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Gears of War 4 - In depth details (Game Informer)

That seems like a really strange conclusion to reach when regenerating health basically keeps both parties safe as long as they camp. If there's a timer counting down the match's time, once a team gets a kill they're in a good position to camp and if there is no timer it's stale mate city and at that point it's just down to who isn't feeling patient.

A shooter's "campiness" is imo driven far more by the actual objectives in the match than anything else.
Well, with regen health people aren't afraid to actually push for map control. I find this all the time in games like Counter Strike where people will sit behind a crate and put off pot shots across or down a hallway at random with the intention of just taking off 10% of someones health to put them at a disadvantage. It would be horrible to play Gears and have 20% of your health gone right off spawn because some guy is taking potshots with a pistol.
 
The most important aspect of this game to me is Horde. Please deliver an awesome experience like Gears 3 Horde had
Campaign + Horde for me, yeah.

I'd expect free maps too, but at the cost of some kind of REQ system. If the map packs are paid, I'd hope they go the Gears 2 route and make the maps work across PvP and Horde.

And my wish for Horde is just to go back to the simplicity of Horde 2. I really didn't enjoy the XP and leveling aspect of Gears 3 (hey, I was placing turrets! *pout*). And I don't want to defend generators like in Judgment. Nothing beats the fear and desperation you'd have in Gears 2, holed up in some small makeshift Alamo, the ground shaking with the enemies about to rush in and murder the fuck out of you.
 
You've never played a fast paced game with health pickups?
tps? nope
Regen health does not exactly make something fast paced. You're making assumptions about how regaining health would even work and also like I said, the speed of the match is determined far more by objective and map design.
and what would removing regen health solve exactly? why try to fix something that isnt broken?
 

LordOfChaos

Member
-Humanity has become an endangered species huddled in walled cities seeking shelter from devastating wind storms (as a result of the bomb & intense war aftermath)

Remember that one time at the end of Gears 3 Dom asks "What do we have left" and what's her face goes "we have tomorrow"

Good times, gooood times, heh.


Looks like this world is staying grimdark for a while yet (Don't get me wrong, makes total sense for the franchise, just ironic in the face of the spark of optimism at the end of 3)
 
Well, with regen health people aren't afraid to actually push for map control. I find this all the time in games like Counter Strike where people will sit behind a crate and put off pot shots across or down a hallway at random with the intention of just taking off 10% of someones health to put them at a disadvantage. It would be horrible to play Gears and have 20% of your health gone right off spawn because some guy is taking potshots with a pistol.

Once again these are two completely different things comparing a game mode with power weapons with no objectives which is gonna make people want to go for map control compared to a game with an objective that one team defends. Map control equates to different things in these scenarios.

Meanwhile good luck winning a round in Quake without map control because someone was taking pot shots with a pistol.

tps? nope

and what would removing regen health solve exactly? why try to fix something that isnt broken?

Already covered why I want it removed so I'm not sure what's with this line of questioning.
 
Campaign + Horde, yes.

I'd expect free maps too, but at the cost of some kind of REQ system. If the map packs are paid, I'd hope they go the Gears 2 route and make the maps work across PvP and Horde.

And my wish for Horde is just to go back to the simplicity of Horde 2. I really didn't enjoy the XP and leveling aspect of Gears 3 (hey, I was placing turrets! *pout*). And I don't want to defend generators like in Judgment. Nothing beats the fear and desperation you'd have in Gears 2, holed up in some small makeshift Alamo, the ground shaking with the enemies about to rush in and murder the fuck out of you.

As long as the REQs aren't randomized slot machines like H5 I'd be fine with that. Agree on Horde being more like 2. I was fine with 3s horde but I think 2s was better in that it really required full cooperation between the 4 of you in order to get anywhere on Insane. Wouldn't mind the return of a class based Horde mode as well but only if a Gears 2 style Horde is available as well. Best scenario is that they go full Halo Reach Firefight mode and give you lots of modifiers and options to tinker with.
 

iMax

Member
For anyone who's counting, Marcus Fenix is 62 in this game.

Same age as Hulk Hogan.

hulk-hogan.jpg


Coincidence?
 
For anyone who's counting, Marcus Fenix is 62 in this game.

Same age as Hulk Hogan.

hulk-hogan.jpg


Coincidence?

This made me laugh way harder than it should have.

Man I'd lose my mind if Gears had a Hogan or Machoman esque character. The series is begging for it.
 
Be sure to check out the full cover story with more info and some great gameplay screenshots: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2016/03/08/april-cover-revealed-gears-of-war-4.aspx

-2 player couch co-op (Online TBA)
-Set on Sera 25 years after Gears of War 3
-Imulsion weapon set off at the end of GOW3 killed off all fossil fuels
-Humanity has become an endangered species huddled in walled cities seeking shelter from devastating wind storms (as a result of the bomb & intense war aftermath)
-Called "windflares", sort of a melting of a hurrican and volcano
-4 categories of weather in the game: Start out as heavy breeze (trees, leaves, dust kicking up) and grow into violent category 3 windstorms that can affect combat and weapon usage
-Category 4 windstorms have you just trying to survive, super violent, dodging lightning strikes, etc
-Think of the wind when fighting: Putting the wind behind could help projectile travel, but fighting directly against the wind could throw bullets back at you
-Enemies also affected by the weather (which you could exploit and use strategically)
-"Outsider" camps outside of COG
-Heavy inspiration on the setting from Northern Italy (forests, forts, etc)
-Want to get back to the "intimacy" and "boogeyman" feeling of the original Gears
-Team settled on story that features 3 protagonists and stretches across a 24 hour span in game
-JD Fenix (main character) is Marcus Fenix's son
-JD: Joined the COG militia, classified incident forced him to AWOL
-Del: JD in the campaign, befriended him at boarding school (deep bond)
-Kait: Outsider, capable survivalist, shares Outsider perspective with JD/Del
-Story begins as their Outsider village is invaded by a mysterious new force; kidnapped
-The trio goes into the forest in search, wondering why only they were spared
-New enemy is called "The Swarm"
-After the war, too many Locust to bury so many were tossed into mass graves (our trio believe this new threat may be linked)
-First mission sets off with the trio in the forest, discovering giant cocoon-like pods, pale monstrous creatures erupt looking almost human
-These enemies are dubbed "Juvies" (harkening to their seemingly first evolutionary stage of a new enemy)
-Juvies can eventually evolve into "Drones" (homage to the trilogy), able to use weapons, seemingly the main enemy type
-Also experimenting with new enemies like the "Pouncer" (E3 demo)
-Pouncer switches tactics based on player (if you run out in the open, it shoots poisonous quills; stay in cover and it comes after you)
-New weapons like "construction based" tools repurposed for combat
-Wanted to revamp the cover system; can more easily mantle kick over any piece of cover & perform knife kills
-Can also perform a short distance shoulder charge, knocking enemies off balance
-Enemies can also pull players out of cover and perform their own takedowns
-Implementing dynamic cover (for example shooting enemy pods from ceilings in an otherwise open area)
-Big emphasis on multiplayer, saying original Gears development was 90% SP, 10% MP
-Want to meet needs of recreational players and esports players
-Acknowledges love for horde mode and promises fans won't be disappointed

This sounds incredible and hope the developer deliver as Gears 4 may make me buy an X1 finally!
 

Chris1

Member
I'd expect free maps too, but at the cost of some kind of REQ system. If the map packs are paid, I'd hope they go the Gears 2 route and make the maps work across PvP and Horde.

I think free DLC for games that its playerbase get split with DLC will be guaranteed for MS games going forward, kind of like using Azure.

Major Nelson said in a podcast how he doesn't like that DLC split playerbase so he liked how they did it with Halo 5, I know he's only a PR guy and doesn't really have a say in it but I don't think he'd say that if they planned to have Gears with paid DLC knowing people would bring those comments up.
 
It's all sounding damn good. But man, that last part about emphasis on MP makes me worried the campaign won't be as long as the first one or second one. It should not be a very short campaign. Man why do I always worry about shit. No technical details?
 
Nice! This all sounds so good! Only thing I don't like so far is playing as Marcus's son. Kinda wanted a greater detachment from delta squad, but everything else sounds awesome! Hoping to hear about the beta soon.
 
Like the more Gears 1 style they're going for. But, sucks there's no four player co-op. Gears 3 was fucking fun.

Also, I'll go ahead and predict Marcus shows up at some point in the series and dies heroically.
 

Warxard

Banned
Just some thoughts I wanted to share regarding how the new melee mechanics could play into MP.

It's important to consider that we should judge the designs of Gears of War 4 as it's own experience, and instead of bogging it down to appease old heads that can easily go play UE since it's like, dope, the team shouldn't be afraid to add sensible QOL additions to the game -- just as long as they aren't as drastic as Judgment's changes.

-Wanted to revamp the cover system; can more easily mantle kick over any piece of cover & perform knife kills

Now the former sounds fine, if they're refining Gears 3's ridiculous hitboxes for the mantle kick, then by all means. I'm curious as to how the knife kill works in regards to cover. Sure they can replace the default weapon bash with a Knife animation (Makes meleeing even more riskier now that there's a window of animation between Melee and Weapon holding, thus effectively neutering the potential for the classic Gnasher 2piece.) but how does this work for cover?

-Can also perform a short distance shoulder charge, knocking enemies off balance
They're really going to have to consider how 'short' the distance is. Adding Stagger sounds like something that could work for Gears IF it means they ultimately remove the special melee kill for weapons like the Retro Lancer. Halo's Spartan Charge works well for what it is in Halo but for Gears it's probably going to be something really sudden to be used practically.
-Enemies can also pull players out of cover and perform their own takedowns

I don't know how I feel about this. It removes the risk of the mantle kick entirely, and I don't see the applications for it if you still have hurtboxes that can still let you get waxed by a Gnasher.

--

Of course there isn't much to go off of. The idea of knives interest me. A 'bleeding mechanic' (meaning the Omen stays much longer before regenerating you back to normal life) would be interesting to see in Gears as well
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Ooh, I hope they retcon the terrible Sires explanation for the Locusts (even if they're not the main enemy in this game/don't exist anymore). Lambent humans that mutated, were held underground, and in just 100 years had a society with its own technological evolution and mass numbers? Pretty dumb, why didn't they keep it as they always just existed underground with humans above rather than explaining it dumbly.
 
Already covered why I want it removed so I'm not sure what's with this line of questioning.
u mentioned the shotgun being powerful and needing 'balancing' or something, its a damn shotgun of course it should be powerful at close range. gears usp is the shotgun battles and wallbouncing mechanic, without these things its just another tps that no one would care about.
 

malfcn

Member
How will 4-man work if there are 3 characters?


Oh, I read top of the page. Only 2 players?
That's fine with me.
 

KnoxVan

Neo Member
Seems like the game being "Reinvented" inestead of "getting back to roots" that sound good to me, the game premise sounds recicled but it will be intersting to see the final Project


as for characters background, seems like the bro-force is the success for a Game story Co-op, i hope they can give a litle more background story in game and not just in paper
 
And my wish for Horde is just to go back to the simplicity of Horde 2. I really didn't enjoy the XP and leveling aspect of Gears 3 (hey, I was placing turrets! *pout*). And I don't want to defend generators like in Judgment. Nothing beats the fear and desperation you'd have in Gears 2, holed up in some small makeshift Alamo, the ground shaking with the enemies about to rush in and murder the fuck out of you.

See I vastly prefer Horde 3.0 over 2.0 but I can understand you feeling that way. I really hope they dont take away the Tower Defense feeling 3.0 had. Would be a huge bummer for me
 

Ein Bear

Member
I hope the tone in this isn't too serious. I feel like quite a bit of revisionist history has gone on in recent years about the original Gears being 'dark horror' or whatever. It was slightly less dumb and goofy than it's sequels but it was still dumb and goofy.

Which I absolutely love. I want my characters shouting one liners and making stupid jokes. Gears combat dialogue is the absolute best.

SCRATCH ONE GRUB
BACK IN YOUR HOLE
NOTHING BUT BITS
 
u mentioned the shotgun being powerful and needing 'balancing' or something, its a damn shotgun of course it should be powerful at close range. gears usp is the shotgun battles and wallbouncing mechanic, without these things its just another tps that no one would care about.

Man you aren't even trying lol. I did not say the shotgun shouldn't be powerful at close range and on top of that you're just getting into a really subjective argument that the game must be about shotgun duels or it's just another tps because reasons.
 
I expect it to be the best looking game to date on Xbox One.
Don't think it'll look better than Quantum Break honestly, but it'll still look great. Really liked the lighting in the e3 demo, seemed like when they said "Dark" they actually meant dark, like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at night dark.
 
I hope the tone in this isn't too serious. I feel like quite a bit of revisionist history has gone on in recent years about the original Gears being 'dark horror' or whatever. It was slightly less dumb and goofy than it's sequels but it was still dumb and goofy.

Which I absolutely love. I want my characters shouting one liners and making stupid jokes. Gears combat dialogue is the absolute best.

SCRATCH ONE GRUB
BACK IN YOUR HOLE
NOTHING BUT BITS

Exactly. I love it too. But also the dialogue in general when you walk around and team members talk to you.

Have they said anything about framerate and resolution for both SP and MP?

Don't think it'll look better than Quantum Break honestly, but it'll still look great. Really liked the lighting in the e3 demo, seemed like when they said "Dark" they actually meant dark, like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at night dark.

It was the lighting in particular that I didn't find too impressive or maybe I just need to see it again. I was expecting to be floored when a new Gears was going to be shown but instead of that it wss a bit underwhelming for me.
 

krang

Member
Man you aren't even trying lol. I did not say the shotgun shouldn't be powerful at close range and on top of that you're just getting into a really subjective argument that the game must be about shotgun duels or it's just another tps because reasons.

If it looks as good as Ryse I'd be dead happy.

I hope it looks better.
 
See I vastly prefer Horde 3.0 over 2.0 but I can understand you feeling that way. I really hope they dont take away the Tower Defense feeling 3.0 had. Would be a huge bummer for me
Maybe there is a way to pull off a light class system or long progression that doesn't run into the problems of Gears 3. Players stepping on each other's toes with XP and deployments was a real thing, and I think that the overall scale of the game got pushed out a bit too much and lost the intimate violence aspect. Those problems could be fixed though.

I also mention a "light" class system because I'd still like to have some fun in these modes either solo or as a duo. A hard class system would make that pretty impossible, unless there's some sweet bot support I guess.
 

Warxard

Banned
u mentioned the shotgun being powerful and needing 'balancing' or something, its a damn shotgun of course it should be powerful at close range. gears usp is the shotgun battles and wallbouncing mechanic, without these things its just another tps that no one would care about.

As of Gears 3 there's more that can be done with the core balancing of the game that isn't just focused entirely on the Gnasher. If you want that, play UE
 
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