You Can Finally Play Gears Of War 3 On The PS3
Get ready to shoot alien scum in a whole new way, as a mythical Gears of War 3 for the PlayStation 3 is now playable. Epic Games' shooter series has been going great "guns" since 2006, and while there are now five games in the series, they've been locked out of Sony's PlayStation as a Microsoft exclusive. While Sony has plenty of exclusives in the form of Uncharted and God of War, it turns out there were once plans for the Locust Horde to claw its way onto the PS3.
As something of an icon, 2011's Gears of War 3 rounded of Epic's original trilogy in style and went on to become the best-selling of the first three games. Gears 3 picked up the story of Marcus Fenix, Dominic "Dom" Santiago, and the rest of Delta Squad, on the hunt for Fenix's father and trying to round off humanity's war with these alien enemies. Even though it wasn't the end of the story, it marked the end of an era for the franchise.
What is Gears of War 3 on PS3?
Posting on Twitter, @PixelButts shared the exciting news that a playable Gears of War 3 is now available for PS3. The PS3 build was apparently created by Epic Games on May 19, 2011, with PixelButts releasing it to celebrate the 10th anniversary. If you head over to archive.org, you can download Gears of War 3 for the PS3. Fans will also need the PS3 dev kit to run the title due to the extra RAM required.
Even though PixelButts said they weren't going to answer questions, they went on to answer several. Discussing Gears of War 3 for the PlayStation 3, they explained: "This is an archive of the original data built by Epic Games on May 19th 2011 for Gears of War 3 for PS3 systems. Originally created during an engine test, and leaked 10 years ago and remained unusable data while circulating between collectors and exchanging hands,
"I was the first person to get this data working nine years later, and decided now that it's time to release it on the 10th anniversary of this build being made (19th May 2021). To date, this is the only Epic-made data for a PS3 version of the game, as all others have been made with leaked source code."
Why was Gears of War 3 never released on PS3?
Epic has previously confirmed Gears of War for PS3 is a legitimate build, however, it was never supposed to be released to the public. Instead, the developer described it as "a by-product of Epic's internal Unreal Engine 3 testing process which utilised both Gears and Unreal Tournament", that was "never part of any actual product work for PlayStation 3". Unlike the cancelled Castlevania: Resurrection that was axed from the Dreamcast, the idea of bringing Gears 3 to the PS3 was only a bit of fun to test out the Unreal Engine.
Now could be a great time to head up into the attic and just off your PS3. Sure, the frame rate is a little choppy and there are a fair few bugs, but seeing Fenix back in action on the PS3 is a sight to behold. Sadly, although PixelButts says the game might work using the popular RPCS3 emulator in the future, it currently only boots to the title screen. In an alternate reality like the one from the Gears games, picture the scene where Sony and Microsoft actually shared their titles. Unfortunately, we're left chained to our various systems as Nathan Drake and Kratos face off against Master Chief and Marcus Fenix.
Images via Epic Games | Sony
