FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Fri, 1st Feb 2008
FYI, this story is more than a year old

I’ve put in countless hours on my beloved Xbox 360 console playing Gears of War. When I first heard that GoW was being created for the PC, well of course, I was jumping for joy. Not only is Gears of War one of the best games you’ll ever play if you’re a shooter fan but on the PC, I imagined it would be an experience beyond measure. Just think of it, a shooter that should have released for PC but just…didn’t. And I can hear the clicking and tapping away of fingers behind all the hate emails being sent as I write this.

Well, don’t send them my way just yet. The 360 version of Gears of War is probably one of the best shooters to ever grace the platform and it would only be a matter of time before Epic shared that experience with PC gamers. The cool thing about it my lovely 360 fans, is that if you’re really too much of a kb/m n00b to play it that way, you can always reach for your trusty controller. Epic made damn sure that they included full support for the handicapped er… I mean for those gamers who just can’t do without their controller. Don’t mind me, I tried it with both and here’s what I discovered.

Movement and control in the game was seamless using the Xbox 360 controller. Using a keyboard and mouse, control seemed a little less responsive but actually more precise – especially when shooting. I have to say though that the space bar has never been used so much in a game. It was a little odd having to use the space bar to run places but you do get used to it (on the controller of course, you just press A). There are a few subtle differences between the two but nothing that won’t stop a die-hard fan in their tracks.

It’s the brand spanking new content that seems to be the most appealing part of Gears of War for PC with a brand new multiplayer mode and map editor for starters. It’s a pity that Xbox 360 GoW fan boys and girls won’t be getting the same content on their consoles any time soon but if there’s one saying to live by in the gaming world, it’s ‘never say never’.

From a conceptual point of view the single player campaign is pretty much the same as the Xbox 360 version with the same difficulty modes included. There is one minor change to the co-op/single player game mode near the end of the campaign which you’ll have to play through to discover. Whilst it’s a nice little addition, it doesn’t significantly change the storyline that much. Did we mention the fact that you can also do co-op through the campaign? Well yeah but to do that you’ll need at least one gaming buddy who isn’t on XBL.

As with the 360 version, the multiplayer mode is outstanding, not that we had any doubts that it wouldn’t be. Multiplayer modes include both standard deathmatch type game modes Execution and Warzone as well as the more tactical game mode of Annex. The new multiplayer game mode is King of the Hill which is a lot like Annex where the objective is to shut out the other team and hold the designated area for as long as possible (think Halo 3’s ‘King of the Hill’).

Graphically, again the game scores extremely well. Depending of course on whether or not you have the hardware to run this game on the highest settings, Gears of War for PC will literally have you on your knees it looks that good.

In summation, Gears of War for PC is everything that the Xbox 360 game was/is and then some. With the additional content, you’d be silly to miss out on this gaming experience, even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of the game. From an action/shooter point of view, it’s right up there with the likes of Unreal Tournament 2007 and Quake Wars so in other words, a title you shouldn’t miss out on playing if you call yourself a fan of shooters.