Cole Train

Wooooo! Can't stop the Train, baby!

Microsoft has a new Gears of War game in the works, but not too much is known about it other than Microsoft has outright purchased the franchise from Epic Games. That and recent confirmation that Lester Speight, the voice actor for Augustus Cole "The Cole Train", will be reprising his character.

Speight confirmed his return on Twitter in response to a fan wondering if he had the call from Microsoft.

Great news, but the extent of Cole's appearance is unknown yet. This could be just a cameo to pass on the torch to a new group of sarcastic gruff soldiers, or we might be seeing Delta Squad regroup for the latest threat to their planet.

When the first Gears of War kicked off the last generation as the first genuine hit, it proved successful enough to paint the video game world brown and greenish-brown for one too many years. Its group of heroes from Delta Squad were at least a likable enough bunch despite their meat-headed tendencies, especially the over-anxious Cole "Look at All That Juice" Train.

We've seen nothing from the new game yet, but it makes you wonder if Microsoft is going to try and mold Gears of War into the new colorful video game world, or are they still going to be gunning for the same chainsaw violence and gritty "brown" photorealism? For what it's worth, the first game did an unexpectedly decent job at world building at least, even if the plot at hand wasn't that interesting.