Storage wars.
Storage becomes more and more of an issue as console games get bigger and bigger. There is no better example of that than Microsoft’s Gears series. The previous game eats up over 100GB of space on a hard drive, and with the launch of Gears 5 it is bound to hit that mark eventually. Seagate has the solution, and with Gears branding to boot. To coincide with the launch of the latest game in the series they have released two flavors of their popular Game Drive featuring the same style as the exclusive console and controller. We got to take the 2TB model for a spin to see how it holds up under the load.
The whole reason to grab this edition of the Game Drive is its aesthetic. It is designed to look exactly like the limited edition console and controller. Featuring white shell with the polar theme, it looks great when matched up with it. It also contains a braided cable, which keeps it from getting tangled up in the mess of cables most gamers deal with. There are themed extras here as well. It comes with a month of Game Pass, which would give players access to Gears 5, as well as skins for the Lancer, Snub, and Gnasher weapons on top of some in-game supplies.
MSRP: $99.99 (2TB)
These extras don’t come free though. This edition of the Game Drive clocks in at around $25 more than the standard Game Drive. For perspective though the original Gears 4 Game Drives go for a pretty penny on sites like eBay. Those special editions do end up being highly collectible for fans of the series.
When it comes to performance this drive matches its less-themed cousins. This is a USB 3.0 drive and transfer rates sit at just above 100MB/s. This is on par with drives of this nature and is a nice step up from traditional mechanical drives. Of course it comes nowhere near the performance of Seagate’s SSD drive, but it also comes at a fraction of the cost. Through several tests it remained consistent, so performance was certainly not an issue. The 2 and 5TB sizes also give options for those that need a little extra space, or power users like myself that need the biggest drive we can find.
There really isn’t much else to say about this drive. It has a wonderful aesthetic and comes packed with everything you need to start playing Gears 5, as well as a few bonus items. For those that picked up the Gears 5 console it matches it perfectly. It will also be a nice collectible for fans of the series. Seagate continues to be the de facto drive for Xbox One, and this is now my third drive attached to my console (I have space issues.)
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
