Gears fans finally have something to look forward to – something to hold them off until the much-hyped Gears of War 4 arrives. The Xbox E3 Press Conference gave the world a look into the Xbox One exclusive remake: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Remastered for the Xbox One, displaying at 1080p and running at 60 fps, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (GoW:UE) is coming out on August 25 2015 with more than just prettier graphics. Recreated environments, characters and cutscenes allow even the most seasoned of Gears fans to re-enjoy the same story practically for the first time. A large collection of features was included in the latest in the Gears franchise, giving you more than just the same game again. RFMag sat with Rod Fergusson himself during E3 to get details on this highly-anticipated remake.
Rod Fergusson of The Coalition detailed that one of the goals of GoW:UE is to demonstrate what we can expect in quality in the upcoming title Gears of War 4. Scenes and graphics have been rebuilt from the ground up to give GoW:UE a more modern look.
Gameplay has been re-tuned for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition while keeping Gears 1 from becoming a different game altogether:
- Ability to revive teammates while in cover
- Ability to toggle weapon while roadie running/evading
- Improved sensitivity customization
- Alternate controls and new tournament controls
- Improved situational awareness in multiplayer through enemy spotting and tac-com features in “Gears of War 3”
- Letter boxed split screen (horizontal letter box)
- Seamless joining and quitting from co-op Campaign
- Individual difficulty settings for splitscreen co-op
Scrutiny was placed on this list to make sure GoW:UE didn’t morph into a different Gears game altogether. One example is dbno (down-but-not-out) crawling in Gears of War 2 intentionally left out of this game. The tournament controls offer a new control scheme to appease more completive players that have adopted a “claw” grip on their Xbox controllers for playing Gears games. There will also be five new campaign missions that were not originally available in the console version of Gears of War. That includes the infamous Brumak battle mission.
Online Multiplayer will include modes originating in the first Gears of War and ones introduced in succeeding titles. There will also be 17 unlockable Gears of Wars 3 characters for play in these modes:
- Team Death Match
- King of the Kill
- Warzone
- Assassination
- Execution
- Annex
- *A special 2v2 mode designed by the “Gears of War” community.
Confirmed Maps for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
| War Machine | Gridlock | Bullet Marsh |
| Mausoleum | Mansion | Process |
| Escalation | Tyro Station | Courtyard |
| Clock Tower | Old Bones | Sanctuary |
| Fuel Depot | Raven Down | Gold Rush |
| Rooftops | Garden | |
| Canals | Subway |
The overhauled online experienced will be further reinforced with dedicated servers and a new map will be introduced for the new 2 v 2 mode. Just in case none of this is enough to entice you, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will also offer early access to the “Gears of War 4” multiplayer beta in 2016. Here are some more shots to help hold you off until August 25 2015.