Gaming Gears of War PC

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/...rs_of_war_pc/1

The PC port of Gears of War is out tomorrow and is kicking up a storm. But is it a good storm, the type with dramatic lightning and booming thunder, or will it just leave you soaking wet and with a ruined picnic? What is there to make the PC version better than the original? We find out!

[Solidus]

Im surprised you didnt experience any installation problems, the Epic forums are ravaged with bugs and crashes for the game. Im having to use a work-around because the game never installs correctly and so are loads of people.

After decompressing, the progress bar dissappears and no start icon on desktop or start menu folder - nothing. Running it from the DVD crashes it at the main menu every 15 seconds and im having to use the "startup.exe" to run it which thankfully hasnt failed me....yet.

Terribly bugged game, its a good game and well deserved of the 9/10 but the bugs need to be mentioned, they are letting it down bigtime.

[Delphium]

Co-Op WIN

However the controls may be a little trickky and take some getting used to, like the space bar for jump as stated.
If unable to change the controls, then thats a bit of an epic failure.

[chrisb2e9]

you cant change the controls? God i hate ports.

[[USRF]Obiwan]

really????
you cant change the controls???

But i am left handed! i dont use swdf (whatever standard keycombo) for moving.
Guess i will cancel my order from the gameshop then. This is ridiculous. first they force me to use third person and now this I have a pc not a console, so make it pc worthy for christ sakes!

Update: You can actualy change all controls.

[Hamish]

crashes all the time on my system
i got pissed off after 20mins and 3 crashes, installed CoD4
far better game

[ImInTheZoneBaby]

All you guys are having problems with the game? Wow, im having none whatsoever.
This is a brilliant game, even after playing it countless times on my Xbox360 im still coming back for more.

The one thing that amazes me so much, would be the performance that is shown when playing the game. Im easily getting over 60fps with everything high, and using a 1600x1200 resolution. Its incredible when you compare it to the Xbox version, where I can remember it sticking around 30fps or something..

I reccomend getting this game even if you're completed it on the 360. Im just waiting for the multiplayer to kick in... Nobody is actually playing it at the moment. But, im guessing thats because my copy was shipped 3 days before release...

[Bauul]

I'm pretty sure Joe said in his review you CAN change the controls, it's just interesting to look at the default set up as it tells you how the company intended you to play the game.

Good review, though doubt I'll be picking it up any time soon, I'm still very slowly working my way through Bioshock.

[Silver Shamrock]

So what about system specs? Any idea what sort of settings i'll be able to play at? I know i can forget about all of those fancy dx10 effects but still.

[yakyb]

im guessing they will be very similar to UT3 which runs very nicely on my 1950pro

[cjmUK]

Joe, a few editorial concerns...

Why is 'e-peen' suddenly getting used? It's been around for ages, but it seems to be de rigeur at the moment.

I generally enjoyed the review and it covered most of the right bases, but throughout the whole thing, I kept getting annoyed about this XBox 360 thing. The entire article is based on the premise that you own, or have access to, the original game on the 360. A snap poll would be interesting to find out how many people game on either a 360 or a PC versus those that use both.

Obviously, I'd heard of GoW, and I knew it was a very popular, uber-violent shooter, but that's about it. I didn't know *anything* about the story or the gameplay. Yes, you did a recap and it was perfectly satisfactory. I know comparisons between the original Xbox version and this were inevitable, but for my liking, there was too much looking back to the 360 instead of simply telling us PC bods what the PC version is actually like.

I'm not just trying to give you a hard time; just a reminder that not every has (or wants) the same exposure to different platforms that you guys have.

On to the game... I fear it's been spoiled for me. I'd probably not have noticed, but I almost certain to keep noticing the inability to jump now! I didn't get a feel for how the actual gameplay pans out. Is it mainly a corridor shooter like many others, or is it more open? How linear is it? What is the pace like?

As for Xbox + PC multiplayer, I don't see how it can ever happen. Technically it was possible years ago. The problem is that you couldn't knobble the gameplay properly to even things out; so the Xbox players would get absolutely caned.

I may well buy the game, but it will likely be a year on when it's cheaper, unless I get a recommendation from a friend or another review convinces me otherwise, but I don't think I'll be ordering just yet.

CJM

[Silver Shamrock]

I prett much agree with cjmUK there. On the whole i thought it was a pretty poor review. That's why i had to come in here and ask about system specs which i thought is essential to PC game reviews these days. It's nice to see how different high textures looks compared to low textures but i want to know what sort of settings i will need to run at to get a smooth game.
I've noticed lots of childish 'l33t' talk crap appearing in many recent reviews also. I hate it.

[cjmUK]

Whoa! Easy, tiger... I'm not saying it was a bad review. Just not entirely done the way *I* would have preferred. Sub-optimal perhaps.

Re: specs... I can't be arsed looking back, but didn't earlier reviews include performance indicators for typical hardware - or am I imagining it (entirely possible).

[Silver Shamrock]

Originally Posted by cjmUK

Whoa! Easy, tiger... I'm not saying it was a bad review. Just not entirely done the way *I* would have preferred. Sub-optimal perhaps.

Re: specs... I can't be arsed looking back, but didn't earlier reviews include performance indicators for typical hardware - or am I imagining it (entirely possible).

I didn't say you said it was a bad review, i just agreed with your points then said that I thought it was a poor review.
The only mention of hardware i can find is in a preview from back in september mentioning it running on an 8800GTS @1920 x 1080 but other than that, nothing. Unless i have overlooked it somewhere?

[Gunsmith]

i never bothered playing it originally on the 360 (i dispise the xbox with a vengience) so this was a completly new experiance to me, i originally feared another halo, overhyped and complete ******** but thankfully i was wrong. what ive been playing is a stunning example of the power of the unreal 3 engine and how a keyboard and mouse can utterly dick on a joypad. its fantastic, makes me glad I went for that 2nd GTX in the end the chainsaw bayonet is a stupidly amusing concept that is fantastic fun.

now all I need is a rocket propelled chainsaw

[wuyanxu]

yay for the superior "moose" gaming action.

[CardJoe]

First off: You can change the controls. Sorry if that wasn't clear, but I was purely commenting on how the default controls bought a flaw with the game design to light for me.

Ok, Cheers for the feedback guys - I've been out of the office today or I would have responded to this earlier. I'll address your points as best I can.

Firstly, looking back, I can see your point CJM and I guess I did reference the 360 a bit. Funnily enough, I don't own a 360 myself and consider myself a PC gamer primarily. I assumed that people would know most of the set-up, but I guess it was a semi-faulty assumption. My bad!

To answer your question about linearity - the game is pretty much a corridor shooter. At a few specific points you're given a few choices of which direction to go and what to do (Clear the room ahead / cover the flank type thing) but you never really get a chance to do both. It increases replayability a bit, but not massively.

As for system specs, it's not something I've ever covered in reviews since I started here and not something I've ever been prompted to put in by anyone. The system specs are there on the packaging or retail site and I'm generally of the opinion that it's not useful to waste space repeating stuff like that when it's only a click or two away for some people. There is some discussion to be had on the topic, but these reviews are pretty long as they are and take ussually two or three days to do anyway. Obviously if it's something everyone wants then I'll include it, or maybe I'll look at including a link as part of the article header.

As for spoiling the game for you by pointing out flaws - Sorry! Not really something I can avoid though since it's kind of my job :P

On the style front, I can see how you'd get annoyed by l33tsp33k but rest assured I only ever use it ironicly and something I very much try to keep to a minimum. I'll keep more of an eye on it in the future as I agree with you - stylistically it's like using a club to do the job of a scalpel.

As for E-peen, it is just the word of the moment I guess. As far as I'm aware, I've never used it before but I know Bindi has. I think I went directly from editing an article of his to writing this and, though I did originally have a much longer phrase in place I cut it out and used this instead. If I hadn't then the sentence would have been about 5 lines long.

Cross platform is something I've actually been looking at today and just finished quizzing Mark Rein about, so you can expect a touch more discussion on that in the near future. Probably this weekend if all goes well.

I appreciate both of your points of view and have taken your critiscisms on board. I actually very much enjoy getting feedback like this because it's both helpful, insightful and interesting. It makes me a better writer and makes sure you guys get what you want. If you both want to dicuss it further then drop me an email at Joe.martin@bit-tech.net and we can talk some more. Thanks guys!

[cjmUK]

Originally Posted by CardJoe

It increases replayability a bit, but not massively.

TBH, I have so little time and such a low boredom threshold, I'd never play it again anyway. Bioshock was sold a fortnight after I bought it.

As for system specs,

How about a suggestion for minimum reasonable spec... ie. you should have a good experience if you have this kit or better...

As for E-peen

It's not just here - it's doing the rounds all over t'interweb at the moment.

Cross platform is something I've actually been looking at today and just finished quizzing Mark Rein about, so you can expect a touch more discussion on that in the near future. Probably this weekend if all goes well.

My mate is a dyed-in-the-wool console jockey. I'll be happy if you have news of me being closer to kicking his arse once and for all, I'll be happy.

[Silver Shamrock]

I was a tad harsh i admit and i'm sorry for my tone earlier. I just felt abit clueless after reading the review. It's hard to explain but i didn't feel like i'd actually learned anything. As for the specs bit, well my PC just can't handle some newer games maxed out at the smoothness i really crave for anymore. 6 months ago i didn't have that worry but times change rapidly and i can't afford a new card yet so i have to be careful. Gears looks stunning to me from the screenies and videos i've seen so i was kinda hoping that i would be able to know what sort of settings i could play it at. As we all know, recommended specs mean diddly.
I take your point that you don't have a great deal of time to review the games and i appreciate that bit-tech's earlier in depth reviews like Stalker do take alot of time but maybe just a few words on performance when it comes to the big flash looking next-gen titles like Gears?
But at the end of the day i'm not paying you to give me everything i need to know and i do enjoy pretty much everything about bit-tech so again i apologise for my harsh tone earlier.

I know i'm going to enjoy the game though

[CardJoe]

I'll work on getting those specs placed in articles for you. And you will enjoy the game, it's pretty awesome and very scaleable