The first major news and information on the upcoming Gears of War 3 recently made headlines from a Russian gaming magazine, leading many gamers to speculate on the possibility that the game will be running at the targeted 30 frames per second. Given the accepted standard of around 30-100 fps in most games, with typical LCD screens running around 60 fps, this announcement comes as a shock to most gamers, notably fans of the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 (another Epic game), known for running at over 100 fps on proper hardware.
This speculation seems to be correct, as Cliff Bleszinski responded to CVG earlier stating, “Our target is, and shall remain, 30 fps." Bleszinski further explained, "When asked about 60 we always respond that we'd rather have the extra juice to put more on screen and stick with 30.” What this means is that the developers wish to focus on creating dynamic environments, immersing the players in a setting that sports advanced particle and wind effects, as well as multi-layered shadowing. Given the “Ashes to Ashes” debut trailer, it’s going to help, and for the better.
Though gamers might be surprised, they shouldn’t be. Both Gears of War and Gears of War 2 ran at around 30 fps. We’ll see that stellar visual delight on April 5, 2011.
