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Preview that outlines all the new aspects of the PC version:
When we first saw Gears of War a little over two years ago, the game was running on the PC, so it's no surprise that Epic is finally bringing their console hit to the PC market. The Xbox 360 phenomenon will finally be released for the PC on November 6. We just got back from a visit to Epic's North Carolina studios where we had a chance to talk with lead designer Cliff Bleszinski and producer Rod Fergusson. Better still, we actually had the chance to play through the new content and check out the new controls and visuals.
Far from being a straight port of the Xbox 360 game, the PC version of Gears of War will feature loads of new exclusive content including five new single player chapters, three new multiplayer levels, a new game type, and the full-featured Unreal Editor. New tweaks for the PC controls and all the recent updates to Unreal Engine 3 will also be making their way into the new version of the game. When you consider that the PC version also includes all the downloadable content released so far for the 360, it's easy to see why we're so excited for this one to come out.
Epic doesn't want to make Gears of War another run-and-gun PC shooter, so they've tweaked the controls a bit from the console version. Gamers who have already played the game on the 360 know that shooting from the hip profits little, so you'll want to rely on aimed shots to have any hope of hitting anything more than a few feet away. But to compensate for the greater finesse the mouse offers, the developers have increased the recoil of the weapons in the game. Moreover, the aiming reticle for the sniper rifle will twitch a lot if the sniper is under fire.
Gears for the PC still uses a single button for running, getting behind cover, mantling and rolling. While this control scheme caused a few of us problems on the 360, the PC version allows players to issue a separate "run" command by double-tapping the W button. For some reason, this made things a bit easier for us as we raced past cover points to get where we wanted to go.
It's not surprising that you can do away with the keyboard altogether and use a 360 gamepad to play the PC version of the game. What is surprising is that the game automatically detects your input device as you use it and adjusts the game balance accordingly. To go one better, the game can even switch between modes in real time while you're playing and even updates the small help icons that appear during the game to fit the controller you're using. It might seem like a strange feature to get excited about, but it clearly shows the effort that Epic is putting forth to make the PC version every bit as impressive as the console version.
The new single player content includes five new chapters that fill out some of the story towards the end of the game. Originally, this content was supposed to be included in the console release but it was cut because the developers couldn't get it completed and polished in time for release. We don't want to spoil any of the details of the story, but it involves a drawbridge, a train bomb and a stunning new boss battle with the Brumak, one of the largest, baddest monsters we've seen in a long time.
Those who have completed the original game won't need to play through the entire PC version to get to the new content. The final act of the game will be unlocked right at the start when you first install the game, so you can jump right in and take on the new challenges right away. The only difficulty is that the new content is pretty difficult, so you might want to get your skills up again playing through the early sections of the game first.
After playing through the single player content, we had a chance to sit down for a little Live! love in some four-on-four King of the Hill multiplayer in the game's new maps. King of the Hill is a new, PC-exclusive multiplayer mode that works a bit like the Annex mode in the current Xbox 360 version. In King of the Hill, each team fights to control a small circular area of the map. The location of the circle changes from round to round, but it's almost always in a fairly open area that isn't easily defended.
To control the circle, a team has to have a live player (or one who is "down but not out") in the circle. The team that controls the circle starts racking up points for the win but control is broken the instant that an enemy breaks the circle. And since the game is played with execution rules, you can't simply get the enemy out of the circle by shooting them from a distance; you've got to get in and get your hands dirty.
We had plenty of fun with this new mode, both in trying to defend a circle that offered no nearby areas of cover, and in performing suicide runs to break the enemy's control of a circle. The game mode definitely emphasizes teamwork and rewards players who don't bunch up together in the circle but rather find points of cover nearby where they can defend a single player holding the circle.
There are three entirely new multiplayer maps here, each of which ties in nicely to the single player campaign without actually duplicating any of the content. The first is Courtyard, a bright and open level that feels and looks a lot like Embry from the beginning of the game. There's a large staircase leading down to an open courtyard flanked by two elevated landings. What's great about this level is that both teams can spot each other pretty much right away, so there's no chance to sneak up on the opposition. Fortunately, the teams start too far from each other to actually shoot at one another and there's plenty of short cover you can use as you move through the middle of the courtyard.
The Goldrush map is a multi-tiered emulsion plant with pipes full of glowing, flowing liquid all around. Stairways at either end of this narrow level give players an option to head upstairs to a wide catwalk with plenty of areas of cover and some interesting vantage points to take shots at players who are fighting it out on the lower levels.
The third map is called Sanctuary and it's probably the biggest departure for the series with plenty of gothic-style horror movie atmosphere. The whole level is very dark and very stony and takes place in a sort of non-denominational religious center.
Many of the achievements from the console version will make their way to the PC courtesy of Live! but a few have had to be changed. The "Series of Tubes" achievement for hosting a game is gone now, for instance. On the plus side, the developers have come up with some interesting new achievements that can only be obtained on the PC. The new Brumak boss achievement is an obvious addition. The team has even replaced the "Seriously..." achievement what required players to gain 10,000 kills in ranked matches with one called "Not So Serious" that rewards players who get 10,000 kills in any mode.
We expected the PC game to run in a much higher resolution than the console version, so we were more pleased than surprised to see the game running in 1920 x 1200. What we were surprised by were all the advances that have been made in Unreal Engine 3 since the 360 version was released. There are too many tweaks, additions and improvements to list here, but suffice it to say that the PC visuals look substantially better than the already impressive visuals found on the 360. You can see for yourself in the movies and screens we've posted in our media section. Because of the advances that have been made to Unreal Engine 3, none of the improvements or additions that the PC version will enjoy will find their way to the Xbox.
Even with all the new content that Epic's adding to the game, the new Unreal editor that's also included in the package means that we'll be seeing plenty of user-created content in the near future. The editor allows players to build their own levels and assign their own cover nodes, complete with options for mantling, leaning and everything else that nodes allow. There's a nice visual reference for each of these nodes as you place them, so you can see at a glance where the cover is in your level. The same sort of visual approach is apparent in the editor's new Kismet scripting tool, which allows players to create their own conditions, actions and events using a simple flow chart with hand-drawn lines.
As usual, the gang at Epic is relying heavily on the community to support these tools, but there will be some basic info included out of the box. Better still, there will be a list of general principles that Epic follows when creating multiplayer maps. This will allow budding designers to capture the real spirit of the game in their own original maps. Gears of War will also ship with all the content the designers used to create the game, so you can see how the levels are put together yourself.
Epic currently has a Gears of War build undergoing release certification by Microsoft. The minimum spec for this build is a 2GHz AMD or 2.4 GHz Intel processor, a full gig of RAM, and either the ATI X700 or GeForce 6600. We won't be getting our review copies until the game is actually pressed, so look for our review early next month.
Gears Of War Preview
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