Ultimate Gears, Ultimate Version?
Gears of War Ultimate edition released late last year on the Xbox One exclusively, and I previously reviewed it, thinking very highly of it. I thought it was a great new addition to the select few remade games that stands to go above and beyond a simple port. PC players who played Gears back on the Xbox 360 have been waiting to get their hands on the PC version, which is a Windows 10/Windows store exclusive. Did it survive the transition to PC intact is the key question.
I’d assume it’s pretty fair that most people should know exactly what Gears of War is about, that said, a brief recap: The locust have come out from within the planet, destroying everything in their wake, society is crumbled, and things look grim. Taking control of Marcus, players join a resistance group that are looking to make a difference. It’s one of the most influential third person shooters and it’s easy to see why, but not everything has a new coat of paint.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PC, XB1
Price I’d Pay: $59.99
Multiplayer: 1-4 MP, 1-2 co-op
How long to beat: 9+ hours
Locust…the master race!
Visually on the PC version, things look absolutely gorgeous. With more resolutions options then just standard 1920 x 1080, players that have beastly rigs and will definitely be able to take good advantage here. Options for video settings range from low to high. For my time with the game, I stuck with 1920 x 1080 and high at the start. Played on an ASUS ROG laptop with a GTX 980M, 4GB DDR5 VRAM, 16GB RAM, I was able to play on the highest settings but with some caveats. It would seem to mostly run good but when it came to roadie running or intense scenes of combat, I would get some framerate stuttering. Lowering shadows to low helped reduce this, and ultimately putting settings to medium seemed to correct this mostly. Framerate can be played locked and what appears to be 30, or unlocked and 60. Playing Gears Ultimate at 60 fps was a treat after having played on the Xbox One version last year. I’m not a stickler for frames, but it’s appreciated regardless.
Outside of the high requirements that the game asked to run, I’m not sure if the visuals support those. I don’t dare say this game isn’t beautiful, but at the same time, it’s not one of the most impressive games out there or pushing as crazy tech as some recent games. It’s also only downloadable via the windows store, so this means your limited to running in full screen window mode, and files are locked down. So folks that like to mod files or really take advantage of what PC options usually allow will have to understand that going into these Window store exclusives.
The only way to play.
Gears of War Ultimate edition seemingly does well enough on PC and everything that was on the Xbox One version is offered here. The requirements are quite beefy, you need Windows 10, and it’s a Windows store exclusive, so that in itself might narrow down just how many PC players want to partake. It runs fairly well on my laptop with minor issues, but I did notice lots of stuttering in the video segments, and a slight stutter getting to checkpoints, but not sure if that’s the game itself or my system causing problems. None of it was super detrimental though. The core campaign and multiplayer segments are all here, and if players don’t own an Xbox One it’s definitely worth checking out, especially if having never played a Gears of War game. This is the start of it all, and better than it originally released in most aspects.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
