ICYMI: last weekend's Gears of War: Reloaded beta took some heat for technical issues, server instability, and in general, not being all that different from the 2015 remaster, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. (Yes, there was already a Gears of War remaster; 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Reloaded is supposed to be a remaster 🐠of that with added availability on PlayStation.)

On Xbox Series X and PS5, you can expect the coveted 4K/120 FPS, at least in multiplayer modes, and crossplay and cross-progression are enabled across all platforms. That said, it seems Xbox was careful not too touch the actual bones of the game, which is great, but it seems like players were expecting at least some refinements to pain poin✃ts like hit detection, sponging, and ♔general lack of polish.

GamesRadar's Josh West said playing the Gears of War: Reloaded 🅘beta was like "being wrapped in a warm blanket lined with sandpaper," noting the game's faithfulness to the 2006 original while also highlighting various things that make the remaster feel very 2006, for better or worse.

Anyway, this beta extension isn't likely to quell any of the above concerns, but it 💝will let you play Gears of War: Reloaded for a little longer and experience more of what the full release will include on August 26.

"We heard you. ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚMore maps. More modes. More time," The Coalition said in a tweet. "This weekend’s Multiplayer Beta has been extended and Execution will now be playable along with KOTH."

This weekend's Gears of War: Reloaded beta will now run from Friday, June 20 at 12pm PDT to Sunday, June 22 at 9pm PDT, which is nine hours longer than the last beta. Maps available in Competitive KOTH and Execut𓆏ion will now include Canals in addition to Gridlock, Raven Down, Courtyard, and War Machine. For Social TDM,⛄ you'll have Gridlock, Gold Rush, Raven Down, Courtyard, and War Machine.

Again, The Coalition has yet to address the feedback around the core game itse🌠lf, and with a little more than two months from launch it's unlikely there's a whole lot that can be done without a delay, but I suppose this is a harmless enough peace treaty.

Meanwhile, here's everything we know about Gears of War: E-Day.

Gears of War is getting its second remaster very soon, with the big gimmick this time around being that the game is finally making the jump away from Xbox and letting PlayStation players in on the fun (with a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:bunch of betas coming before it launches on August 26). However, in 𓃲Japan – where PlayStation has always been significജantly more popular – the game will only be releasing on Xbox and PC.

This was announced on a post (spotted and translat𝓡ed by , and verified using machine translation), in a post which explains the game won't be releasing on the platform due to "regional rating restrictions and platform policies."

While Japanese players are advised that they'll still be able to play the game at launch on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and Game Pass, an apology has been issued for anyone inconv🎐enienced by the PS5 version not releasing.

While not as eager to ban games as some countries, Japan has previously banned games with copious amounts of gore like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:2022's The Callisto Protocol and the Dead Space Remake. Plus 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows was censored in the country, wiℱth the dismemberment toned down vastly (which seems to be a sticking point given that Dead Space is all about the dismemberment).

Automaton mentions that the original release of Gears of War in 2006 did in fact release in a censored state, with some scenes depicting severe🗹d limbs being affected.

The post doesn't specify why only the PS5 version is affected when the game is presumably the same across both platforms, so I'm assuming that the "platform policies" section is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here.

We saw some more of Gears of War: Reloaded at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Summer Game Fest this year, making an appearance during the Xbox Games Showcase.

The news came following the Xbox Games Showcase in an , where the developer also gav♈e a fi🗹rst look at Gears of War: Reloaded in action.

The pairing makes for a compelling anniversary celebration for the Gears of War franchise, which debuted back in 2006 on Xbox 360. Reloaded is set to launch on August 26, 2025, and marks the first time the series has 📖landed on a PlayStation ไplatform. It's shaping up to be a pretty dazzling remaster of the 2015 remake of the original game, and should be considered essential ahead of E-Day.

That's because Gears of War: 🃏E-Day is a prequel, tracking the events of the original Emergence Day – often referred to by characters in the series, but never properly detailed. E-Day is when the Locust initiated a planet-wide assault on the surface of Sera, and the 2026 prequel will let us experience the horrors firsthand. This origin story will delve into the early life of protagonist Marcus Fenix, detail the making of the Lancer, and reunite us with Marcus' bestie, Dom Santiago.

Xbox has yet to set a firm 2026 release date ♌for Gea๊rs of War: E-Day, but we do know that it'll land on PC, Xbox Series X, and will be available on day one through Game Pass Ultimate. There is no word yet on whether E-Day will follow Reloaded onto the PS5, although it would be a safe bet to assume that it will eventually.

Xbox Games Showcase 2025 needs to build on Microsoft's momentum, but it may need to go beyond The Outer Worlds 2 to pull it off.

The Coalition was on hand at the Xbox Games Showcase with a new trailer, with an confirming that pre-orders are now open for Gears of War: Reloaded, and if you get yours locked in, you'll be able to access a couple of special multiplayer beta weekends towards the end of June (for players on PC, PS5, ๊Xbox Series X, and Gaꦯme Pass Ultimate subscribers). Existing owners of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will also be able to access the beta, as they are being treated to a free Reloaded upgrade anyway this August.

Better still, the Gears of War will feature cross-platform multiplayer between all of these platforms for the very first time. Speaking with GamesRadar+, The Coalition's CVP Kate Rayner says that the beta "is a chance for us to🍸 really test at scale the cross-platf𓄧orm play experience. We're really excited for players to get their hands on it."

The Coalition's Studio Head Mike Crump adds: "This will be a great way to get people back in, and it gives us an oppo꧅rtunity to test everything before we launch in August – to make sure that the servers are ready 🅰for big numbers!"

Gears of War: Reloaded is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Seri🧸es X on August 26, 2025. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers will be able to access it from day one, and for the rest of you first-time adopters, it'll come in at a budget price of $39.99.

Xbox Games Showcase 2025 needs to build on Microsoft's momentum, but it may need to go beyond The Outer Worlds 2 to pull it off.

In G🎀ears of War, the Locust Horde are mutated humanoids, the result of genetic experiments, and develop their own governing society. This also included a religion known as the Trinity of Worms which worshipped the Riftworms, giant, 10-mile-long worms which created the Hollow, where the Locust reside. Despite the rich lore surrounding the Riftworms and♓ their relation to the Locust, it turns out some stuff was left blank.

During Gears of War 3, one L🌄ocust known as Ketor Skorge, awoke a Riftworm t✨o be used as a weapon of mass destruction in their war against the humans. There's just a tiny detail missing from the fact that Skorge was able to command the Riftworm at will: Bleszinski has no idea how he did it.

According to𝔉 his tw♏eet, Bleszinski has no explanation for how the Locust "got control of the Riftworm in the first place, and two: how they guided it to their desired target."

While sharing his retrospection, Bleszinski defends his lack of explanation with a simple idea that some gamers can get behind, while others will demand answers for: "Sometimes ya just put stuff in a game you think is cool. You don't have to fully explain everything; let 'e🦩m wonder."

The o🎃nly issue now is that regardless of how𒆙 much Gears of War fans "wonder," they'll know in their heart of hearts that even the creator doesn't have a clue.

REPO and Schedule 1 receive the highest honor an indie game can possibly get outside 2 seconds in a Nintendo sizzle reel: Geoff Keighley telling the world they're outselling some genuine AAA juggernauts

Gears of War: Reloaded will be priced at $40, but "as a token of our gratitude to longtime fans," you'll get it for free if you've purchased a digital version of the previous remaster, Ultimate Edition, on Xbox or PC. If you've bought Ultimate Edition before today, May 5, you'll get a code for Reloaded via direct message on ꦜXbox.

Reloaded promises 4K, 60 FPS gameplay in campaign, or 120 FPS in multiplayer, alongside a host of other tech features, including audio options like 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos and 3D spatial audio, video options ꦆlike HDR and Dolby Vision, and VRR support.

You can read the full list of new features in the , but there are also new graphical tweaks includ🙈ing improved textures, visual effects, and shadows. Plus there'll be "zero loading screens during Campaign."

This remaster will, of course, include the bonus campaign act first included with the PC version of tℱhe game, as well as "immediate access to all post-launch downloadable content at no additional cost."

Perhaps the most notable detail here is the fact that the game is coming to PlayStation for the first time, and Xbox promises full 🅠crossplay and cross-progression support for all platform𝔍s via a Microsoft account.

If you don't want cross-platform features, though, you won't be required to sign into that account, sidestepping the same kind of misstep Sony has frequently tried to make in the past with its ꦯown account requirements.

"Gears of War: Reloaded includes platform-specific features that make the most of the hardware you already own," Xbox adds. The details of those enhancements aren't clear, but it's easy to im🎉agine DualSense controller features and PS5 Pro enhancements being among them, and it's wild to think that Gears, a former Xbox exclusive, will be offering what might just be its most definitive port on PlayStation in a few months' time.

Take aim at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best FPS games out there today.

Rumors of a Gears of War: Marcus Fenix Collection have 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:been around since at least 2022, and they're just aಌs believable now as they were back then. Microsoft already bundled five of their iconic games in Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Gears' alien apocalypse was equally impactful in its own generation. Just think back on how many Xbox 360/PS3 games had a urine yellow filter (Fallout 3, MGS 4) and cover-based shooting, even where it wasn't really necessary (Tomb Raider's reboot, Uncharted.)

The latest round of rumors started with content creator Detective Seeds, who claims the Gears Collection is also coming to PlayStation consoles, but won't feature any PvP modes in a recent social media . Windows Central's Jez Corden corrobo🌸rated the rumor, he's also heard it'll inclꦗude campaign co-op but not PvP.

Considering how wonky The Master Chief Collection's matchmaki🐽ng was in its first few weeks, I wouldn't blame the developers for not wanting to stitch together dozens of maps and modes from three different games into one package. It's probably a coding nightmare. On the other hand, Halo: MCC's commitment to preserving 100s of classic maps, some of them two decades old, in a functional, popular game with modern bells and whistles is kind of unbelievable - and was worth the shaky launch, in my opinion.

Microsoft is gearing up to release an all-new prequel called 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War: E-Day, however, so it's possible the publisher wouldn't want to split the multiplayer playerbase between two - or even three, if you're including Gears 5 - multiplayer games. And, in fairness, I'll take any exไcuse to bash through subterranean alien-bug-demon brains once again, especially if the classic shooters are coming to an entirely new audience on PC and PS5, wall-zipping multiplayer or not.

Diablo 4 boss' plan for Gears of War 6 would've taken the series to space, but "we weren't going to start Mass Effect-ing this"

The official Gears of War social media feeds have been napping ever since a few scant reveals 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:and rumors last year; People Can Fly shared today's news in . "We are honored to return to the world of Gears of War, a franchise deeply embedded in our studio’s history," the studio says. "As lead developer of the iconic Gears of War: Judgment and co-de😼velopment partner on Gears of War 1-3, we have always been passionate about the series and its legacy."

Mike Crump, studio head at Gears dev The Coalition, 🧔says the team is "pleased to be partnering with the talented folks at People Can Fly who have been a part of our franchise’s legacy for so long."

"Our team at People Can Fly, made up of dedicated Gears of War fans, is pouring everything we have into creating an experience that will exceed expectations," adds People Can Fly development director Guillaume Barry. "While we can’t share more just yet, we’re eager for the day when we🗹 can show all the exciting𝕴 things we’ve been working on."

People Can Fly's history is a fascinating mix of solid-to-great games and easy-to-forget contributions. Gears is obviously in its DNA, but did you remember that the studio also contributed to Fortnite: Save the World back when it was still Epic Games Poland before it rebranded back to its original name and logo? And let's not forget the many editions of Bulletstorm, arguably the studio's most recognizable game, at least to people who tragically haven't played Painkiller. Outriders, meanwhile, played and reviewed well enough, and it 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:actually "surprised" publisher Square Enix, but it feels as tho💛ugh it was swept away by a tide of similarly looty shooters.

All of this is to say that People Can Fly has been at this for over 20 years, and the studio is already fluent in Gears of War, so E-Day tapping them in once again is simultaneously intriguing and unsurprising, like a relativeꦡ you haven't seen for a decade turning up at Christmas dinner.

Fully committing to prequel authenticity, The Coalition confirmed last year that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码🌠历史查询:the original Marcus and Dom actors are "so back" for the prequel Gears of War: E-Day.

Born out of a pandemic, refined through reflection: Gears of War: E-Day is a chance for The Coalition to recapture the spirit of Gears and "tear a lot of s*** up."

Gears of War: E-Day is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, and will excitingly explore Emergence Day and the origin story of protagonist Marcus Fenix. So, not only is it one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games coming our way in 2026, it's also a very exciting addition to longtime🥃 fans of the series, and could very well be a great entr🐭y point for newcomers. It will almost certainly completement Reloaded, that's for sure.

While we're still awaiting a concrete release date, it promising to be a major highlight in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X game lineup next year, with 2026 also set to usher in both t🎀he 25th anniversary of Xbox, as well as the 20th anniversary of the Gears of War series. From the reveal trailer to expected platforms and more, read on below as we guide you through everything we know so far about Gears of War: E-Day.

Gears of War: E-Day release date speculation

There hasn't been a confirmed Gears of War: E-Day release date just yet, but The Coalition confirmed it will be arriving sometime in 2026.

While it was originally thought to land in 2025, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Coalition confirmed the prequel will be landing in 2026, with an post recapping the Xbox Game Showcase 2025, which saw Phil Spencer close the show by highlighting Xbox's 25th anniversary "with the exciting proclamation that, in 202🗹6, ꦍXbox players will celebrate a quarter-century of Xbox with a new Fable, the next Forza", and, crucially, "Gears of War E-Day".

We're still 🅰awaiting word on a concrete release date to follow the new 2026 l✅aunch window, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for further updates.

Gears of War: E-Day platforms

Gears of War: E-Day will be available on PC and Xbox Series X/S. The upcoming game will also be included on day one as part of Xbox Game Pass.

So it's a great time to revisit all the past games in the series now so you don't have to worry about any catch-up when the title finally arrives (read our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War review for more information on where to start).

Ge🧔ars of War has always been an Xbox-exclusive title, but Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Sp🔴encer has stated that we may be seeing more Xbox exclusives launch on Switch and PlayStation thanks to a multiplatform strategy.

"I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say 'thou must not,'" Spencer told . So, fingers crossed that we are wrong and that Gears of War: E-Day eventually makes its way to PS5 and PS5 Pro gamers.

Plus, with Gears of War: Reloaded also set to come PS5 alongside Xbox Series X/S, it's not entirely outside of the realms of possibility that we might see E-Day one day come to the console in꧂ the future, if not at launch.

Is Gears of War: E-Day a prequel?

If you're wondering if Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel, yes, yes, it is. In fact, it's 澳洲幸运5开奖号♑码历史查询:set 14 years before the origಞinal action game and will star younger versions of both 🙈Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, with both John DiMaggio and Carlos Ferro reprising the roles.

The sto♋ry will take place during Emergence Day and see our heroes having to face the Locust Horde (a race of genetically altered humans). In case you need a lore refresher, Emergence Day is a full-scale and coordinated planet-wide assault on Sera. It took place only a few weeks after 🔯the Pendulum Wars ended (a devastating conflict that claimed millions of lives and left the environment of Sera in shambles). Basically, Sera was in a weak position, and Emergence Day was everyone's worst nightmare come to life.

E-Day also signaled the start of The Locust War in the Gears of Wꩲar timeline. In terms of the Locust Horde, we got a brief description of them thanks to a post on . The baddies of the upcoming story are labeled as "subterranean monsters" who are "grotesque and relentless" as they "erupt from below, laying siege on humanity itself."

Gears of War: E-Day trailer

We got to see the first (and currently only) Gears of War: E-Day trailer during the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: Xbox Showcase 2024 presentation, and it was a weird, somber affair. In the clip above, we see a young Marcus Fenix struggle against a Locust Horde Drone and pretty much watchౠ him get his butt handed to him until the very last second when he finally manages to blow the enemy's head into smithereens.

We also see Dom make an appearance and a brief glimpse at the fallen ci💎ty of Kalona, showing us the horrific results of the Locust Horde's last assault. It's all very moody and thematic but also packed with some nostalgia as well. For example the soundtrack used ♛in the teaser is the Gary Jules version of Tears For Fears’ ‘Mad World'.

Now, if you remember the first Gears of War trailer, it also used Tears For Fears꧙’ ‘Mad World.' However, Gary Jules's version of the song is a lot slower in tempo, and the effect is that the trailer seems a lot bleaker as a result, but in a good way. I mean, war isn't meant to be sunshine and rainbows, right?

Gears of War: E-Day gameplay

While we haven't seen any gameplay footage just yet for Gears of War, we do know that the upcoming shooter will slightly differ from recent titles in the series. There is going to be a great emphasis on the horror aspect of the story, in some aspects taking us back to the roots of the series itself, as confirmed by creati♎ve director Matt Searcy during an interview with .

"We looked back at what people felt like when they played Gears of War or any of the Gears - Gears 4 included," Searcy explained. "But when people tell you what they remember playing, the things that stood out to them, the feelings, a lot of it is ab🌟out these, kind of dark, almost horror-esque, scary moments."

Now, of course, the series that defined a lot of third-person shooters made today will be (you guessed it) still a third-person shooter. However, a post on Xbox Wire has also said that "The Coalition is working to recreate and improve the series’ trademark third-person action", with 🙈new technology. You'll still be charging between cover in life-or-death situations during the game's campaign. However, we may see tweaks and innovations in how the team weaves storytelling into all tꦇhe action.

"It’s us revisiting the tone and the feeling of what makes Gears great, but🦄 we’re tapping into new techniques, new processes, and new technology that’s going to make the gameplay feel better than ever. It’s going to be awesome, a game tha♓t feels both truly new, and authentically Gears," .

The game is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, and we're still waiting on confirmation regarding multiplayer ﷽settings. More updates a🦄re expected to be shared as we move further into 2025. So, keep your eyes on this page.

Can you pre-order Gears of War: E-Day?

Currently, you can't pre-order Gears of War: E-Day. However, you can already wishlist the game on Steam. The title is also coming to Game Pass, so at 𓆉least there is that to currently look forward too.

We'll keep an eye out for any pre-order news, but in the meantime, you can look over our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best action games if you are looking to fill ౠup your time while we wait f🧔or Gears of War updates.

If you're after more titles, read our lists of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox exclusives and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X games to play right now.

DiMaggio and Ferro first starred in the original Gears of War way back in 2006, which is somehow 18 years ago now. Given that the next mainline entry, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War: E-Day, is a prequel set 14 years before the events of the first game, it wasn't entirely clear whet🌠her we'd get to hear DiMaggio and Ferro's iconic voice lines again, but thankfully that's now been confirmed in a tweet from The Coalition.

"We are so back," re♔ads the tweet, which was shared in celebration of the Gears of War series' 18th anniversary.

DiMaggio and Feꦍrro also played the roles in 2008's Gears of War 2, 2011's Gea🎉rs of War 3, 2013's Gears of War Judgment, 2016's Gears of War 4, and 2019's Gears of War 5. 

Gears of War: E-Day is an origin story that takes place across several days and explores the long-running series' Emꩲergence Day event, in which the Locust Horde rose from its underground civilization and invaded the Earth-like planet of Sera, killing billion𝄹s of people and igniting the Locust War that's been a backdrop to each Gears game's narrative.

There's no release date for Gears of War: E-Day just yet, but the last we heard it was reportedly💦 targeting a 2025 launch, y'know, just in case you didn't already have e🏅nough upcoming games t🦹o look forward to next year.

Diablo 4 boss' plan for Gears of War 6 would've taken the series to space, but "we weren't going to start Mass Effect-ing this."

Asked about his opinions on the recently-revealed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:prequel Gears of War: E-Day in an interview with , Fergusson sai🎶d "it's a little surreal to have something come out about Gears that I haven't been involved in. You know, I spent 15 years with Gears of War and basically every game that was made - I think 9 or 10 total." 

Fergusson said that he was surprised by The Coalition's decision to explore the series' past, rather than continue a story that was only partway done in Gears 5, but it was ultimately "really smart" because fans had been asking to see E-Day - the moment when the Locust first erupted from the ground - for years. But as he previously explained, OG series developer Epic Games never depicted Gears of War: E-Day's events because the team couldn't "do it justice" on the Xꦑbox 360.

Things get extra juicy when Fergusson talks about the plans for Gears of War 6 that he left behind since, surprisingly, the sequel was apparently going to take us off the Earth-like planet of Sera for the very first time. "Gears 6 was to leave Sera," he said. "That was something we were building to. If you paid attention to the story in Gears 5, you come across the UIR [Union of Independent Republics] sort-of rocket technology. We were sort of laying the seeds and the groundwork that in taking over that UIR territory, we've adopted their space program. So what I wanted to do with Gears 6 is take you off Sera to encounter what that could mean to the rest of the galaxy or, at least, the rest 🥃of the solar system. Not that you'd be hopping [between planets], but... it was old, Russian-era, sputnik-type tech, so we weren't going to start Mass Effect-ing this. It was really about, 'let's get you to a new place to encounter what this looks like.'"

Gears of War 6 wasn't just going to space, however, it was also going to have to de🌞al with the end of Gears 5, which made players💫 choose between saving JD or Del, the first time in series history where players impacted the story and the previously very tight-knit continuity. Fergusson doesn't reveal what The Coalition's plans were for JD and/or Del in the sixth mainline game, though he does note that the choice was pretty "neck-and-neck."

While we won't see a continuation to Kait Diaz's story any time soon with E-Day still in active development, The Coalition has 🧸said it still has eyes on Gears 6 🎶and it isn't "retreating" from the story it began.

"I was thinking ab꧂out all of that as I was getting ready to watch the Xbox Games Showcase," he tells me, flashing the Crimson Omen tattoo immortalized across his bicep. "E-Day is the tenth Gears of War game. I've had creative involvement in all of the previous nine, so this is the first I haven't had anything to do with. I didn't even know it was going to be E-Day. You know, I thought I had great ideas for what Gears 6 was going to be, and how to finish that 🌸trilogy, so I was kind of wanting to see how they were going to do it… but I love what they are doing."

"E-Day was one of those things we used to talk about when we were doing Gears one through five; players were always asking, 'How come you haven't done E-Day?' A part of it was that we didn't feel like the technology could render it right. It's this massive invasion, where tens of millions of people get killed; we just didn't think we could do it justice on Xbox 360. But now, looking at what The Coalition is doing with Unreal Engine 5, and what they're able to achieve with the Series X, this is the perfect time to hav𝔍e an E-Day story. I'm so excited to see what they do, and I'm proud of them." 

Perhaps it's fate that led Fergusson back into the arms of Xbox, a strange occurrence af🌃ter the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. And fate that led Fergusson to be an emphatic advocate of both Gears of War and his former team a🍸t The Coalition once again, even if he is now separated by a franchise and a thin plywood wall. But what is it about Gears of War: E-Day that has him so excited? To understand that, we need to switch gears over to the creatives at The Coalition. 

Origin story

Gears of War: E-Day depicts a defining moment in the history of humanity. It's an origin story set 14 years before the events of the original Gears of War, following the carnage (and immediate aftermath) wrought on Emergence Day – where planet Sera was thrust into turmoil as hordes of Locust emerged from the ground. It's a period of Gears history that's long been co✱nsidered sacrosanct, until now. "There's not a lot out there, so this is a rich storytelling space for us to enter," says creative director Matt Searcy. "We follow E-Day from the perspective of the people there, and we get to be very intimate with the characters. It's a cool way to come back to the Locust and re-enter that period."

The Locust and their Emergence Holes effectively died with Gears of War 3 in 2011, along with one of the most beloved friendships in video game history. "This is also an origin story of the bond that defines the franchise," says brand director Nicole Fawcette. Gears of War: E-Day will pull focus back onto Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, although there's going to be some amount of friction there. "The friendship that you played through in🙈 the original trilogy is so enduring, but when you play E-Day it's not going to be exactly as you remember it. Marcus and Dom are coming back from the Pendulum Wars and they've already experienced some loss," she adds.

Dom lost his brother, Carlos, in the civil war waged between the Coalition of Ordered Govern🍸ments and🥂 the Union of Independent Republics over control of the planet's Imulsion supply. And with that death, Marcus lost a friend. "They're dealing with that grief," Fawcette says, "and they haven't really bonded as the best friends that you know them as in the original trilogy. You've never seen them go through this kind of story before." There's also a chance that you've never heard the duo quite like this before either, as Fawcette is elusive on the return of voice actors John DiMaggio and Carlos Ferro: "I can't tell you that,' she chuckles. "Unfortunately, we don't talk about our talent process here while we are in development, so we can't share any of those details today."

Gears of War: E-Day has a lot of ground to cover. The depiction ofဣ a war that tears humanity asunder, claiming the lives of millions. A story of survival that gets back to the grim, violent claustrophobia that defined so much of the original trilogy. A chronicling of the friendship that came to define the franchise. And yes, even the weapons we came to love along the way. "In the trailer, you're not seeing the Chainsaw Lancer – that's because it didn't exist then," says Fawcette. "The Chainsaw Lancer was built specifically to take down the Locust, so that's another fun, interesting origin ꦑstory for us to be able to depict for fans." 

A moment of reflection

An origin story that explores the foundations of Gears of War was born out of a moment of reflection, with The Coalition taking a beat to explore its purpose after shipping Gears Tactics and Gears 5 for Xbox Series X. "When we got to the end of all that we were in a pandemic," says Searcy. "We took a beat to re🍷flect on what Gears meant t♏o us, what parts of the franchise we were most excited about and tried to distill all of that down." 

The Coalition kept coming back to a single frame from the original Gears of War Mad World trailer – a shot where a towering Corpser emerges from the dark, a lone Marcus Fenix struggli😼ng to survive its reach. "We realized that to understand﷽ where we wanted to go in the future, we first had to reflect on the past. This shot, more than anything, encompassed the vibe – that feeling people have when they think about Gears. That's where we started," he adds. 

"We spent a lot of time talking about the phrase 'Never Fight Alone' which was a term used to describe the co-op mechanic internally during the development of the original game. That was the term later used to describe how important the concept of brotherhood is to Gears – it was even used in marketing campaigns. But we kept coming back to it – it's sort of a North Star for why Gears exists," says Fawcette. "It also gets to the heart of why we continue making this franchise, and we believe in it so much that we use the term as part of our own culture. Because nobody should need to fight alone. We've made an actual monetary commitment to that idea on our side, where we pledge 1% of our net revenues towards mental health advocacy, specifically for suicide prevention a♊nd combating loneliness."

'Brotherhood' and 'Brutality'. 'Sadness' and 'Catharsis'. Defining concepts that The Coalition kept coming back to a🍬s it tried to figure out where to go next, and determine whether to shift into production of Gears 6 or something else entirely. "They aren't just words to us, like, they fucking mean something," says Searcy on the pursuit of distilling down the raw essence of Gears of War. "These were the same words that fans use to describe the vibe of Gears, and it all brought us back to that one moment in Mad World. And we thought that the best place for the franchise to tell that kind of story again was the day the monsters came out of the ground."

Mad world

The Coalition is quick to stress that Gears of War: E-Day isn't a side story or spinoff. It's the next mainline installment to t🐼he franchise and should be thought of as such by players. While the studio isn't able to talk co-op and multiplayer just yet, Searcy is quick to set expectations: "E-Day is the next mainline Gears game that we're building, so you can make some educated guesses there." 

I'm sure that there will be plenty of educated g༺uesses being made by the Gears community as The Coalition battles to get E-Day fighting fit in 2025, but one thing we needn't speculate on is the structure. Gears 5 introduced players to a wider world, sprawling spaces that tried to blur the lines between cover-based combat and open exploration. In a sense, as the studio works to reconnect with the original spirit of the series, Gea♏rs of War: E-Day is taking a back-to-basics approach. 

"The Coalition has worked on Ge꧙ars for like 10 years, and we've got a really good handle on the things that work well in a Gears of War game – and we still want to keep pushing and trying new things," says Searcy. "Gears has always had these linear, epic moments; we've done a bunch ofꩲ them and we know how to do them well, and we will absolutely be doing that again. E-Day is set in a city, which is cool for us because Gears works awesome in a city. The opportunity for what we can do with combat, with our level design, and characters is pretty amazing."

"It's going to feel new and authentically Gears at the same time," he adds. "We're taking all of the things that we know are awesome about Gears of War and combining it with new techniques, new expertise, and a new game engine." That's key because Gears of War: E-Day will be The Coalition's first full releꦑase using Unreal Engine 5 – a platform it collaborated closely on in partnership with Epic Games, as best exemplified in The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. "The E-Day reveal trailer is in Unreal 5 using our game assets, and that's our visual target." 

"The fidelity and scale that we can bring with UE5 is immense compared to what we've done before. Gears has always had a high fidelity bar that pushes boundaries and we'll continue to do that," he continues. "The technology is going to pay off in a really awesome way for players. From the wa🔴y the world looks and feels, to the things you can do and the places you can go. We're going to tear a lot of shit up in E-Day, and Unreal Engine 5 definitely helps us with that." 

Having taken all of this information in, I ask The Coalition whether players could draw a line from Gears of War: E-Day to Black Hawk Down, the Ridley Scott war film that tracks the unraveling 𒐪of an incursion on a 24-hour timeline. "Black Hawk Down is a great reference point, in 🎃terms of the intimacy of that experience," Searcy says, although he does note that the game will track Marcus and Dom across a longer stretch of time. 

"It's𝓡 not a day, it's multiple days – but it is about the event. It's about sticking with these characters from the moment it happens and being with them every minute through the days that play out in the city; it's ab꧟out experiencing it through their eyes to understand what's happening to them, to the city around them, and the people around them too." 

Gears of War: E-Day is targeting a 2025 release window for PC, Game Pass, and Xbox Series X. While you wait, check out more 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games.

Gears of War: E-Day was 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:announced during the recent Xbo𓄧x Games Showcase, and is a prequel set 14 years before the events of the first Gears of War, starring younger versions of both Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago (yes, he's really back). As the name suggests, the prequel is set during Emergence Day, but it's not just for those titular 24 hours, as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:it takes place over "multiple days" in or🍃der to set things up and then be with the characters "every minute, through the days that play out of the city." During the reveal trailer, it wasn't given a release window, but in a 's Tom Warren claims it could be next year.

According to the report, as of a few months ago, Warren had heard that Gears of War: E-Day was planning to release in 2025, ahead of the next Fable game. Officially, Fable 4 hasn't been given a release window beyond 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:its 2025 target, but Wa♈rren writ🍃es that, according to his sources, the RPG is targeting a launch sometime between October and December next year. 

It's worth keeping in mind that these plans could change in the meantime – in fact, there's a chance they already have. However, if it's to be believed, it sounds like it's going to be difficult 💟to keep up with all the games launching next year – you might want to tidy your backlog up now while you still can.

Check out our roundup of everything announced at the June 2024 Xbox Games Showcase to see what else is coming to Microsoft's consoles.

Rod Fergusson, who led production on every single mainline Gears game before moving on to become the general manager of all thinꦕgs Di🌼ablo, has given his two cents on Gears of War: E-Day, the tenth game in the series and the first one without his participation.

"It's really interesting," Fergusson says in an interview with GamesRadar+ during 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Summer Game Fest. "I was thinking about it as I was getting ready to watch the show, like, E-Day is the tenth Gears of War game, and I&a🌼pos;ve had creative involvement in all the previous nine, so this is the first one I haven&ap👍os;t had anything to do with at all."

Making Gears of War: E-Day has a been long-gestating idea f🅷or Fergusson, however, as "E-Day was one of the things we used to talk about when we were doing Gears 1-5." The prequel goes back in time to 14 years before the first game, depicting the moment when the subterranean hordes finally invaded th🐼e planet of Sera and kickstarted the war we see during Epic Games' trilogy, and since it's such a pivotal moment in the timeline, fans would often ask Fergusson about a potential prequel. 

Why did it take almost two decades for the game to get made, then? "Part of it was, at the time, we didn't feel like the technology could really render E-Day, right?" Fergusson e🔴xplains. "Because this is a massive invasion, you know, where millions and millions, tens of millions of people get killed... and so we were just like, we can't do it justice on the [Xbox 360]."

Gears of War: E-Day's reveal trailer gives us a small glimpse of the cataclysmic event, with a younger Marcus Fenix and a still-breathing Dom Santiago staring down the city of Kalona, now burning and under siege. It's an impressively grand, disastrous sight, and since it was 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:made using in-game assets, it should at least give us a taste of the chaos still to come. "Now, looking at what The Coalition does with Unreal ꦜEngine 5 and what they'r♕e able to do with the Xbox Series X - this is the perfect time to have an E-Day story," Fergusson adds.

While the series is finally going back to a pivotal moment many fans have been waiting to see, Fergusson can't help but mull over another crucial event - the cliffhanger ending in Gears 5 that's been benched. "I thought I had really great ideas for what Gears 6 was going to be and how to continue that or finish that trilogy. I'm kind of wanting to see how they were going to finish it," Fergusson says, and for anyone who's also missing Kait Diaz and the gang, developer The Coalition has said iღ🍌t still has eyes on Gears 6.

"I'm really excite🍸d to🎶 see what they do," Fergusson adds. "I'm really proud of them."

Elsewhere, Fergusson explained that Diablo Immortal gave the Diablo 4 team the confidence to build a new class that isn’t a “classic archetype of the D&D world.”

Gears of War: E-Day is throwing it back to a time when the now familiar subterranean Locust army was nothing more than an unidentified scaly demon horde that had just popped out of the ground more than 14 years before the first game even started. Developer The Coalition decided to go down the nostalgic route with main man Marcus Fenix back in the spotlight and everyon🐼e's favorite beefcake Dom Santiago fully resurrected - an approach that seems to have wooed long-time fans and developers alike.

Cliff 'CliffyB' Bleszinski, the lead 𒈔designer and co-creator of the first three Gears of War games, said E-♛Day's "back to basics" trailer gave him "chills" in a series of recent . According to Bleszinski, the prequel approach "gives the people what they want (Dom and Marcus)" and leaves "plenty of room for set pieces."

Having worked on the series during its conc🔜eption, Bleszinski happens to have a few theories about what the game might depict too. Bleszinski points to the "Welcome Home" banner in the reveal trailer, which might indicate that the characters are "fresh off the Pendulum Wars" - the regular human war that preceded the Locust invasion. "Prologue might be a chapter in the Pendulum Wars," he adds, though it should be noted that Gears of War 4 began in much the same way.

Speaking of theories, the co-creator reckons there will "probably" be a "heart-wrenching scene where we see Dom rushing to save Maria before she gets taken." For🍬 the uninitiated, Dom's struggle to rescue his wife Maria from the Locust is a recurring point of focus in the original trilogy and led to some of Gears' most iconic scenes, so, yeah, I'd alsꦺo be surprised if E-Day didn't callback (call forward?) to those events. The prequel already seems eager to tug on our heartstrings if that Mad World remix is any indication.

Elsewhere, Bleszinski mulls over how the Lancer ("chainsaw gun") and Hammer of Dawn (orbital lasers) might come into play since the former doesn't even exist yetౠ and the latter was a new, controversial invention in the Gearsverse that ended the Pendulum Wars. There is indeed a canon explanation for the Lancer's birth, but I'd rather see some rookie casually sellotape a chainsaw an🃏d rifle together while everyone else scoffs, "well, that's never going to work."

Gears of War: E-Day is rewinding the clocks, but The Coalition hints it still has eyes on Gears 6: “We’re not retreating from that storyline in any way.”

That's according to Gears creative director Matt Searcy, speaking to GamesRadar+ during a group interview at Summer Game Fest 2024. The director revealed that Gears of War: E-Day, the new prequel game taking place years 𝔍before the original third-person shooter, is set in the city of Kalona, a brand new locati🃏on for the Gears of War franchise. 

"We've worked on Gears now in our studio for l💮ike, 10 years. We've got a really good handle on things that work really well in gears, as well as like things you want to keep pushing and trying. We know for sure t🦄hat Gears, you know, has those linear, epic moments in them," Searcy said when asked about E-Day taking the series back to its more linear roots. 

"We've done a bunch of them, we know how to do that," the creative director continues, speaking of the linear moments in the Gears of War series. "And we will absolutely be doing more🅰 of that," Searcy confirms, pointing to how Gears of War: E-Day is set entirely within a city, and how a cityscape naturally lends itself to more linear opportunities.

"It's gonna feel new and als൲o authentically Gears at the same time because we're able to take all the things that we know were awesome and bring, you know, new technique🌠s and expertise as well as a new engine all of it," Searcy concludes. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Searcy confirms to GamesRadar+ that E-Day won't be set over just one day, but over multiple days. It'd be natural to assume the former, given that E-Day wa🐠s a singular, catastrophic event in the Gears of War world, but apparently, the new game will focus on Marcus and Dom as they deal with the fallout of the Locust invasion, not just the initial attack.

Gears of War: E-Day's gorgeous trailer wasn't just CG, it used assets "that players will see in the final game."

The Gears of War: E-Day trailer was created by Blur Studio, the animation house that previously produced amazing CGI cutscenes fo♚r multiple Halo games, which led to many comments online claiming the trailer 🅷was totally computer generated. Xbox's marketing director Guy Welch then jumped onto social media to clear things up.

"The trailer is developed wit🀅h in-game models, textures, environments and props that players will see in the final game," Welch . "This follows the same method that we used for the Gears of War trailers for the first three games, which were made in Unreal Engine with in-game assets" - only this time, the teams are using Unreal Engine 5.

Jamir Blanco, a cinematic character artist at Blizzard, then to♓o: "saying it was a 'CG from Blur Studio' diminishes all the techni🌸cal achievements you probably didn't notice from how good it was. Though it looks like another pre-rendered CG piece from Blur, it was actually a realtime masterpiece using in-game assets and [ray-traced] lighting in the same engine the game will play."

In a statement to Gamesradar+, a spokesperson from The Coalition clarified that the trailer does indeed use "in-game models, textures and environments" and is supposed to represent "our visual target f𝔉or the gamꦡe" - though, it is not in fact captured in real time. 

I usually roll my eyes when games get announced with glossy CG cutscenes that absolutely give nothing away and serve only as a "hey, we're making t𒈔his thing" message. So, it's nice to hear that the Gears of Wa🍬r: E-Day trailer is at least a little indicative of what we can expect the final game to look like, scaly bug demons and all.

Good looks and oversized hunks aside, we also know that Gears of War: E-Day is throwing things back to the series' Emergence Day when, y'know, the subterranean hordes emerged from beneath Sera - the Gearsverse's Earth equivalent. Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago might be back in the spotlight, but The Coalition still has eyes on a potential Gears 6 as the team 🧸isn&✨apos;t "retreating" from the cliffhanger leftover from Gears 5. 

No release da🌼te yet but Gears of War: E-Day is crawling up on Xbox Series X|S and PC at some point. 

See everything else announced at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Showcase for an overview of all the new games and reveals.

Rather than s🧸erving as a Gears of War 6, Gears of War: E-Day is throwing it back to Emergence Day - the day when the subt🔜erranean Locust army popped out of the ground and invaded Sera 14 years before the events of 2006's first Gears of War game - with Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago returning to the spotlight.

While that's an exciting concept in isolation, it also means the narrative that started in Gears 4 and Gears 5 will remain unfinished for a while longer. If you're anything like me, you're probably itching to get back to Gears 5's agonizing cliffhanger and main g♒al Kait Diaz - and it n💟ow sounds like we'll get that resolution... at some point.

"We're super proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5 and th💟e stories that were told," series brand director Nicole Fawcette tells . The Coalition is supposedly "not retreating from that storyline in any way," but the opportunity to fill in some Gears Gaps was "too good to miss."

Thankfully, despite descending down the prequel hole, the studio is still evolving the almost 20-year-old seri🧸es in fresh ways. For example, the Locust are more "mysterious, formidable and overwhelming" this tim🐟e around. The trailer has a younger Marcus struggling to defend himself against one of the uglies - a stark contrast to the way he mows 'em down in later games. But we'll need to wait until Gears of War: E-Day launches on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass to get the full picture.

See everything else announced at the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: Xbox Games Showcase for an overview of all the games and reveals.

As you might have gather๊ed from t🦋he name, the next installment is set during Emergence Day, and will star younger versions of both Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago. This time, they'll be facing the Locust Horde, which, in a on Xbox Wire, are described as "subterranean monsters, grotesque and relentless, erupt from below, laying siege on humanity itself."

No gameplay has been revealed just yet, but the dramatic cinematic shown seems to be setting the scene for plenty of high-stakes action. Of course, it goes without saying that Dom's return is particularly exciting, too, especially for fans who never recovered from, ahem, certain events in Gears of War 3. 

Unfortunately – but perhaps unsurprisingly – the reveal trailer ha🌌sn't given us any hints as to when Gears of War: E-Day is coming out, so we could be waiting a while before it🎐's finally in our hands. When it does launch, though, we'll be able to play it on day one with Xbox Game Pass.

Gears of War: E-Day was a definite highlight of today's Xbox Games Showcase – Xbox clearly knew we'd be excited about it, too, as it was thrown in right at the end as a "one more thing" announcement. Today's broadcast was packed with other news and trailers though, including a fresh look at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fable, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and more.

Check out our roundup of all the news out of today's Xbox and Bethesda event to keep track of all the latest trailers and announcements.

In a tweet, which quote retweeted a previous thread from Ortega about their work on Gears of War, Ortega simply t🦩weeted: "Once again it’s on!" Although this doesn't reveal exactly what the former Gears writer is working on now, it does hint to the fact that they've joinedꦺ they're back working on the series once again.

If you're not familiar, or haven't read the original Twitter thread fr💞om 2019, Ortega joined the series during Gears of War 2's development. As the tweet reveals, Ortega wrote and co-directed the Gears sequel including all of the in-game collectibles and the initial teaser trailer. They also consulted on the game's TV ads and marketing campaigns, and even wrote its manual. 

Ortega then stayed with the series, later going on to write the first 13 issues of the Gears of War comic book prequel for DC Comics, and whilst alongside a plethora of other writers are artists, came up with the characters Jace Stratton, Michael Barrick, Lt. Draper, Gil Gonzalez, Alex Brand, and more.ꦍ 

Once Gears of War 3 rolled around, Ortega says they worked on the game's st🅠ory and narrative level design with fellow well-known Gears veteran Cliff Bleszinski before going on to use more of their talents on the franchise. We'd ♍love to tell you that Ortega has returned to the series to work on Gears 6, but at the time of writing this, there's not been a new Gears game announced yet. 

The last crumb of information we had about this highly rumored project was that developer The Coalition had scrapped multiple projects in favor of Gears of War. However, not long before this, rumors of a new Gears of War game were shot down by an Xbox exec - so who knows what to believe right now. 

There's also talk of the Gears of War series getting Halo: The Master Chief Collection treatment, but this is also yet to be confirmed. What we do know though is that Gears of War is getting a live-action movie and "adult animated series" from Netflix - so there's always a chanc🔯e Ortega could be working on one of these projects, or perhaps something completely new. 

While we wait to hear more, find out all about the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War card game being developed by the studio behind Elden Ring tabletop adaptation.

As soon as news starting spreading about Netflix's Gears of War live-action movie and "adult animated series," fans online started sharing their casting fantasies. Unsurprisingly, a lot of folks want Dave Bautista, best known as Drax in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Guardians of the Galaxy movies𒀰, to play protagonist Marcus Fenix in the movie. Bleszinski, often nicknamed 'Cliffy B', for Bautista as Marcus, adding that he'd like to see "a Latino actor for𝐆 Dom, dammit."

"Fun fact: Carlos Ferro was cast [in the Gear𝓰s of War games] after I had played a recent Splinter Cell game at the time and the Latino bad guys sounded like Speedy Gonzalez and I was like WTF is thisཧ," Bleszinski said. "Let's get someone who is Latino who has a subtle accent FFS."

and that . However, he drew the line at Chris Pratt, who is playing the titular plumber in the upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Super Mario Bros movie adaptation.

"Oh and keep Chris Pratt away from the Gears franchise, please, FFS," Bleszinski said. He later res𝄹ponded to a fan suggestion to have Pratt play "every Carmine ꦕbrother," characters who have become a running gag in the series by always dying unceremoniously, , "that.... might work."

Whether or not Cliffy B gets his casting choices, it remains to be seen whether Gears of War is fated to join the ranks of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best video game movies ever or fade away like the Carmine brothers.

The official Netflix Twitter the news to mark Gears of War's 16th anniversary. Developer The Coalition, formerly Black Tusk Studios, has signed on for a "live action feature film f༒ollowed by an adult animated 🌳series" under Netflix, "with the potential for more stories to follow."

By adult animated series, Netflix is presumably referring to the vibe of mature works like the Castlevania anime and the Witcher's animated movie – not to mention the recent standout Cyberpunk: Edgerunners – as opposed to less gritty Netflix anime like Littleও Witch Academia and Brave New Animal. Expect a lot of blood, basicall෴y. 

The image shared with the news doesn't seem to be any sort of teaser or concept art for these adaptations, but rather a standard bit of art plucked from the series' long history. Netflix has a deep history of adapting video games, including the Castlevania series, which was turned into an anime show. The streamer is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:also adapting Assassin's Creed into a live-action movie. For more, check out the most exciting 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming video game adaptations coming to screens.

The most recent Gears of War games, which shed the series' full name, earned pretty high marks. Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 review highlighted new mechanics that revitalized the aging series, and our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears Tactics review praised the spinoff's well-executed jump tওo the strategy genre. 

In April 2022, The Coalition announced that it would cut the Map Builder from Gears 5 in order to "focus on future projects." What those projects are remains to be seen, but we do know the studio is working in Unreal Engine 5; it released a stunning demo that could give us an inkling at how Gears 6 will look. Just days ago, Cliff Bleszinski, the original lead on Gears of War, claimed the series was sold to Microsoft because Epic Games was out of ideas. 

Sp𒐪eaking on Unfiltered podcast, Bleszinski predictably had plenty to say about his time at Epic and the sale that took such a huge part of his fame to Microsoft. Bleszinski famously left Epic a couple of years before the sale, but he suggests the writing was already on the wall once he and other key members of the Gears of War team left.

While Bleszinski doesn’t give the impression of someone who necessarily holds a grudge against Epic or the sale of Gears of War, it does sound like he might be entitled to. Speaking of what happened immediately after Microsoꦏft picked up the franchise, Bleszinski says that it was the buyer that reached out🌄 to him — not his former employer.

“When the IP was sold to Microsoft the only phone call I got was from Phil Spencer. Right? And🐼 that's Phil෴. Phil is, as they say, a gentleman and a scholar," Bleszinski said. Spencer is the head of Xbox to this day and has seen multiple Gears of War games developed since that time.

Speaking of why he thinks Epic ultimately decided to part ways with Gears, Bleszinski believes it was all about cold, hard cash. “They were growing and they probably needed the income,” he says, before throwing in the comment about Epic not knowing what to do with a franchise that had proven so popular. Not that Epic’s struggled for ideas in general — 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fortnite still seems to be fairly popular these days.

While Gears of War is now giving Xbox Game Pass players something to sink their teeth into, Bleszinski is off working in theater after shuttering his own studio, Boss Key Productions, in 2018. And as for Gears, the sixth installment of the franchise is rumored 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:for a 2024/25 release

Looking for a game to play a little sooner? There are plenty of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games 2023 to look forward to.

The first 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War is one of Xbox 360's most memorable shooters, not least because of its bril🍃liant multiplayer offering. But things could have been very different. Speaking on War Stories S1 E32, Lee Perry, gameplay designer and lead level design🧸er on Gears of War, reveals how the team almost axed the game's multiplayer modes shortly before launch.

While multiplier was something that the t🌱eam was always keen on implementing, the studio's small size made it difficult. "In terms of the manpower we had associated with the effort, we didn't have a team of people just making multiplayer maps," recalls Perry. Hefty competition from the likes of Halo also made the team feel as if they were "dramatically losing that battle".

But the biggest obstacle the developer faced wa🧜s how to implement Gears of War's slower pace into a multiplayer game and still make it enjoyable to play. Initially, the team made maps similar to those in Counter-Strike and Unreal Tournament, but as these games are all about mobility, the maps didn't make for a fun time in Gears of War. "It was alway🎉s a train wreck," explains Perry. "We were at the start of summer, and this thing is shipping in fall, and there was a very specific moment where we were having those discussions of, do we just cut this?" he says.

Rather than shipping the game without multiplayer, the team worked hard on designing maps built around Gears of War's signature playstyle. Perry explains that the team now "fo🌌rced the enemies to come out at one location" to avoid the frustration that comes with opponents suddenly killing you out of nowhere. As well as these choke points, low walls and obstacles were added to allow players to see across the battlefield but still be protected by cover. "Much like in the single-player campaign, the whoܫle point was that you had the opportunity to see what those people were doing," Perry explains.

You can hear the whole story of how Gears of War's multiplayer a🐼lmost didn't make it into the game in the video below. 

If you're looking for something great to play on Microsoft's latest console, check out our guide to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X games.

The rumor once again originates from the . Earlier this year in January, the podcast speculated that an Xbox-owned franchise would be bundled togetheﷺr in a remastered collection, similar to how the Halo franchise was reg𒈔rouped for a new launch via the Master Chief Collection on PC and Xbox consoles alike. 

This time though, the podcast hosts are getting a little more specific with their rumourmongering♋, with Nick Baker namechecking the Gears of War series as the franchise getting a relaunched collection. Additionally, Baker actually 💛believes the collection is launching later this year.

That'd certainly make sense, given how Xbox and Bethesda del🎶ayed Starfield and Redfall las🌜t week to early 2023. Both games were meant to launch as major Xbox exclusives later this year in 2022, but have now slipped to some point in the following year, with the November 11 release date for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield being wiped out.

Baker speculates that we could see this new Gears of War collection debut at Xbox's 'E3' showcase later next month in June. E3 in the traditional sense 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:might'v𒁏e been canceled this year, but Xbox and Bethesda are still holding their typical June conference as if the show was rolling on. You can tune into the showcase on June 12 to see what the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:future of X𒊎box and Bethesda Game S🐭tudios holds. 

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:E3 2022 schedule for a complete look at everything else taking place over the coming weeks and months.

On a recent episode of the , guest Rand al Thor 19 explains that according to Jez Corden (of sister site ), Gears of War studio The Coalition has two projectᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs in the works, one of which is Gears of War 6, which is supposedly expected to release sometime in 2024-2025🐎, and the other is a smaller new IP which is expected just before Gears 6 in 2023.  

There hasn’t been much in terms of official announcements about either Gears 6 or the other smaller IP. According to Rand al Thor 19, the smaller project which they have heard is in development is different from the recently released 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Matrix Awakened - an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo that - which was worked on by the G🎃e🌃ars studio. 

Unfortunately, this long wait time for the next installment of the Gears series is looking quite likely after it was revealed by the official Gears of War website back in July that The Coalition is shifting to "next-gen development," me🔯aning fans shouldn’t🌠 expect any new games "for some time." 

Still, we're expecting big things from the next Gears, as The Coalition confirme💦d in its shift in next-gen development it&ap🔯os;ll be using Unreal Engine 5. Could we see a Gears game that looks as stunningly realistic as The Matrix Awakens? We only have a few years to find out...

To find out what games you can look forward to in the near future, take a look at our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games 2022 list. 

The , which is set to run f🉐or an hour, is going to be presented on July 20 at 1:20 PM PT. The demo is called Alpha Point and will showcase how The Coalition has fared working with the Unreal Engine 5 technology, what the studio learned about it in a development environment, and the technology it's taken advantage of. You won't be able to access the panel unless you have a pass for the show though.

It's important to note that this will not be a showcase of anything The Coalition is actively working on, at least in terms of ♉a brand new game. This is purely a tech demo being made to showcase what the studio can achieve with the engine. So, don't expect anything Gears of War or new IP-related from the developer. 

However, it will be useful for developers to see exactly what can be done with the powerful new technology in a capacity outside of Epic Games. We've already seen 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Unreal Engine 5 in use in a s🐻howcase from the Fortnite developerꦍ last year, but this will demonstrate what can be don𝓀e in other hands. 

That means, even if you aren't a developer, while there will be a lot of technical jargon, you will be able to get a sense of what truly next-gen games look like running in Unreal Engine 5. A session description confirms the demo will be running entirely on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X, meaninꦡg that it will literally show off what is possible on the console. 

While fans won't get a look at a new Gears of War here, this demo should at least give players some insight on what's coming. The Coalition has moved over to Unreal Engine 5 for f༺uture games. All in all, it should be a fascinating glimpse whether you are a developer interested in working with the engine or just a game enthusiast looking for a glimpse at the future of games.

Check out what other games are upcoming up on the Xbox Series X.

Just below, a hacker who goes by the name of𝓰 PixelButts announced earlier this week that they had uploaded the unreleased version of Gears of War 3 that was constructed specifically for the PS3. It goes without saying that this version of Gears of War 3 was never made publicly available back when it originally debuted as an Xbox𝔉 360 exclusive game.

You can download the Gears of War 3 build for the PS3 right now through PixelButt's link just above. However, you'll need to own a PS3 devkit to actually run the modified ൲version of Gears of War 3, and the hacker themselves confirms above that they won't be supporting it in any way with future updates.

This all follows on from the PS3 build of Gears of War 3 originally leaking online in the first half of ꧒2020. Back then, PixelButts announced that they'd uncover🃏ed the unreleased version of the game, and subsequently uploaded eight hours of footage online for people to view, although there was a fair amount of confusion over what the intention꧂ of the unreleased build was.

Shortly after this footage aired, Epic Games revealed that it was nothing more than an internal test undertaken by the developer. "This footage is a byproduct of Epic’s internal Unreal Engine 3 testing process, which utilized both Gears and Unreal Tournament, and was never part of any actual product work f♒or PlayStation 3," a spokesperson for Epic Games said.

It's quite fascinating that the internal test build of Gears of War for the PS3 is actually playable online. Even though the build turned up through nefarious means (PixelButts is a self-professed hacker, after all), it's still intriguing to know that Epic was originally testing out Gears of War 3 on a platform that it never stood a chance o🍬f releasing on.

In terms of current Gears of War development, the future for the franchise remains unclear. Just last week, current developers The Coalition revealed that they were shifting to "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:next-gen development" for unannounced projects, but they wouldn't be revealing any new projects for a fair while yet. However, one developer at The Coalition 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:struck down recent rumors that the studio is working on a Star Wars-related project, which alleged that the Gears developed was branching out intoꦛ the Star Wars universe with a brand new game.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 tips | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 components | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 Relic Weapons | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 unlockable characters | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 Scavengers | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 Lost Outsiders | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 Hollow Storm | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 JD or Del 

The RTS game, which was developed by 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fall Guys developer Mediatonic🧜, launched on August 22, 2019 and has been out for over a year. Sadl🥀y, due to its date to shut down, that means it won’t celebrate its second birthday. 

In an , it said, “Thank you Gears! Together we have taken on countless waves of Horde and vanquished foes on the Versus battlefield but sadly Gears Pop is closing on April 26, 2021. Until that time, we’re bringing back some of our most popular events, increasing Bounty rewards, and upping the drop rates for Legendary Pins. Effective immediately, in-app purchasing 𝄹has also been disabled. Thank you for your understanding and support.”

In the post it also explained the multiple reasons behind the game’s closure. “There a🤡re a number of things that go into maintaining a game beyond keeping servers active. Addressing issues, developing content, and providing support are critical in keeping a game running. Unfortunately, this is no longer feasible.”

For those of you who play Gears Pop you’ll still be able to play, level up and use remaining crystals in-game until t⛎he servers shut down on April 26, 2021. Regarding any in-app🐻 purchases that were made, refunds will be issued automatically for purchases made within the last 90 days, effective October 28, 2020. Once initiated, refunds may take a few weeks to be processed. 

For more on Gears of War, check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:review for Gears 5. 

"This footage is a🎃 byproduct of Epic’s internal Unreal Engine 3 testing process, which utilized both Gears a🀅nd Unreal Tournament, and was never part of any actual product work for PlayStation 3."

Original story: 

Eight hours of footage of Gears of War 3 running on PS3 hardware has surfaced on the internet and everybody, includingꦉ the person who put it up there, is confused.

Gears of War 3 was released on Xbox 360 in 2011 and has only ever been officially ported to Xbox One and PC since then. That fact stands in stark contrast to this apparent PS3 gameplay footage, uploaded by somebody who claims (via ) th🦹at ☂the build was initially released as part of the massive security breach at Epic in 2011. That dramatic chapter in video game history was just the start.

The person who uploaded the footage, who goes by PixelButts on Twitter, says they neede🦩d to put a ton of work into th🎀e game to actually get it running on PS3 hardware. Several fixes to the build's data were required to get it to run at all, and it needs too much RAM to run anything but a PS3 devkit, among . Even with all that work, its performance is still inconsistent and certain parts of the game reliably break.

The gameplay notably still shows Xbox 360 💮button prompts, and not everybody is convinced that this really is Gears of War 3 running on a PS3 - including the game's designer, Cliff Bleszinski.

Still, PixelButts maintains that this is all legit. They even uploaded an extra snippet of the game booting from a PS3 dashboard as further𓆉 pr൩oof.

Why would Epic go through the effort of makin♔g a sorta-functional PS3 version of Gears 3 when the franchise has always been an Xbox exclusive, even before it was sold to Microsoft in 2014? , and we may never either beyond speculating about behind-the-scenes engine tests or things of that nature. That said, we have reached out to both PixelButts and Epic Games itself to see if we can find out more about this strange artifact of gaming history.

See more footage of Gears games running on interesting hardware with this early look at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 on Xbox Series X. 

Fair warning: as this is focused on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War 4 ending explained, we’ll be talking spoilers. So if you haven’t played the last couple games in the series and plan to do so soon, don’t read any further.

Broken world

Peel back the roided-out Heavy Metal look and chainsaw bayonets, and the Gears franchise is really a family soa🤪p opera. Gears of War 4 is a story about the disappointments between fathers and sons; the shared regrets between mothers and daughters; the children of yesteryear's bloody wars picking up the pieces of the broken world they've inherited. In the Gears series, humanity was born and lives on the planet Sera, a kind of hollow-Earth world where being🤪s called the Locust once dwelled deep underground – until Emergence Day, when they rose to the surface and began a nightmarish, seventeen-year-long war.

Picking up twenty-five years afterꦑ th🌄e events of Gears of War 3, humankind’s still clawing its way back from the brink of annihilation. Sera’s ruined climate brings apocalyptic storms. The Coalition of Ordered Governments (or COG) has replaced its armed forces with cold, unthinking machines ("bucketheads"). And the failures of the Locust War's aging heroes are about to come to light.

Chrysalis in detail

When we first meet Kait Diaz (Laura Bailey) – not just an important character in Gears of War 4 but also the playable protagonist of Gears 5 – she's studying a butterfly chrysalis. "Inside, it destroys and rebuilds itself, changing its color, its shape," she reflects. "It gets wings, claws. It slashes its way out of its cage, and then – and then it’s new and beautiful." This would be a lovely introduction for any character, but it’s them🐟atically significant in ways that ꧒will echo well into Gears 5's story, and Kait's journey especially.

JD Fenix (Liam McIntyre), son of original Gears heroes Marcus Fenix (John DiMaggio) and Anya Stroud (Nan McNamara), is found living in the small Outsider village led by Kait’s mother, Reyna (Justina Machado). JD and his best friend, Del Walker (Eugene Byrd), defected from the COG six months prior to the start of the game following a botched mission. After getting caught stealing a COG fabricator to aid the Outsiders' village, Kait, JD, Del, and Kait’s uncle, Oscar (Jimmy Smits), are also accused of "taking" COG citizens who have gone missing in recent mജonths.

The reality, it turns out, is far worse: the Locust Horde that nearly wi♒ped out humanity decades earlier is back, and they’ve evolved. Now consisting of a multitude of new forms, many of them truly alien, the Locust have become a hive with a shared consciousness. They abduct human beings, such as the villagers Kait grew up with, and place them inside organic "pods" to be mutated and made a part of the hive, a.k.a. the Swarm. When the Swarm first strikes, both Oscar and Reyna are abducted.

So how did the Locust survive the war? After their defeat, many of them were sealed away in a number of subterranean burial sites. ("There were dozens of them," says Marcus. "Maybe even hundreds.") Kait offers♏ a solid explanation: "All this time, the Locust weren’t dead. They were cocooned. Transforming."

Rescues and revelations

There's of course a lot of shooting and mayhem and bringing power generators back online over the course of the game's plot. But the biggest conflict in Gears of War 4 involves JD's father and Kait's mother, and the disparate fates that await them. After a superb sequence in which our new generation of younger soldiers is reunited with the estranged Marcus – and a stop at the gravesite of JD's mother, Anya – the elder Fenix agrees to come along on the quest to save Reyn𒁃a and put an end to the Swarm.

Naturally, a lot of large monsters appear at inconvenient moments along the way, and Marcus, too, is snatched up by the Swarm, carried away in the belly of an armored beast. JD makes a tough call: they'll go after his dad first. After all, they'll need Ma𝐆rcus’s help if they’re to have any hope of rescuing Kait's mother from the hive.

The game's primary antagonist, the Speaker (Fred Tatasciore), makes for a thrilling boss fight, but isn’t terribly consequential from a narrative standpoint. It&aposཧ;s implied that the Speaker is one of the few surviving warriors of the original Locust Horde, now a "Scion," and he's broadcasting his thoughts and perceptions to𒀰 all members of the hive. Is he responsible for all the death and destruction the Swarm has caused? It would seem so; he’s the one who seized Reyna, Kait's mother, when the Swarm first appeared. But once you've slain him, there's still more to be done.

Gears of War 4 ending explained

Fꦇollowing some fan-servicey appearances by more of the old-school Gears cast, and some fun action involving giant robots, you're at last reunited with Reyna Diaz in the heart of the Swarm hive. Her situation is hopeless; the monsters have seen to that. She has been permanently fused and entwined with the Swarm’s tissue, and therefore with its network of remaining minds. Freeing her from the Swarm will kill her, which is exactly what she asks Kait to do.

After they say their goodbyes, Reyna gives her daughter the necklace she'd been wearing in earlier chapters. Kait tells JD it "was my grandmothers. I never knew her♓." On the other side of the pendant, unseen until the game’s end, is the symbol of th𝕴e dreaded Locust Horde. According to Xbox.com’s , "Kait hasn’t told anyone about the Locust necklace her mother gave her before she died, and the pressure of this secret is eating her alive. These tensions bubble under the surface as the squad fights off the Swarm and learns about Kait’s past."

As all but confirmed by Gears 5’s box art – and – it seems that Kait’s grandmother was indeed Queen Myrrah, leader of the Locust. What will this connection mean for Kait’s future? Time will tell, but it’s a safe bet that Re🔴yna's necklace is more than just a family heirloom.

Now you're all caught up with Gears of War 4, why not check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:On The Radar: Gears 5 coverage hub for all of our exclusive info about the upcoming game from The Coalition. Or you can read our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5 campaign hands-on preview here. 

To describe Epic's Gears of War series, we need merely invoke its flagship weapon: the Lancer. A mid-range assault rifle with a chainsaw for a bayonet, the Lancer both epitomises and fortifies✨ the games’ style, tone and themes. It's violent, messy, grim, clunky and more than a little bit absurd. In a medium where guns are more common than plotlines, the Lancer does the seemingly impossible: it stands out.

"It was important to us to create a unique silhouette for the Lancer so that it would be easily identifiable and instantly associated with Gears' combat," explains Cliff Bleszinski, Epic's original design director. "Early on in Gears' development, we knew that our default gun should be very distinctive, multifunctional✤ and, most importantly, fun to use. And, let's be honest, we're all big fans of The Evil Dead, Doom, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

To understand the Lancer, thoug✅h, we must first understand Gears of War. The series, ultimately, is about the inadequacy of its characters, the futility of their actions, and the endless frustration of having to cower behind walls when other heroes in the medium can walk out and meet the enemy on even ground. Marcus and Dom are bulging at the seams with testosterone, but they may as well be petit stick f𝄹igures for all the good their brawn does them. Despite their size, they spend the majority of their time cowering behind overturned desks and vending machines. Progress is measured in inches as they creep forward from cover to cover, careful not to expose all that vulnerable man flesh to Locust bullets. Indeed, 'progress' might not be the right word. Nearly every mission of the series not spent chasing a red herring sees you failing to save a loved one or in retreat. Gears of War isn’t about winning. It is about losing as little as possible.

The right tool for the job

The Lancer brings together Gears of War's grim fictional universe and its oppressive cover mechanics and holds the two in a tight, self-strengthening symbiosis. Bleszinski notes that "in terms of the series' fiction, it was critical to develop a firearm that is effective in battling the Locust – one that is devastating from both a strategic and physiological standpo💮int".

Further, both the Lancer’s affordances and constraints reinforce the games' central cover-based gameplay. While devastating at close or middle range, the Lancer’s effectiveness drops off over a distance, and you as a player lack the ability to use its iron sights. Under fire from the Locust’s longer-ranged Hammerbursts, the Lancer-wielding player must patiently claw ahead to๊ gain a position from which they can effectively return fire. Yet the Lancer’s ample clip size – although reduced over the series'🃏 course – and the usually prolific presence of ammo crates means you normally have few qualms about spraying bullets over a distance or blindly firing over a wall while pinned down. It grants the cover system the gritty desperation that it deserves.

And then, of course, there’s the chainsaw bayonet and its gruesome, iconic executions. Bleszinski explains how senior concept artist James Hawkins iterated many designs for the melee facet, which began as a circular buzzsaw before evolving into the chainsaw of today. "Once Jay unveiled the bayonet design, we knew we were on to something," Bleszinski recalls. "We completely fell in love with it once we began tearing through Locusts. The chainsawing experience became increasingly reward𓂃ing as ꧒we refined the Lancer’s feel and effect."

Since Halo, a button on the controller dedicated to melee attacks has been standard for console shooters, allowing for a quick hit if an enemy gets too close. Most of the weapons in Gears of War have a similar use, but the Lancer is subversive. This is not Master Chief’s swift pistol butt or 'Soap’ MacTavish's stealthy knife thrust. Performing a kill with the chainsaw bayonet is clunky, heavy, slow and graphic. Instead of a quick tap of B to hit an enemy away, the button must be held down and the chainsaw revved seconds before the attack is made. Then, while revving, the player must run up to the enemy⛎ to lacerate them. This is more difficult than it sounds: if an enemy shoots you, you’ll flinch and must begin revving all over again. A chainsaw attack is not something you do on the fly – it is something you do as a last resort. It is always deliberate, methodical, and personal.

"Intimate violence is a pillar of Gears’ gameplay," agrees Bleszinski. It is an intimacy that resonates throughout the series, between two equally unethical but equally justified armies. While you cower behind y🅺our wall and the Locust troops cower behind theirs, there is almost a strange sense of comradeship, of sympathy, of understanding. Both humans and Locust are fighting for a world they believe is their own, and neither human nor Locust wants to die. It is this intimacy that is epitomised by a chainsaw execution with the Lancer. Suddenly, your Locust foe isn't hiding somewhere over there. He is𒅌 standing right beside you. This is the pivot on which the broader violence of the Gears of War universe spins.

It all boils down to this one chainsaw execution, where one human and one Locust connect in a messy, loud, almost erotic release of anger, flesh, and steel – an exec🌜ution powered by hate and the ironic knowledge that the killing blade is burning one of the precious resources you are fighting a war over.

The feature originally ran in Edge Magazine #282. You can read more from 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Edge here, or get the magazine every month by taking advantage of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:our subscription offers for print and digital editions.

"The artists all had looks of dread. Some were shaking their heads, others had their arms folded with stern expressions. This was my first ever look at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War. It was gameplay footage, pre-release, and showed a world in the dark with rain drenching every surface, as chunky armoured soldiers ran in a low crouch while lighওtning flashed around thܫem. I was astounded."

Ten years later, it’s easy to forget the impact Gears of War's graphical technology and aesthetic had on other studios – the tortured photorealism of its landscapes, the muscular heft of its characters. "I heard the artist🎐s talking and it was quickly established that this was the visual quality we 🍰had to beat," Napper goes on. EA Bright Light’s project at the time, an adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, underwent "huge changes" to make the grade. 

A major exclusive for the emerging Xbox 360, Epic’s new shooter would prove no less electric in the hands, however familiar its mixture of cover-hugging and peek-shooting may have sounded on paper. "The moment- to-moment feel of the game was so new and unexpected," muses Napper. "The chunkin🐷ess to the we🌠apons and the feedback of the environment made the world feel alive."

A new era emerges

Adrian Chmielarz, creat🎀ive director at The Astronauts and one of the minds behind the seminal Bulletstorm, ﷽was similarly taken aback. "I thought it was going to be just graphics and production values. I wasn’t entirely convinced about the gameplay. Once I actually did play it? Oh my God."

Even those who didn’t warm to the game’s tone and universe were impres💞sed by it. "It's not a series I had any great affinity for," confesses Dan Marshall, founder of BAFTA award winning indie studio Size Five Games. "It’s a dank grey slog through depressing environments and hard-work firefights. It’s sci-fi trench foot and hopelessness. But it did those things brilliantly."

In terms of its handling, Geaܫrs of War is hardly a true-blue original. Many of the game’s inspirations were obvious from the beginning: Capcom’s Resident Evil 4, cu🎶lt favourite Kill.Switch and Epic's flagship Unreal series. But Gears shines, first of all, in the confidence and grace with which it unifies the efforts of different development disciplines.

"Character art, animation, audio design, voice direction, systems design, and even small touches like well-timed camera shakes – when all these disparate pieces came together, the vision came to life," says Volition’s Greg Donovan, Senior Producer at Zenimax Online Studꦛios. "This was the first time for me that so many disciplines had come together to sell characters so well."

There were also flashes of real innovation amid the muck and thunder of the gunfights. Take Active Reload, whereby you can hit a button to accelerate the reloading animation and increase damage per round. Mistime 🍷the press, however, and you’ll have to sweat while your character struggles to fit a magazine into the breach. 

"It took an input that was almost standard in games of that time and turned it into an emotional experience," says Napper. "There was a huge feeling of risk and reward – excitement and panic within a moment of gameplay that had become almost routine." Looking at the fabric of the campaign as a whole, Chmielarz fee♎ls there's still plenty to learn from Gears’ pacing. "The opening segment is probably still the best opening of all time when it comes to teaching the rules of play without being obnoxious about it," he says. 

Donovan agrees. "The devs introduced enemies in a mann✅er that prevented stagnation while ramping up difficulty," he reflects. "By the end it felt like I was fighting against ten-plus distinct enemy types, which is a crazy amount of content to take on and do well, and there’s probably more than ten. But I also felt like I had the tools to be competitive agai✤nst them. The final levels were a nice balance between having a challenge and feeling powerful, and that’s difficult to pull off."

Truly influential

Gears of War's impact on the Xbox 360's early fortunes has been exhaustively rehearsed. Relatively little understood, perhaps, is how it reshaped the role of the game designer within studios. "Gears changed so much about what our jobs actually meant," comments Lee Perry, lead designer at Epic from 2001 to 2012. "We h꧑ad this awesome new tool, Kismet. It was like Photoshop, for bringing playable ideas to life. We didn’t have to try to convince programmers and producers to let us try different things, we could just open 🎀the editor up and make things work on our own."

"For me, that changed everything about my job. For the first decade of my career I was basically an artist, modelling things, trying to come up with systems for how they would fit together. I was firmly in the back seat, hoping the people at the wheel were taking the projects somewhere✱ cool. Once Kismet landed, my job became making playable prototypes for creatures, weapons and systems."

External developers were able to use the tool by licensing the Unreal Engine. Napper was among those who felt the benefits. Years after seeing Gears for the first time, he met Epic’s legendaryꦛ design director Cliff Bleszinski at an event and thanked him not just for Gears itself, but for raising the profile of designers within the industry. "I remember a time when only producers and PR people were allowed to talk to press about the games we were working on, and then all of a sudden, here was this designer, openly talking about his love of the game."

This article originally appeared in Official Xbox Magazine. Pick up the latest copy in stores now, or so you never miss an issue. 

How to us♍e this guide: The main text of each entry details when and where you should find the collectible. The “Current Objective”, seen at the upper left corner of the screen from time to time, also coincides with when you should start looking for a collectible. An additional screenshot has been added for each entry to show the general area near a collectible, and they are listed in the order in which you can find them in a single playthrough.

Act I: 0. Prologue

COG Tag: T. Thubron
Current Objective: Enter the weapons facility.

Progress until your squad splits into two pairs. Headꦡ along the path on the right. As you approach the gun turret, look for a dead soldier on the right side of the path. The COG tag is next to him. You can still access this collectible if you took the path on the left. You just have to backtrack on the path on the right.

UIR Security Report
Current Objective: Enter the weapons facility.

Pro🍰gress until your squad splits into two pairs. Both paths are protected with a gun turret. As you reunite your squad, head into the room with the gun turret that was protecting the path on the right. The report is on the desk in the back of the room.

UIR Anti-COG Pamphlet
Current Objective: Override the lab security door.

Advance until you’ve reached the shootout with the communications tower in the background. The pamphlet willᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ be to your rightꦿ, once you enter the area of the shootout.

Jacinto Herald
Current Objective: Get to Hoffman’s convoy. / Pick up the Hammer of Dawn.

Progress until the giant Corpser appears. Look for a small 🤡outpost room to the left of the Corpser to find the Herald.

COG Tag: G. Wagner
Current Objective: Pick up the Hammer of Dawn. / Use the Hammer of Dawn to kill to Corpser.

Progress until the giant Corpser appears. Go🐼 up the stairs on your right. Assuming ꦬyou’re facing the Corpser while standing on the steps, head to the right side of the steps. Grab the COG tag near the dead trooper.

Bernie’s Last Will And Testament
Current Objective: Climb to the top of the wall.

Before climbing the ladder built into the wall, look to your immediate right. The will can 🔯be found onᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ a desk.

COG Tag: J. Beckman
Current Objective: Climb to the top of the wall.

Before climbing the ladder built into the wall, head for the ✤small armored transport to the left of the ladder. Between the left side of 🍎the transport and a large pair of locked double doors is the COG tag. Note that is it not next to any dead soldier.

Act I: 1. The Raid

Rubble Reclamation Manifest
Current Objective: Get behind the crane.

During t💟he game’s first Windflare, clear yourself a path by shooting the barrier holding up the pile of pipes. After the pipes have flown away, head down the ramp. Turn right while making a 180 degree turn. This will reveal a tiny hidden space at the top of the ramp. There you’ll find the manifest.

Shepherd Protection Pamphlet
Current Objective: Find a way into the construction hub.

A🐭fter you see the first giant builder bot, make a left into the next room. You’ll see a r𒐪ed robotic power tool. Hang a left without leaving the room to find the pamphlet.

Settlement 5 Resident Assignment List
Current Objective: Defeat the DB sentry bots.

After the shootout in front of the wall gate numbered “2”, face the wall. Turn right and head into the room. You’ll find the assignment list to the right of some🔯 wooden crates in the room.

COG Birthing Pamphlet
Current Objective: Enter the maintenance access door.

Enter the maternity hospital and ad🎃vance until you trigger the cutscene where the squa🅷d is looking at a blue tower. Go through the next maternity ward and look for a pair of green chairs in a hallway. The pamphlet is on the table in between the chairs.

Windflare Lockdown Procedure
Current Objective: Clear the street of DeeBees.

After exiting the maternity hospital, the next shootout will begin outside. Head down the steps and turn left. Look for a similar set of steps on your left. At the top you will find the public service ann🐎ouncem🌄ent posted next to a locked door.

Act I: 2. In and Out

DBI Schematics
Current Objective: Find / Grab the Fabricator.

Ente🅷r the room with the Fabricator. Facing the Fabricator, look left. The schematics are on a computer console against the wall.

Act I: 3. New Friends

Shepherd Safety Pamphlet
Current Objective: Get the Fabricator out of the settlement.

Advance through the chapter until you reach the shootout set in the courtyard with the statue in the center. Head down two very short sets of ste🐻ps then cut across the width of the courtyard. Look left to find another set of short steps. You’ll find the pamphlet next to a stone bench.

Act I: 4. A Few Snags

Village Mare Breeding Record
Current Objective: Bring the Fabricator to the Town Hall.

When🎶 you enter the area for the first time, hang a left. Head straight until you reach a garden at a dead end path. Reach the raised platform and turn right to find the record.

Book Inscribed To Kait
Current Objective: Bring the Fabricator to the Town Hall.

Using the entrance at the start of the game as a reference point, head right, and open the gate. Make an immediate right and go up the steps. You’ll find this book in between a chair and a barꦕrel.

Village Windflare Lockdown Procedure
Current Objective: Use the Fabricator to build fortifications.

Arrive at the section of the chapter where you’re using the Fabricator to protect yourself from the incoming waves of enemies. Assuming you’re standing behind the Fabricator with the waves of bots in the background, turn right. Look for a col♚umn nearby. That’s where you’ll get the pꦜrocedure sheet.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Continue to Act II

Act II: 1. The Prodigal Son

Anya’s Favorite Flower
Current Objective: Investigate the estate.

At the beginning of the act, go across the bridge, and 🐼veer right. Before you enter the house to advance the story, go through the gated door to the right of the house. After the cutscene, pick up the flower outside of the gated d🔥oor.

JD’S Sixth Birthday Present From His Uncle Cole
Current Objective: Get inside the manor.

Enter the courtyard, which is the setting of the first shootout of th🌱is act. Make an immediate right and go behind the small stone structur🌠e to find the birthday present.

COG Military Academy Acceptance Letter
Current Objective: Get upstairs.

When you enter the manor, head to the back of foyer💯, veer left, and head to the room in the corner. The letter will be on a des🦩k at the right side of the room.

Act II: 2. Geared Up

Photo of JD and Anya
Current Objective: Defeat the Kestrel. / Get downstairs.

Af♏ter watching the Kestrel crash, make a 180 degree turn♊. Head into the next room to find the photo on the floor.

House Plans
Current Objective: Escape the manor.

After heading down the ce🅠llar, continue further past the covered paintings. Make the left into the next ro꧅om. The house plans will be on your immediate left.

Old Bottle of Wine
Current Objective: Continue towards the barn.

Advance through the chapteꦿr until the plane crashes. Before entering the remains of the airplane cabin, make a left. There y✨ou will find the wine bottle among some wooden boxes.

Act II: 3. Plan B

The New Ephyran
Current Objective: Make it to through the Windflare to the barn.

During the Windfl♔are, the path splits. Take the path on the left.  Look for the scrapped truck on the left side as the path curves to the🐷 right. The magazine will be in the back of the truck. You can still access this collectible if you took the path on the right. You just have to backtrack on the path on the left.

JD’s Old Toy Figurine
Current Objective: Make it to through the Windflare to the barn.

During the Windflare, the path splits. Take the path on the right. Look for the red tractor on the right side of the path. The figurine will be next to the tractor. You can still access this collectible if you took the path on the left. You just have to b𓃲acktrack on th༺e path on the right.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Continue to Act III

Act III: 1. Almost Midnight

COG ID Bracelet
Current Objective: Follow Marcus through the fort.

Make progress in the chapter until you reach the first stone arch you need to need༺ to go through to advance the story. Before going through the arch, ahead toward the vegetation on the left. There you’ll find the bracelet.

Ancient Book
Current Objective: Find a way through the fort.

Progress until you reach the cocoon remnants that JD can interact with. Make a right and head down the hallway. The book⛦ is on a desk on the left side of the hallway.

Act III: 2. Night Terrors

Medical Supplies Status Form
Current Objective: Move debris away from door.

Head down the passage that features more cocoons, a shooto🦹ut, and the surpris🍨e at the door at the other end. When you pass the door, make a left. The form will be on top of some storage containers near some tarp and a corpse.

COG Tag: D. Nunez
Current Objective: Track the creature that took Marcus.

Advance until you break open th﷽e door, revealing a view of the tram station. Turn 💮right and head for the corpse on the ground to find the COG tag.

Tourist Map Of Fort Reval
Current Objective: Get to the tram station.

Pr📖ogress until you reach the courtyard with the statue in the center. Head left, past the first arch. The map is on theꦡ bench.

Act III: 3. At The Doorstep

King Figurine Souvenir
Current Objective: Find the Snatcher that took Marcus.

After leaving the tram, take the pa🐈th leading to the double doors. Instead of going through the doors, leap over the nearby fallen column. Follow the path and you’ll end up with a view of the tram you just rode. The figurine is on the ground.

Evacuation Procedures
Current Objective: Follow the Snatcher to the keep.

Complete the shootout in the open area outside the keep (the keep entrance features two hooded lion sculptures). Cross the bridge in 🐭the middle of the are༺a, make a left, and head into the room. The collectible is on one of the walls in the room.

Fort Reval Military Museum Pamphlet
Current Objective: Follow the Snatcher through the museum building.

Aft🌊er the camera focuses on the Snatcher on top of the museum, make a sharp left. Follow the short path and stairs to a dead end. There you’ll find the pamphlet.

COG Tag: W. Owen
Current Objective: Find a way into the inner courtyard.

H🔯ead inside the Castle Keep. Continue up the stairs and along the hallway until you reach the first large room. Head to the far end and make a right. Leap over the ⛦shelf to reach the corpse.

Act III: 4. At The Doorstep

COG Tag: A. Josefson
Current Objective: Track the Snatcher through the Catacombs.

Engage 🦄in the sho🔜otout in the room with a lot of unbroken pots. Advance to the hole in the ground. Drop through the hole, then make a right. The tag will be at the corner on your right.

Silver Age Dagger
Current Objective: Track the Snatcher.

Advance in the chapter until you reach an arched doorway with two statues on bot🌌h sides. Going through the arch will lead you to a downward curved staircase. Do not go through the arch just yet. Instead, face the arch and make a right. There you will find the dagger surrounded by some pots.

Act III: 5. Elevator To Hell

Ephyrae Tribune
Current Objective: Start the transporter engines.

Board the transport at the beginning of the chapter. Take the passage on the right, the one with the wor꧃d “CONTROL” above it. Make a left, go up the stairs, and go through the two oval shaped doorways. Before you enter the control room, make a sharp left to find the newspaper.

Act III: 6. Origins

Locust Shell Crystal
Current Objective: Head towards the heart of the hive.

Shortly after starting the chap🦹ter, advance past the room with the dumped weapons, then reach the cutscene where your team is overlooking the exterior of the hive. Make a forced left, head down the stairs, and inspect the large emulsion crystal. After the cutscene, this will be added to your co💙llectibles count.

Mine Scavenger List
Current Objective: Descend through the mining facility.

After engaging in the shootout with the Juvies and the Pouncers, head for the double doors. Before heading dowꦍn the stairs, notice the small gap between the crates on the left. The list is past those crates.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Continue to Act IV

Act IV: 1. Get Out

Locust Shell Disposal Form
Current Objective: Return to the ore transporter.

After the walking sectio💙n at the beginning of the chapter, you’ll drop down two ledges. After the second ledge, notice the yellow metal crate on top of what appears to be cart tracks. From here, make a sharp left and head for another yellow metal crate. There you’ll find the form.

Act IV: 2. No Detours

COG Tag: K. Rush
Current Objective: Get to the dam.

Start from the beginning of the chapter. Move along the only path until y𝄹ou see a large gear on the left side of the road. The COG and the dead soldier associated with it will be slightly past the gear.

Act IV: 3. Knock Knock

COG Orders
Current Objective: Get to the dam entrance. / Open the main gate.

Start by surviving the tough shoot out outside the entrance of Tollen Dam. Then enter the facility on the left. Once inside, make an immediate♑ right and go up the short stack of steps. You’ll find the order at the opposite corner of the room.

Act IV: 4. Powerless

COG Tag: P. Wood
Current Objective: Head back inside.

Advance through the chapter until you literally run through a pair of giant gears. Next, engage in another shootout. Then open the next pair of double-switch double doors. Follow the path until a control room appears on the left. Enter it and go to theꦕ other side of the island console. There 🎶you’ll find the tag.

Rations Schedule For Abandoned Gears
Current Objective: Find a way to the top of the dam.

Progress through the chapter until ꧅you’ve completed the shootout around the giant moving chains. Move forward a bit more until you reach a perpendicular hallway with “13E” printed on the wall. Make a left and look through the back of the boxes for the 🌞schedule.

Act IV: 5. Storm Warning

COG Tag: E. Yates
Current Objective: Find a way through the substation.

After toughing it through the chapter’s storm, you’ll enter the substation. Once inside, loo🔯k for the room on the right. There’s a COG tag near a corpse at the desk.

Letter
Current Objective: Find a way through the substation.

After destroying the first coil, follow the path until you reac🅘h a pile of sandbags that you can leap over. You’ll find the letter in ꦓthat small room.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Continue to Act V

Act V: 1. Convergence

COG Tag: H. Pham
Current Objective: Get to the town.

After breaking through the chain-locked gate, hug the right side of the area until you reach an alley. Go down the alley until you reach the corpse, which is ꦛwhere you’ll find th🌠e tag.

Work Stoppage Order
Current Objective: Exit the factory.

After you enter the Centaur factory, make your way to the far right corner o🌄f the map, a section labeled “Electrical Room”. There you’ll find the order.

Act V: 2. Killing Time

Speyer Scavenger List
Current Objective: Get to the dropzone.

After defending the radio tower, head for the next waypoint. Advance until you reach a chain-locked gate. Before breaking it open, make a 180 degree tꦚurn and head for a room with a work bench. There you’ll find the list.

Act V: 4. Release

Reyna’s Necklace
Current Objective: N/A

Simply complete this fꦇinal chapter to earn this collectible automaticall🎐y.

Congratulations, you've found all of the collectibles in Gears of War 4 and unlocked the Completist achievement.

The events of Gears of War 4's story are crucial to the upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears 5, which is set to launch later this year on Xbox One and PC, and is in the running for the most exciting 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2019. There's been a 25-year time skip following the events of Gears of War 3, and wiping out the Locusts didn't go as planned - instead of dying, they went into a hibernation and evolved into a new threat known as the Swarm. Gears 4 follows Marcus Fenix's son J.D., Delmont Walker, and Kait Diaz as they fight back against the Swarm (and plenty of hostile ro🦄bots) on a series of emotional rescue missions. Kait will be the central character of Gears 5, so getting to know her in Gears of War 4 will go a long way tow꧒ards making the story that much more salient.

Besides getting up to speed on the new Gears narrative, it's worth playing Gears of War 4 for its excellent gunplay, which blends the traditional, intense cover-shooting with clever new ideas. "Gears 4 is an insightful exercise in reappraising, optimizing, and consolidating," we wrote in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:our review. "As an entry point for new players, it's a perfect introduction to why Gears of War is important... and for old hands it's an instant flashback to the best of Gears, but executed with freshness and vitality." Post-launch patches have also made Gears of War 4 one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox One X Enhanced games, with 4K and HDR support at up to 60fps.

You should know that while Gears of War 4 will be free to Gold members this weekend, you won't get it for keeps - but if you like what you play, you could grab your very own copy for a reasonable or consider a subscription to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass library, which includes the entire Gears of War series (yes, even the largely forgettable Judgment spin-off). Xbox Live Gold members would do well to check out this weekend freebie, even if it's just jumping in for a few rollicking rounds of Horde mode, and if you're yet to invest, here are today's best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Live deals.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games with Gold is another great source of free Xbox games for paying subscribers.

I found that announcement very odd, since (as far as I knew) The Coalition was a 100-percent Gears of War focused studio. The studio jumping over to a new IP would be like 343 Industries announcing that Halo 6 was on hold so it could make a new fishing game or somet꧂hing. Very weird. When I asked a Microsoft representative about StoryLab's announcement, they re-confirmed that "The Coalition is exclusively focused on Gears of War" but left it at that.

So what does all of this actually mean? I can only speculate for now. I don't think StoryLab (an Official Microsoft Vend🙈or, as the site proclaims) would fabricate an upcoming collaboration with one of its biggest partners. But its definition of "new IP" might be loose in this instance. Rather than an all-new creation, maybe this announcement entails a new take on the Gears of War universe?

Gears of War 4 was well-received overall but never had the same impact as the Gears trilogy before it. There's no way Microsoft is ready to give up on the series yet - not after buying the license from original developer Epic and re-orienting an entire studio around it - so maybe it's looking for a different kind of Gears instead. Probably with lots of shoulder-high cover scattered around, though, because is itꦬ really still Gears without that?

It may be a while before we see what, if anything, comes from this alleged new project. At least you can look forward to some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best upcoming games of 2018 in the meantime. 

One of the biggest selling points for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox One X is how it makes the games you already own look better, and this new video featuring 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War 4 is Micr🐽osoft putting its ꧙performance where its mouth is. The year-old game still looks quite nice on original Xbox One hardware, of course, but this graphical overhaul is still quite welcome.

Gears of War 4 is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:"Xbox One X Enhanced", which can mean a variety of different ꦡthings🅰 depending on the game. Microsoft previously announced that Gears 4 will support both 4K resolution and HDR color, running the campaign mode at a standard 30 frames per second and multiplayer at 60 ဣframes. However, you'll also be able to play the𒁏 campaign mode at 60 frames per second by enabling the new "Performance Mode" if you wish. It'll likely mean sacrificing certain visual effects, but playing the entire game at a velvety smooth 60 FPS should have plenty of effect all by itself.

If you already played through the game on the original Xbox One, you may still want to take the arrival of Xbox One X as an opportunity to🤡 dip back in. While you've been gone, developer The Coalition has been busy adding maps, matchmaking improvements, and a sizable selection of characters (both new and callback) to the multiplayer mode. The last map pack arrived this month but more updates are planned throughout 2018.

Look through our list of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:every Xbox One X enhanced game for some more titles to revisit. Or if you're on the prowl for something new, read through our list of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox One games.

The report of the lawsuit originates from , but has been verified by . In it, Hamilton claims that Lester Speight (the voice of Cole, and whom is also being sued) spoke with Hamilton about creating a video game character while they performed together as professional wrestlers. You can see wherꩲe this is going.

The suit focuses on the likeness between the two men: "The similarities of the avatar 'Cole Train' and Hard Rock Hamilton include that both are black (and 'Cole Train' is the only black avatar in the 🍬Gears of War series), they both played professional football (althoಞugh in Gears of War the game is called 'thrashball'), Cole Train's number is 83 (same year that Hamilton played for the Philadelphia Eagles - 1983), the derby hat, wristbands, a front gold tooth, and a striking resemblance of both physiognomy and body build."

Can't say I ever imagined the day someone would accuse a Gears of War character looking too much like a specific human being. Or ... any real-life human being for that matter. Hamilton is suing for an uns♎pecific share of sales and profits made by the Gears of War series - it'll be up to a judge to determine whether the case proceeds.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us! 

What went well?

You have to start at the games. Xbox One saw some absolutely belting exclusives careen into view at the tail end of this year. At the top of the list is possibly the finest racing game on any console, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Horizon 3. I’ve known both hardcore racing fans and casuals alike fall for its ludicrously beautiful Australian Outback. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears Of War 4 is another highlight, reigni🍸ting a buried🍎 love for one of Xbox’s most influential franchises. It’s smart, slick and unabashed good fun. 

It launched quietly and is still gathering steam, but the arrival of Clubs on Xbox One is another key moment of this year for me. Clubs basically turns your console into a video game bar full of interesting and like-minded people to team up and play with. Playing with randoms before has been a risky endeavour. Now it’s easier than it’s ever been to meet up with new players who are into the same things you are. And then there was the launch of the excellent Xbox One S, the best place to play upscaled 4K games, WITHOUT having to fork out for another Blu-Ray player on the side. It feels like this new machine is the figurehead for Microsoft’s new mindset: to listen to the gamers an🌃d to make sure our feedback is implemented. It’s a superb upgrade and bodes well for next year’s Scorpio...  

What could have gone better?

The first half of the year saw some great multi-platform games land, but blimey it was a bit barren in terms of marquee console exclusives. Thinking back only 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Quantum Break sticks out. 2017 is already looking like it’ll remedy this prob🅷lem, though (pun totally intended), with Halo Wars 2 and Tacoma on my personal radar.  

What was your personal highlight?

Starting on Official Xbox Magazine! It’s been amazing to go from a broad multi-format outlet (the brilliant GamesMaster magazine) to the singular focus of OXM. The team is incredible and the mag itself rammed every month with great work which is just a pleasure to collate and edit. Our issue on shelves at the moment, has two of my favourite features of the year, on Prey, Arkane’s incredible sci-fi RPG, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Resident Evil 7, wh🔴ich is looking more and more like the real deal for long-time series fans (myself included). 

A broader highlight, though: d’you know what I did in October this year? I delved under the bed and pulled out a big ol’ box of 360 games which I’d consigned to gather dust when I first set up my sultry new Xbox One. Red Dead Redemption was one I was able to return to thanks to Backwards Compatibility, and since then we’ve seen Bully, Oblivion, Bayonetta and loads more resurface. I love that every time I boot up my machine it seems like there’s a new classic at my fingertips. Currently I’m half way through a Mass Effect trilogy play though ready for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Andromeda to land in March. Bliss. 

Special mention needs to be made of Fallout 4 and Skyrim, playable on Xbox One with a vast array of mods. I really hope that this is a precedent for Xbox One going forwards, an🐲d that this means more mod-friendly games will land soon. My copy of XCOM 2 is re🐟ady...  

Fave game of the year?

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Overwatch, all the way. I can’t wheel away from a match without a smile on my face, it’s such well crafted fun. Special mention to Dark Souls 3, though. It has the finest combat of the seri🌺es and some of the most iconic, lasting locales.   

What was your personal lowlight? 

Without a doubt it was news of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the closure of Lionhead, one of the UK’s oldest and most well-loved studios. The Fable series has been a t🐠oജuchstone of quality on Xbox, and the talent at that studio was clear to anyone. The death of Fable Legends, a game I played multiple times at various stages of development and which seemed to be coming together nicely, was a massive shock.  

What trends defined 2016? 

You don’t need an Xbox console to play 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox games anymore. With Xbox Play Anywhere we’ve seen a huge number of players coming together, whether they’re playiꦓng Gears 4 on PC or Xbox One, likewise with Forza Horizon 3. It’s early days and there are some bumps that still need ironing out, but this trend, of bringing players together, is a fascinating one.

It’s hard to ignore the buzz surrounding VR on PC and PS4, even if, like me, you’ve tried it loads and remain unconvinced. I spent a hateful weekend chundering into a bucket while reviewing VR games when I was back on GamesMaster, so have developed a natural distrust of the tech/games on offer. I personally think VR will remain an early adopter fad, something for tech heads and games journalists to show their mates when they 💛come around, rather than a legit gamer’s preferred way to play once they get home ready for a session in the evening... At least until Scorpio launches! Microsoft is right to wait and perfect the hardware before asking us to shell out.  

The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine - with a huge cover feature on Prey - is on sale now. .

And 𝔍hꦓere's an early look at the new Drydock, which has been built into a new ship-breaking yard location.

You may be wondering about the "kinda-free" part of this article's headline. The Coalition will roll out all 24 of its planned DLC maps to public playlists over the next 12 months, but the new maps will be cycled in and out of the playlist over time. If you want to keep playing a map after it leaves the playlist, or if you want to use it in a private match, the host will need to own the Gears of War 4 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Season Pass.

Season Pass owners can also try all the new maps (and other stuff like extra modes 🀅and features) early in the Developer Playlist. Checkout and Drydock will join t♚he Developer Playlist on November 1.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!

Gears of War 4, like its Microsoft-published sibling Halo 5, has card-based microtra🍌nsactions. For either spending real world money or playing the game, you earn Credits, which in turn can be used to purchas🀅e Gear Packs - digital cards which randomly unlock character skins, weapons, emblems, and more.

After four days of early access players providing feedback, developer The Coalition wrote on the that "the calculations that determine the rate at which Credits are earned were un🍸der our own expectations - and yours." Thus, the chan♌ges to Gear Pack cost and Credits earned.

What's funny to m⛦e is that this is, essentially, a day-one patch, spurred by data provided by those who pre-ordered special editions of the game. Those of us who waited to pick up a copy will never experience the harsher Gears of War 4 economy. It seems that patience is not only a virtue, but it can save you money.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us! 

Marcus Fenix’s debut outing played this role of the big, dumb shooter to perfection. The immediacy of its combat, the unrestrained violence and the action movie caricatures helped give Xbox 360’s biggest exclusive at the time a unique voice; the lack of a next-gen Halo all-but securing its success as the first surefire multiplayer hit of the generation. But the real reason for its initial success and subsequent legacy as the most iconic third-person shooter series on Xbox is that this meathead front was all an act. Gears of War favoured brains over brawn – every chapter a lean, considered sequence of deliberate flash points, with every in-game mechanic a finely curated feature buffed until it complemented the rest.

The deception is masterful. Playing as a literal COG in a vast war machine battling scaly Locust foes, Gears’ leading man-mountains are loudly encoura🌳ged to unleash streams of bullets and hurl devastating bang-sticks. Quietly, however, so as not to ar🅰ouse suspicion, perhaps, they are asked to engage a far more tactical mindset than any of its contemporaries demanded. 

Meat and Greet

No two skirmishes are the same. First come standard fights with the Locust rank and file, their numbers increasing to pile on the pressure after every successful encounter. Then the notion of Emergence Holes are introduced: spawn points that replenish enemy ranks until they’re sealed off with a well-thrown frag. Mastered those? It’s time for multiple Emergence Holes at once, then fixed Troika turrets that need flanking, then night-time encounters where deadly clouds of flying piranhas known as Kryll patrol the shadows, and each firefight with the Locust is made that extra bit spicier by the pressing need to search for the hidden gas canisters and ignite them to chase away the hungry gloom.  

At one point, packs of monkey-like Wretches charge you from both the floor and ceiling. The moment you’ve grasped the close-range shotgunning and chainsawing tacti🐽cs needed to best take them out you’re dropped into situations against glowing Lambent mutations, which stick two fingers up at your enlightened ways by filling the Wretches’ insides with deadly Imulsion that explodes like a cluster bomb upon death. Leaping out of the shadows of a blood-drenched factory in the middle of a lightning storm, Lambent Wretches threaten to tip it into the horror genre. It’s not the only horror nod: one chapter of constant escalation culminates with a tip-toeing, timed encounter against an almost-unbeatable boss, where every noise you make betrays your position and will potentially see your insides smeared over the walls.

Not every divergence from the template is a resounding success.  A brief driving sequence midway through feels like a refugee from  a less accomplished action game. Minutes later, a cluster of scripted environmental kill o⭕pportunities are thrown into a massive base siege as if it’s a one-off design experiment by a solo member of the team unable to contribute elsewhere on the project. 

Yet even these missed beats keep inter🌺est levels high: those environmental 🥃kills might be introduced with all the subtlety of an avalanche, but they entertain. The unpolished road trip across broken freeways, meanwhile, keeps you engaged by asking you to both drive and burn away attacking Kryll with a spotlight (a mechanic fellow Microsoft developers Remedy would later borrow and iterate upon in Alan Wake), the kicker being that the car’s motor can only power one action at a time, forcing you to juggle priorities.  

Crimson and Cover

Like the rivers of blood coursing in Fenix’s wake the ideas never stop flowing, but there’s one in particular that helped reshape the framework of most subsequent third-person shooters: the cover system. While Operation: WinBack and kill.switch can claim to be the true progenitors of lock-to-cover systems, Gears of War popularised the concept by bringing a refined take on those early attempts to a mainstream audience.  Copycats came and went with clunky replicas, but few equal the fluidity of Gears’ offering. The ability to shimmy along cover, to dart between different bits of scenery, and to both carefully aim and blindfire around blockades are all present and correct, despite early suitors to Gears’ crown failing to adopt some or all of these mechanics.

It gets the stickiness just  right at the first attempt: think about all those third-person shooters where you feel superglued to cover, or where the locking ability is so loose that you sometimes find yourself out in the open when you thought you’d pressed your back against protection. That doesn’t happen in Epic’s outing.  Instead, Marcus Fenix feels at one with his surroundings, leaping over barriers to chainsaw an onrushing locust, or bursting out from around a corner to roadie run underneath  a corridor of gunfire – the camera pulling in close as you control his thundering charge with all the grace of steering a bookcase down a ski slope – and slamming side-first into another concrete blockade.

In full flow, it’s positively rhythmic. Every hit against cover, every popped head, every grenade explosion and every “Boom!” blurted by Boomers combining to make a symphony of actions and a soundtrack of death.  We’re surprised that no one has ripped off the active reload system. An idea that Epic Games can rightly call their own, it takes the boring act of reloading a gun and turns it into a risk/reward mini-game where skilful manual reloads are rewarded with extra damage power, and sloppy reloads are punished by gun jams.

Naili🐭ng a perfect reload as the pressure of oncoming Locusts mounts🥃 is a fist-pumping high, which begs the question why the idea hasn’t spread into more third-person shooters.  Team tactics orders, weapons that rain down jets of molten death from the sky, chainsaw melee kills that need charging up, split-path routes – those ideas just keep on coming. The game never stands still, which explains why its campaign takes just a scant six- or-so hours to complete, even when factoring in the hunt for collectibles.

Brief though it may be, however, it doesn’t feel lacking, especially given its co-op support. The entire campaign is playable in two-player, both online and offline, and the Achievements system encourages co-op experimentation by doling out rewards specifically to those players who opt to play as Marcus’ buddy Dom. Suddenly, those branching path areas take on new meaning as they become tense tests of skill that split up co-op players. Stripped of the ability to rescue downed partners, one player’s failure to progress halts progress for both in a pressure cooker situation.  

If two-player co-op doubled Gears of War’s length, eight-player competitive play increased it tenfold. Embracing its duties as Xbox 360’s benchmark online shooter, the multiplayer mode initially focused on elimination-based  gametypes to ensure its rabid online community could never relax. Indeed, close-knit teams roadie running into position for four-on-four duel was the defining image of Xbox 360’s pre-Halo 3’s life; with expert kill squads honing their skills night after night as they viciously and systematically executed lesser teams, member by member.  

Those marquee single-life modes meant𝐆 death came swiftly for some, true, but also that the next round, and the clean slate it ushered in, was never far away. While other shooters of the time could see players trapped in lengthy games in which losing teams had no hope of recovering, Gears’ low player count and brutal rules gave rise to epic stories of glorious against-all- odds comebacks as players discovered their inner Rambos. New heroes were born every day, and no game was ever truly lost until that final death.

Fenix Rising

Later entries would improve Gears’ formula in nearly all areas: longer campaigns, more fleshed out online options, greater weapon variety and
bigger, busier environments, yet the original’s charm wouldn’t be eclipsed. Made in an era before set-pieces became the dominant source of action peaks, its mission statement to never repeat the same idea was unique. And though home to some naive design choices (can anyone offer a satisfying explanation for the invisible-hovering-robot-cum-door-opening-Guilty-Spark-a-like Jack?), Gears' quality far outshone its rough edges at a transformative point in time early on in a new console cycle – playing its part in forever shaping what Xbox 360 games would offer as standard.  

Even its advert, a haunting, sombre CG movie with Mad World playing in the background, became influential. As a result, we're still beset by CG game trailers coupled with acoustic covers of popular songs, but that's not all: the advert's core idea actually became a scene in the third game.

More than just a means of selling Xbox 360s, Gears doubled as an advert of Epic's own tech for key decision makers inside the industry. Point at the genre-wide adoption of cover systems all you like, but the game’s biggest mark on the Xbox 360 generation was in making Unreal Engine 3 the go-to engine for d♚evelopers, despite fierce competition from the likes of CryEngine and Source. Borderlands, Mirror’s Edge, BioShock Infinite and Batman: Arkham Asylum... the list of award-winning Xbox 360 classics that followed in Gears  of War’s footsteps is as impressive as it is long. Yet no matter what successes those games achieved in their lifetimes, none could ever claim to have shaped nearly a decade of gaming design and business quite like Epic Games’ original ode to meat.

Or are they? Well, yes. Yes, to be clear, they are. But at the same time: we could all do with looking a bit more like a Gears Of War character, could we not? (I mean, if you’re a guy.) More to the point, we could definitely all do with being a bit more like a Gears Of ꦑWar character: capable, strong, able to bounce off walls and carry our own bodyweight in ammunition. So, with that in mind, here’s how to get that Gears body you’ve always🦋 (secretly) wanted. 

Get prison-jacked

Two things here: firstly, bodyweight-only training is a fine way to build entry-level strength and master the basic movements you’ll need when things get more rigorous, with a minimum of kit. Secondly, old lantern-head himself spent the four years after the Battle of Ephrya in jail, losing some of the mass he’d carefully cultivated but somehow keeping in good enough shape to fistfight a brace of guard dogs and fend off a Locust invasion. How? Marcus’s workout plan is lost to time, but – after having their benches and dumbbells taken away via a 1996 bill expressly prohibiting training equipment – do hundreds of press-ups, pull-ups and bodyweight squats, graduating to tougher versions like the pistol squat or archer pull-up as they get stronger. You should probably start with a nice, simple plan: three pull-ups, five press-ups, and seven squats, done ten times with as little rest as you can ma꧒nage. Just FYI: even though he’s from a different game, you will never be as good as Deathstroke. He .

Build your grip strength

Controlling a Lancer Mark 2 – which, you’ll recall, fires 850 rounds a minute and comes with a chainsaw bayon🔯et – would, for the untrained non-maniac, probably tear your shoulders off. That’s why every surviving Gear has forearms like a bundle of steel cables wrapped in pink clingfilm: they spend half their battle desperately trying not to spray bullets around like a sporting hero with a champagne bottle, and the other time trying to yank a rapidly-spinning blade out of an aliꦰen’s exoskeleton while its six vengeful swarm-brothers close in. How to mimic that IRL? Until Microsoft ratchets up the Xbox One’s vibration capabilities to ‘tooth-loosening’, the easiest answer is with dedicated grip-and-forearm training. One option is the “farmer’s walk”, favourite of the but also possible with dumbbells or shopping – just cancel the Walmart/Ocado order, load up with tins, and do the Big Shop alone to set your forearms ablaze and build bigger lats, shoulders and trapezius muscles. Another option is ‘fat bar’ training: even if all you’ve got is a set of Argos dumbbells, wrap a towel around the handles (or use a set of ) and do your curls (or whatever) as normal. 

Get used to body armour

How much COG armour actually weighs has never been definitively established, but considering that the bulletproof vests currently used by the US military apiece – and that the Gears throw in a load of shoulder-and-arm padding (except in summer) – it’s probably fair to assume that Marcus and the gang are typically hauling around the weight of a fat child everywhere they go, even when they’re sprinting up stairs and leaping off buildings. For the non-military type, the pricey option is a dedicated weight vest – the , which comes with customisable weight-pouches, is solid. Cheaper is a rucksack full of water bottles, books or little individual . Either way, doing standard bodyweight moves with your 🅠COG-substitute will force your body to adapt, though running extended distances with it on isn’t recommended. 

Train like a Thrashball player

Thrashball, national sport of Locust-planet Sera, has an ill-defined set of rules, but it’s essentially like American Football, with about not dive-punching people in the groin. It’s a fertile ground for Gear-recruitment, with good reason: linebackers, generally speaking, are exactly the sort of men you’d want if you were looking for a squad of behemoths capable of taking a torque-bow shot in the chest with little more than a cracked rib. And how do NFL players train? With heavy weights, short sprints, and high intensity: ideal for mimicking the demands of a game or a sortie through monster-occupied territory. For an entry-level salvo of NFL-style conditioning, set a stopwatch going and sprint 100m, then rest until the second hand ticks 60. Sprint another 100, rest again, and keep going – doing a near-all-out 100m every minute, on the minute, for ten minutes. Too easy? Add three lunges on each leg after the spr🌼ints, and run yourself to wobbly-limbed defeat. 

Lift weights like a maniac

So far, so functional: but if what all you really want is to look like an over-inflated balloon version of Henry Rollins? Two keys: compound movements and protein. Focusing on moves like the deadlift, power clean, pull-up and overhead prﷺess above the biceps curl and triceps kickback doesn’t just save time by hitting multiple muscle groups at once: it also triggers the release of growth hormone and testosterone that’ll give you a boost on the road to jackedness. As for food, most trainers recommend 2g of protein per kilo you weigh (or want tಌo), per day – preferably from natural sources like eggs, meat, dairy products or, um, peanut butter.

The ACTUAL PLAN

Too woolly? If all you’re after is something to do, here’s your prescription. Warm up properly, rest at least a day between sessions, and please, please don’t try this if you aren’t confident you can manage the moves without injuring yourself.  

Day 1
Overhead press: Sets 3, Reps 8, Rest 90 seconds
Chinups: Sets 3, As many reps as you can do, Rest 120 seconds
Squat: Sets 3, Reps 8, Rest 90 seconds

Day 2  
Bench press: Sets 3, Reps 8, Rest 90 seconds
Farmer’s walk: Sets 4, Distance 40m, Rest 90 seconds
As many press-ups as you can do in five minutes

Day 3
Warm up with a slow 1k jog
100m sprint, rest 40 seconds(ish), repeat 10 times

Coming up next: the Lara Croft workout no handstanding archaeology athlete should miss. 

Not that it simply strips things back to basics. Rather, Gears 4 is an insightful exercise in reappraising, optimising, and consolidating. As an entry point for new players, it’s a perfect introduction to why 🌳Gears of War is important – an essence bolstered by several bold, narrative and tonal changes, but more on those later – and for old hands it’s an i💯nstant flashback to the best of Gears, but executed with freshness and vitality.

Key to all of this is the return to a smaller, two-player co-op cap, a m♑aximum squad size of four, and a relentless focus on intimate, medium-to-close range combat. On the surface, anyway. That’s the body of Gears 4, but the soul comes in other, more subtle fine-tuning. The reconfigured friendly AI, for instance, its effe𓂃ctiveness (wisely) downgraded, now operates in a sweet-spot between efficiently keeping you alive with revives, and leaving the bulk of the actual combat responsibility to you and you alone. And “responsibility” is the key word.

Because with enemy health and damage output finely balanced on the tightrope between ‘Why won’t you die!?’ and absolute, ceaseless gratification each and every time they do, you’re going to have to work for every kill. You’re going to have to think about every kill – which one to make, how to most efficiently set it up, and how to reset to safety if it all goes wrong. You’re going to have to do all this as the air is thick with shifting tides of hor𝐆izontal bullet-rain, and you’re going to have to do it fast. You’re always going to have to do everything fast.

Because while Gears of War 4 is ostensibly about sliding from cover to cover and delivering hig🃏h-speed vivisections with high-powered weaponry, it’s actually about maths. Maths, timing, space, and constructing opportunity out of all three. Gears’ devs frequently talk about the game as a ‘horizontal platformer’, its cover spots providing safe havens by which to tactically navig▨ate the void of no-man’s-land. But in truth, it takes just as much from fighting games and, if we’re going to get really abstract, Tetris.

Each of Gears 4’s many combat arenas is a thoughtfully arranged sequence of possible paths, risky shortcuts, and hidden-in-plain-sight secrets and bypasses, their shape and flow to be deciphered and reinterpreted on the fly as chances arise and movements are forced by the always oppressive, deceptively clever opposition. Battle is always about calculating risk vs. reward, tallying how many seconds’ fire it will take to down that priority target, vs. how much exposure you can survive, vs. how the ever-changing circumstances may cause fr🤪esh problems or open up new, better opportunities for retaliation. At its best, Gears of War 4 is a free-flowing, spatial puzzle game, where every solution is rewarded with an explosive headshot. It might be a game of bloꦍody excesses, but it’s never a remotely mindless shooter.

But for all the intensity, Gears 4 feels a lot more open, and organically inviting, than previous games in the series. Its arenas – aside from a less successful sequence of deliberately tight environments in a middle section, which come across as slightly, unn♉ecessarily cheap – are wider, more flowing set-ups, that feel more welcoming and less punishing than before, but which never skimp on ferocity once the fight heats up. Rather than diluting the action, they divide it into layered series of localised challenges, each linked and resonating with its neighbours, but acting as a distinct conversation in its own right.

Around these layered escalations, Gears of War 4 builds ꦦupon its new identity with subtle but pervasive tonal shifts. A new, heavy enemy class, which appears around halfway through the game, can augment its allies with health buffs, forcing immediate changes in pace and adding a whole new accent to the dialogue. New, stand-out weapons furnish new keys for the🌃 combat’s various locks, the Buzzkill’s rebounding saw blades offering multiple back-door routes to embedded targets via giddy – and occasionally hilarious – semi-controlled trickshots, while the Dropshot, which levitates an explosive, vertical drill-bit across the battlefield, can immediately solve any singular problem, provided you can safely traverse to the right position and make the time to set up the shot.

And then there are the genuinely imaginative reinterpretations of classic Gears monster encounters, which I won’t spoil, but which provide some excellent high-points in the second half of the campaign. And the creative approac✅hes to dynamic cover, which deliver alternating safety and lethality on a moment-to-moment basis. And the new weather system, whose tearing cross-winds add brand new challenges to outdoor battles, just as highly mobile, roving lightning streams reveal what it’s probably like to be on the receiving end of a Hammer of Dawn strike. Gears of War 4 is constantly augmenting with new ideas, but it does so with wit and restraint, always building aroun🌟d the core Gears experience instead of distracting or detracting from it.

But speaking of tone, the new feel of the game’s narrative is equally important. Because things have changed a great deal, and all for the better, both in and out of the fiction. Set 25 years after the end of the Locust war, Gears 4’s world is markedly different from the Sera we knew at the end of Gears ♋of War 3, and its heroes are shaped entirely by that change. Having only known peace-time, and lived as Outsiders, miles from the draconian CoG settlements set up to e꧙ngineer humanity’s resurgence, they’re warm, carefree, youthful, and – shock – optimistic. Del, Kait, and JD ‘son of Marcus’ Fenix play out like genuine friends, their interactions full of familiarity, humour and care. They’re an easy bunch to immediately like, and so Gears 4 itself follows suit. And that’s only exacerbated by the arrival of a certain curmudgeonly dad. Marcus hasn’t changed, but in this new narrative ecosystem he’s now as much a force for comedy-by-juxtaposition as he is of grit or drama.

As such, Gears 4’s story mirrors its reinvigorated combat, being the product of dependable familiarity reshaped with zest and playful flair. In fact it’s at times laugh-out-loud funny. Where previously the – unintentional – comic high-point of the series was Marcus’ deadpan proclamation that “They’re sinking cities with a giant worm!” in Gears 2, this Gears of War is a game that seems to know exactly why the giant worm was so funny, a game happy to subtly acknowledg✨e and play with the series’ tropes and excesses, but crucially without ever lapsing into alienating parody or ironic nudge-winks.

So the campaign then – a few small irritations, and a slightly truncated finale aside – is a resounding success, packed w🅰ith good ideas but smartly underplayꦆed in its execution. And so it’s very pleasing that, although not quite as creatively exciting, multiplayer and the co-op survival Horde mode largely follow suit. The core gameplay hasn’t changed, but the modes that shape it bring some mighty engaging new spins.

In terms of PvP, the big new ‘serious’ mode is Escalation, a traditional Gears team deathmatch that allows the losing team of each round to place a power-weapon of 📖their choice on the map in one of several prescribed locations. This simple tweak opens up a raft of cunning tactical possibilities, as well as maintaining a knife-edge tension in its back-and-forth balance. Do you put the heavy weaponry near your own team’s spawn, knowing that mirrored drop locations might give the opposition the same advantage? Do you put it further out, creating an immediate choke-point with the hope of using the new gun as bait to draw out the other team? It’s a graಞtifyingly meaty mode, where the strategy only starts on the battlefield.

Less conceptual, but possibly more 🍸exciting, is Dodgeball, which puts downed team-mates into a respawn queue, each player only brought back into the fray when their living compatriots score another kill. It’s a glorious exercise in seesaw pressure, with camaraderie and clutch-saves aplenty as plucky last survivors turn the tide against often seemingly-impossible odds.

And on the silly end of the spectrum, there’s Arms Race, a variant of Call of Duty’s Gun Game, where everyone starts with a Boomshot grenade launcher, and all players have their weapon simultaneously downgraded to the next tier below upon every third kill scored. Without warning.🔯 Often while lining up a shot. Until both teams are running around with Boltok pistols, desperately trying to score headshots. It’s a ridiculous, goofy mode, whose randomness ensures a total lack of performace-anxiety. It’s hardly strategic, and isn’t likely to win over the hardcore eSports crowd, but as laugh-fuelled bout of stress relief it’s ideal.

As for Horde, the big new change is the Fabricator, a magic box capable of spawning all manner of upgradable, defensive objects, from barb-wire fences to automated gun turrets, as long as your team holds tওhe currency to fuel it. Freely placeable on the map at the start of the game, the Fabricator formalises Horde’s traditional base-defence game brilliantly, turning it into something even more satisfyingly tactical. You no longer simply have to think about choke-points and survival. Now there’s the meta-layer of reshaping the battlefield to your own advantage, building up tower-defence style death corridors over multiple waves.

And another layer on top of that, as you scramble to ꦏreconcile the very limited currency collection and rebuild time between rounds with the need to place and repair equipment before the next wave begins its onslaught. And another, as ‘soft’ character classes – from sniper, to front-line soldier, to engineer – offer upgradable passive buffs for different roles. Did I mention that the scout class gets double Fabricator currency for every pick-up from an enemy corpse? And that only the engineer starts with the all-impo🥃rtant repair tool? Yeah, that’s a killer.

Gears of War 4 is a focused, confident exercise in how to relaunch a franchise. As effective as a direct sequel as it is a soft-reboot, it’s a game crafted of thought, wisdom, and objective calculation blended with a real passion for finding the fun. It may err slightly on the safe side in its campaign, but it does so understandably, in order to strip the series back to what matters, an🐎d re-evolve it with a carefully considered outlook. A great game in its own right, the potential it implies as a launch pad for the next phase of Gears of War is just downright exciting.

That's the "First Wave" emblem, which shows an old COG soldier silhouetted a🐓gainst a new dawn, and a bonus Operations pack. The emblem is just for decorating your multiplayer profile, but the Operations pack will include one extra customizati෴on item and four more "cards" of any type (which include XP-granting bounties and bonus Horde mode equipment).

If you've started any Gears of War game while connected to Xbox Live, you're eligible for the rewards. The emblem will be unlocked automatically, while a code for the Operations Pack should arrive via Xbox Live Message💜 by the end of the week.

Gears of War 4 is a new beginning for the series, but it's still paying plenty of homage to what came before. Though I'm not sure it's totally appropriate to call a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:pre-order exclusive Zombie Dom skin "homage".

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Why couldn't Microsoft just put that last littl♐e bit on the disc, too? It wouldn't fit. Standard dual-layer Blu-ray discs can only store up 50GB of data.

If you buy the game digitally, you can preload the 54.6GB package right now and start playing almost instantly on October 11. And you'll get a free copy of Gears 4 for Windows 10 (which you can also pre-load now) since it's an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Play Anywhere game. Skipping the disc for big🀅 Xbox One titles is a pretty compelling proposition these days.

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The standard Xbox One S Gears of War 4 bundle will launch on October 11 worldwide for $349 /£299. It includes a white system with a 1TB hard drive, white controller, and a download code for Gears of War 4 - unless you buy it at GameStop, in which case it will have a physical copy. That's an extra-important distinction since Gears 4 is an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Play Anywhere game and you'll only get the free PC version if you have aꦿ digital c🥃opy.

The US and Australia-exclusive Xbox One S Gears of War 4 Special Edition Bundle will also be released on October 11 (Update: It's actually coming out on November 1, sorry for the mix-up) and retail for $299. At that price point you only get a 500GB hard drive, but the console and included controller are a lovely shade of teal (Microsoft calls it "deep🐼 blue", but I know my crayons, dammit, and that's teal). They'll only be available at GameStop and the Microsoft Store in the US and will include a physical copy in either case.

Picking up any Gears 4 Xbox One S bundle, including the bear-attack 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Limited Edition one, will also get you a free copy of the entire Gears of War collection on Xbox 360 (with Xbox One backwards compatibility) "for a limited time". So you won't get the improved graphics and multiplayer of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, but you can still enjoy the complete adventures of JD Fenix's dad at no extra cost. Also, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War: Judgment.

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But then things escalate, as is the point of Hord🌱e. And as the gratifying rollercoaster of🔴 just-made-it victories and last-ditch clutch saves keeps the squad in the game, things get progressively more anarchic, and play-styles more conservative to compensate. Lancers, grenades and nigh-endless huddling becoming the new order of the day. But what if there was a way to combine those two, distinct stages of Horde? What if strategy and purpose could, at least to some degree, stream through into the more oppressive, later stages of the game, when the skies rain with lead and simply breathing in too hard might see one choking on a bullet? 

That's what 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War 4’s Horde 3.0 aims to deal with. And it does so not by radically changing things - although its key addition is fundamentally n💮ew - but rather by formalising the way Horde works, building an explicit framework of area control, base-defence, and co-operative squad roles around which compelling new systems and mechanics can grow. But crucially, it does so without dictating any specific flow or outcome of play. Your Horde run - importantly - is꧙ still yours to manufacture as you will, and fittingly it all starts with a device called the Fabricator. 

Officially billed as a military-grade 3D printer - but in practice, ‘Magic box of stuff’ would also do - the Fabricator can be carried to anywhere on the battlefield and usꦍed to spawn defence items, weapon supplies, gun turrets, and more, entirely at will. As long as you have the currency to fuel it. 

That currency comes in the form of Power, which you’ll collect from the bodies of dead enemies. Presumably the Swarm all carry multipacks of batteries around with them. Maybe they’re rocking Sega Game Gears for the downtime between brutal, surface-side invasions. The snag is that you need to physically deliver it to the Fabricator, and can only manufacture new stuff at the Fabricator🦩. And then you have to manually plac♓e it on the battlefield by trekking around on foot. Here’s where the first - and possibly most fundamental - layer of strategy comes in. 

You’re going to have to start thinking about your perimeter immediꦓately. The Fabricator 𝔍is obviously going to be at the core of your base, but how big do you want that base to be? Too small, and if you get over-run you’re going to find things really cramped and decidedly fatal within a very small window of time. Go too big, and while you’ll have an easier time of keeping the enemy at bay, albeit with a much wider front to cover, you’ll have a nightmare of a time ferrying Power back and getting fortifications set up before the next wave starts. 

And as in all the best strategic games, this first layer immediately spirals out into many more, because your base philosophy will immediately inform your play style, and the class make-up of your squad. (by the way, there are classes now.) If you go big, then you might want a team with more sniper units than usual, in o♒rder to take some pressure off your closer-range soldiers and scouts. But that in itself that leaves you less well represented on the frontline. And if snipers are a key part of your game plan, you’ll need to keep them supplied. They can’t exactly go running out into the fray to pick up - ammo drops tend only to happen in the eye of the storm - so you’ll need to b💜uild a weapon locker. 

Weapon lockers? Oh yeah, that’s another layer. 

Weapon lockers are great. Once you manufacture one, it will hold four guns, meaning that you can save any collected power-weapons for later in the game, when the waves get serious. It will also replenish the ammo of any gun you put in it, making it a vital resource for keeping snipers going. But if you place it at the back for exactly that purpose, then your direct assault players will have a heck of a trek back to load up when things do get serious. 

As for those frontline guys, soldiers and scouts will be your key players. The former get damage and reload buffs, where the latter get bonus defence and double Power whenever they collect. Those scouts are your noble battlefield foragers, and will be key to keeping the Fabricator running. That’s great, but it also means every unit of Power collected by another unit is effectively wasted, its potential halved. And it might sound straightforward to have everyone else hold off so that the scouts can hoover up at the end of a wave, but as things go on, that time limit is going to be an ever more pressing factor. How do you reconcile the need to maximise Power with the need to just get some Power int💟o the Fabricator and get things built and repaired before the onsl💞aught begins again? 

Similarly with building in the first place. Do you let your engineers - who get discounts and a free repair tool - construct everything, or just go with whoever can do it fastest? In Horde 3.0,ꩵ you’re always waging two battles at the same time, the obvious one against the ever-growing enemy, and the ♉strategic meta-battle of how to best conduct the fight in order to keep your resources functioning amid escalating pressure and increasingly stretched facilities. 

But far from tearing the team apart with stress and recrimination, Horde 3.0’s set-up, in practice, only seems to bond players in the most glorious, giddy, panic-stricken camaraderie. Having distinct roles is an immediate psychological game-changer, instantly hammering out any temptation to lone-wolf it with an ambient but over-riding sense of ‘this is for the team’. The feeling of being an important part (a cog?) of a machine has never been greater. 🌠And every part really does feel important. There’s no longer any guilt for not having the topဣ kill-count, or any sense that anyone might be the best player, whatever the scoreboard says in numbers. 

As a sniper, I might not overfill the cemetery, but if I know that the kills I did get stopped those five heavy Boomshot units from getting out of the spawn area, then I nailed it. As a scout, I might have let our soldier and heavy take down the majority of Swarm, but I’m the reason t𝄹hose kills really counted, thank to my maximising their Power drops. As an engineer, I might not get any kills at all, but by maintaining our Rube-Goldberg run of tra𝕴ps, barbed wire, turrets and ammo dispensers, I know that the win is absolutely mine. 

And don’t discount the importance - and fun - of getting creative with that item placement. As with everything in Horde 3.0, its execution will depend on how well you manage your resources - both currency and time - but pitch your building schedule right (it’s a desperate knife-e💎dge between saving up during the earlier, more relaxed rounds, and building quick before things get unmanageable), and you can have the arena do half the work for you. 

Barbed wire on high-traffic paths and through choke-points will soften up the enemy early (though distant placement will make maintenance tricky), and possibly funnel the opposition along preferred routes. Manual turrets and more expensive, automated sentry guns can meet the incoming threat along the way, or set up cross-fires at busy in𒈔tersections. Tesla turrets will do fast, directed electrical damage, but until you upgrade them (provided you can afford to), they’ll be specific in their targets, meaning careful placement and a degree of luck will be vital. 

Get it right though, and your construction efforts will feed directly into the fun, beyond the logistics of damage dealing. During one run, my team’s steadfast turret did suc꧒h a good job that it became an unofficial, sixth member of the squad, each of its five human compatriots verbally praising and congratulating it at the end of every round, all the way upဣ to wave 30. We bonded around that turret, and keeping it repaired rapidly became as strategically and emotionally important as reviving any fleshy teammate. 

So Horde 3.0 is great fun. It will still get crazy as things progress, and the infectious sense of barely controlled anarchy remains as potent as ever. But this time you’ll have a greater sense of ownership. A greater bond as a team. Whenever and however things get ludicrous, you’ll know that you’re at least partially responsible, the wins your achievement and the losses your fault. Both eventualities are equally energising, but more excitingly, the new tools of customisation and dynamic strategy in play ensure that whatever happens, your team can immediately respond and adapt. And you never know, you might just make best friends with a turret along the way. I can’t tell you how good it is to have a turret b🍨estie. 

It's no "," but Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" repurposed into a rock ballad with female vocals and what sounds like a country-style guitar is a-okay by me. Oh, and judging by our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:hands-on Gears of War 4 preview, the game looks pretty good too.

As a reminder: The 💎Gears of War 4 release date is October 11. Not today.

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Maintaining that parallel, protagonist JD Fenix - along with his friends Kait and Del - is no grizzled, put-upon war-bastard. He's been trained by the CoG, but he's only ever lived through peace-time, and hasn't experienced an iota of the conflict that shaped his father, Marcus. And with a fresh set of eyes in-game, it's abundantly easy to see Gears of War for the first time, all over again. Without the trappings and tropes the first trilogy accrued - both narratively and systemically - it's impossible to miss the basic class and cleverness that made Gears so important in the first place.

Two-player co-op. Smaller, but vastly more demanding battles. A tiny squad trying to survive the night during a catastrophe they don't quite understand. It's Gears 1 alright, except that it's not quite. Because while this Gears of War is self-aware enough to understand the need to get back to the series’ gameplay roots, it's also aware that the journey needs to feel different.

Playing through several hours of Gears 4’s campaign, the result feels like both a perfect reinvigoration for series stalwarts, and an excellent jumping-in point for those who missed out the first time around. ‘Early’ fights - my hands-on starts mid-way into Act Two, and continues a while into the next - are classic Gears 1 and 2, aggressive battles of attritional one-upmanship with an uncanny habit of escalating to a just-manageable degree as soon I'm starting to feel too comfortable.

The pacing of such encounters is excellent. Mopped up the stragglers from a close-range skirmish in a small mansion antechamber? Now a helicopter gunship is hurling hot leaden death and rockets through a large hole in the wall. Mastered the rhythm of duck, move and retaliate needed to stay on top of that one? Oh look, a squad of robotic ground-troops are now gathering at the end of the corridor ahead. They're a way off yet, but their resilient, heavy units are steadfastly on the march, and will be here in no time if you don't get to work. Look busy. Focus. Dig in and start fighting for every advantage you can make.

Those robots are the Deebees, Gears of War 4’s new CoG faction. Created as a means of delivering a morally-clean, humanoid enemy to fight before the reveal of the game's not-quite-Locust subterranean monsters, they're anything but filler, delivering all the important tenets of Gears combat in a refreshingly remixed fashion.

Standard soldiers will mill around, reshaping available space as you appraise strategic options. The big guys will put on the pressure, pacing steadily forward while soaking up huge amounts of damage, before triggering an internal time-bomb and charging ahead when close♍ to death. Rolling explosive units fulfill the role of Locust Wretches, flooding the ground as they rattle toward you, but vulnerable to a swift, lofting boot if you can hit B in time after letting them get close. They're a risk-and-reward meta-game all on their own.

And then, in outdoor confrontations, you'll often run into the Guardians, front-shielded, flying turrets whose unpredictable, floating attacks will force you to think about cover in vertical terms as well as the horizontal, and perpetually raise the risky question of whether it's best to grind them down slowly or make a (potentially) kamikaze run deeper into the field to flank for a faster kill.

All of Gears’ fundamentals are present and correct, but they feel fresh and new all the same. And this invigorating update doesn't stop at the combat. Throughout the mansion sequence - and a little while beyond - JD and crew are accompanied by Marcus, now a co-operative NPC, and a brilliantly grouchy one at that. Time hasn't softened the once-leader of Delta Squad, but he too feels different. He's written entirely authentically, but his context changes him.

Without the similarly doom-laden attitudes of Dom and Baird to reflect his war-weary misanthropy, he now feels like the odd man out. The passage of time and the changes on Sera become undeniably clear through his presence. JD’s status as legitimate Gears protagonist is cemented by the new, more youthful look we get at an old hero. Also, juxtaposed with the lighter, altogether better-humoured new team, Marcus is now really, really funny. It's far more than a cheap nostalgia cameo.

As we move out through the mansion grounds and fight through wave upon wave of Deebees in ever larger, but increasingly more intricate surroundings, another evolution begins to present itself. Rather than changing Gears of War through new excesses and anarchic new weapons - there are fun new Deebee guns to be had, such as the medium-range EMBAR railgun, but nothing that fundamentally changes the series’ core values, as was the case with, say, Gears 3’s cover-invalidating Digger Launcher - Gears 4 gradually but confidently transforms the rediscovered base game through subtler, more organic means.

Level design, particularly through combat areas, begins to feel far more plausible and real-world, the elaborate, carefully considered placement of Gears’ waist-high-wall cover now running through and influenced by softer and more flowing environments. Fighting upward through a broadening rural field, multiple approaches, both direct and flanking, are available - and indeed demanded by the multifaceted assault of a full-strength Deebee attack force. But fundamentally, each moment of combat feels claustrophobic, close-range, and immediate. There's no getting lost in place or purpose here. Every move I make remains deliberate and important.

A little later, I reach the first of Gears’ trademark branching path sections, where I'm forced to break up the team into two units. I opt for a straight slog through the middle, and send Kait and Del far left along a narrower raised path alongside a riverbed. A storm now kicking up, I eventually hear a call for help from the other two. They've reached a barricade and can't pass. I can't destroy it by shooting it from afar any better than they can up-close. I can, however, fire a few shots to dislodge some currently secured junk that my position allows me to see further along their path.

I do so, and the wind sends it hurtling their way, crushing eve༺rything in their path, obstruction and enemy alike. The relatively simple system underpinning this set-piece refocuses deliciously a little while later, when I get hold of the saw-blade throwing Buzzkill. With the wind raging across the skirmish area, the gun's relatively lightweight ammunition is caught in the fray, the blades’ excessive power tempered by their liability to be thrown ๊off-course. But at the same time, careful calculation of those curving trajectories opens up a new world of climate-assisted trick-shots, with the ability to tear previously unreachable targets clean in half.

This is what's so great about Gears of War 4. By going right back to basics, by reveling in the fundamentals of what made the series so vital in the first place, it is free to expand and grow at a steady pace in exciting new directions of its own, without the pressure of “Bigger, better, and more badass”. It's more dynamic, and more freeform, but it's still entirely Gears of War at its core, evolving from that rebooted starting point in a more logical and coherent fashion that allows it to be intricate and interesting rather than flashy or flamboyant.

That ethos is crystallised an hour or so later, when I reach the end of the castle section first seen in Gears 4’s gloomy, survival-horror tinged E3 reveal in 2015. Finally able to tackle the Pouncer, the leaping, marauding, dog-meets-xenomorph-meets-scorpion beast that appeared at the end of that demo, I discover a monster that initially feels alien and out-of-place.

It can run, leap, and bound around the arena, with little respect for cover configuration. It can perch itself on high-ground, to launch three poisonous spikes from its tail at terrifying velocity. It seems a far cry from Gears’ traditional, tense but methodical game-flow. But after prolonged exposure, it too makes total sense as a new expression of ‘pure’ Gears of War.

Its ranged attack is a devastating one-shot, more than debilitating enough to command fearful respect and disciplined use of cover. Its mobility and potent heft give it an evasion-forcing rushdown power to rival anything in the series’ history to date. Its bullet-sponge armour plating and more vulnerable, rarely-seen underbelly create a rigourous system of timing and opportunity all on their own. Gears’ three key pillars of combat are all present in one single enemy, capable of delivering the complete essence of the series’ battlefield experience alone.

And just wait until you're fighting three of them at the same time.

And so Gears of War 4 continues until I'm begrudgingly forced to stop, not long after conquering a grueling battle uphill to take control of - and eventually defend - a now-fortified CoG war museum. But it's a fitting climactic set-piece. The fight takes place on open ground, but demands detailed, chess-like destruction at every range. Then, rather wonderfully, once I've made it inside, I find the new squad confronted by the CoG’s old wars, not directly but by way of numerous dioramas and exhibits, presented with a propaganda skew that those who were present would probably balk at. Again, the sense of distance and fresh perspectives is affecting.

And then the assault, as dozens of Swarm - the new not-Locust, though the closeness of their lineage is currently unknown - follow in my footsteps. Seeing the siege from the other side is fairly terrifying, though a gun turret helps. For a while. But for all of the spectacle, as rampaging hordes charge up rolling hills from distant buildings, when the shit hits, it hits as it should, by way of tight corners, a tough, relentless fight through never-quite-enough-space, and a procession of bloody wins earned through grit, strategy, wit, and intimate, thoughtful focus.

Yes, the Swarm might currently be indistinguishable from the Locust in terms of function, but that's really the point. Because sometimes you do get it right first time. And when you do, sometimes too much evolution removes something. Sometimes you need to go back to go forward, picking up what you lost along the way and building your world around it more carefully the second time through. Right now Gears of War 4 seems to be doing that with great care and insight. I've never been more excited to see more of🐓 the same.