Capping off its live E3 keynote, Microsoft announced Gears of War 4, the latest game in one of the few franchises the company doesn't update annually. While bigger and buffer is usually the AAA game mantra, the new Gears of War actually looks slimmer, or to be more specific, less hulkingly beefy. But that doesn't mean there won't be chainsaws and slobbering beasts to tear into. There will be, plenty, promises the revealed footage.Gears of War has been one of Xbox's masthead franchises, the uber-macho adventures of the Coalition of Ordered Governments (or COG, get it?) against the Locust, a subterranean species that want to reclaim the surface world, slaughtering any humans that stand in the way. The series was orchestrated by industry legend Cliff Bleszinski, the charismatic creator of Unreal Tournament, though he has since retired. Gears of War 4 will be the first in the franchise made without him, and the first since Gears of War: Judgement in 2013.The game has a tradition of trailers that use somber weepy sad boy tunes juxtaposed against protagonists that look like golem-statured quarterbacks, though that isn't the case for the new footage. Two new, more-normally proportioned COG heroes walk cautiously through the night, illuminated by two moons. The silence ends quickly as danger strikes up fast. A murderous storm/tech demonstration picks up, throwing lightning, debris and gusts in your direction, a tornado in the distance. Your cohort warns you of a "wind flare," which I believe is commonly known as wind.After finding shelter in a city center all War-of-the-Worlded out, the two are attacked by amphibious hounds, new monsters for the series that look like those fuckers from Tremors grew legs. While you cannot cut a tornado in two, you can slash up some monsters, so chainsaw away. Gears of War 4 is slated for late 2016.