Gearbox cranking out War Story hype

While Ubisoft's fusillade of product announcements has been dominating the news, Gearbox has been waging a more subtle publicity campaign.

For the past few days, the developer has been teasing PC gamers with glimpses of its upcoming World War II game, presumably titled War Story. First, it posted a profound quote from veteran and historian Colonel John Antal [Airborne, Ranger, US Army, Ret.]. "Leadership counts. Good tactics win. Poor leadership and bad tactics get you slaughtered," read part of the quote. This was followed by the seminal morale-boosting quote taken from Henry V: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."

Not-so-coincidentally, Gearbox's next teaser conjured up images of the HBO series Band of Brothers. Earlier this week, a screenshot appeared on warstory.net that showed nine GIs posing in front of a French street sign in a moment of camaraderie. Captioned "Sgt. Baker's Squad," the image was accompanied by the fictional Baker, who is identified as being a member of the "3d Squad, 3d Platoon, Fox Company, 502d PIR, 101st Airborne."

Following the faux photo was a very Saving Private Ryan-like shot of a US soldier walking through a field at sunset. The site also currently has three blank spaces, almost certainly for future artwork.

Gearbox labeled each screenshot with a descending, D-Day-esque designation--"D-6, D-5, D-4, D-3." If that sounds like a countdown, that's because it is. Shacknews.com reported today that Gearbox is planning to formally announce War Story during its fifth anniversary party on Saturday, April 17.

GameSpot will have more details on War Story as soon as they become available.