Gears of War PC...

[haha im a panda]

Review:

Gears of War PC.



Minimum Requirements:

2.4 GHz Intel; 2.0+ Ghz AMD

1 GB ram

12 GB free hard drive space

NVIDIA GeForce 6600+, ATI X700+




System Specs:

Windows XP x64

AMD Athlon x2 4800+

Nvidia geforce 8800gt @ 700/1723/975

4 GB ddr2 800 RAM



Install:

The install time for Gears of War is ridiculous. It took about 30 minutes to install and then it took me another hour to recover my live gamer profile and download the stupid "Games for Windows Live" distributable because it kept failing.




game play:

Gears of war is a great action game. it is set in third person perspective and uses a cover based fighting system instead of the run and gun style most modern shooters use. the games visuals are great and the action is intense and satisfying.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/hahaimapanda/Untitled-6copy.jpg
stop and pop action at it's best

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/hahaimapanda/Untitled-2copy.jpg
is this GoW or Cloverfield?



pros:

Gore. Gears of war is exceedingly violent and you can use various weapons to dispatch enemies as gruesomely as possible. The sound in gears is well done and adds another level of realism into the game.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/hahaimapanda/Untitled-5copy.jpg
Chainsaw Bayonet? Hell yeah.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/hahaimapanda/Untitled-1copy.jpg
Edward Norton would be proud.

cons:

letting a third party (People can Fly) port this game probably led to it's downfall. Upon entrance to the companies site, i was greeted by a front page in Russian and could only find one other game they had worked on (painkiller). needing a gold account to play multi player is a bad move on microsoft's part.




conclusion:

Gears of war is worth playing, but i would recommend downloading the demo before buying. With great visuals and innovative game play, Gears of War will be a Valuable addition to your collection.

P.S.

Hoffman is a bad ass.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/hahaimapanda/Untitled-4copy.jpg

[CPLB]

I really enjoyed the game. It's one of the few single player campaigns that I've played all the way through. Also, it ran very well on my computer (X2 3600+ @ 3GHz, 7900GT, 4GB RAM, Vista Ultimate 32), I can't remember what the settings were on, but it looked better than on my X360 and using the command stat fps, I was getting framerates anywhere from 40-60.

But i agree that it took waay too long to install and the GFW Live was a huge hassle. Plus if you don't pay for Gold then there are only a very small handful of servers, you can't sort by ping, and there are no dedicated servers (atleast none that I could find)

[BrokeDown]

Great game, but for me, I had several cons:

- Install is crazy slow. Terrible design. Even running a SATA DVD drive and a 150GB Raptor I still had to wait ~30 minutes to install.
- Windows Live took forever to setup
- In order for me to get this game running, and connecting to WL ingame, so I could just play single player, I had to spend several hours researching online to finally find a fix, then modify game files by hand. Most people that just want to play the game, probably can't do this.
- 1GB memory isn't enough, even on a good system. This game needs 2GB minimum. Granted, my X2 4200+ and 7900GS aren't the best as far as performance goes, but I play every other mainstream RPG & FPS game out right now perfectly fine. I upgraded from 1GB Corsair XMS2 DDR800 to 2GB of the same memory and it made a huge difference. I went from jumping frames and lagging game play to smooth performance and decent fps.
- Online play is ok. This game didn't catch my interest enough to warrant keeping up an online profile, making points, etc.

[Scubar]

Great game for the first few hours. After that it becomes very repetative and boring. I stopped playing it after a couple of days as it just got too boring.

[nosboost300]

i think the cpu may have been ur bottleneck here

i ran 1920x1200 w/ my gtx in dx10 and never got a hick-up.. game ran beautifully.. but as the x-box version.. i stopped caring.. as it felt too repetitive for me.. it was all just insane trading of bullets... i like to sneak around...

[haha im a panda]

i tried all the fixes i could find, i modified the engine files (supposed to load textures faster). i even tried the game a 800x600 with everything set to low and got the same problem. weird from a system that gets ~30fps in crysis on high and maxes CoD4 flawlessly.

[DTU_XaVier]

Hmm... What speed's your CPU running at? It MIGHT be the reason... Tried defragging? You install 12gigs of data, so it might work :)

I personally run it maxed out DX9, 1680x1050, 16xAF, no hic-ups or slowdowns...

Best Regards :toast:

[haha im a panda]

i have it running at 2.8Ghz currently, tried defragging to no avail. thanks for the replies though.

[fragmasterMax]

This is one of favorite games for the 360. (out of the few that i have played.)
Apparently it's pretty cpu dependant. Is there an option for particle effects, or something of the like? It might be worth while to turn that one down, and oc your Videocard.

[haha im a panda]

Update:

i decided to play the game again today and found that my 30 day live trial ran out so i had to make a new account. after making the account i started a single player mission and the game runs great at max settings! I have no idea why that would effect anything but i'll play thorough the campaign a bit more and update the review.

[DTU_XaVier]

Update:

i decided to play the game again today and found that my 30 day live trial ran out so i had to make a new account. after making the account i started a single player mission and the game runs great at max settings! I have no idea why that would effect anything but i'll play thorough the campaign a bit more and update the review.

Sounds like a Games for Windows Live problem... That's basically all that's wrong with GoW atm... :nono:

[SaII]

is there a GoW demo? I can't find one.

[Omastar]

So you gave it a thumbs down in the title just because of an inelegant/buggy install process?

Uh?

[SaII]

So you gave it a thumbs down in the title just because of an inelegant/buggy install process?

Uh?

probably more because MS makes you use their windows live crap

[Aleki]

+1 for not finding GoW demo. anyone know where to look?

[thebanik]

I like the game a lot but it certainly is buggy, i played it on saturday and was in the round where in we have to plant the resonator underground in the core room. But on sunday it says that i have no saved game, no achievements, basically what it means is that i have to play it from the beginning, wtf, though its great but not that great that i will play it again from the start.

[xMrBunglex]

at least they didn't make this a Vista-only game. i still find Microsoft's tactics to be less than savory lately. i'll never buy Halo 2 as a matter of principle for making it Vista only. this game sounds like it has more than its fair share of headaches. i'll buy Steam games in a heartbeat, but i really think i don't like Microsoft at all anymore.

[DTU_XaVier]

I like the game a lot but it certainly is buggy, i played it on saturday and was in the round where in we have to plant the resonator underground in the core room. But on sunday it says that i have no saved game, no achievements, basically what it means is that i have to play it from the beginning, wtf, though its great but not that great that i will play it again from the start.

Once more it's a Microsoft problem... Save games are saved online, in a wierd way, which doesn't leave any saves on your HDD... And the servers screw them up sometimes... I had the same problem after a format... My archievements were still there, but my saves? Nope :down:

Best Regards :toast:

[SafeFire]

I played this game through a few times when it came out on PC this November, enjoyed it quite a lot.
I know I'm an epic/unreal fan, and I tend by bias towards them, but when I played through this, I tried hard to be as neutral as possible.
I liked the cover and movement system a lot, even though it was meant for the consoles.
The graphics were gorgeous, but smelled a little of the "hey lets use bloom on everything" tendency.
The storyline and linearity was the only thing that bothered me, as it had a distinctive Epic feel it it. If any of you played Unreal 2 the Awakening, you'll not where I'm going with this; The story seams like it's built up around the character, and the world it's set in is not nearly as well explained as it could be. Many of the plot elements seamed like they didn't have any relation to the game world.
As with any Epic made game, Gears of War gets big points for both gameplay and graphics, it's incredibly well thought combat wise, and has a great feel to it. The story let me down and kind of broke the realism of the game, which really drops the aftertaste of the game a good load.

[G.Foyle]

cons:

letting a third party (People can Fly) port this game probably led to it's downfall. Upon entrance to the companies site, i was greeted by a front page in Russian and could only find one other game they had worked on (painkiller). needing a gold account to play multi player is a bad move on microsoft's part.

1. Not Russian but Polish;
2. PCF only made some maps in the late part of the game (those with Brumak) and multiplayer maps. They did not have anything to do with porting source code to PC or with storyline
3. Painkiller was AWESOME! (the original Painkiller, not Overdose)

[Eddie3dfx]

I don't think they released a demo. I was looking for this as well ;(

[haha im a panda]

I don't think they released a demo. I was looking for this as well ;(


i thought i saw one on microsoft's gears of war page, must have misread something.


1. Not Russian but Polish;
2. PCF only made some maps in the late part of the game (those with Brumak) and multiplayer maps. They did not have anything to do with porting source code to PC or with storyline
3. Painkiller was AWESOME! (the original Painkiller, not Overdose)

guess i should do some research. i did play overdose but not the original. could be why my opinion of the company isn't all that great.

[G.Foyle]

People Can Fly sold Painkiller name and content to Dreamcatcher before they themselves were acquired by Epic. Painkiller and Battle Out Of Hell (1st expansion) were made by PCF, while Overdose is made by Mindware (whoever they are), and judging by first 5 minutes of demo, is utter crap.

[Repoman]

People Can Fly sold Painkiller name and content to Dreamcatcher before they themselves were acquired by Epic. Painkiller and Battle Out Of Hell (1st expansion) were made by PCF, while Overdose is made by Mindware (whoever they are), and judging by first 5 minutes of demo, is utter crap.

+1 - overdose sucked but the original and it's expansion were awesome.

[***Deimos***]

at least they didn't make this a Vista-only game. i still find Microsoft's tactics to be less than savory lately. i'll never buy Halo 2 as a matter of principle for making it Vista only. this game sounds like it has more than its fair share of headaches. i'll buy Steam games in a heartbeat, but i really think i don't like Microsoft at all anymore.

Sounds a lot like the people who complained about STEAM. And truth be told, it was ridiculous in the beginning. Folks waiting to authenticate for days, online servers going off and on... but all in all, it was a few weeks of hassles well worth it for the amazing game.

Live is not quite nearly as "compact", "compatible" and "gamer friendly" as STEAM. Offline mode is sorely missed. And, I dont recall STEAM letting me play online on a handfull of servers for only a month before asking to upgrade to STEAM GOLD... its a start, but Microsoft has a LOOONG way to go.

[SaII]

sorry to revive thread but I would like to add to the review.

the AI for dom and other side characters are extremely stupid

such as the end of act 1 when luring the berserker out side, dom keep walking right in to it and getting knocked out.

is this the same on the 360 version?

[XS_RoB]

@ SaII
Sorry to say....but yeah. It took me several tries to get past her. Not becuase of me, but because of DOM - Looking at me line of sight and running for me and then her steam rolling right over him. The biggest thing though on the 360 (from my experience) is that she is a touch kill - rips you apart. So there was no going to revive DOM...... just a straight, try again, and again, and again.