If you happened to be awake in the wee-hours of last night/this morning, you may have caught Microsoft’s pre-planned announcement that coincided with Cliff Bleszinski’s big appearance on Jimmy Fallon confirming Gears of War 3.  Apparently, nobody told the folks who add Xbox Live’s content that Cliff’s appearance on “Late Night” had been postponed until next Monday because of a scheduling conflict with Justin Bieber.

The Xbox Live Dashboard’s Spotlight channel read, “Gears of War 3 Announced – The epic story concludes April 2011.”  Clicking the link resulted in nothing and has since been removed, but nevertheless, we all know the truth. Gears 3 will release next April.

Look for the final boss to be a large, bloodthirsty locust with the detached head of Justin Bieber whose weak spot will most likely be his vocal chords that need to be severed with your chainsaw.

No, not really.

But some mysterious project will be announced by Epic Games' poster boy Cliff Bleszinski next week.  Rumor has it that CliffyB is set to appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to "tease" at something next Thursday night.  What could it be?  Yeah, it’s almost certainly going to be Gears of War 3.  And I'm not really sure why Epic is being so tight-lipped about the whole thing, either—it's not like everybody didn't already know that there was going to be sequel after the anti-climactic ending to Gears 2.

Whatever the announcement, don't expect too much to be revealed.  I'm sure Epic and Microsoft are waiting for E3 to really announce the game properly.  I can already hear Epic's new, and improved Mantra, "bigger-er, better-er and more badder-ass-er" spewing from CliffyB’s chipmunk-like mouth in June.  No disrespect, Cliff.

Anyway, look for Gears of War 3 on store shelves sometime in fall 2011.