal or what. (confused at the moment) message me in my inbox
  • I want another Campaign story dealing with Hoffman or Aaron Griffin campaigns.. I want to see how Griffin lived before gears 3.. :)
  • "Owners of th Season Pass get it for free." It's "the". Nothing major, just saying.
  • "Owners of the Season pass get it for free", uh, no they don't... they just paid in advance.
  • More achievements means more chances to feed...and stick it to certain people not willing to do what needs to be done.
  • Seems like an absolute cop out to me and Gears is my favourite current gen game series. 5 maps and the ability to prestige? Just seems like an absolute cop out. If they wanted the ability to prestige in the game then it should have been something implemented from the start rather than having to PAY for a DLC to do it. Like with Gears 2 and the update to gain exp and a rank, except you didn't have to pay for it. Whats worse is the commitment they'll expect for people to put into the game time wise to rank through to level 100 again when the total number of online players in Gears 3 has dropped substantially since is release since the release of MW3. Poor DLC for me personally.
  • reach level 400 achievement INCOMING !!! 100 x 4 no joke
  • #92 They buy the ability to get them for free ;) hahah
  • I hope when I re-up I don't lose the XP I've gained since hitting 100... but I'm sure you do... Still another grinding Medal to achieve. Hope the update doesn't make having that medal a requirement for Seriously 3.0.
  • good dlc but would have been nice if the other 3 pre order characters where included instead of just the savage kantus which of the 4 is the "rubbish" one. hope they get it out on time aswell and with no problems after the whole RAAM's shadow debacle this week :)
  • Glad I got the season pass this weekend! And getting the Savage Kantus? Freakin beautiful. We all knew the Best Buy pre-order wouldn't be exclusive. All of it sounds great (though I doubt I'll ever prestige). Anyone else hoping for another story DLC, though? I'd especially like to see the story of D. Carmine!
  • Looking forward to re-up :)
  • Seems to me all you complaining about mw3 are just butt hurt that it is the #1 game. Dont get me wrong i love gears and halo but cod is on top and has been on top for years. Get over it and it is obviously not a shit game lol. Are all sequels not just a reskin of the former? The answer is yes they are. Why fix something that isnt broke and millions of ppl do not think its broke. Have a nice day :)
  • @26 Escalation is from Gears 1.
  • Hopefully they don't screw over us season pass owners again, like they did with the last two DLC.s.
  • I still haven't gotten around to playing Gears 3 multiplayer since just before Horde Command was released. Haven't played any DLC maps in matchmaking yet, and next month we'll already have another 5 to compound the 5 I've already not played yet? When I pick this game up my map count will essentially double then? I can dig it. I hope Epic keeps this up. I love the frequency and quality of Gears 3 DLC so far. It would be a shame to see them stop delivering after the Season Pass expires.
  • Season pass purchase is looking pretty fucking good at the moment :D Pissed they are giving aeay Savage Kantus thugh, I eon't feel special anymore D:
  • Also infinity ward THIS is how you do a map pack!
  • So is the Flaming Hammer-burst the only beta-exclusive thing left? Or is that also a available for purchase? Got it playing the first week of Beta ;) Look forward to Escalation. And on a final note to all you FPS lovers. GET IN GEAR!!! peace...
  • Mistake??? The DLC is called Fenix Rising but on the last sentence : "Out on Jan 17th, the Marcus Rising pack will set you back 800 MSP. Owners of th Season Pass get it for free." Isn't it the Fenix Rising, not the Marcus Rising and Owners of "THE" Season Pass get it for free, not "th Season Pass" - C
  • man, I really want new achievements with this new dlc :/
  • I are disappoint with this DLC. It SHOULD have more maps, more weapon skins, and all characters since its an MP DLC.
  • More DLC so soon? I was hoping we'd be able to wait until at least February.
  • sounds cool.. just one question.. whats a savage marauder? savage kantus.. possibly the best locust of them all! good they made another way to get him also.. im surprised that theres no beast dlc yet.. and skorge next dlc pack maybe...
  • I can have Savage Kantus now? YAY! Of course EB australia gets the shitty pre-order codes. SGE and Dom. Just a little disgruntled. At least Epic is doing something to give fans a reason to keep playing.
  • I love the fact that there is loads of DLC coming out but its coming way to quick. A month after the last DLC and another one is announced.
  • *looks at them giving away Savage Kantus* Mechanic Baird or gtfo D:
  • i hope they do release the savage grenadier elite, mechanic baird and commando dom aswell since i never got my code for mechanic baird....also they need to bring back skorge and make beast bigger.
  • @116 Not really concerned with making it bigger. Just DO AWAY WITH THE GODDAMN TIME LIMIT EPIC!! I mean really? You put a time limit on a NEW ADDITION game mode in a Gears game? I've only played it maybe 3 times since release do TO the time limit shit. Seriously.....get rid of it and I'm sure more ppl will invest a little more time in it.
  • Re the Re-Up - does anyone know what happens with our 'extra' XP? I reached level 100 about a month ago and now have nearly 1,000,000 additional XP, will that be wiped or go towards my first Re-Up? From what I've read you need about 3,000,000 XP to attain level 100, there are probably quite a few people who already have this additional XP (and probably more still!), will those that have this additional XP be able leap through each additional level 100? I ask as I will quite possibly have 3,000,000 by the time the DLC arrives.
  • Hope they don't reset ribbons...
  • stupid question i know but i did read this i understand all the maps and the re ups thing but is their going to be a story involved? sorry im a little slow at some times.
  • @120 nope
  • so im two good matches from leveling to 96 so this re-up idea came at the perfect moment for me. im really happy that the expereince from the medals wont just go to waste. heres hoping those that have gone over get to keep what they earned.
  • cant wait going to be great
  • It looks like those with extrea experience will lose it. I read that from the official announcement.
  • I want to know what the Achievements are!!
  • The only thing thats going to make this game good is all the maps from 1 and 2. Face it gears of war 2 was well better than this shit
  • these opinions on the skins are rediculous i mean come on guys just think this is called THRASHBALL COLE the beta exclusive is called COLE TRAIN!!! Nottice the differance differant name means differant skin
  • Savage kantus?...SAVAGE KANTUS!?... SAVAGE KANTUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! me gusta. |8}
  • 1 Hoarde, 1 Story, 1 Multiplayer. What will the last one be?
  • @129 Beast, i hope :)
  • It be cool if this didn't have achievementts and they still released two more dlc
  • @118 Found this on Twitter: @PeteNub Peter Knepley XP over 100 doesn't count towards a future Re-Up tour. No bonuses for fence sitters, pull the trigger and Re-Up. #LateGearsmasPresent 22 Dec via web Hope that answer's your question's mate
  • This is gonn be so cool!
  • what's the bets the achievements are "re-up - 50G" "re-up again - 75G" re-up AGAIN 125G". the gold elctric skin sounds kinda cool though and new maps and characers are always a welcome addition.....just want skorge, mechanic baird, savage grenadier elite, bai tak, carlos santiago, pendulum bernie, pendulum hoffman and helena stroud.....now that would be EPIC!
  • I for one am glad that I get a shot at the skins I missed from the Beta. I was deployed for the short time they did it.
  • I hope this does have achievements but I also hope they keep bringing out more DLC's
  • I want as characters in the next dlc or perhaps in a character only dlc. Carlos Santiago- Dom's older brother, Helena Stroud- Anya's mom, and Marcus' mom Elain
  • Wait, I just checked this again... Thrashball Cole is on there? So, literally, the only special thing the Beta gave players (besides early insight and a hilarious look back at how OP the Sawed Off was with the simple factor of an aiming reticule box) is the Beta Tester Medal? I'm a little disappointed... But the fact that I don't use Cole Train anymore keeps me from really complaining.
  • New Achievements?
  • I i buy the season pass right now, will i still get RAAM shadow and this DLC for free?
  • it says the 17th in the article..
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