Gears Of War: Reloaded is a Steam remaster of the original cover shooter
It's out this August
I once got in a heated debate with Graham over whether the chest-high walls in the Gears Of War series could accurately be called 'massive'. The Gears men are massive, I argued. So it stands to reason that any wall that could provide adequate bullet cover to a massive man must itself be a massive wall. No, said Graham. They're famously normal size walls, hence why the massive men have to squat down like they've just had a bowling ball lobbed at their kidneys. Well, we can finally examine the true scale of these walls - in 4K no less - with Gears Of War: Reloaded. A "faithfully remastered" version of the 2006 large man action game, coming to Steam on August 26th this year.
I couldn't find a trailer so enjoy this extremely old one and just imagine it looks nicer. Bit nicer. Little bit nicer. That's it, now you're thinking like a customer!
The announcement was announced by the announcement professionals at Xbox Wire. It'll be $40 to buy, and also available on that game subscription service you may or may not want to support right now. The blog mentions "split screen" although doesn't use the words "local co-op" specifically. Reloaded has "the full breadth of content from the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition", itself a remaster with some added bonuses, namely the five extra chapters previously exclusive to the original Windows release. Here are some Gamer Stats for you, gamer:
- 4K resolution
- 60 FPS in Campaign
- 120 FPS in Multiplayer
- High Dynamic Range (HDR)
- Dolby Vision & 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos
- 7.1.4 3D Spatial Audio
- Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)
- 4K assets and remastered textures
- Enhanced post-processing visual effects
- Improved shadows and reflections
- Super resolution with improved anti-aliasing
- Zero loading screens during Campaign
My claim to fame is that I'm one of the seven people in the world that had played Kill Switch prior to the original Gears. That's the 2003 PS2 game that effectively invented the contemporary cover shooter, complete with blindfire. If anything needed a modern remaster, that feels like the far more important project to me, essential piece of gaming history that it is. It's currently available as abandonware if you're curious.