The final chapter of the Gears of War story is upon us, and it is as epic an end as Epic would have you believe. While seemingly having all the tropes of a summer blockbuster movie — big explosions, lots of bad guys, looming apocalypse, unlikely characters — Gears of War 3 does well to remember it is, in fact, a game. And in that role it shines.

We’ve had our hands full this month with a trip to UK’s GAMEfest giving us plenty of opportunity to checkout upcoming games including Modern Warfare 3, Street Fighter X Tekken, Journey, Mario Kart 7, Rayman Origins, Binary Domain and (far too) many more. We also get in depth on Gears of War 3 and the recent Battlefield 3 beta.

The 10th October marked the end of the Battlefield 3 public beta. Available worldwide by October 28th, the highly anticipated FPS from EA and Swedish developer DICE is stepping up to be a contender for this year's heavyweight title. The beta was a great opportunity to find out what to expect.

Treasure games represent some of my fondest memories when it comes to gaming. And since 1992 they have delivered some of the most polished, strange, genre defining and sometimes soul crushingly difficult titles known to man. The other consistent element across all their titles — fun. Treasure know how to make a game.

Japanese games creator Shigenori Soejima’s Catherine is a psycho sexual survival horror puzzle platformer, brought to you by the Atlus Persona Team. You play Vincent, a thirty-something who divides his time between drinking in his favourite bar “The Stray Sheep” and having intense nightmares fuelled by his commitment issues.

You have to take any series crossover with a pinch of salt. There has to be compromises to bring two distinctly different universes together. The problem with Street Fighter X Tekken should be that it brings two very different existing fighting games together, 2D versus 3D. Turns out, it works quite well.