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Microsoft's Xbox exclusives will come to Game Pass on launch day
To date, the Xbox Game Pass has been a tricky value proposition. While there have been a few recent hits, it frequently comes across as a clearinghouse for games whose best days are over. You'll have a better reason to subscribe going forward, though: Microsoft has promised to add all of its in-house Xbox One exclusives to Game Pass the moment they're available. Sea of Thieves will be one of the first when it launches on March 20th, and this should also include the long-delayed Crackdown 3 as well as future games in franchises like Halo and Gears of War. So long as you're paying that monthly fee, that blockbuster title won't cost you extra or require a months-long wait.
Microsoft taps 'Minecraft' leader to run its game studios
Now that Phil Spencer is managing Microsoft's broader game platform strategy, who's going to fill his shoes? Now we know: Microsoft has appointed Matt Booty, the overseer of the company's Minecraft teams, as the corporate VP of Microsoft Studios. He'll watch over all of Microsoft's own game publishing efforts, including Halo's 343 Industries, Gears of War's The Coalition and Forza's Turn 10. This isn't just about handing over the keys, though -- as Spencer explained to VentureBeat, it's also about improving the company's first-party game business.
'Gears of War 4' makes cross-platform multiplayer official
Last December Microsoft tried out something it hadn't done in quite awhile: adversarial cross-platform multiplayer. For a single weekend, there was a test between folks playing against each other in Gears of War 4 on PC and Xbox One. Now, that's moving from a beta to an official release. Before you reach for the pitchforks, though, this is only for the brawny shooter's (unranked) Social Quickplay mode. From a post on the Windows 10 blog:
'Gears of War 4' will punish rage quitters
Rage quitting isn't just a problem in fighting games. There's a good chance you've played shooters where teammates drop the very second it looks like they'll lose, dooming your team to defeat. And The Coalition wants to do something about it in Gears of War 4. The developer is rolling out Title Update 3 in January, and it'll introduce the first phase of efforts to punish those who bail prematurely. If a player quits a Core or Competitive round, they'll face a temporary matchmaking ban to "discourage drop out behavior" -- and the more they do it, that longer that ban persists. Moreover, Squads with a suspended player won't be allowed to do matchmaking until the offending player's penalty is over.
'Gears of War 4' marks the holidays with snowball fights
Destiny and Overwatch don't have a lock on over-the-top holiday gaming modes. Gears of War 4 just got a 99-cent Gearsmas Pack that adds some cheer to a mostly grim and dark game. The centerpiece is a special multiplayer event, Snowball Fight, where you have to fling snowballs at rivals using a custom Snowshot weapon. Akin to a real fight, you can't just reload -- you have to scoop up more snow ammo once you've run out of what little you have. There are also three ugly sweater-clad characters (JD, Kait and a Swarm Drone) and 24 holiday-themed weapon skins. Gearsmas lasts until January 4th, so you'll want to act soon if you're going to show off.
Microsoft Research helped 'Gears of War 4' sound so good
Popping in and out of cover has been a hallmark of the Gears of War franchise since the first game came out in 2006. It hasn't changed much because it didn't need to. What's always been an issue though is how thin the game sounds -- a shortcoming of the underlying tech, Unreal Engine, powering it. But Microsoft owns the series now and has far more money to throw at it than former owners/Unreal Engine creators Epic Games did. With help from Microsoft Research, Redmond's Gears of War factory The Coalition found a high tech way to fix that problem. It's called Triton. Two years ago Microsoft Research's Nikunj Raghuvanshi and John Snyder presented a paper (PDF) titled "Parametric Wave Field Coding for Precomputed Sound Propagation." The long and short of the research is that it detailed how to create realistic reverb effects based on objects in a video game's map, to hear it in action pop on a pair of headphones and watch the video below.
'Gears of War' is headed to the silver screen
Today Microsoft has announced that it's partnering with Universal Pictures to bring Gears of War's hulking soldiers and massive monsters to the big screen. There's no word on casting yet, but there is some information about who will be on the other side of the camera. Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark (Ted and the recent Planet of the Apes movies) will produce, and... well, that's about all that's known.
20-minute 'Gears 4' prologue playthrough looks very familiar
Even the most dedicated Gears of War fan might need a refresher course ahead of the franchise's fourth numbered sequel. And that's precisely what the new video from the developers at The Coalition is all about. What's more, it's direct feed footage of the first section of the game, aptly titled "Prologue." So, you can see exactly what sorts of trouble you'll be getting into in a few weeks.
'Gears of War 4' Horde 3.0 trailer has a Run the Jewels twist (updated)
Gears of War 4 features Horde 3.0, an updated version of the series' classic five-player co-op mode, and today fans got the first taste of its gameplay with a bonus helping of hip hop courtesy of Run the Jewels. First, the gameplay: Horde 3.0 pits five players against swarms of enemies and has new features such as character classes and defensive structures. The new mode offers five character variations (Soldier, Sniper, Scout, Heavy and Engineer) and new enemies like the Swarm and DeeBees. The "Fabricator" is a mobile base that players can deploy anywhere on the map.
'Gears of War 4' writers are striving for a deeper story
Gears of War has never been known for its deep, imaginative storytelling. Each game is a popcorn-friendly thrill ride, pitting muscular soldiers against an army of bloodthirsty monsters. It's a simple concept: Grab an assault rifle, dive behind some cover and empty your clip until it's safe to move forward. Rinse and repeat. Gears of War 4, the first entry by a new developer called the Coalition, is trying to break that tradition. It's still a brutal shoot-'em-up, but the characters and plot are more complex this time around. More nuanced. So much so, in fact, that for people who have cooled on the franchise, it might be enough to reel them back in.
'Gears of War 4' will require a monster machine to play in 4K
You might have been delighted to hear that Gears of War 4 will take full advantage of your PC, but you might not be quite so thrilled when you realize what it takes to run the game in its full 4K glory. On top of a 4K gameplay demo (below), Microsoft has outlined the Windows version's system requirements... and they're not exactly modest. While you can get by on mid-range 2014 hardware as a baseline, the "ideal" experience (effectively, 4K) demands both a high-end AMD FX or Intel Core i7 processor as well as one of the highest-end graphics cards in recent memory, such as a GeForce GTX 1080 or a Radeon R9 Fury X. You'd better have splurged on your system in recent months, in other words.
'Gears of War 4' will have plenty of PC-specific features
The history of Microsoft-backed Xbox One games coming to the PC isn't exactly stellar. When Remedy's Quantum Break reached Windows, it was saddled with limitations that were partly dictated by the Universal Windows Platform's own limits, such as frame rate issues and an overall lack of features. You shouldn't run into those problems when Gears of War 4 rolls around, though. As part of a Eurogamer interview, The Coalition has revealed that the cover-based shooter will have ample PC-specific features. You'll get much deeper video settings that include dynamic resolutions, so your ultra-wide display won't go to waste. It'll also take advantage of many-core PC processors, higher-resolution textures and UWP's recently unlocked frame rates, offering a distinct visual advantage to playing on a brawny computer.
Behold the 'Gears of War 4' custom Xbox One S
The Xbox One S isn't even out yet but that hasn't stopped Microsoft from taking the smaller console to the custom shop for the first time. If the base model's white exterior doesn't match your decor, maybe a Gears of War 4 blood red one will. It's ugly as sin (now we know what the "S" actually denotes), packs 2TB of internal storage and has laser-etched "claw marks" left by Gears of War 4's new enemies, the Swarm. Of course, HDR video is here as well, and GoW4 is the first game to take advantage of it.
'Gears of War 4' multiplayer brings the series back to its roots
Excluding Halo, Gears of War is Microsoft's biggest multiplayer shooter: For many players, multiplayer is far more important than the main story-based campaign. That's what made Gears of War: Judgement a disappointment for many long-time players. The multiplayer experience was changed enough that avid GoW fans were left a bit cold. As such, developer The Coalition looked at Gears of War 4's multiplayer as an opportunity to make the best GoW experience it could while sticking to the formula that previously had made it so popular.
The first 'Gears of War 4' trailer is sad (and sounds like it)
We saw Gears of War 4 gameplay footage back at E3 2015, but (in time to hype the game before this year's game show), here's a short trailer that's a bit of a downer. Setting the scene for the son of the main protagonist from all the previous games, 25 years have passed since the last fight, and yet there's still things to gun down with giant machine guns. (And they deserve it for knocking down that tree.) As is the GoW series' wont, we get a cover song to underscore the destructions: Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence, which will probably sound familiar to most of you.
'Gears of War 4' multiplayer beta starts April 18th
If you've been wondering whether or not Gears of War 4 can live up to the reputation set by (most) of its ancestors, you won't have to wait long to get a good sense of where it's going. Microsoft and The Coalition have revealed that the Gears 4 multiplayer beta for Xbox One starts on April 18th, when existing Gears of War: Ultimate Edition players will get their first shot. An open beta for any Xbox Live Gold member will start a week later, on April 25th, and the whole shebang will wind down on May 1st. Two weeks (at best) isn't a long time to try the game, and there's no single player in the beta, but this test run should let you know whether Gears 4's late-year launch will fill you with hope or dread.
'Gears of War 4' stars 'Dragon Ball Z,' 'Spartacus' actors
Gears of War 4 is set 25 years after the events of Gears of War 3, and its story stars JD Fenix, the son of long-time series protagonist Marcus Fenix, Game Informer reports. He's joined by Kait Diaz, a survivalist who grew up outside of JD's walled-off world, and Delmont "Del" Walker, one of JD's best friends from boarding school and the army. After a mysterious military incident, Del and JD find themselves in the wild -- in Kait's territory, in fact -- and that's where the game kicks off. But, it's not going to go very far without a handful of talented voice actors.
Playdate: Taking stock of 'Gears of War: Ultimate Edition'
Gears of War practically defined the Xbox 360. And as is the recent trend, it's getting a fancy schmancy remaster that runs at 1080p and 60 frames per second. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is the first project from the new Gears studio, The Coalition, and it worked as a sort of training exercise for the team to learn what the series means before shipping Gears of War 4. So what's that mean for you and me? Well, that today starting at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT we're going to broadcast two hours of Ultimate Edition on Twitch. Perhaps best of all, we've got a special surprise for you: Microsoft has given us a custom white Xbox One adorned with Gears of War graphics. Want in? All you have to do is enter below during the broadcast. Giveaway winner: congratulations to Jesse L. of Toronto ONT.
Buying 'Gears of War: Ultimate Edition' gets you past games, too
It's all well and good that Gears of War: Ultimate Edition lets you relive the original game in the series, but what about the other three titles? Don't worry -- you'll get those too. Microsoft and The Coalition have revealed that anyone who buys Ultimate Edition between its August 25th launch and the end of the year will also get access to all of the Xbox 360 Gears games through backward compatibility. They won't look nearly as polished as the remaster, of course, but you also won't have to dig out your old copies (or buy any games you don't have) just to follow humanity's fight against the Locust from start to finish. While it'd be nicer if this offer lasted so long as Ultimate Edition was available, this is still a big deal in an era when some studios are only interested in letting you replay one game from a much larger franchise.
'Gears of War: Ultimate Edition' and 'Killer Instinct' will come to PC
Microsoft hasn't offered a whole lot of affection to PC gamers in recent years, but it's making some reparations for that today: the company's Phil Spencer has revealed at the PC Gaming Show that both Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and the 2013 version of Killer Instinct will come to Windows 10. He didn't have much to say about when these ports will show up, or whether or not they'll have any new tricks up their sleeves. However, Iron Galaxy Studios' Dave Lang has confirmed Spencer's hint that KI will have Fable Legends-style cross-platform play that lets you brawl with your Xbox One-toting friends.
