Firstly, if you haven’t seen the tech demo that is getting everyone talking at the moment, you can watch it again here. The demo was easily one of the highlights of E3 2012 and arguably a contender for the best graphics seen at the event.

Epic boss Mark Rein has given fans reason to be happy this week though, by confirming that the first game powered by Unreal Engine 4 will definitely release in 2013, although obviously no timeline yet since we’re still at an early stage in development. At E3, heads were turned when it was revealed that Star Wars 1313, a new game developed in-house at LucasArts would be using the current-gen Unreal Engine 3.

The game looked so good, again another contender for best graphics, but the real surprise was that it was using the Unreal Engine 3, not Epic’s latest tech. That can only mean good things with regards to Unreal Engine 4 though as it obviously implies that when we finally do see the first game – it is going to be something special indeed and well worth waiting for.

Considering that Gears of War was the franchise that first unveiled the Unreal Engine 3, it is also likely that we will have another major flagship title to show off Unreal Engine 4 in its full capacity. There’s still no direct confirmation that Gears of War: Judgment is actually Gears of War 4, despite it being the fourth game in the series.

With this in mind, don’t be surprised if Epic are actually planning a proper Gears of War 4 game and it will end up being the first game to run Unreal Engine 4, on a brand new Xbox console. If you are really impressed with what you have seen from Unreal Engine 4 so far, let us know your ideas on what you would like the first game to be. Mortal Kombat, Batman, Mass Effect, Gears of War, Devil May Cry – those are just some of the big name franchises that have used the Unreal Engine 3 already.

We have heard before that both companies would be revealing new hardware at this June’s event, only for the claims to be shot down from a various sources. Now today there are new claims coming in from a UK gaming magazine PSM3, which as Sillegamer are reporting the existence of a new Sony console. This comes after Sony President Kaz Hirai saying there will be no PS4 reveal at this year’s E3.

Previously the same claims were made by other sources that a new PlayStation console will make its first appearance at E3. It has also been claimed that Microsoft won’t be left out of the picture either and will reveal new hardware. All this will come with more news on the Nintendo Wii U that should finally provide an actual release date.

These rumors come after Epic Games Mark Rein recently revealed that the company would reveal the Unreal Engine 4 later this year. Now Gamer are reporting that Rein said that “people are going to be shocked later this year when they see Unreal Engine 4 and how much more profound an effect it will have”.

He went on to say that the Unreal Engine 4 was already running on “”systems we can’t name yet”, which could be new hardware from Sony and Microsoft. Obviously he could mean the Wii U but this console is already known about so surely he could name it. Also Epic already has the Unreal Engine 3 that runs games such as Gears of War 3 and Batman: Arkham City, so the company would want Unreal Engine 4 working with all the latest platforms.

Do you think Sony and Microsoft will be revealing new hardware at E3?

The Fenix Rising DLC will hit Xbox Live on January 17 for 800 Microsoft Points, however it also comes as part of the Gears of War 3 Season Pass, this is still available now for 2400 Microsoft Points and will allow you to download the game’s first four add-ons, which means that you’ll save yourself 33% overall – you can find out more about the season pass and perhaps add it to your 360′s download queue here.

Once you’ve got the content you will be able to play Versus Multiplayer, Horde and Beast Mode on five new maps, these are Academy, Anvil, Depths, Escalation and The Slab, you can see a full overview of these maps over at GearsOfWar.com, also if you head over to GameRevolution you can see a screenshot from each map, we have embedded one of them below. Also if your scroll down to the bottom of this page you can see a flythrough of ‘The Slab’ map.

It’s not just new maps which you will get, dedicated players can also choose whether to “Re-Up” so they can rank up through level 100 multiple times, this allows players to reset experience and rank but keep other progression such as their TrueSkill rating. You will be able to “Re-Up” three times and each time you’ll earn a new rank color each time. Re-upping will also allow gamers to unlock exclusive emblems and weapon skins, these weapon skins are said to be Re-Up Plasma, Re-Up Omen and Re-Up Electric – there’s no other way to get these skins!

Will you buy this DLC when it hits Xbox Live?

Along with the announcement came the launch of the debut trailer for the game which lasts just over a minute long. During that time viewers are able to get a glimpse of what they are to expect from Fortnite, which seems to be a cross between Call of Duty’s Zombies mode and Oddworld. The clip shows a group of people ransacking a derelict supermarket for supplies before they quickly retreat back to their fortified house followed by a horde of small alien like creatures with glowing eyes and sharp teeth.

The game is reportedly set in a post-apocalyptic era which judging from the video has caused an outbreak of flesh eating mutants that only come out at night and hunt in large groups. Although there is no gameplay featured in this trailer, there was the sound of gunfire heard in the background suggesting that the game may be a shooter. Whether it is an FPS or third-person shooter therefore remains to be confirmed.

In an interview with Joystiq, Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski stated ‘Gears has been amazing for us. But it’s fun to kind of stretch our wings and do something that’s a little different from the usual.’ Unfortunately nothing official about a release date or what platform the game will be appearing on was revealed. So far the game looks as though it will be fun to play even though it’s a lot different from what we’re used to seeing from Epic. Don’t forget to check out the trailer below for the first glimpses of the new game.

Does Fortnite look like a game you would want to play? What are you hoping for from it?

A tweet posted a few hours again can be seen here, it reads “The scheduled Horde Command Pack release for Gears 3 is temporarily delayed due to a tech issue. Updates here! http://epic.gm/dlcupdate”. The link in the tweet takes you to a forum post which was written by Epic Games’ community manager, Will Kinsler, here’s what he said:

The scheduled Horde Command Pack release for Gears of War 3 is temporarily delayed due to a technical issue. We apologize to those of you who are anxiously awaiting to play. We know this is disappointing news as we’ve seen a lot of posts today showing excitement for this content. We have folks working around the clock to resolve this issue ASAP so you can all play and enjoy the Command Pack.

The Epic Games Community team will stick around and keep you posted with any further information. Stay tuned for updates!

If you check out the forum post for yourself you will see that there have been 85 pages of replies (at the time of this post), which just goes to show how much of a stir this news is causing. Obviously some people will be frustrated, but let’s face it, it’s better to delay something like this rather than rushing out content which is not up to scratch.

We looked into things a little further and it looks like the delay is due to a “backend issue and not with the game code” (see here), some people are suggesting that this is a posh way of saying that this means some of the DLC was already on the game’s disc, also people think that the content will now arrive within a couple of days – however this has not yet been officially confirmed.

Do you mind that this content has been delayed?

Update: This DLC is now available on Xbox Live, you can add it to your 360′s download queue for just 800 Microsoft Points here.

So what do you get for your money? Well to start with you get a new campaign experience which should last well over three hours, the plot is said to take place after the events of the original Gears of War game and we are told that you should expect new characters, some of which are “eerily familiar to the series”.

This DLC will also bring six new multiplayer characters, the Chocolate Weapon Set and 250 Gamerscore points for you to achieve, we don’t have a full breakdown of the achievements which you must aim for just yet, but we expect plenty of blood and guts along the way. The reaction on Twitter suggests that you may be able to play as RAAM in the DLC, we cannot confirm this just yet, but it sounds very likely.

Currently these are all the details we have for the DLC, but at least we know when it arrives, how much it will cost and exactly what it consists of – we are sure that as it gets closer to the launch date we will find out more about RAAM’s Shadow, perhaps we will get some trailers and screenshots – we hope so!

Will you buy RAAM’s shadow?

Lee Perry, the man behind designing GoW 3 has been sharing details with OXM, and seems to have a thing for the shotgun, having used them in many games they can do a job well, but would you want to go around using the same weapon – talk about boring? We do worry that Gears of War 3 (here’s list of mutators) is a game about Gnashers, but this is a personal opinion, will be interesting to see what weapon you will prefer.

Fans of the game fear that there is not a balance between rifles and shotguns, but one thing is certain, you will need to change your tactics when playing. However, this has raised a question that those who are so used to using a Gnasher will be able to wipe the floor with a player with hardly no skill at all, as this would become boring in multiplayer – isn’t this the same with every game like this?

However, what Gears of War 3 will do is make you better as a player, as you are forced too. No longer can you run around and kill a person that is much better than you, you need to earn that right. However, a one-weapon game does not sound that interesting to me, how about you?

Quite often when people try to play a splitscreen horde mode game with two profiles loaded the freeze occurs, but this video also shows a similar thing happening when a gamer tries to run any versus mode quick match – as you can imagine the problem is very annoying.

The Epic Games developers have been busy on the forums trying to get to the bottom of the problem, however haven’t yet given an indication as to when such issues will be rolled-out over Xbox Live, here is what one Epic representative had to say on the matter:

“Getting this resolved is a priority for Epic. We are collecting information internally, sourcing as much as possible from the community and exploring potential fixes. We do not have any recommendations to share with players just yet”

To help Epic Games diagnose the problem you should head over to the forums and answer the questionnaire, there have been 101 pages of replies so far, so it looks like the problem is quite common. The topic was originally addressed on September 27, therefore Epic’s dev team has had roughly two weeks to pinpoint and resolve the problem, hopefully we will hear something useful regarding the matter soon.

For now we would like to hear from you regarding the matter, has GoW 3 freezed for you? If so, have you noticed any pattern as to when it freezes? Let us know in the comments section. Here’s some reactions we spotted on Twitter:

Ythelastmatt – Dear Gears of War 3, please stop freezing and being so fucking buggy, I just want to enjoy and beat you before arkham city comes out. Thnx

kcirtaPDelgado – Bad News: My Gears of War 3 disc froze during a pivotal moment in the game. Good News: I was angry enough to finally turn Super Saiyan.

The new device has received a mixed reaction, with some Apple fans disappointed as it is identical to the iPhone 4 in design, the only difference being it features an A5 processor, the same chip used in the iPad 2, making up to twice as fast as its predecessor. More interestingly and what gamers will find exciting is the fact that it also features dual-core graphics, capable of running games up to seven times faster than the iPhone 4.

Last night at the event, Epic Games’ Mike Capps also made an appearance to announce the game Infinity Blade 2. The first installment, Infinity Blade, had managed to total more than $20 million in revenue on the iPhone and the developers will be hoping for much of the same with the help of the new device. As you can see from the footage below, they have seemingly taken full advantage of the faster speeds and, as a result, have ended up with stunning graphical effects.

According to TechRadar the iPhone 4S also features significant improvements that have been made with the downloading. It now has a new improved wireless system that allows download speeds to be doubled from the previous device, making game downloads much quicker. The new iPhone will be available in the US and UK as of October 14th. You can pre-order yours starting this Friday.

What do you think of the new device? Will you be pre-ordering one?

To get hold of the Big Explosions mutator you must unlock the hail mary ribbon 100 times, you get one each time you kill an enemy with a boomshot from 200 ft away, therefore it may take some time to earn – but if you are in a rush to get it we have a great video for you to check out.

The video embedded at the bottom of this post shows how someone easily earns 23 hail mary ribbons in just six minutes, so you could easily get hold of this mutator within 30 minutes of gameplay. Here’s a breakdown of one tactic which will definitely help you out massively.

At the game’s main menu you must go to “Versus” and then select “Private”, here choose “Team Deathmatch” – you can now configure your game just how you want it, you should ensure you have the same settings as what the image below shows you, once they match start the game.

When you get to the map selection screen ensure that you choose the map “Gridlock”, you must also press the back button and change all the weapon pickups to boomshot – this is very important. Once the game starts go to a part of the map where the boomshot is located and switch it for your shotgun and then pick up ammo from where another of the boomshots is located – below shows the part of the map where you should stay and pick off the enemies.

Once you are at the spot pick off some of the nearby enemies, they will then spawn further away – you will soon find that the boomshot can take out the enemies from a very long distance, each time you kill an enemy you will get 1 hail mary ribbon, so it won’t take long to build them up. You may have to repeat this entire procedure a few times – but soon you should have the 100 hail mary ribbons, which gives you the Big Explosions mutator.

The video embedded below shows you the tactic in full. Did this help you? You can see a full list of other mutators here along with how to earn them – let us know if your struggling with any of them in particular and we will try to assist you.