Doing my solo insane run (because I'm an idiot) and it reminded me of one last bug complaint that I need to bring up.
In gears, when you clear out a room, the music stops and you get a guitar riff signifying that the locust are dead and everything is safe. This has been in every gears games.
They somehow fucked this up. Occasionally the riff will sound when there's still Locust around, and occasionally it will never sound even though everything is dead.
Yes! I just beat RAAM on Insane. Apparently I was overthinking the fight by alternating between torque shot and sniper shot and if you just go all-out on explosives, it's a much simpler fight.
Yes! I just beat RAAM on Insane. Apparently I was overthinking the fight by alternating between torque shot and sniper shot and if you just go all-out on explosives, it's a much simpler fight.
Anyone want to do some co-op sometime?
EDIT: Gamertag is UndeadScottsman
Feel free to add me!
Care to elaborate? I'm just trying to imagine what you did that you reference all out explosives.
How I used to do it was to load up with a torque bow and a sniper rifle, shoot him with the torque bow so the kryll fly off, and then switch to an unloaded sniper rifle, active reload it, and shoot him in the face. Repeat until out of torque shot or one of us is dead. Unfortunately, in Ultimate Edition I couldn't hit him with 12 rounds of that before he'd reach me and force me to run, usually resulting in me dying.
So what I did was just completely blow all of my torque bow on him (So shoot him once to knock the kryll off him, and then shoot him with it again, preferably in the head. Repeat five more times.) and then when that runs out, blind fire all my grenades at him, and then if he's still up, just stay in cover opposite of him on the starting block until he chucks Kryll at you and then blind fire lancer or shotgun (depending on what you have) at him.
Sounds like they're working on a patch for some issues
Q: Will there be a patch for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition? What will be included in the patch?
A: Yes we are planning on patching Ultimate Edition. We are currently evaluating the high priority fixes that should go into the patch. We are looking into issues such as the shotgun, the scoreboard in spectator mode, the L-trigger delay to shoot bug, the instant roadie run after being revived bug, some crash bugs, and a number of other hot issues. Once we know what will be fixed we will release patch notes. There is no set timeframe for the patch yet but we hope to get it out as quickly as possible.
Also I'm seeing a lot of mentions on the forum about how there's not going to be any post-release DLC. Shame, I would have liked to see a handful of Gears2 and 3 maps in this.
A Title Update is currently rolling out to all users for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. See below for the full update.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Title Update 9/23/2015
General improvements to the consistency of the Gnasher.
- Gnasher pellets now always shoot in a consistent pattern.
- Removed “Idle State” from MP which could cause shooting trajectory to be more random.
- Fixed a bug where some Gnasher shots were reporting as headshots incorrectly
The Coalition Commentary: “We wanted to improve the Gnasher by focusing on producing a consistent shot, so players can better predict and estimate the damage they are doing to opponents. We’ve done this by changing the Gnasher from a randomized pellet spread to the same shape spread. This will help reduce occurrences where you do less or more damage than expected, and also help players calculate their damage expectations during gunfights more accurately and consistently.
Additionally, we’ve also removed the “Idle State” from Multiplayer, which could result in your first shot landing off center if you hadn’t aimed or fired your weapon after a small period of time"
THIS! IS! ANNEX! and Nub Pwn3r Achievements can now be earned in any ring based game mode such as King of the Hill, Blitz, and Annex
THIS! IS! ANNEX! – Complete 100 matches in ring-based game types on Xbox Live and capture 3 objectives in each match.
NUB PWN3R – Win 20 rounds in ring-based game types on Xbox Live by shutting out the opposing team
Achievement descriptions have been updated to reflect these new unlock conditions.
The Coalition Commentary: “We heard our fans loud and clear to spread these achievements across all ring game types – and we’ve also modified the achievement to work in one round scenarios which is how most of our ring types are available in public. For players looking to get some more playing time with others in on Annex, we’re currently looking at potential ways to incorporate Annex in future playlists or community events.”
Improvements to player spawn locations for Blitz and King of the Hill on the following maps:
- War Machine
- Old Bones
- Gridlock
- Process
The Coalition Commentary: “We’ve made further improvements to Blitz and King of the Hill spawns based on the feedback from the community as well as our ESL Pre-Season cup series. We’ve adjusted some of the spawn locations on the four maps listed to provide a more competitive, fair experience – such as removing the front door spawn when the frags are the active hill on Mansion, or the top-side spawn on War Machine.”
Fixes for invisible collision on some Multiplayer maps including:
- Mansion: Area around Boomshot
- Clocktower: Debris at top middle of map
The Coalition Commentary: “The two Mansion changes were made to restore some of the legacy Lancer angles around Boomshot, allowing for more variety in the way teams can challenge and pressure teams for power weapon control. The Clocktower fix also restores some angles in the top side over the debris that were previously available in Gears of War 1”.
Reduced flinching (camera shake) when taking damage in Multiplayer to be consistent with Gears 1
Changed Re-Up system to retain unlocked characters when “re-upping” (Player Level in Multiplayer)
Spectator Mode now displays match score in the HUD
Audio improvements for footstep and movement sounds behind the player
Improvements to server stability
Fixed a crash when muting players with a spectator in the game
Fixed a bug where dead bodies could sometimes cause players to roll instead of move into cover
General bug fixes and improvements
Good news on that patch, since I just purchased a digital code from eBay for $20.
Add Dr Shizuma for future co-op/multiplayer fun sessions.
Also, how does one receive access to the other Gears games? Do they message you codes or something?
On the subject, my console hard drive is now at max capacity thanks to Gears. If there happen to be really good deals out there for 1TB or higher hard drives, I'd like to know about them.
THIS! IS! ANNEX! and Nub Pwn3r Achievements can now be earned in any ring based game mode such as King of the Hill, Blitz, and Annex
THIS! IS! ANNEX! – Complete 100 matches in ring-based game types on Xbox Live and capture 3 objectives in each match.
NUB PWN3R – Win 20 rounds in ring-based game types on Xbox Live by shutting out the opposing team
Achievement descriptions have been updated to reflect these new unlock conditions.
The Coalition Commentary: “We heard our fans loud and clear to spread these achievements across all ring game types – and we’ve also modified the achievement to work in one round scenarios which is how most of our ring types are available in public. For players looking to get some more playing time with others in on Annex, we’re currently looking at potential ways to incorporate Annex in future playlists or community events.”
A change like this actually makes me more interested in buying this game, heh.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Good news on that patch, since I just purchased a digital code from eBay for $20.
Add Dr Shizuma for future co-op/multiplayer fun sessions.
Also, how does one receive access to the other Gears games? Do they message you codes or something?
On the subject, my console hard drive is now at max capacity thanks to Gears. If there happen to be really good deals out there for 1TB or higher hard drives, I'd like to know about them.
There's been no specific mention on how we'll get the earlier Gears games. If it's like Castle Crashers was, they'll just be listed as free in the store.
Doing my solo insane run (because I'm an idiot) and it reminded me of one last bug complaint that I need to bring up.
In gears, when you clear out a room, the music stops and you get a guitar riff signifying that the locust are dead and everything is safe. This has been in every gears games.
They somehow fucked this up. Occasionally the riff will sound when there's still Locust around, and occasionally it will never sound even though everything is dead.
Good lord is this a broke ass game.
Is this in the UE? If so, that sucks, but I'm glad I've never encountered it in my playthrough.
Right now I have all but Gears 2 available via backwards compatibility.
I've been wanting to go back and play Judgment for a while, and I was pleasantly surprised going back to it. The classified missions are interesting in the main campaign, providing unique challenges each mission. Baird's trial made for a neat framing device, and it was cool that each member had their own part to tell. Then there's Aftermath, which is a more traditional Gears campaign with no breaks between each segment. It has a number of cool sequences and it's lengthy for what could've easily been a short, throwaway bonus.
The best part of the campaign is that draws on the entirety of the previous Gears games, so there is a ton of variety in each mission. Pretty much every weapon and every enemy type that's been in a previous Gears game appears in this at some point in the campaign, and the new weapons are great additions. It even makes use of the previously horde-only defense items in some of the missions. The variety combined with the faster controls made replaying this more enjoyable than Gears Ultimate Edition.
It's certainly got its issues. The story feels inessential (and weirdly sexist), the multiplayer mode has far too few maps, and the survival mode isn't as compelling as horde. But it's still a pretty good time!
Judgement was pretty neat, and the classified missions and randomized placements made it more entertaining. I still have to finish the classified missions on insane. Also has a ton of mp achievements, bleh.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
I feel like Judgment gets unfairly shit on because it's the odd cousin of the Gears group; even though the entire point of the game was to be the odd cousin. The trilogy was done and if Gears was going to go on, they needed to try new stuff and Judgment certainly tried new stuff (more traditional control scheme, added verticality, the optional mission stuff.)
Honestly, the only issues I have with judgment is how shoehorned it is into the Gears plot. They had to make a lot of plot gaffs to fit it into series (Lancers didn't start getting made until a year after E-Day; Baird is a Lt. six weeks after e-day even though he and Cole were cadets together and Cole didn't sign up until after the locust attacked). Also Gears ended on such a final note that it feels a little shitty to immediately go back to the well after that; but that's old hat given we're getting Gears4 next year.
When are they sending out codes for the other games?
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
I liked a lot of Judgment (and agree that it gets an unfair rap). Loved the arcadey feel of the challenges!
My only problem is with the enemy type format: too many enemies with behaviours that include bullrushing and too many levels that include waves of bullrushing enemies, despite all the new long-range options that they came up with (and all the new weapons were sick, too!) If they'd toned down the close-range focus and had a mix of enemies a little closer to that of Gears 3, then I'd be perfectly happy with the campaign.
Judgment takes the two fun, chatty characters, makes them the mains, and strips away the fun parts of their personalities. This really breaks your brain when you realize the dev previously made freaking Bulletstorm, so there's no way they're shy about over the top dialogue. Disappointing to bad campaign.
Those of you still waiting for Gears codes, sounds like you may not get them until January.
Heyo all! We're getting a lot of traffic in this forum and we're extremely excited to see how stoked all of you are to play some Gears of War! Several of you are in the boat where you believe you've met the qualifications, but you haven't received these tokens. We assure you that you are all being individually looked into and you should keep an eye on your Xbox Live Messages for more information. Reminder: We are sending tokens on a regular basis through early January. That means that not all tokens have been sent out yet.
Due to the sheer volume of how many folks are posting in this forum, several of you may receive very similar answers. That's totally fine, since you're in very similar scenarios. I'd just like to reiterate that we're individually looking into each of your situations and assure you that receiving a similar answer to someone else does not indicate that we're not treating you with just as much care.
Thank you all very much for your patience so far. Again, it's extremely exciting to see the community's response to this. We're working as hard as we can to get everything taken care of!
Oh god. Reading a wiki to try and figure out how well UE sold and I'm reminded they had a Gears movie in the works.
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Oh god. Reading a wiki to try and figure out how well UE sold and I'm reminded they had a Gears movie in the works.
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Eh, it couldn't possibly be any more different from its earlier incantations than GiTS: Arise was. :P
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Oh god. Reading a wiki to try and figure out how well UE sold and I'm reminded they had a Gears movie in the works.
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Eh, it couldn't possibly be any more different from its earlier incantations than GiTS: Arise was. :P
Not so much as "any more different" (after all, the TV series is quite different from the original manga), so much as "so much more horrible" that I'm concerned about. :P And I didn't like Arise by and large, so that's saying something.
For reasons outlined extensively in the past General Movies thread in D&D. I figured, I took two years out of my life to do my conscription in the ROCA, at least this'll be for a worthy cause. Not fighting locusts to save humanity or anything, but still pretty worthy.
Oh god. Reading a wiki to try and figure out how well UE sold and I'm reminded they had a Gears movie in the works.
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Eh, it couldn't possibly be any more different from its earlier incantations than GiTS: Arise was. :P
Not so much as "any more different" (after all, the TV series is quite different from the original manga), so much as "so much more horrible" that I'm concerned about. :P And I didn't like Arise by and large, so that's saying something.
For reasons outlined extensively in the past General Movies thread in D&D. I figured, I took two years out of my life to do my conscription in the ROCA, at least this'll be for a worthy cause. Not fighting locusts to save humanity or anything, but still pretty worthy.
I'm willing to give it a shot. GiTS deviates heavily, so as long as it keeps within the general concept, it should be okay.
As for Gears... hopefully there will only be non-Americans with heavy non-American accents in the cast otherwise we'll have to deal with Gears of War is just another 'Murica's Army movie comments forever. :P
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Oh god. Reading a wiki to try and figure out how well UE sold and I'm reminded they had a Gears movie in the works.
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Eh, it couldn't possibly be any more different from its earlier incantations than GiTS: Arise was. :P
Not so much as "any more different" (after all, the TV series is quite different from the original manga), so much as "so much more horrible" that I'm concerned about. :P And I didn't like Arise by and large, so that's saying something.
For reasons outlined extensively in the past General Movies thread in D&D. I figured, I took two years out of my life to do my conscription in the ROCA, at least this'll be for a worthy cause. Not fighting locusts to save humanity or anything, but still pretty worthy.
I'm willing to give it a shot. GiTS deviates heavily, so as long as it keeps within the general concept, it should be okay.
As for Gears... hopefully there will only be non-Americans with heavy non-American accents in the cast otherwise we'll have to deal with Gears of War is just another 'Murica's Army movie comments forever. :P
I'll be watching it closely, because there's a long-established history of these sort of Hollywood adaptions being quite awful when it comes to handling ethnicity and national identity (both of which are pretty goddamn important in GITS, despite claims to the contrary--virtually every form of the narrative, regardless of modification, is centered around the career of a female veteran of the Japanese GSDF who joins the Japanese NPA, and her nationality and race are central to political and military entanglements of the plot). So it's a pretty safe assumption that a lot of people have that it's going to be very, very bad, even though it is by no means guaranteed. :P There's a reason we're expecting The Last Airbender and not The Departed, and preparing for the worst.
Bringing it back on topic--the sort of human culture we see in GoW has always fascinated me (for years, I assumed Sera was a sort of lost colony of Earth, in the style of Starcraft's Koprulu sector), though a lot of materials seem to indirectly refute that and even suggest it's a parallel Earth that resembles ours very closely, linguistically, culturally, etc.. More Final Fantasy than Starcraft. Minh Young Kim, most obviously, has a Korean given name and surname and some attempt at distinctive facial features from his occidental counterparts, and he's not alone (even if the large majority of characters are generally drawn from the largest demographics in the US--white, black, Latino especially). The series doesn't entirely skirt around race and racism, and while it leaves things pretty vague, it does establish the COG's particular flavor of fascism to be nationalistic and militaristic in nature, rather than racial, Starship Troopers style.
I think GoW4 is going to take that further, with more reveals of characters outside a still somewhat selective military service and into the general population (also perhaps visiting areas in Sera that have remain unseen).
Oh god. Reading a wiki to try and figure out how well UE sold and I'm reminded they had a Gears movie in the works.
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Eh, it couldn't possibly be any more different from its earlier incantations than GiTS: Arise was. :P
Not so much as "any more different" (after all, the TV series is quite different from the original manga), so much as "so much more horrible" that I'm concerned about. :P And I didn't like Arise by and large, so that's saying something.
For reasons outlined extensively in the past General Movies thread in D&D. I figured, I took two years out of my life to do my conscription in the ROCA, at least this'll be for a worthy cause. Not fighting locusts to save humanity or anything, but still pretty worthy.
I'm willing to give it a shot. GiTS deviates heavily, so as long as it keeps within the general concept, it should be okay.
As for Gears... hopefully there will only be non-Americans with heavy non-American accents in the cast otherwise we'll have to deal with Gears of War is just another 'Murica's Army movie comments forever. :P
I'll be watching it closely, because there's a long-established history of these sort of Hollywood adaptions being quite awful when it comes to handling ethnicity and national identity (both of which are pretty goddamn important in GITS, despite claims to the contrary--virtually every form of the narrative, regardless of modification, is centered around the career of a female veteran of the Japanese GSDF who joins the Japanese NPA, and her nationality and race are central to political and military entanglements of the plot). So it's a pretty safe assumption that a lot of people have that it's going to be very, very bad, even though it is by no means guaranteed. :P There's a reason we're all expecting The Last Airbender and not The Departed.
Bringing it back no topic--the sort of human culture we see in GoW has always fascinated me (for years, I assumed Sera was a sort of lost colony of Earth, in the style of Starcraft's Koprulu sector), though a lot of materials seem to indirectly refute that and even suggest it's a parallel Earth that resembles ours very closely, linguistically, culturally, etc.. More Final Fantasy than Starcraft. Minh Young Kim, most obviously, has a Korean given name and surname and some attempt at distinctive facial features from his occidental counterparts, and he's not alone (even if the large majority of characters are generally drawn from the largest demographics in the US--white, black, Latino especially). The series doesn't entirely skirt around race and racism, and while it leaves things pretty vague, it does establish the COG's particular flavor of fascism to be nationalistic and militaristic in nature, rather than racial, Starship Troopers style.
I think GoW4 is going to take that further, with more reveals of characters outside a still somewhat selective military service and into the general population (also perhaps visiting areas in Sera that have remain unseen).
One of undertones in GiTS that I hadn't paid much attention to until I watched Gate—which abandoned all subtlety regarding this—is the undertones of Japanese Nationalism. So I suppose on that front, it will be an interesting thing. That said, as a full body cyborg whose ghost may not even exist, Johansson may just work as a shell. Though I doubt they'd take it that deep.
Gears does have a slight jingoistic slant to it. Except they mix it up. With the COGs being the Soviet Union with an American population distribution whereas the UIR (Union of Independent Republics) is effectively the United States as populated by Eastern Europeans (see: Paduk, the names of everything).
I'd imagine they will tone down the socialist leaning of the COG down or just ignore it entirely in the movie.
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Oh god. Reading a wiki to try and figure out how well UE sold and I'm reminded they had a Gears movie in the works.
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Eh, it couldn't possibly be any more different from its earlier incantations than GiTS: Arise was. :P
Not so much as "any more different" (after all, the TV series is quite different from the original manga), so much as "so much more horrible" that I'm concerned about. :P And I didn't like Arise by and large, so that's saying something.
For reasons outlined extensively in the past General Movies thread in D&D. I figured, I took two years out of my life to do my conscription in the ROCA, at least this'll be for a worthy cause. Not fighting locusts to save humanity or anything, but still pretty worthy.
I'm willing to give it a shot. GiTS deviates heavily, so as long as it keeps within the general concept, it should be okay.
As for Gears... hopefully there will only be non-Americans with heavy non-American accents in the cast otherwise we'll have to deal with Gears of War is just another 'Murica's Army movie comments forever. :P
I'll be watching it closely, because there's a long-established history of these sort of Hollywood adaptions being quite awful when it comes to handling ethnicity and national identity (both of which are pretty goddamn important in GITS, despite claims to the contrary--virtually every form of the narrative, regardless of modification, is centered around the career of a female veteran of the Japanese GSDF who joins the Japanese NPA, and her nationality and race are central to political and military entanglements of the plot). So it's a pretty safe assumption that a lot of people have that it's going to be very, very bad, even though it is by no means guaranteed. :P There's a reason we're all expecting The Last Airbender and not The Departed.
Bringing it back no topic--the sort of human culture we see in GoW has always fascinated me (for years, I assumed Sera was a sort of lost colony of Earth, in the style of Starcraft's Koprulu sector), though a lot of materials seem to indirectly refute that and even suggest it's a parallel Earth that resembles ours very closely, linguistically, culturally, etc.. More Final Fantasy than Starcraft. Minh Young Kim, most obviously, has a Korean given name and surname and some attempt at distinctive facial features from his occidental counterparts, and he's not alone (even if the large majority of characters are generally drawn from the largest demographics in the US--white, black, Latino especially). The series doesn't entirely skirt around race and racism, and while it leaves things pretty vague, it does establish the COG's particular flavor of fascism to be nationalistic and militaristic in nature, rather than racial, Starship Troopers style.
I think GoW4 is going to take that further, with more reveals of characters outside a still somewhat selective military service and into the general population (also perhaps visiting areas in Sera that have remain unseen).
One of undertones in GiTS that I hadn't paid much attention to until I watched Gate—which abandoned all subtlety regarding this—is the undertones of Japanese Nationalism. So I suppose on that front, it will be an interesting thing. That said, as a full body cyborg whose ghost may not even exist, Johansson may just work as a shell. Though I doubt they'd take it that deep.
Gears does have a slight jingoistic slant to it. Except they mix it up. With the COGs being the Soviet Union with an American population distribution whereas the UIR (Union of Independent Republics) is effectively the United States as populated by Eastern Europeans (see: Paduk, the names of everything).
I'd imagine they will tone down the socialist leaning of the COG down or just ignore it entirely in the movie.
Yeah, it's something I've noticed a lot of American fans overlook about GITS, maybe because fewer of them read the original manga (literally every appearance of the main character, except Oshii's incredibly stylistic films, puts her in an unmistakable Japanese military uniform at least one scene, often multiple ones, and makes her a commissioned officer--hence her bloody nickname). Saying that nationalism and patriotism don't enter into the equation because "it's the future and everyone's cyberized" is like saying nationalism and patriotism don't enter into Captain America because "it's the future, and the America of his time is long gone." The changing demographics of Japan are a huge point (especially in the context of a refugee crisis, which is a reoccurring narrative). Even if you can change your appearance and even your gender, you cannot escape the national and political systems of the world--that's a major theme of the series. Plus, as everyone has to acknowledge, you do not hire a huge star like Johansson to just be "another cyberbody" for some unrecognized Asian actress. You hire her to be the damn main character. It's Scarlet Johansson after all.
I digress. I always got the impression of the COG as a sort of American/Western hemisphere "light" fascism state, while the UIR came off as an equally-vague Eastern Europe/Eastern Hemisphere hyper militarized vaguely socialist state as a counterpart, but I never really got into the novels (I have been reading the comics included with the UE with some interest, but only as I unlock them). Aside from the Pendulum Wars, so much of Sera's history is shrouded that it's hard, at least for me, to get a long term sense of everything (you can definitely imagine Sera being full of countries with institutionalized racism, but exactly how it would work is kind of hard to say, because Sera's age of imperialism is still heavily concealed, and we're left with a more post-WWI/post-WWII world that has already gotten rid of most of the formal trappings of widespread colonialism. Ethnic populations are still distinct, even if their history is muddled.
What the hell is this? People actually wanting to discuss backstory details from Gears of War?
It's been so long...
The COG definitely namedrop being socialist quite frequently in the books, to the point of being based on the teachings of Alexiy Desipich, who was a major hardcore socialist. I always thought it was funny that this dude-bro as hell game actually had Big McLargehuge fighting for a country that believes in universal healthcare. Finding places in the narrative where this affects pre E-day society, outside of dogma, is hard though. Post E-Day everything went into overdrive mode. The COG was fairly fascist before then, but once the Locust wrecked everything, the Fortification Act went into place and basically put every able bodied man and sterile woman into the military machine. (There's some really crass and gross stuff involving breeding camps that shows up in some of the extended material. The comics make them out to basically be rape camps while the books gloss that shit over so much it makes me wonder if Karen Traviss just didn't decide to ignore that part of the series.)
The UIR (Union of Independent Republics) being Soviet is interesting given that wasn't made explicit to start with until a one of the later, post Gears 2 books where a small group of Gorasni survivers appear, Gorasnoya being a very small UIR nature that refused to join the COG after the UIR lost the war, and was basically too small for the COG to really give a shit about. They got mostly wiped out by the Lucust during E-day, with some survivors rescued by the COG (Paduk from Judgment) while most of the rest of the survivors became nomadic on ships until they joined the COG for mutual survival after Gears 2. There were only about 4,000 left by that point. At some point, though, they went from being this tiny faction of the COG
There's definitely some level of xenophobia present in Gears factions, but I'm not sure if it ever becomes outright racism in the narrative. It's mostly about factions and nationality. As an example, the COG were aided by an independent nation called Pesanga, one of whom, Bai Tak was a close friend of General Hoffman. When the Pesangan died in battle, the COG refused to give him an Embry Star (medal of honor) due to not being "true" COG, prompting Hoffman to send his own Star to Tak's family. Beyond that, culturally they seem pretty alright with stuff. Nobody treated Tai like a savage (in fact, many white COG eventually got absorbed into Islander culture, not vice versa) nobody says shit about Kim or Cole's color and it does come across as the authors avoiding the issue altogether, IMO.
I suppose when you have creatures like the Locust running around, you pretty much have no better target for your fear of the "other" than them.
So after the disappointment of that OXM article, people have been asking Rod when we're going to learn more about Gears 4 and he posted this on twitter.
Also Gears 4 was mentioned as coming to PC by gamespot, but they removed that from their article, so maybe it was a mistake or maybe they just weren't supposed to talk about it yet.
We are excited to share that a new title update for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition arrives Tuesday 23rd February! Since our last title update, we've been monitoring your feedback across the web, and used that to fuel some key improvements for our fans that improve the overall experience of playing Ultimate Edition. Alongside the improvements and fixes in the Title Update listed below, we've also revisited our playlists to make some additional tweaks in terms of what's on offer. Read on for all the info!
Title Update Details
The latest Title Update for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition brings the following improvements and fixes:
-Kills in Social playlists now also count towards the ‘Seriously’ achievement
When we introduced our new Competitive Playlists to make our offering more focused, ‘Seriously’ only counting kills in Competitive didn’t make as much sense. As such, we’ve now updated the achievement to count both Social and Competitive playlist kills so you can work towards the achievement in any mode you want!
-Improvements to Boomshot hit registration
At times, the Boomshot has had inconsistent performance. We’ve addressed a few of these items that should help the Boomshot perform more consistently – including a fix that should resolve the issue where the Boomshot fails to damage an enemy when fired at their feet. Thanks you to all our fans who provided detailed feedback and videos that helped us improve the way the Boomshot performs.
-Addressed some matchmaking issues that caused long wait times
-Improvements to hit registration on downed enemies (sponging)
-Small improvements to the Left Trigger Issue
-Fixed hit detection when shooting an enemy in cover against the top pillars on Clocktower
-Removed POI on Right Stick for Alternate Control Scheme
-Bug fixes and general improvements
These issues were chosen based on a mix of community feedback and design decisions to improve the quality of life for our fans playing Ultimate Edition!
Playlist Update Details
Along with the improvements for Title Update 2, we've also been working on a new format for our playlists based on the recent Blitz feedback among other items. The changes going live alongside the Title Update are below:
-Increased Execution XP to better match the gain in other modes
Execution is a mode that can be highly rewarding, but also extremely punishing. To better reward players who take on the challenge of Execution, we've increased the XP gain in the mode significantly.
-Moved Blitz from Competitive to Social
-Added a new Competitive TDM playlist
We’ve been excited to see such a positive reaction to the new, faster Blitz mode. We wanted to address community feedback about quitters impacting games - as such, we’ve moved Blitz to Social so join in progress backfilling can replace any teammates who quit. To ensure fans of Respawn Gametypes have an option to play a competitive matchmaking experience, we’ve added an additional TDM playlist to the game in the Competitive category.
-Returned Warzone as a permanent playlist
-Returned Assassination as a playlist for a limited time
Warzone is also returning as a permanent social playlist based on fan feedback. While Assassination has returned as a playlist, this is for a limited time only – we will be returning the event to ‘special event’ status in the future.
SPECIAL EVENT: SERIOUSLY TDM
To celebrate the update to the Seriously achievement, which now counts kills in any mode across Social and Competitive Playlists, we're running a special one-week only event called 'Seriously TDM'.
Grab some friends and get slaying with 30 respawn TDM in a first to two round scenario, helping you rack up the kills on your march towards Seriously in Ultimate Edition. This mode can be found in the 'Social' category until 12pm PST on February 29th.
FAQ
How big is the update?
The update is around 5GB and is mandatory to install in order to play while connected to LIVE. We recommend you leave your Xbox in the Always On power mode so the update can download in the background once it's deployed.
Will Seriously count my kills in Social from before the update?
The achievement will not retroactively add your kills from social games before the update to your achievement progress. From the update onwards, you'll be able to add to your kill count in any Social or Competitive playlist.
How does moving Blitz to Social combat quitters?
With the move to 2 rounds to win, following in the footsteps of King of the Hill, Blitz suffered in Competitive because a quitting team member would have a big impact on the team. We're moving Blitz to Social in order to allow 'joining in progress', where players can be matchmade into empty slots on an active team, which Competitive does not allow. This works effectively for King of the Hill, and we expect the same success for Blitz.
What happens to the TDM Leaderboards?
TDM leaderboards will now only register in Competitive TDM matches. All your leaderboard stats will transfer to this leaderboard, even if they were earned in Social matches before the update.
Why is Assassination only returning as a playlist temporarily?
Assassination is notably behind the other modes in terms of player population, which results in a less than ideal matchmaking experience. While we have returned it for now to offer a bigger window for players to earn the 'Mix It Up' achievement, the mode will be moving back to being a 'Special Event' playlist only at some point in the future.
Will Warzone disappear during Special Event periods?
It will not! At this time, Warzone is sticking around permanently, even when a Special Event is running.
What is POI?
POI (Point of Interest) is the 'Y Button to Look' prompt for default control users. Users using alternate controls for Multiplayer reported accidental stick clenching causing them deaths in multiplayer, so the function was removed on alternate controls.
Ultimate Edition has also shown up on the Windows 10 store. No price yet, but it apparently includes all the weapon skins and 11 additional multiplayer models. Here are the system requirements.
RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR 1920X1080P
OS: 64 bit Windows 10 - version 1511
Processor: Intel Core i5 @3.5GHz+ or AMD FX 8-core
Memory: 16 GB RAM (4 GB VRAM)
Graphics: GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290X
Hard Drive: 60 GB available space
DirectX 12
RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR 4K
OS: 64 bit Windows 10 - version 1511
Processor: Intel Core i7 @ 4Ghz or AMD FX 8-core
Memory: 16 GB RAM (6+ GB VRAM)
Graphics: Geforce GTX 980 Ti or Radeon R9 390X
Hard Drive: SSD + 60 GB available space
DirectX 12
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
OS: 64 bit Windows 10 – version 1511
Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 2.7Ghz or AMD FX 6-core
Memory: 8 GB RAM (2 GB VRAM)
Graphics: Geforce GTX 650 Ti or Radeon R7 260x
Hard Drive: 60 GB available space
DirectX 12
Ultimate Edition is out on the Windows 10 store, if anyone cares.
still no Gears 4 news, sadly. So much for #soon
Edit: It's only $30 at least, which is how much MS was selling the deluxe weapon skin pack for at launch, and this actually comes with it. Interesting. I wonder if future Gears releases will get DLC complete versions on Windows 10
Posts
That happens in Judgment as well. No idea why.
Anyone want to do some co-op sometime?
EDIT: Gamertag is UndeadScottsman
Feel free to add me!
Care to elaborate? I'm just trying to imagine what you did that you reference all out explosives.
So what I did was just completely blow all of my torque bow on him (So shoot him once to knock the kryll off him, and then shoot him with it again, preferably in the head. Repeat five more times.) and then when that runs out, blind fire all my grenades at him, and then if he's still up, just stay in cover opposite of him on the starting block until he chucks Kryll at you and then blind fire lancer or shotgun (depending on what you have) at him.
Also I'm seeing a lot of mentions on the forum about how there's not going to be any post-release DLC. Shame, I would have liked to see a handful of Gears2 and 3 maps in this.
Add Dr Shizuma for future co-op/multiplayer fun sessions.
Also, how does one receive access to the other Gears games? Do they message you codes or something?
On the subject, my console hard drive is now at max capacity thanks to Gears. If there happen to be really good deals out there for 1TB or higher hard drives, I'd like to know about them.
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A change like this actually makes me more interested in buying this game, heh.
There's been no specific mention on how we'll get the earlier Gears games. If it's like Castle Crashers was, they'll just be listed as free in the store.
I wonder if GoW 1 got enough sales to warrant a GoW 2 Ultimate.
Is this in the UE? If so, that sucks, but I'm glad I've never encountered it in my playthrough.
Blog update:
https://gearsofwar.com/en-us/community/nine-years-of-gears
- Double XP until Tuesday on all playlists and a Classic Execution mode
- Information on when we'll see our backwards compatibility tokens. (starting Dec. 1)
THEY'RE DESTROYING CITIES WITH A GIANT WORM
I've been wanting to go back and play Judgment for a while, and I was pleasantly surprised going back to it. The classified missions are interesting in the main campaign, providing unique challenges each mission. Baird's trial made for a neat framing device, and it was cool that each member had their own part to tell. Then there's Aftermath, which is a more traditional Gears campaign with no breaks between each segment. It has a number of cool sequences and it's lengthy for what could've easily been a short, throwaway bonus.
The best part of the campaign is that draws on the entirety of the previous Gears games, so there is a ton of variety in each mission. Pretty much every weapon and every enemy type that's been in a previous Gears game appears in this at some point in the campaign, and the new weapons are great additions. It even makes use of the previously horde-only defense items in some of the missions. The variety combined with the faster controls made replaying this more enjoyable than Gears Ultimate Edition.
It's certainly got its issues. The story feels inessential (and weirdly sexist), the multiplayer mode has far too few maps, and the survival mode isn't as compelling as horde. But it's still a pretty good time!
Honestly, the only issues I have with judgment is how shoehorned it is into the Gears plot. They had to make a lot of plot gaffs to fit it into series (Lancers didn't start getting made until a year after E-Day; Baird is a Lt. six weeks after e-day even though he and Cole were cadets together and Cole didn't sign up until after the locust attacked). Also Gears ended on such a final note that it feels a little shitty to immediately go back to the well after that; but that's old hat given we're getting Gears4 next year.
December
My only problem is with the enemy type format: too many enemies with behaviours that include bullrushing and too many levels that include waves of bullrushing enemies, despite all the new long-range options that they came up with (and all the new weapons were sick, too!) If they'd toned down the close-range focus and had a mix of enemies a little closer to that of Gears 3, then I'd be perfectly happy with the campaign.
Is this history repeating? Find out next year or so. :P
Yes, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.
But when the call to arms goes out to stop the Scarlet Johansson Ghost in the Shell film, I know I'm going to answer it. Some sacrifices are worth bearing.
Eh, it couldn't possibly be any more different from its earlier incantations than GiTS: Arise was. :P
Not so much as "any more different" (after all, the TV series is quite different from the original manga), so much as "so much more horrible" that I'm concerned about. :P And I didn't like Arise by and large, so that's saying something.
For reasons outlined extensively in the past General Movies thread in D&D. I figured, I took two years out of my life to do my conscription in the ROCA, at least this'll be for a worthy cause. Not fighting locusts to save humanity or anything, but still pretty worthy.
I'm willing to give it a shot. GiTS deviates heavily, so as long as it keeps within the general concept, it should be okay.
As for Gears... hopefully there will only be non-Americans with heavy non-American accents in the cast otherwise we'll have to deal with Gears of War is just another 'Murica's Army movie comments forever. :P
I'll be watching it closely, because there's a long-established history of these sort of Hollywood adaptions being quite awful when it comes to handling ethnicity and national identity (both of which are pretty goddamn important in GITS, despite claims to the contrary--virtually every form of the narrative, regardless of modification, is centered around the career of a female veteran of the Japanese GSDF who joins the Japanese NPA, and her nationality and race are central to political and military entanglements of the plot). So it's a pretty safe assumption that a lot of people have that it's going to be very, very bad, even though it is by no means guaranteed. :P There's a reason we're expecting The Last Airbender and not The Departed, and preparing for the worst.
Bringing it back on topic--the sort of human culture we see in GoW has always fascinated me (for years, I assumed Sera was a sort of lost colony of Earth, in the style of Starcraft's Koprulu sector), though a lot of materials seem to indirectly refute that and even suggest it's a parallel Earth that resembles ours very closely, linguistically, culturally, etc.. More Final Fantasy than Starcraft. Minh Young Kim, most obviously, has a Korean given name and surname and some attempt at distinctive facial features from his occidental counterparts, and he's not alone (even if the large majority of characters are generally drawn from the largest demographics in the US--white, black, Latino especially). The series doesn't entirely skirt around race and racism, and while it leaves things pretty vague, it does establish the COG's particular flavor of fascism to be nationalistic and militaristic in nature, rather than racial, Starship Troopers style.
I think GoW4 is going to take that further, with more reveals of characters outside a still somewhat selective military service and into the general population (also perhaps visiting areas in Sera that have remain unseen).
One of undertones in GiTS that I hadn't paid much attention to until I watched Gate—which abandoned all subtlety regarding this—is the undertones of Japanese Nationalism. So I suppose on that front, it will be an interesting thing. That said, as a full body cyborg whose ghost may not even exist, Johansson may just work as a shell. Though I doubt they'd take it that deep.
Gears does have a slight jingoistic slant to it. Except they mix it up. With the COGs being the Soviet Union with an American population distribution whereas the UIR (Union of Independent Republics) is effectively the United States as populated by Eastern Europeans (see: Paduk, the names of everything).
I'd imagine they will tone down the socialist leaning of the COG down or just ignore it entirely in the movie.
Yeah, it's something I've noticed a lot of American fans overlook about GITS, maybe because fewer of them read the original manga (literally every appearance of the main character, except Oshii's incredibly stylistic films, puts her in an unmistakable Japanese military uniform at least one scene, often multiple ones, and makes her a commissioned officer--hence her bloody nickname). Saying that nationalism and patriotism don't enter into the equation because "it's the future and everyone's cyberized" is like saying nationalism and patriotism don't enter into Captain America because "it's the future, and the America of his time is long gone." The changing demographics of Japan are a huge point (especially in the context of a refugee crisis, which is a reoccurring narrative). Even if you can change your appearance and even your gender, you cannot escape the national and political systems of the world--that's a major theme of the series. Plus, as everyone has to acknowledge, you do not hire a huge star like Johansson to just be "another cyberbody" for some unrecognized Asian actress. You hire her to be the damn main character. It's Scarlet Johansson after all.
I digress. I always got the impression of the COG as a sort of American/Western hemisphere "light" fascism state, while the UIR came off as an equally-vague Eastern Europe/Eastern Hemisphere hyper militarized vaguely socialist state as a counterpart, but I never really got into the novels (I have been reading the comics included with the UE with some interest, but only as I unlock them). Aside from the Pendulum Wars, so much of Sera's history is shrouded that it's hard, at least for me, to get a long term sense of everything (you can definitely imagine Sera being full of countries with institutionalized racism, but exactly how it would work is kind of hard to say, because Sera's age of imperialism is still heavily concealed, and we're left with a more post-WWI/post-WWII world that has already gotten rid of most of the formal trappings of widespread colonialism. Ethnic populations are still distinct, even if their history is muddled.
It's been so long...
The COG definitely namedrop being socialist quite frequently in the books, to the point of being based on the teachings of Alexiy Desipich, who was a major hardcore socialist. I always thought it was funny that this dude-bro as hell game actually had Big McLargehuge fighting for a country that believes in universal healthcare. Finding places in the narrative where this affects pre E-day society, outside of dogma, is hard though. Post E-Day everything went into overdrive mode. The COG was fairly fascist before then, but once the Locust wrecked everything, the Fortification Act went into place and basically put every able bodied man and sterile woman into the military machine. (There's some really crass and gross stuff involving breeding camps that shows up in some of the extended material. The comics make them out to basically be rape camps while the books gloss that shit over so much it makes me wonder if Karen Traviss just didn't decide to ignore that part of the series.)
The UIR (Union of Independent Republics) being Soviet is interesting given that wasn't made explicit to start with until a one of the later, post Gears 2 books where a small group of Gorasni survivers appear, Gorasnoya being a very small UIR nature that refused to join the COG after the UIR lost the war, and was basically too small for the COG to really give a shit about. They got mostly wiped out by the Lucust during E-day, with some survivors rescued by the COG (Paduk from Judgment) while most of the rest of the survivors became nomadic on ships until they joined the COG for mutual survival after Gears 2. There were only about 4,000 left by that point. At some point, though, they went from being this tiny faction of the COG
There's definitely some level of xenophobia present in Gears factions, but I'm not sure if it ever becomes outright racism in the narrative. It's mostly about factions and nationality. As an example, the COG were aided by an independent nation called Pesanga, one of whom, Bai Tak was a close friend of General Hoffman. When the Pesangan died in battle, the COG refused to give him an Embry Star (medal of honor) due to not being "true" COG, prompting Hoffman to send his own Star to Tak's family. Beyond that, culturally they seem pretty alright with stuff. Nobody treated Tai like a savage (in fact, many white COG eventually got absorbed into Islander culture, not vice versa) nobody says shit about Kim or Cole's color and it does come across as the authors avoiding the issue altogether, IMO.
I suppose when you have creatures like the Locust running around, you pretty much have no better target for your fear of the "other" than them.
https://gearsofwar.com/en-us/forums/98be6d5e03f642a5b8b561883802d401/threads/event-gearsmas-2016-for-ultimate-edition/9c31f5be-6313-4ecd-92dd-09b38d05c66b/posts
the Gears of War 4 beta and Gears of War Ultimate Edition for Windows 10 are due out in Sping of 2016.
Gears 4 is due out in Fall 2016, like everyone expected.
https://news.xbox.com/2016/01/04/greatest-games-extends-to-2016/
Big info dump coming soon, if this magazine release date is to be believed.
Fuckin' finally.
Also Gears 4 was mentioned as coming to PC by gamespot, but they removed that from their article, so maybe it was a mistake or maybe they just weren't supposed to talk about it yet.
Title Update Details
The latest Title Update for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition brings the following improvements and fixes:
-Kills in Social playlists now also count towards the ‘Seriously’ achievement
When we introduced our new Competitive Playlists to make our offering more focused, ‘Seriously’ only counting kills in Competitive didn’t make as much sense. As such, we’ve now updated the achievement to count both Social and Competitive playlist kills so you can work towards the achievement in any mode you want!
-Improvements to Boomshot hit registration
At times, the Boomshot has had inconsistent performance. We’ve addressed a few of these items that should help the Boomshot perform more consistently – including a fix that should resolve the issue where the Boomshot fails to damage an enemy when fired at their feet. Thanks you to all our fans who provided detailed feedback and videos that helped us improve the way the Boomshot performs.
-Addressed some matchmaking issues that caused long wait times
-Improvements to hit registration on downed enemies (sponging)
-Small improvements to the Left Trigger Issue
-Fixed hit detection when shooting an enemy in cover against the top pillars on Clocktower
-Removed POI on Right Stick for Alternate Control Scheme
-Bug fixes and general improvements
These issues were chosen based on a mix of community feedback and design decisions to improve the quality of life for our fans playing Ultimate Edition!
Playlist Update Details
Along with the improvements for Title Update 2, we've also been working on a new format for our playlists based on the recent Blitz feedback among other items. The changes going live alongside the Title Update are below:
-Increased Execution XP to better match the gain in other modes
Execution is a mode that can be highly rewarding, but also extremely punishing. To better reward players who take on the challenge of Execution, we've increased the XP gain in the mode significantly.
-Moved Blitz from Competitive to Social
-Added a new Competitive TDM playlist
We’ve been excited to see such a positive reaction to the new, faster Blitz mode. We wanted to address community feedback about quitters impacting games - as such, we’ve moved Blitz to Social so join in progress backfilling can replace any teammates who quit. To ensure fans of Respawn Gametypes have an option to play a competitive matchmaking experience, we’ve added an additional TDM playlist to the game in the Competitive category.
-Returned Warzone as a permanent playlist
-Returned Assassination as a playlist for a limited time
Warzone is also returning as a permanent social playlist based on fan feedback. While Assassination has returned as a playlist, this is for a limited time only – we will be returning the event to ‘special event’ status in the future.
SPECIAL EVENT: SERIOUSLY TDM
To celebrate the update to the Seriously achievement, which now counts kills in any mode across Social and Competitive Playlists, we're running a special one-week only event called 'Seriously TDM'.
Grab some friends and get slaying with 30 respawn TDM in a first to two round scenario, helping you rack up the kills on your march towards Seriously in Ultimate Edition. This mode can be found in the 'Social' category until 12pm PST on February 29th.
FAQ
How big is the update?
The update is around 5GB and is mandatory to install in order to play while connected to LIVE. We recommend you leave your Xbox in the Always On power mode so the update can download in the background once it's deployed.
Will Seriously count my kills in Social from before the update?
The achievement will not retroactively add your kills from social games before the update to your achievement progress. From the update onwards, you'll be able to add to your kill count in any Social or Competitive playlist.
How does moving Blitz to Social combat quitters?
With the move to 2 rounds to win, following in the footsteps of King of the Hill, Blitz suffered in Competitive because a quitting team member would have a big impact on the team. We're moving Blitz to Social in order to allow 'joining in progress', where players can be matchmade into empty slots on an active team, which Competitive does not allow. This works effectively for King of the Hill, and we expect the same success for Blitz.
What happens to the TDM Leaderboards?
TDM leaderboards will now only register in Competitive TDM matches. All your leaderboard stats will transfer to this leaderboard, even if they were earned in Social matches before the update.
Why is Assassination only returning as a playlist temporarily?
Assassination is notably behind the other modes in terms of player population, which results in a less than ideal matchmaking experience. While we have returned it for now to offer a bigger window for players to earn the 'Mix It Up' achievement, the mode will be moving back to being a 'Special Event' playlist only at some point in the future.
Will Warzone disappear during Special Event periods?
It will not! At this time, Warzone is sticking around permanently, even when a Special Event is running.
What is POI?
POI (Point of Interest) is the 'Y Button to Look' prompt for default control users. Users using alternate controls for Multiplayer reported accidental stick clenching causing them deaths in multiplayer, so the function was removed on alternate controls.
Ultimate Edition has also shown up on the Windows 10 store. No price yet, but it apparently includes all the weapon skins and 11 additional multiplayer models. Here are the system requirements.
still no Gears 4 news, sadly. So much for #soon
Edit: It's only $30 at least, which is how much MS was selling the deluxe weapon skin pack for at launch, and this actually comes with it. Interesting. I wonder if future Gears releases will get DLC complete versions on Windows 10
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/games/gears-of-war-ultimate-edition-for-windows-10/9nblggh3shm5