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The first story-driven DLC for Gears of War 3 , RAAM's Shadow, is almost here. Rather than add directly to the third game's narrative, RAAM's Shadow heads to the past to tell the story of General RAAM and his fight with the COG Zeta Squad before the events of the original Gears of War

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But then what? Can the story continue without going back to the past? Gears of War 3 effectively ends the tale of Sera's modern conflict. Marcus and his COGs destroyed the Locust Queen, eliminated the Lambent threat, and finally sit down to take a deep breath for the first time since Emergence Day. So if the next Gears of War game can't start where 3 leaves off, where else can it go? The Gears of War novels and the comic series tackle a lot of issues surrounding the events of the games, but even then, do we want to retread their tales in an interactive format?The Gears of War universe is bursting with possibilities, so here are some potential settings for the future of the series.Is Gears of War still a compelling universe without the Locust Horde?If Gears of War returns to one of its early conflicts, we might answer that question. Technology would take a step backwards; Retro Lancers would just be Lancers. Before the Locust Horde broke onto the surface, humans were fighting amongst each other for 79 years over control of Imulsion, the planet's key source of fuel (and eventual source of a certain infection).The Pendulum Wars raged all over the planet and split humans into two contingents: the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COGs) and the Union of Independent Republics (UIR). Battles took place on multiple fronts, and the horrors of war were in full effect. While human on human conflict is a long cry from destroying Locusts, the era would provide a lot of battles, new types of armor, and fill in the rich history of this series' universe.The Gears of War comic books tackle some of this material, but controlling either COG or Indie soldiers through this mess could open a whole new world of possibility. Just because there aren't Locust or Glowie bastards breathing down everyone's neck doesn't mean this isn't an interesting era.The obscure Gears of War book Destroyed Beauty leaves one remark near the end that argues in favor of going back for the future. It states, "If we hadn't fought each other so hard for so long, would we have been better prepared to face the Locust Horde? Would the nightmares that boiled out of the ground on Emergence Day have faced a strong, united mankind? Or would we have all been killed that day if we hadn't been hardened by decades of conflict?"E-Day.The name alone should resonate with any serious Gears player. It's the day the Locust Horde first broke out of the underground and killed millions of humans on the surface -- one quarter of the population to be more precise. Not only is there potential excitement in experiencing this reveal first hand, it gives motive and setup for a whole new arc of human versus Locust conflict.Emergence Day featured countless battles, fights that can go down in a freshly minted history. We know E-Day happened, but we don't know exactly what happened within it. Wouldn't it make a great staging ground for the next game in the Gears of War story?Imagine living a peaceful life, almost rested after fighting in the Pendulum Wars; then your entire world is ripped in half by an unimaginable alien force. Hint: It probably won't end well -- at least until history catches up with Gears of War 3.Again, the original Gears of War art book Destroyed Beauty touches on another untapped conflict in the Gears of War universe. So what is it? The only sentence we have describing this early period in Sera's history is this: "Sera has endured millennia of conflict, teetering on the brink of a world war that guaranteed Armageddon."The war was about human nature, it was about fuel, it was about survival. We have no information about what exactly happened during this time – this makes it a likely candidate for future games.This conflict erupted before Imulsion, before the Pendulum Wars, and before humans had any idea there was an entire alien race below their feet. The fact there's no info on this time period means infinite possibilities of new games.Giant, beefy soldiers with big weapons is Gears of War's calling card. But what if the next steps took a more human approach? After the Lightmass Bomb, after Emergence Day, thousands of humans etched out a life of survival amidst the rubble of a collapsing world.They're under constant attack from multiple angles, wary of COG soldiers (many Stranded are remnants of the Pendulum War's UIR), and simply trying to stay alive.Behind Marcus Fenix's shadow, perhaps there's a whole new tale of UIR Remnants fighting their own fight.What if Gears of War doesn't jump to a new era at all? What if the next steps into the Gears of War universe are the same ground we've been dealing with, but told from an entirely new perspective? RAAM's Shadow lets us play as Locust for the first time outside of multiplayer matches, so maybe it's a sign of things to come.The Locust Horde has its own society, its own history, and its own conflicts -- long before E-Day. So why not tell the story through their eyes, either pre-E-Day or during the same time frame that the Gears of War trilogy takes place.If this were the case, we'd learn more about the Queen, see Adam Fenix at work, and possibly even learn the fate of Marcus' mother who disappeared nine years before Emergence Day. Additionally, this would reveal Lambent as an enemy much sooner than their arrival in Gears of War 2 There are many possibilities for the future of the Gears of War series. It's a rich universe with games, books, and comics, all telling its tales. So with the sun setting at the end of Gears of War 3, where do you want the series to go next?Peter writes for IGN's Xbox 360 team. You can follow him on Twitter and MyIGN