Gears of War

Format PC

Developer Unknown

Publisher Unknown

Genre Action

15 Comments

I'm probably not alone in thinking that the Brumak was what Gears of War on Xbox 360 was all about... right up until I realised it wasn't in there.

Alas, it showed its face in a cutscene and vanished, leaving boss duties to the less-than-impressive General Raam. Gears was a great game, just not the game its trailers led us to expect.

The image accompanying this preview, then, wherein Marcus Fenix's granite face (see below) looks about as tough as a packet of peanuts, doesn't do it for me because it makes Gears look great. It does it for me because it makes Gears look complete.

At its heart a straightforward blood-and-thunder shooter, Gears is designed to be played co-operatively, with you and a chum taking control of Fenix and his buddy (though in solo mode the AI fills in).

As ultra-macho military marines, you must take on the Locusts - giant, gun-toting, subterranean humanoids who pop up unannounced and try to pop a cap in your muscly ass.

This new level, then, dubbed Jurassic Proportions, is just a highlight of the PC version's five new chapters, designed to give the singleplayer game the scale it's always deserved. Xbox 360 owners really aren't going to like this, what with the further addition of an unspecified new multiplayer mode and three new multiplayer maps as well.

Little that's been announced makes this new version sound like anything other than a PC exclusive, at least for the time being. Consider the new ingredients. You have a boss battle previously developed for the Xbox 360 version (which blew away those lucky enough to see an early version at Epic years ago) but then dropped. You have an editing suite that opens both assets and engine up to a loyal modding community.

And you have an overall effort to make Gears of War not just a swanky port, but a game at home on PC, even though its ideal setup conforms more to the big-screen-and-sofa model than the traditional desktop.

Come on; don't pretend that your eyes aren't already focusing, despite yourself, on the Brumak's armour, picking out every optimised texture, potential seam and jagged edge. With all of the 360 game's motion blur and depth-of-field effects joining a higher particle count, Gears is more than the complete article on PC.

But that doesn't make it immune to the microscopic scrutiny of being played at close range on a monitor. Like Lost Planet, it's a game built primarily for sofas, joypads and HDTVs, and so it will doubtlessly remain. While monstrously high PC resolutions and mouse/keyboard controls are selling points, in a sense they feel as much like compensation.

Access to Gears' online features, which thankfully include the riotous co-op of the 360 version, are said to require a Windows Live Silver account. No big deal - it's free, after all - but yet more ammunition for those fearing a Microsoft coup over PC gaming's infrastructure.

The upshot, at least, is that there'll be Live Achievements to unlock, which will hopefully bring the same benefits as they have on 360, encouraging players to explore and master a game that certainly has the required replay value.

Gears of War was a stunning announcement of Epic's talent as console game developers, full of insight, spectacle and, most importantly, flying guts. Now, with the added extras reminding us of Epic's devotion to the PC, it can only get better.

Duncan Harris