Gears or War 4 

Gears of War 4 came out on October 11, 2016 and lots of people were hyped up for this game and a lot of those people were also worried that it wouldn't be up to the quality of the previous entries in the series. Gears of War 1 is a classic, and I bought the game 3 times. First on its initial release for the xbox 360, then I bought the windows port and lastly I bought the PC version of the Ultimate Edition.

I loved the game each time and really loved the multiplayer. I didn't like Gears 2 as much. I don't know what it was but I think that for the most part the levels were bland and boring. I didn't even play much of the MP is part 2. Gears 3 though, I really liked. Lots of it was outside with some great looking graphics. They brought in a bunch of new characters and integrated them really well into the story and gameplay. There were enough new features to make the multiplayer fresh, but kept it similar at its core.

Lots of Gears of War fans really dislike Judgment though. I personally really like it and still play it online. I thought the campaign was really fun and the multiplayer felt like it could have been a new mode in gears 3 but stood on its own really well.

Now for Gears of War 4 (PC)

There aren't many video games that I get excited over anymore, being 35 I have played many, many games. I have always been excited for this series though. When Gears 3 came out I was at work counting the minutes until I could go home, pick up my copy and go play. Same for this one. The second midnight struck I loaded up the game and went straight into multiplayer.

I felt right at home with this game. It controls just like the previous games but the weapons after some play felt more balanced than previous games. I felt like given the right amount of distance, the lancers were very good against opponents using the gnasher, as opposed to other games where the gnasher would pop heads from far away. All the old weapons are back , including the snub pistol, the boltok, the Hammerburst, the Retro Lancer and the Longshot. There are a bunch of new weapons now as well. The Embar is a new sniper rifle, there is an Overkill which is a crazy powerful shotgun, I think its called the Enforcer, which is like an Uzi, and there are even more weapons to use. Though in Multiplayer the go to weapon is still the gnasher.

All the game modes are in there like Warzone, King of the Hill, Team Death Match, and Guardian, along with new modes Dodgeball and Arms Race.

There is customization where you can choose which characters to use in multiplayer and what gun skins to use as well. I find the character choices really lacking compared to the previous games. For the main characters JD, Del and Kait you have their outsider version, their armored version and then you have these weird color blast version where they look like they got nailed by tons of paintballs of different colours , and then they each have a day of the dead skin. Also each main character also has a zombie version...

There are skins for Anya. There is a version of her from E-Day, and one called Tomorrow Anya which is her in the outsider looking clothes. There is a male and female V-Day Gear, a male and female E-Day gear, old Baird , old Cole, E-Day Minh and even a zombie Dom.

There are a couple others as well from the story but the campaign has young Dom, and it even has Bernie in it as well as a bunch of other characters which would have made great skins for multiplayer. If they don't add them in via DLC then that will be a big missed opportunity.

In my opinion a huge miss step was the decision to have you unlock skins by buying Operations and Elite packs. You can buy them with credits you earn in game from multiplayer matches, or you can buy them for (Canadian) $2.50 for the Operations pack, $6.50 for Elite packs and horde and versus boosters are $1.29

The coalition made the amount of credits you earn very low. It costs 3,500 credits to get an elite pack but you get about 75 credits per match. It can take a lot of time.  And when you get a pack there is no guarantee what is in it. Its random. You can even get doubles. Leveling up doesn't unlock anything, so it doesn't feel like there is much point in the leveling system. I'm not even sure that  you get anything when you re-up.

Multiplayer is still really fun though but I just cant get on board with this type of thing in video games. I know companies want to make as much money as possible , but this is the sleaziest way to do it and ruins a great gaming experience.

The campaign was something I was afraid to start. I didn't want to play it and be disappointed in it so I put it off for a while. I beat it the other night though and was really impressed with it luckily.

Let me say though, that the new characters don't have the personality and charisma that the main characters from the previous games had. For the most part I even forgot that Del was even there. I wouldn't call the interactions between characters through the campaign banter because rarely was it witty or fun, it was just talk. "This looks bad."

"yeah, very. Lets keep moving"

Though near the end there was a funny joke about kings and wizards, but I cant think of any other time I enjoyed the dialogue between the three main characters.

The graphics looked great. The weather effects were awesome and I really liked the design of the levels and the pacing of the battles. I was hooked and pretty much played through the campaign in two sittings. I loved it. I was disappointed in the story though. I know they are trying to set up future games, but all the story consisted of was pushing forward to find people.

First, Kait's mom gets taken, so we need to find her. So you go for Marcus for help. He gets taken and you spend a bunch of time trying to get him back. You do, then back to tracking down Kait's mom. Then you call in some help. Baird and Cole show up , you find Kait's mom , game over.

You do learn some stuff , like the locust are back and using people to create more of them. You also learn something I thought was cool and wonder how it will play out later but I wont mention it here, you will have to play the campaign to find out, or watch my gameplay videos on Youtube of the campaign which shows what I'm talking about.

So, overall the game is really good. I haven't mentioned Horde mode but its similar to previous Horde modes. Its fun if you have people you know to play with.

You can get a lot of entertainment out of this game, it's just unfortunate that The Coalition decided to go the way they did with unlocking skins.

Suicide Squad impressions

OK so a bit  about Suicide Squad.

I'm going to say something that people would probably come to my house and murder me for. Jared Leto's Joker was better than Heath Ledgers.... OMG WTF? well he was.

He portrayed him more accurately than Heath's version. There was also a great scene showing the relationship between Joker and Harley and there were shots that were straight out of the comics that were superb. We also got to see how joker abused Harley mentally and physically which shaped her into what she became.

Joker didn't get all that much screen time, but to me that left me wanting more because every time he was on screen you couldn't help but be glued to his performance. It was spot on.
So how about the other characters?

one complaint I hear is that there were lots of characters with little to no development.
that's true and not true.

Killer Croc had the same kind of intro as the rest but not as in depth. He was just there to be some extra muscle in the group and for the most part was just in the background kicking butt.
Katana? I think her name was, wasn't really apart of the squad, she was part of the government goons there to keep them in line. we hear about how her sword absorbs souls and that the sword was used to kill her husband , and she talks to it on occasion. She did some fighting and such but again was just there.
The fire guy , I forget his name, started out to be just a in the background character but as the movie went on became awesome. we learned that he killed his wife and kids and there was a scene where Harley calls him out and tells him to own that shit because it happened.
He becomes totally badass by the end.
the enchantress wo is the main villain was really cool. the first time the girl transforms into her was so cool.

then in her enchantress form she moves so oddly that I couldn't stop looking at her. They did a great job with her. She ended up being a really cool character even though the plot and her plan were pretty weak.

Boomerang was some comedy relief
Slipknot was used by boomerang to test if they really had explosive devices in their neck and he falls for it and gets his head popped right away.

There were government soldiers with the group and the squad had to listen to one guy in particular who had a relationship with the woman possessed by enchantress and he was there to try to help her. but his character development was pretty good too and he was also just a pawn in the whole thing. It was cool to see that one of his soldiers just gave up his life at his command. Very interesting that DC has the balls to do stuff like this while marvel would have found a way to save everyone.
Now to the main two.

Deadshot. He had a great backstory involving his daughter. she knew he was a bad guy and killed people and that's why they cant live together. but Deadshot really wants to fix that. he shows regret for what he does and in a great scene batman confronts him while he's with is daughter. She convinces him to give up.

the great thing this film did was show that these characters do bad things. They know it, they own it but they still have morals and regrets and they care about people and sometimes they do the right thing.

Harley had tons of great moments. She was crazy, she was funny and she was tragic. near the end the enchantress shows them she can give them what they all want, and Harleys vision was really cool but totally impossible but deep in her crazy warped brain that was what she wanted. I wont give that detail away.

So what else?

The music throughout the movie was great.
The cinematography was well done with some great action shots.
the biggest badass in the movie was someone who wasn't super powered or in the squad but the person who created the squad.

this movie didn't shy away from killing , it didn't shy away from being a dark movie with fun elements and that's why I really like DC movies.
don't forget to stay for the after credits scene which was pretty cool/ Also just watch the credits since they were really fun and colourful.


was it perfect? no, is any movie perfect and without flaws? no
but was it entertaining ? definitely. the pacing was tight , the action was great , the characters were spot on and I have no complaints about it. If you nitpick you can find stuff, but that's if you go watch it looking for the flaws.

if you go in to enjoy a movie about DC characters then you will love this film.

Max Payne 3

I have never finished a Max Payne game even though I have owned them all for years. I think I got the first two in a steam dale package for about five dollars and I picked up Max Payne 3 on sale on steam for about 10. I have tried to play through the first game and for one reason or another I gave up and never went back to it.

Same goes for the third game. I started playing it and never finished and never went back to it until now. I did play quite a bit of the multiplayer though when it was still populated and it was pretty decent.

I never even started up Max Payne 2 , but some parts of the third game make me want to go and play the previous ones through to get the references.

I just had an unexplainable urge to play Max Payne 3 again, so I started it up and this time started the campaign on hard. I'm glad I did because this game is incredible. It has graphics that hold up against many of todays games, it has great voice acting by the entire cast and it also has great motion capture.

It does a lot of other things really well too. One thing I really love and don't get tired of are the deaths. When you kill someone ( and you kill thousands of people) they stumble and react in different ways. One guy I shot in a cemetery, grabbed his wound then stumbled sideways. There was a tombstone in front of him which he put his hands on to brace himself as he fell and it was incredibly realistic. There were many more times where I was in awe at how enemies reacted to being shot and killed. I cant think of another game that does it this well.

This game is very cinematic and the narration from the voice actor playing Max is great. He reminisces about his experience as you play through it giving insight into his thoughts at the time of the events , and you can come across clues in the missions that add more voice overs about the situation.

The camera moves around the characters and camera effects quickly flash around which puts you into Max's drug and alcohol induced state of mind. Really, the entire time you're playing as Max, he's drunk and on lots of pain killers so he is never fully focused and clear headed.

There are moments when you kill the last of a group of bad guys and the camera will pull in to a cool shot of Max firing his gun, then you will see the bullets in slow motion tearing through the last enemy and you can stop firing , or keep unloading while the camera moves to show the poor guy get ripped apart by your bullets. It's so fun to see and very satisfying.

The story is actually interesting and keeps you invested by making all the characters engaging. It starts off as a simple story about going after a girl who gets abducted on your watch. It slowly twists into something more with Max being a pawn in a bigger scheme.

The story goes back and forth between the present and the past which was pretty neat. You get to see old style Max with his classic trench coat and full head of hair, to him bald with a full beard wearing a bright shirt with palm trees and parrots on it.

The gameplay is top notch. The basic gunplay is really fun and there are lots of weapons to use. Handguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, shotguns and grenade launchers. Also, each level has 2 golden guns you can find. Each gun has 3 pieces you need to find and when you do you unlock the golden gun which I assume is more powerful but it doesn't really say. The gold guns also look cooler.

On top of the basic gunplay you have the bullet time. When you press the bullet time button, time slows and you can take out a bunch of enemies before they have a chance to do much. It helps when you are outnumbered and you need to get up from cover to take the group out. Without bullet time they would mow you down quick but with it you can aim and kill them before they do that .

Also, if you dive , time will slow down and you can fly through the air and pick off baddies in a really cool looking way before you hit the ground and time goes back to normal speed.

The music in the game is very intense and keeps with the mood of the situation at all times. I really enjoyed the music in the game and stopped a few times as I realized just how tense I was feeling about what was happening in the game.

Hard mode is definitely hard, and I had to replay certain sections over many many times because of how hard it can be when you are outnumbered, only have so much ammo and health and your survival relies on how good you are at headshots and if luck is on your side. I saw the death of Max too many times to count. It did get frustrating but beating those sections felt very rewarding.

Yes, this game is old, the game came out in 2012, but I personally don't feel the need to purchase every new game that comes out for 80 dollars. I am more selective on new games, but there are always steam sales and even just going through your backlog of game when you're bored and don't know what to play. That's pretty much what brought me to playing through Max  Payne 3.

I recommend this game. If you want a great shooter to play through and you have never played this one, then go try it out. Its always on sale on steam and its worth what you'll pay for it. It has great production value and I didn't run into any game breaking bugs and you will have a ton of fun with it.

Don't shell out big bucks for what's

out now. Do you need the new call of duty or assassins creed at 80 bucks a pop? I say wait for those games to come down in price or go on sale on steam and in the meantime go to your backlog and finish an old gem of a game that you might have overlooked.

Onechanbara Z2: Chaos

What does that mean? I have no idea, but the last part "chaos" really does fit the game. I did play another Onechanbara game for the Xbox 360 and that one was subtitles "bikini samurai squad" It was about female characters in bikinis killing zombies and it was pretty fun. I also came across a live action movie based on these characters but I never watched it.

This one is similar. You have the same 2 main characters Aya and Saki, but this time they are joined by another set of sisters Kagura and saaya. There might have been some kind of story to the game, but I didn't pick up much between the boob jokes and hints of lesbianism in the dialogue between characters.

The gameplay however had me hooked on the game and I played through the story on normal and I have beaten all the missions on normal so far and jumped into hard mode. The game plays similarly to Bayonetta, though the fight system isn't as in depth as that one, but it is good enough to keep you learning new moves and having a good time annihilating monsters throughout the levels of the game.

You can switch between all 4 characters on the fly which leads to some cool combos where you start a combo with one character then switch to the next to have her finish the combo. Also, you can call in the other girls to fight alongside you which is neat because of how much chaos happens on screen when you have all 4 girls battling it out against hordes of monsters. It's really cool and part of me thinks they missed an opportunity for co-op play here.

Each character can build up a meter and use that to unleash a special powerful attack that can deal a lot of damage to enemies in a large area , or that meter can be used to tag in the other girls for the all out carnage I talked about.

The two sisters Kagura and Saaya have an ability to change into powerful beasts as well which look really cool and deal a lot of damage. Aya and Saki get this ability near the end of the game, but you can carry that ability over to a new game and have it right from the start.

There are regular combos, there are COOL combos which involve you hitting the button for the next attack and the right moment, there are partner combos and so on.

You can also learn new combos for each girl by spending orbs, which are dropped when you kill enemies.

Along with new combos, you can spend orbs on new weapons and rings. Weapons are specific to each girl, but rings can be worn by anyone though only one girl can wear a particular ring so if she has it on no one else can have it. Each character can wear 3 rings at a time. Rings give you bonuses such as causing more orbs to drop meaning more currency to upgrade with, or another ring gives you more attack power and so on.

As you tear through enemies, your weapon gets blood and guts on it and there is a gauge on the screen showing how bloody your sword it. The more on it, the less damage you do so you have to hit the shoulder button to have your character clean it off so that your weapon does full damage again.

This serves two purposes. First, just a fight mechanic to keep your eye on and second, because there are quests. And one quest wants you to do a 500 hit combo 30 times. So if you do this while your sword is fully coated and doing little damage , then you can rack up the hits on surrounding enemies without killing them, letting you get those 500 hits in.

There are other "quests" such as defeating a large number of bosses, or beating level section without taking damage. These quests are what unlock art illustrations for you to view.

There are 16 chapters to play through and each level is neither too long or too short and they throw in boss battles at the right times to keep you on your toes. Finishing a boss is pretty neat since you have to use QTE movements with the directional pad. I know, I know, most of you hate QTE's but this time it adds to feeling like you're actually slicing the boss apart with your sword. I don't know if you can fail the QTE because I never did even with presing the wrong direction accidently once or twice.

The campaign was fun to play through and after normal , there is hard and then I think 3 more difficulties after that. I unlocked a new outfit that any of the characters can use. Speaking of outfits, as you play mission mode you unlock new items that you can put on your characters as you beat each mission.

Missions are pretty fun. The normal missions were mostly easy enough with some harder ones that took more time near the end. They consist of killing a set amount of enemies, or you can only hurt enemies using COOL Combos or only using secondary weapons. After each mission you unlock another wearable item and some of them are pretty cool.

There are 20 missions for normal and I'm guessing 20 for Hard as well, each unlocking new items.

You can dress your characters as skimpy or as covered as you want, that's up to you.

There is a good amount of replayability to this game and with all the unlockable content , which also features illustrations (game art) the price of this game was a steal. This game might not be for everyone because of the TNA or just the playstyle of the game, but if you're like myself who plays a wide range of games and doesn't get wierded out because of digital female bodies then you might have a lot of fun with the game.

This game was initially released on PS4 and was ported to PC not long ago. I bought the game instantly when I saw it was on steam for a couple reasons. First, the first game I played on the xbox 360 was really fun and second, I want more of these developers to bring their games to steam as well.

The price tag was about $30 dollars which also helped.

Being a PS4 port the graphics are pretty decent, but don't expect anything spectacular as the characters look like expressionless plastic dolls at times and background textures and enemy textures can look pretty dull and low resolution.

The animation though is pretty good. The girls move fluidly and not stiff or clunky which was nice, and the best part is that the game runs very smooth. I had it constantly at 60 FPS and I never ran into a hitch with this port.

Though, some people on steam had issues with crashes, but apparently there was a patch that resolved the issue.

So, to reiterate, this game is tons of fun and you should definitely give it a try if you like beat-em ups and hack and slash Bayonetta type games. I thoroughly enjoyed it and still have a few playthroughs to do before I'm done with it.

BattleFront

Battlefront

This game has been out for a while now and I bought it maybe a month ago now for 39.99. At that price point I was willing to give it a shot even though I heard that there isn't too much content in the base game and like most games today, you need to shell out another $60 bucks for a season pass to get more padding to feel like a complete game.

Well, at $40 bucks I didn't feel ripped off. The game is tons of fun if you're a Star Wars fan and or a fan of Dice shooters like the Battlefield series which I am a fan.

If you were still on the fence at $40 bucks, then maybe give it a shot now since it is $20 bucks on Origin. There are always full servers and people always use the chat and help out new players when you ask questions.

Personally I plan to get the season pass, but not before it drops to $20 dollars, which is what I did for Battlefield Hardline. I just cant justify spending all this money on a game then the same amount for a season pass. Some people defend this by saying that it costs a lot of money to develop this content, but you can definitely tell when a game feels lacking for the price tag and then content that seems like it was cut out gets added with the season pass.

The way you get to pilot those vehicles is by grabbing a pick up in the level. Then you can choose to activate it or not. Flying can be tough but rewarding when you get the hang of it.

Piloting the walkers is really fun as well and easier than flying. The other cool pick up in the game is the hero pick up. When you get one and activate it you can choose a hero to use. The empire has heroes like Darth Vader, Palpatine and Boba Fett, while the Rebels have Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Heroes have more health and have special abilities they can use to wreak havoc on the enemy team. Darth Vader for example can throw his light saber, force choke people or just slice his way through lots of troops in no time.

Star wars isn't known for having a ton of different weapons. In the movies you have the storm troopers all using the same blaster , and Han has his blaster and there isn't much in the way of handheld weapons. This game has a lot of different blasters to use and they have different uses. Some are great from far away , some are close combat blasters and they sound different but they can feel the same as they all fire out the same red laser blast. There are definitely some overpowered blasters in the game though most of which you need to buy in the season pass which can be frustrating when you keep getting killed by the same two players on the other team who have the season pass and these overpowered weapons.

The game is surprisingly team oriented. If you stick with your team you are far more likely to take out enemies and take over objectives. If you try to go solo you will die a lot. I usually play freelance and take off to wherever my team would need me more. I might help out people taking an objective, or try to flank the enemy who are trying to take an objective from my team.


No matter how you decide to play though you will have a fun time. This game is definitely not boring.

Bombshell

A friend posted an early video of Bombshell quite some time before the game came out and I didn't think much of it when I saw it. Mainly because it didn't show much except for the character. This is the trailer if you don't remember.

This game was developed by a small team who took over the 3D Realms title and apparently this was supposed to be a Duke Nukem game, but because of rights issues they couldn't use Duke. So instead, they made a new character, Bombshell.

So how did the game turn out? Well that depends on who plays it. This game isn't for everyone. There are people who will only play AAA titles and will only play games that get rave reviews from every major review site. I'm not one of those people. I feel that games like Call of Duty are terrible, but they get great reviews every time while being nothing more than rehashes of all the previous titles.

Bombshell on the other hand didn't have the budget or manpower that other games get. To me, that's not a bad thing though. The game has its share of bugs but other games that had huge budgets had more and worse bugs than this game had.

The game did crash to desktop a few times, once at the final boss and other times through the campaign. There were also graphical glitches including some enemies bodies stretching when killed , animations for executions not being animated properly and having a trail of Ky (currency) trail me for a while instead of disappearing when picked up.

The game also wouldn't load my campaign at one point until I went to settings and turned everything down to low. Then It loaded and I turned up the graphics again and the problem didn't happen again.

The other major glitch that was pretty frustrating was late in the game. I had to collect 4 crystals but the very first one wouldn't register as being picked up so I couldn't complete the level. It took a couple level restarts to get it to fix itself.

Aside from the crashes and crystal glitch, I had a good time playing through this game. I actually wanted to keep playing and that's not a feeling too many games give me.

Voice acting from the main characters ranged from good to OK. Bombshell's voice acting was well done, while the main enemy, Shelly's (Bombshell's) (spoiler warning) sister was ok and so was the colonel's)

The random soldiers you come across in the game though had some atrocious voice acting and I couldn't tell if it was done that badly on purpose or they just ran out of money to do a decent job. Once NPC almost made me fall asleep with his really tired sounding voice.

I enjoyed the graphics in the game. The enemies looked neat and there was a good variety of them and I like that as you progress through the game's levels you go up against more variety and different weapons are more effective against certain enemies.

The weapons were really cool as well. There are standard action game weapons such as a rocket launcher, shotgun, machine gun, and flamethrower, but there are also some less standard ones like a weapon that shoots out a wave that blows up mechanical enemies. Each gun also has a secondary function. The shotgun for example shoots out a charge that freezes mech enemies for a short time.

I enjoyed all the weapons in the game. Though the one I used the least was the Amiga, which is Bombshell's AI arm and when you use it , it separates from her body and becomes a spiderlike robot that can shoot at enemies and can get into places that Shelly can't.

The level design was interesting for the most part. Lots of it looks similar, but there were sections that looked impressive. I found myself wanting to explore as much as I could. It paid off because there is at least one weapon that you can miss if you don't find the parts to it.

You level up as you kill enemies and complete secondary and primary objectives. When you level up you get points that you can spend on upgrading your health, energy, and shield. You can also upgrade your dash, punch and bubble shield abilities. The higher your level , the more you can upgrade your weapons. You upgrade weapons by spending Ky which is the game's currency which you find around the levels or by killing enemies.

There is a good mix of action and puzzle solving/exploring. There are times when a ton of enemies will surround you and things can get very hectic. I have killed myself too many times trying to use my bombs on them and blowing myself up in the process and I have been killed just by being overwhelmed and had my health drop to zero from being attacked from all sides.

Some enemies can be executed. You will see them kneel and above them there will be a prompt to do an execution. These are pretty cool but after you've seen them all you might want to avoid doing them but you do get extra XP when you do an execution. Some of the execution animations are bugged. In one, shelly takes a bomb and shoves it into the enemies mouth. Though the bomb doesn't move with her hand , so it floats in the air while the rest of the animation playes out. There was also a bugged animation where she takes the enemies shotgun and used it on the enemy.

There are a few boss fights, but I found them to be pretty easy. They were still fun, but the only reason I died in the first one was because I fell in a hole. I also would have beaten the final boss the first time had the game not crashed. I will see though if the boss fights are more challenging on the harder game mode.

The game pokes fun at its own story and how ridiculous it is. I wasn't paying too much attention to the story this time around but it had something to do with the bad guy trying to turn everyone into a machine hybrid, and something about finding out who your sister and father are.

I found myself really enjoying the music in the game. When things got hectic the music would change to something faster and more exciting. It was definitely a good soundtrack.

Bombshell also references other video game characters like Lara Croft, and I even came across the corpse of another 3D Realms character that I used to love when I was a kid. I played all the games he was in and was a bit sad to see how he ended up.

Those things didn't detract from the game for me at all though. One thing I liked were parts in the game where you will come across a mounted turrent. If you hold the aim button down time slows down and you can mow down a ton of enemies in bloody slow motion. It seems pointless but it was fun each time I did it.

Bombshell herself looks cool. In my opinion. I know that on certain forums there were complaints about her looks but you have to take that with a grain of salt because on the internet people say some ridiculous things. She has changed from the announcement trailer though. She is more covered up and her hair isn't black and the side of her head isn't shaved.

Also, in the trailer she takes a shotgun with her but in the game her arm turns into one so she doesn't need to take one with her.  Steam says that I played the game for 11 hours. I think that was a good amount of time and I enjoyed most of it.

There was free DLC released for the game in the form of challenge missions which I haven't spent much time at all with but I might at some point. I also want to do an new game + and try a harder difficulty. I also heard that the game is getting a prequel which will be an FPS game. That sounds interesting to me and I'd definitely want to play it.

I hope that enough people supported this game that the developers end up making a sequel. I would recommend this game to people who like old school games and shooting and blowing up lots of stuff. I had fun with the game and that's more than I can say for a lot of big budget titles that are riddled with microtransactions and feel incomplete without the map packs they put out for extra cash.

Gears of War Ultimate Edition

Gears of War Ultimate Edition Windows 10

I have played a lot of Gears of War. When I first saw gameplay footage of Gears multiplayer I was floored. It looked incredible, and when it came out it turned out it actually was incredible. I had never played a game like it before. The chainsaw making chunks of beef out of other players was amazing and so fun to watch. The curb stomp was such an F-U to whoever you did it to and made you feel badass.

I played quite a lot, but not as much as those people who got the Seriously achievement , but for an average gamer, I put in some serious hours. The game was also released on PC and I didn't get that for quite a few years later, mainly because I could never find a copy of the game. I finally did years later, but by that time online multiplayer was long dead. Also, to this day you need a patch for the game after you install it, and finding that patch isn't easy. Without it, the game things youre running a modified version of the EXE file and wont start.

(Ultimate VS Original)

Anyway, MS released Ultimate Edition for Xbox One in August of 2015. The PC version came out recently in 2016. There were reports of the game not running well on release. I wouldn't know about that because I picked it up more recently. Also people complain that the game only runs in Windows 10 and can only be bought through the Microsoft Online Store.

If you're wearing a tinfoil had and cursing Windows 10 for trying to spy on you and sell your data , just read this because I don't want to do a write-up about it. Read This

MS is offering Windows 10 free to anyone with a valid windows 7 or 8 Key. I suggest taking them up on the offer since its their most solid OS so far and really runs fast.

Back to the game. The Ultimate Edition has enhanced graphics (uses Direct X 12) and has the extra mission from the original PC version. The game also features the same terrible AI that the original had. During the campaign in act 1 there is a section where you break off to either the left or right and I chose left. So me and Carmine went that way while Dom and Ming went right. On my path I had a Troika blocking me so I had to wait for the AI buddies to flank and take out the gunner. They refused to though. They stood in the room beside the gunner and wouldn't do anything. I went to check on Carmine and he was a few rooms back in a doorway spinning.

So I had to reload and choose the right path. The campaign also doesn't seem to run as smooth as the multiplayer. Campaign seems stuck at 30 Frames Per Second while MP feels like a much smoother 60. I hope that gets fixed. Also campaign has texture issues. Some don't seem to fully load , so some textures will look great and others will look terrible.

Movement is the exact same. You are pretty much moving your stiff tank around the levels by roadie running and wall bouncing. Its not very fluid but its just like you remember and once you get used to it its second nature.

The sound effects seem a bit weak to me. Especially the shotgun blast sound effect. Also the chainsaw rev is so weak sometimes I cant tell if its revving or not.

The cutscenes have been redone and look great. They also changed up the look of a couple characters. Most notable are Hoffman and Anya. As for how the game runs... I run it on high settings and I'm using a GTX 660 Ti and on those settings it runs great. I can't turn it up to Ultra settings though but I will be upgrading to a 970 or 980 to keep up with newer games.

On High though, the game runs smooth and I haven't noticed any stuttering or slowdown.

Multiplayer is fun. It felt great to jump back in to Gears 1 MP. As I said the MP runs really smooth and is back to the 4 on 4 gameplay. It also has more characters than the original game did. This one features characters from Gears 3 and because of the addition , you will miss characters that didn't get added. Like Kai and Bernie.

You do get to play as Anya and Jace and even thrashball Cole and thrashball locust. There are also a variety of gun skins to use. Most characters are unlocked from the start but others are unlocked by leveling up.

Unfortunately I have only been able to play one game type. Team Deathmatch. No other modes seem to have players in them which is a shame.

If you love Gears of War and want to play gears 1 style multiplayer again with added bonuses then you wont really go wrong with the low player base exception.

If you have been there and done that and don't care for playing the campaign again and or aren't a big fan of the multiplayer, then pass on this game completely There isn't enough new content to make this game feel fresh. I personally enjoy both aspects and also wanted to support the game in hopes of seeing a Gears of War 4 PC release.

To end things off here is some multiplayer video and the first ten minutes of campaign from both ultimate and original.