Get your chainsaws greased, shotties popped, and bums prepped for ‘nade tags – the Gears of War 3 beta starts up today for anybody with a Bulletstorm ticket, while everybody else can start counting down the final week and hating on those people already playing.

To get the beta, simply hit up the option on the Bulletstorm menu to start the download – it’s a two-parter, with an initial 88 MB game launcher, and a 507 MB “update” thereafter.

If you’re still using a US or UK account, it’s possible you’ll find yourself blocked by a region error, as those of us with VIP promo passes discovered over the weekend. This is easily resolved by creating a temporary SA account, using that to queue the download instead, and swapping back to your own profile later. Much like other XBLM content, once the beta is downloaded, it’s available to all profiles on the console, as long as the profile used to acquire the content remains present (so, basically, don’t delete that temporary profile just yet).

Note, however, that there is no split-screen option.

The beta features three game modes – Team Deathmatch, Capture the Leader, and King of the Hill, all supporting ten players (or bots) – as well as four maps. There are already loads of local gamers in the beta, and matchmaking has been extremely fast.

Finally, get your grabbers on the new Digger Launcher. It’s the best thing ever.