Gears Of War 4 Review
Platform – Xbox One, Windows 10 Developer/Publisher – The Coalition/Microsoft Release date – October 7th, 2016 / October 11th, 2016 Platform reviewed: Xbox One Price – $59.99/69.99€/£49.99 MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD – YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED! Story/Campaign Gears of War 4’s story picks up 25 years after the events of Gears of War 3 on the planet Sierra, with the main character James Dominic Fenix, son of the original Gears hero Marcus Fenix, and his companions – Del and Kait. The trio have been branded as Outsiders, deserters of the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG), due to a disagreement Jinn’s policies. They then join a raid group led by Reyna, Kait’s mother. Your gameplay starts in a nearby under-construction COG settlement with the goal of stealing a special fabricator and to bring back to your village. Upon reaching that location, the studio prepared a mini “horde mode” for players to get a taste of the real deal, which I did enjoy, making me even more crazy to play Horde Mode 3.0. After successfully dealing with COG’s threat to the village, J.D. Fenix and his group start repairing the Fabricator in order to power the whole place. Suddenly, unknown creatures raid the village, capturing everyone, including Reyna, who locks J.D., Del, and Kait inside the power station to protect them. This is where the journey to meet Marcus Fenix begins, as the group asks him for help to fight the Swarm and rescue Kait’s mother. I won’t go into much detail about the plot as you should go through all of the campaign without getting spoiled, but despite some major outlets giving a disappointing campaign score, I really enjoyed my playthrough. The characters we were presented with made me care about them, and a terrifying new threat presented itself in the Swarm. Gameplay Whether you’re a new fan to Gears or an old fan coming back, the gameplay will feel natural to you if you play shooters regularly. In Gears 4, not much has been changed but enough was built to keep it refreshing, fun and addictive. The new Combat Knife allows players to perform executions by grabbing enemies behind cover and executing them with various beautiful animations. The Coalition also introduced an array of new weapons such as Buzzkill, which shoots ricocheting sawblades, Dropshot, that fires explosive drills, Embar, which acts as a railgun, and much more. It’s a welcome addition to the weapon sandbox feeling balanced throughout the PvP mode. One particular game feature that you’ll find and probably enjoy is the weather system, mainly the violent windflares that can impact your overall gameplay. A new feature introduced in Gears 4 that got me very thrilled is the possibility to trade your weapon with a companion, like in the Halo franchise. It adds more depth to the game making each character supportive in the fight by giving them a specific type of gun for a specific type of situation. One small but noteworthy improvement The Coalition made was to your friend’s AI. They now are more reactive and revive more quickly in the campaign. Aside from all that, it’s your traditional Gears gameplay, but slightly improved blending the fan favorite Gears of War 3 and Gears 1 Ultimate Edition. Visuals/Performance Moving to the graphics department, this is where the game truly shines. Having gone through all the campaign, most of the areas you step into will blow you away! The studio in Vancouver put a lot of effort into small details, like leafs, trees and buildings. Running at a rock-solid 1080p/30 FPS (Campaign, Horde) on Xbox One, I can say the performance holds up very well throughout the entire game only having a minor framerate dip in certain situations. Here are a few of my favorite screenshots of the game. DigitalFoundry did an in-depth analysis which I recommend anyone to give a look. Multiplayer/Horde 3.0 Running at 1080p/60fps, matchmaking and Skill Ranks improve the Versus Multiplayer experience by combining like-skilled players together in ranked matches, giving beginners the chance to play against beginners and more skilled players a tougher challenge. The Coalition has also added new modes such as Dodgeball, Arms Race and Escalation to provide new ways for players to enjoy Versus Multiplayer, each with a different set of rules and twists. It also runs on dedicated servers putting an end to the host advantage. Core playlists: Warzone Team Deathmatch Dodgeball (new mode featuring 5v5 players with epic clutch moments and high intensity respawn). King of the Hill Guardian Arms Race Competitive playlists: Execution Escalation Ranks: Bronze Silver Gold Onyx Diamond Horde 3.0 The highly popular PvE mode is back once again. Horde pits you and up to four friends against 50 waves of enemies in a fight for survival. You’ll need to build defenses – called fortifications – to aid in your survival and work together to come out alive. Every ten waves you’ll face a Boss Wave, which includes the hardest, largest, and most badass enemies in the game. One of the main focuses of Horde 3.0 is the return to emergent gameplay. You can build fortifications where you want and when you want, and move those fortifications at any time during gameplay. This is all unlocked via the Fabricator, a new device in the Gears of War universe that is a riff on a 3D Printer. The Fabricator must be placed at the start of the game wherever you choose. It acts as the hub of your defenses, and you can move the fabricator to any location at any time throughout the match. Classes and Skills Classes in Gears of War 4 provide bonuses to the way you want to play without forcing you to play the role in a specific way. It’s up to you to decide how much you want to play into your Class and Skills throughout each game. Any Class can use any Character in the game, pick up any weapon in the game, and build any fortification in the game. Each class has different starting weapons, but you can switch those up with any weapons you find
Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 3 gets release date
Telltale has announced that episode three of Batman: The Telltale Series A New World Order will release later this month on October 25th. In Episode 3, Penguin’s brutal attack broadcast on live TV has left Gotham City reeling. As Bruce and Batman, you’ll dig deeper into the web of intrigue surrounding the newly revealed Children of Arkham. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, the mysterious Selina Kyle reveals more of herself to Bruce. And in the aftermath of the attack, Bruce’s friend and Gotham’s new mayor, Harvey Dent, is a deeply changed man. Who can be trusted when the future of Bruce Wayne – and the Batman – could be determined by the flip of a coin? Batman: The Telltale Series is available now on Xbox One. The episode is available separately or free with the season pass.
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The developers of Furi have announced that the game will be coming to Xbox One soon and it will come to the console with new exclusive content. The game will come to Xbox One at a date to be announced, with exclusive new content, in particular a new boss encounter, that we are teasing about in this one screenshot. You can check out the launch trailer below: [youtube id=”iMuHjg5oA-s”] Source
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