Soapbox: Gears Of War E-Day Could Be Something Special, If The Coalition Gets It Right

Wish it was being made for the series x only.
Total focus on one console and no other devices.

That’s how Sony and Nintendo get the best from their consoles.
Will be so disappointed if this turns out campaign wise above average and not that top AAA it should be and could be.

I'm 50/50 on this. I Love the other games but this being (another) prequel has me concerned. Don't get me wrong I think the whole E-Day event would be fantastic but how much is it actually going to focus on E-Day? I fear it'll accelerate right past the invasion aspect and it just plays out like Gears 1 again.

@OldGamer999 it has to be scalable in order to be profitable. They want as many people to be able to access it as possible - series s and lower range pc’s are a far larger proportion of that potential player base than series x alone. Although in targeting pc, it will also have features that take advantage of hardware far more powerful than series x, some of which may be present on series x.

@Neither_scene
Yeah I get their intentions, but due to producing for all devices they never produce a TOTK or GOWR for the series x. A must have game of outstanding quality in all areas.

I know I’m late to the scene with this.
But was looking earlier as a friend asked me.

Why have the nutters at Microsoft priced the new white digital series x at £430.
Instead of £380 as per PS5 slim digital.

Have they lost all competitive will to live.

This is the only game i truly want this gen so bad the day’s seem like weeks counting down to its release. I hope the game brings back the competitive pro series the franchise used to have. I hope it moves consoles and does great for the IP. I believe it will cause this developer is top class. This and Doom should have 2025 looking really good for team green. Now if Fable is a hit then wow that’s a huge year for Xbox. But this is the game, it has to be great as a life long Gears fan.

It needs to be good gears 4 was ok but gears 5 was bad the open world ruined the game loved the original games from the 360 even judgement because it was a proper gears game the story can be what it wants really just give me great gears gameplay and like I'm playing an action movie from the 90s same goes for halo and call of duty aswell terrible campaigns!🥺💩🤬😭

I’m sure it’ll be good but it’s hard to be excited at the moment. No gameplay or release year. The setting looks great but I need to see more and I’m worried it won’t come out for another 2 years.

@HonestHick
Played every gears as you know buddy.
I even had friends buy an xbox360 after playing gears of war 1 at my house.
They were wowed by the whole thing and the graphics.

Being honest I have my expectations in check as Xbox studios track record of late is not great.

@OldGamer999 GoW:R is on the PS4 aswell though so ...if you want a game of that quality...then you cant say the power of the s is holding xbox back in that regard lol

This and State of Decay 3 are the beacons of light in the gloom of current Xbox IMO. I'm not the biggest fan of the latest GoW games but I can't help but feel a bit hyped for this one. Let's hope they nail it. 😃

@StylesT
It’s more poor Xbox studios and I mean poor as I feel for them.
Have to deal with not just two consoles but all PC and cloud gaming and soon PS5 as well.

Also if so what you say about the series s, then why haven’t we seen something truly AAA from up there with Nintendos and Sony best TOTK and GOWR?
Apart from FH5 which is up there.
Xbox studios have had many years and produced above average only, Look at last years games.

And I have the same feeling I’m afraid about Indy and Avowed, good above average games only.
Xbox studios have so many devices to develop for and that can’t help any studio.

Whenever an article regarding E-Day comes up, I always think the same thing, finish the bloody trilogy you have going first. I get that many did not enjoy 4 and 5, but then many of us did too. Some of us are heavily invested in the story and want to see how it concludes. Just abandoning it leaves fans exceptionally frustrated.

As for E-Day, I do wonder what they're going to do; are they going to follow just Marcus and Dom, and introduce, then subsequently kill off, perhaps in later games, some new characters? Or are they also going to follow Cole and Baird in their own, separate part of the campaign (bearing in mind that the 4 don't meet up until the original game). Cole actually has an interesting E-Day, insomuch as interesting = his entire family dies! However, will the Coalition want to keep the focus solely on Marcus and Dom, rather than flit between stories. I know I would rather see a close narrative focus on Marcus and Dom, rather than see the Coalition attempt to tell too many stories, and likely leave it unsatisfying as a consequence.

Still, at least there will not be any robots this time around, and I look forward to seeing the likes of Tickers and Corpsers returning, though for continuity reasons I wouldn't expect to see the Torque Bow return, so how the Coalition handle continuity whilst retaining what made the fans fall in love with the original series remains to be seen. It's a proper tightrope for them; retain things that are fun, but go against canon, and the fans will undoubtedly notice, and they will make their voices heard. Conversely, be rigid with canon, and fail to replace that which made the original games fun, with something that is equally fun, and the game will be picked apart by the fans. How the Coalition deals with this is what holds the most interest for me.

Also, what enemies will we actually see? Will there be new ones? We know they won't encounter a Berserker, because until the original game, they hadn't seen one before, but they do need to introduce a similar high threat end-level boss that we can fight and defeat a number of times during the campaign.

I do wonder if we might see Sid, Chairman Prescott and Hoffman make an appearance, maybe even Ukkon too. Each of these characters make sense to appear, although Ukkon, should he appear, cannot die for canon reasons.

Regardless, I just hope the Campaign is good, and the the Horde Mode is better still. I have, and still do, pour hour upon hour into Gears 5 Horde. Currently, I have played Horde for over 35 days (or over 840 hours!), and a further 50 hours playing the Campaign, including soloing it on both Insane and Inconceivable. Thus, what I want above all else, is for the Coalition to give me a compelling reason to want to play E-Day for just as long...

@OldGamer999 Yeah we are big Gears fans. I think it will be really good. Some insiders said when they seen it it was the best looking game they ever seen. I believe it will be. Plus i think it will play well cause they all do. With Marcus and Dom as the main guys this is shaping up to be super good in my opinion. To be honest as i know you are fed up with Xbox and i get it, i am getting there too, only i will stick with them for my set of reasons. But it’s not like Sony is lighting it up like they did with the PS4. They have as many cancelled games this gen that i can ever remember, Concord was a mess, we are getting PS4 games remastered. Outside of the Marvel licensing they really don’t have anything new and amazing out. Not saying that to take pressure of Xbox cause they need to do better as well. But this gen is coming down to who stinks less not who’s winning. Gears and a good to great Fable game can go a long ways compared to Horizon being remastered.

@HonestHick
I totally agree this generation overall has been my weirdest ever and I have been through them all.

Not sure what gaming world is upto but slowly Xbox seem to sort of be getting it together.

They need Indy and Avowed to be great games at minimum to get others to sit up and notice.

They have managed for the second month running in the UK to be second console sales wise instead of third so that’s a start at least.

I'm really conflicted. Gears 5 burnt me real bad. 4 was underwhelming, campaign wise, but the multiplayer was solid even if I didn't care for the generic weapon replacements.

I want E-Day to be good but man, I also dread a new Gears game after playing 5's slog of a trend chasing everything, but especially the campaign. (Besides Act 1, that was good and felt like classic Gears, which I think made everything that came after feel ten times worse than it actually was.)

i hope gears of war can make a comeback and go back to its roots. bring that early 2000s flair back and make gears of war gritty again .

https://youtu.be/JalWT8oNxhk?si=J1A27EvDM98FjpgS

@OldGamer999 Just pointing out if you consider god of war Ragnarok the kind of top tier game you want....and that was on the PS4....the series s is more powerful...so it's not a hardware issue to get the games you want

And yes I do think the god of war series(reboot) is one of the best ...but that's mainly cause of the story telling etc....i also think alot of the so called great ps exclusives are very overhyped

I would say the last gears of war are up there in terms of what makes the best ps exclusives considered so great...and thats coming from someone who isn't a massive gears fan

E-Day will be awesome. I just hope they make Gears 6 too to wrap up that story. Especially because Gears 5 ended on a cliffhanger.

@Ricky-Spanish I'd prefer it play like an action movie from the 80's 😉

@OldGamer999 "Wish it was being made for the series x only.
Total focus on one console and no other devices."

We don't even know when this coming out... So, it may not even be a Series X game for all we know

@OldGamer999 "Yeah I get their intentions, but due to producing for all devices they never produce a TOTK or GOWR for the series x. A must have game of outstanding quality in all areas."

Wasn't GOWR also on PS4? A system weaker than a Series S? So that a terrible example....

@themightyant I'm thinking Early 2026 or sometime in 2027 (leaning towards former). They didn't give a release year which I think rules out 2025. But Fall/Holiday 2026 is already taken up by annual CoD and Halo 25th anniversary.

@OldGamer999 yeah i think they are going to have a good 2025. They have the lineup to do it. How much of it will they keep to Xbox/PC is the question. I am not sure what if any will come to PS. I have a feeling Disney made sure the Indiana Jones had a bigger audience. Marvel don’t have to do that with Sony as much cause Sony has given loads of money to them already and signed up for even more games. Doom coming to PS5 is just a given. Doom is just not an exclusive IP. It is always on all devices and I suspect will continue to be. I watched a good video yesterday saying Xbox has a real chance in Japan, and i was like what? Then it went on to say how big RTS games are in Japan and there is a rumor that MS wants a handheld in Japan with a StarCraft game on it. Saying that could be the only way MS get’s some money out of Japan and it makes some sense. So we have to see what they do but they have the IP’s, infrastructure and of course cash to make it happen. But this is MS after all and what they can mess up they will mess up and more so it seems. I am here for the ride tho.

@16BitHero Very good 😊

Hey, @OldGamer999, I think you will sort of get you wish,
but that the game will be a cross-generation title. I think it will release in 2026, and that it will be a NeXtBoX launch title, but also made for the Series consoles.

You're right, @AverageGamer, we don't know when E-Day is coming out, and interestingly, it was one of only 4 titles at the recent showcase that did not have the Series X/S logo. Indeed, it did not have a logo at all, suggesting that it will be a NeXtBoX title, probably available at launch...

@Fiendish-Beaver
It’s a bit confusing cross generational, next Xbox.
Guess we will get the game when we get it and for what devices.
Would be good if it is kept on the xbox family.

To be honest, I think most of us would be happy if it performs properly on the X/S, @OldGamer999. Hopefully at 60FPS. Add to that, if it can achieve that on the X/S, then it will absolutely do so on the NeXtBoX.

As regards your last sentence, I think that will be where both you and I will be less than happy. I think part of (effectively) relaunching the Gears of War franchise is precisely so that they can take it to the PlayStation (either day one, or shortly thereafter) and introduce the universe to the Sony gamer without the need for them to have any prior knowledge of the series. After all, with the game being right at the start of the saga, then that is obviously the best place to begin. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the current games make the transition a little later too, possibly including the much rumoured Marcus Fenix Trilogy too, which will obviously put a shinier, and likely slightly modernised gloss on the games so that Sony doesn't just get really old games (so to speak)...

@Fiendish-Beaver
I did sort of like the idea of sharing, but I think it takes away for Xbox the brand and identity in a weird way.
I like Xbox is Xbox, Sony is Sony and Nintendo is Nintendo.
Probably an old gamers approach, but we all knew where we stood that way.
I like it better and more healthy competition of how it was.
As for the console war, it is a bit of fun as well.

Absolutely agree, @OldGamer999. Exclusives give you a reason to buy a particular console, and also have a sense that you have made the right choice! If everything is on every console, then you only need one. With Nintendo being Nintendo, you know there is only one place to enjoy there games. With Sony, you could perhaps get away with owning a PC instead, but only if you are prepared to wait years (on occasion) if you wish to play a Sony made game. On the other hand, if you want to play an Xbox developed game, we are entering into the realms of the one item you don't need is an Xbox, which is strange and somewhat saddening...

Let’s be honest, it needs to take Gears back to its roots, where men can come across as strong and powerful with an unbreakable bond. I know that sounds crazy to some people these days, where men are only ‘problematic’ and ‘toxic’, when any sign of masculinity offends them. But that’s Gears at its best, when it’s the ultimate bromance of men defying all odds, making sacrifices to get the job done.

After 5, I’m not particularly excited for E-Day, the initial trailer did get me excited, but I’m not sure the Coalition have it in them to deliver what really makes gears great, they’ve missed the mark twice now. Not only that, to really make it great they’re going to have to go against the grain and ditch what nearly every other triple A game pushes with messaging and agendas. Make a game for the fans, not for the minority on X who don’t even play your games.

@OldGamer999 cloud gaming is irrelevant in terms of development - cloud games run on servers using series x based hardware. Series consoles also use a direct x based sdk which is ubiquitous across pc. The most costly porting process is for ps5 which uses bespoke development tools.

Multiplatform development has nothing to do with the quality of the final game - the majority of goty winners have been multipltform titles.

Nintendo have also shown that underpowered hardware isn’t a barrier to making great games - series s is far more powerful than the switch.

@Neither_scene
Well let’s see what happens.
Fingers crossed.

@Fiendish-Beaver The rumor is that the next Xbox is planned to be released 2026-2027. So it will definitely be a launch period title for the NeXtBox just like OG Gears was for the 360… Microsoft like to tread old ground it seems.

I think November 2026 for both the game and the NeXtBoX, @AverageGamer. That will then tie in nicely with the 25th anniversary of the release of the OG Xbox. That'll be something to properly celebrate the anniversary...

@16BitHero "I'd prefer it play like an action movie from the 80's"

Haha! 😁 That I would like to see...