Gears of war 3 Horde Mode 2.0 is a gross understatement.

Many a time you'll pick up a sequel to one of your favorite gaming franchises and expect that the designers tweak the game enough to make it feel fresh and new while still retaining the charm that got you into that relationship to begin with. I'd love to tell you that the folks over at Epic games did just that for Gears of War's upgraded Horde mode...but I'd be lying. What they've actually done is given you a reason to fall in love with Gears of War all over again. Read past the break to find out about all the wonderful ways you'll be able to rip Locust hearts out...

According to an article written by Ryan McCaffrey in this month's issue of OXM, Horde mode is going through a complete overhaul for the upcoming September release of Gears of War 3. In the article McCaffrey states that the first thing dedicated fans of the series will notice is the new cash system. Now during your fifty waves of non-stop Locust aggression players will earn cash for all of their actions. Get a kill? Earn some cash. Executed your downed enemy? More cash. Tagged an enemy that got killed? Make that money buddy. Earning money can also be done by completing various in-round objectives like executing a certain number of enemies in a round or getting a certain amount of headshots. Now that you have all this cash in hand you are free to spend it on any number of things. Some of the new additions you'll be spending money on are turrets, decoys, ammo, and fences. Listen, don't get me wrong, this is not a going to deter the action from the battlefield in any way. Players will now have to deal with all sorts of madness from the Gears universe, mostly in the form of boss waves. Almost sadistically, every ten waves becomes a boss wave pitting you up against Berserkers, Lambents, and even Brumaks, oh my.  From what I read, those boss levels will be fierce.

Getting back to the cash you previously earned, it doesn't seem so far fetched that you'll need a little bit of an edge to survive.  The money you spend on various defenses varies just as the offensive devices do. For example, if you lay down some road spikes, you can later upgrade them to a barbwire fence at the beginning of next round. Eventually you can turn that barbwire fence into laser fence, and although it won't stop a charging lambent Berserker, it still helps. 

Back from the grave, its the Berserker. 

Upgrading offensive abilities isn't the only thing you can use the money you earn on. It seems the Cog have a couple new tricks up their sleeve, like the fact that you can buy yourself back into the fight. No longer is it a three lives and you're out game. For the first time, players will be able to spend their cold hard cash on the ability to buy their way back into the fight. Also, players will be able to pool their money together to upgrade certain items quicker. This method is almost the only way players will be able to get the coveted Cog Silverback. 

Yes, you can curb stomp in giant battle suit.

Another note worth mentioning is that unlocks will play a part in the madness ensuing, meaning if you've unlocked big head mode and I've unlocked extra gore, we can start up a match with both features on to make the action all that more intense, or bizarre. So with all of these tweaks done to an already exceptional game mode, players can expect an intense roller coaster of a relationship with their XBOX Live friends and the locust Horde alike once Gears 3 drops this fall. For any of you who haven't seen it, the introductory video where Lieutenant Anya Stroud walks you through the new basics is just below, for everyone else...watch it again for the fifteenth time.