The next Gears game is on its way and it just might be the biggest and most expansive to date. After its surprise unveiling at last year’s E3 Xbox One press conference, Gears of War 4 is now among the hottest titles to be coming to the Xbox One this year. Its been a long wait too, three years and counting since last outing, Gears of War: Judgement.
Gears of War has grown into a huge franchise for Microsoft over the last decade. So important in fact that Microsoft bought the rights from Epic Games back in 2014 to develop the series for itself. And not only that, they also brought onboard Rod Fergusson, the man who produced the first three games at Epic. He’ll be leading development at developer The Coalition, previously Microsoft Vancouver, which should mean Gears 4 is in safe hands.
Gears of War 4 PC Version
After the recent announcement that Xbox One exclusive Quantum Break will now be making its way to Windows 10, rumours have started spreading that other Microsoft first-party titles will make the same move. With Gears of War Ultimate Edition, ReCore, Halo Wars 2 and Killer Instinct also confirmed to be making their way to Windows 10, I’d be amazed if Microsoft didn’t also release Gears of War 4 and Forza Motorsport 6 on the platform too.
The PC version of Quantum Break will actually be given away free to those pre-ordering the digital version of the game on Xbox One, presumably with some kind of Windows 10 Xbox-app based copy protection. Quantum Break has no multiplayer component but game saves will be compatible across both versions, so you can switch back and forth. It would be great if Gears of War 4 went one step further will full Windows-Xbox crossplay for competitive and co-op.
Gears of War 4 Release Date
Winter 2016 is the official release date for Gears of War 4, so there’s still some time to wait before the game becomes available. Microsoft tends to launch its titles a little earlier than the multi-platform big hitters such as Call of Duty, so I’d expect an October release date, but certainly somewhere between early October to mid November.
Gears of War 4 Beta
No news on this yet I’m afraid, but I think we can be certain that there will be a multiplayer beta for a game as big as Gears of War 4. Microsoft had a beta of Halo 5’s Arena multiplayer mode some nine months before the game actually shipped. An impressive feat and one that must have provided serious feedback for the developers, rather than the usual server tests that most betas amount to merely weeks from launch.
Hopefully Gears multiplayer will be allowed the same opportunity and with the demo at last year’s E3 looking highly-polished I wouldn’t be surprised if we get something playable well before that late 2016 release date.
Gears of War 4 Trailer
There’s only the one trailer for Gears of War 4 so far, the one that was shown at E3 last year. That said it’s still well worth watching again. It’s impressive how polished this segment of the game looks even some 18 months before its launch date.
The trailer has something of a survival-horror feel about it, though that’s something that Gears has drawn upon before. The dark countryside settings, gothic architecture and howling wind make for a foreboding setting, followed by the horrific pods and tentacles in the castle itself. There’s some impressive work in the collapsing building and we get to see the Lancer’s chainsaw bayonet at work to open doors.
It’s a bit of a slow burner admittedly but skip ahead to five minutes and you get to see some classic Gears combat with the usual cover mechanics and some big nasties. The weapon line-up here is all familiar from previous games but you do get to see a nice bit of potential co-op play where you knock a beasties off your teammate.
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