Bulletstorm to Include First Taste of Gears of War 3

Anyone that purchases Bulletstorm‘s first edition on Xbox 360 will move to the front of the line to play Gears of War 3.

Epic might not want to release a beta for Bulletstorm, but it will be putting a beta for another game in Bulletstorm‘s collector’s edition. Epic has announced the Bulletstorm Epic Edition, which will include access to the public beta for Gears of War 3.

The Epic Edition evidently won’t be a premium collector’s edition, because it’ll still be priced at $59.99, but will be a limited supply first print run instead. Of course, the offer is exclusive to the Xbox 360 version of Bulletstorm, because Gears of War is still an Xbox 360 exclusive franchise (though its first game also came to the PC). The Epic Edition will also include bonus Bulletstorm online content including 25,000 experience points, boots, armor, a weapon called the Peace Maker Carbine, and a visual upgrade for the game’s leash.

Bulletstorm is being developed by People Can Fly of Painkiller fame, and it really looks like a blast. It adds an element of Tony Hawk to the shooter genre, tasking players to kills enemies with style for point-boosting combos, instead of just unleashing automatic weaponry on everything.

A similar promotion was run in early 2007 with the release of Crackdown, which included a beta code for Halo 3, and it was a big success. Crackdown was a fun game that deserved a look from gamers that might have skipped it otherwise, and Bulletstorm looks like it’ll be of similar quality, so maybe this promotion will be as successful for the upcoming frantic shooter.

Bulletstorm will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 22, 2011 (NA), and February 25, 2011 (EU).