Thanks to the Internet, it's hard for games to keep secrets before they even launch – let alone when they've been out in the wild for five years. However, Gears of War 3 has managed to do just that, successfully hiding a rather amusing Easter Egg from the masses since its launch on September 20th, 2011. Finally, a group of dedicated Gears of War 3 fans have managed to unearth the elusive Easter Egg, discovering a hidden mini-game in the level House of Sand.

House of Sand, which takes place in Gears of War 3's second act, has three coins hidden on trees throughout the level. Players have to shoot the coins in a specific order, and upon doing so, they will be granted access to a secret shooting gallery area. The shooting gallery functions similarly to the classic NES game Duck Hunt, with Locusts popping out of the ground for players to shoot out of the sky like clay pigeons or ducks. Of course, the COG marines use rocket turrets instead regulation hunting guns, but the effect is the same.

Competing in this Locust version of Duck Hunt is worth it for more than just kicks. As can be seen in the video below, players that do well in the mini-game are rewarded with weapons, with top scoring players earning a Boomshot or a Mulcher. Besides these weapons, there doesn't appear to be any other reward tied to the hidden mini-game, however.

[HTML1]

There's not even an achievement attached to it, which is especially odd. A common practice in recent years has seen developers encourage players to seek out Easter Eggs by rewarding them with achievements for doing so. The developers at Epic Games must have wanted to keep this shooting gallery a secret, though, as there's no real way to know it's even there without getting lucky and finding the Easter Egg by accident.

Those that would like to test out the hidden bonus for themselves can simply use the video from GoW TacCom as a guide. Players should be able to check out the Easter Egg without even going through the trouble of digging out their old Xbox 360, thanks to Xbox One backward compatibility with Xbox 360 games, so avid Gears of War fans have little excuse not to return to the critically-acclaimed shooter.

Fans may also want to take the time to revisit older games in the franchise because if Gears of War 3 managed to hide this Easter Egg for so long, there's a chance Gears 1, 2, and Judgment could have undiscovered secrets as well. They will also want to pay even closer attention to the campaign in Gears of War 4, just in case the upcoming sequels has its own batch of obscure Easter Eggs.

Gears of War 3 is available now for Xbox 360, as well as Xbox One via backward compatibility.

Source: GoW TacCom (via GamesRadar)