Gears Of War: Reloaded review

In this episode, we discuss Gears of War Reloaded, a remaster of the original Gears of War game. They explore the gameplay mechanics, co-op experience, storytelling, graphics, and audio design. The conversation highlights the nostalgia associated with the game, its revolutionary cover-based shooting mechanics, and the significant skill gap in multiplayer. They also touch on the collectibles that unlock comic book pages, expanding the lore of the Gears universe. Overall, the hosts recommend the game as a fun and engaging experience for both new and returning players.

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Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hello again everyone, welcome toanother episode of Game Pass
Grab Bag, your weekly podcast reviewing games for the Game
Pass collection. Bring you 3 new perspectives
from Frank Skyrange. I am the gear of this episode.
Andrew with me R Boomer, Keith. Hello.
And the one whose gears, IE really grind.

(00:27):
Liz, hey. Guys.
Welcome back, Liz. And yeah, you worked Keith.
You're you're you're a little laggy there, but you're good.
You're here. This week I picked the game.
This has been a game that has been on my list that I've wanted
to do for this podcast for a very long time.
And now that they came out with this remastered, I was like,
let's finally do it. And this week we play Gears of
War Reloaded, which is a re re master of Gears of War Ultimate

(00:55):
edition. That's the one it was called.
But this version is essentially just better coat of paint.
I think it's like 60 FPS, 1080P,really just kind of improved
frames and fidelity. That's kind of about it.
And it's also now on PlayStation, so we might have
some PlayStation people listen to us this episode.
Welcome, is this the? First one.
It is the first one. Did you not know it was the

(01:18):
first one, Liz? No, I thought they'd be more
story. Well, I guess we'll get into
that. Gears of War Reloaded, as I
said, is just kind of a remaster, but it is obviously
based off of the original Gears of War done by Epic Games.
This remastered is done by The Coalition, which is the studio
that has now taken over the Gears of War franchise.

(01:38):
But yeah, the original story of Gears of War, you were playing
as Marcus Phoenix, who just recently got pardoned out of
prison after, you know, when a terrible, terrible invasion
happened on this planet. And you figured you were going
to be rotting in prison. But, you know, humanity is
really on the brink of defeat, so they will take anyone.
So they re recruited Marcus Phoenix and he's back into the
war to fight the Locusts and send him back down underground.

(02:00):
Like 13 years after going around, right?
14 years, yes, yeah. But going around, I guess I'll
start this off whether this is agamer pass, this is a definite
game. I actually forgot how good of a
Co-op game this was. I have a lot of really fond
memories of Gears of War. Not Even so much of the game.

(02:22):
I just have like core memories of me and my best friend Dave,
who has been on this podcast multiple times.
I remember when this game came out, I didn't know anything much
of it, but I remember he called me and he was like, hey man, I
really want to play Gears of War.
We should play Gears of War tonight.
He's like, I'm going to go buy it.
And we tried finding a Best Buy off of route one in Lynn, which

(02:43):
if you know that area, it is awful.
It was heavy, raining, and we stopped at multiple stores and
nobody knew where Best Buy was because this game was originally
2006. So this is before we had
smartphones. And I just remember we almost
crashed multiple times. We finally got literally the
last copy of Gears of War and weplayed it all night.
That's the I don't even remembermuch of the game.

(03:04):
I just remember that, that memory of us going under the
adventure, literally getting to Best Buy.
Yeah, just the nostalgia of the memory.
Who is driving? Dave was his.
He had a his good old Toyota Corolla I.
Remember that an old Corolla? Yeah, he's always had a Toyota
Corolla. But anyway, yeah, this is a
definite game. Back to the actual game.

(03:26):
This is it's it's just a ton of fun.
Like I forgot it. I even booted up the original
because it's like, oh, how much is different in the reloaded
version? Not much it's obviously like
prettier but it's still same story like they redid some of
the cutscenes and it's also way brighter.
The original game is really darklike it's just black like a lot

(03:47):
of blackness everywhere. But it's a great game, super fun
if you have someone to play with.
This is a great Co-op game. I'll stop talking.
Man, I guess I'll assume my, my traditional 2nd place here.
I'm I'm said it's, it's a weird thing for me because there's
nothing like this is definitely it's not even like a it's not a
game. It's just for me, whatever one

(04:08):
of my weird things it, it is a game, but I also don't really
love it. Like it's just it's, it's a
series that I feel like I'm supposed to just like we had
Gears of War. This is great.
This is the coolest thing ever and it's fine.
It's fun. I I like it, but I just don't
find myself engaged in it and honestly I'm sure it gets pretty

(04:30):
interesting. The story is fine.
How the heck is this a first game at a storyline?
There's nothing that makes any sense.
But I get but also with backs in2006, whatever, whatever.
So it is a game. I just think I don't know, be
ready to be mad about my score Iguess.
Probably. I'm going to give it a definite

(04:53):
game. I was listening to the end of
our gears 5 episode because I wanted to know when I gave that
game and I forgot that I really didn't like playing it by
myself. I only really like playing it
Co-op. This game.
I I loved it both ways. I had fun playing alone playing
with Andrew. I mean, it's always fun or

(05:14):
playing with with with somebody else, but I just I thought I
thought they'd get away with having less story because it is
such a short game. But one of my big things I love
in games is humor and that funnydrunk guy, he was a who I feel
like they they had the humor. I love the graphics.

(05:35):
I love, I mean the story that was.
There what? Funny drunk guy.
He he at one point they were in the building and he had to have
the lights. On.
Oh yeah, he was like flickering to him, like.
I completely forgot about that guy.
I loved you. He's the one that resonated with
you. Yes, because he was just so
funny. And I also love that a lot of
like the insults and stuff are stuff that I haven't heard in

(05:58):
ages. Like when's the last time you
heard someone call somebody an Inka poop?
That's just a good part. Or.
Even a numbskull is another one.And also there are some sayings
from that time that I'm like, oh, this is where it came from.
Like back in your hole. Like I've, I've definitely heard

(06:20):
people way back in the day say that I'm like, where'd that even
come? From that could be that could be
an old Happy Gilmore reference to because he would yell at the
ball to get in your hole. I don't think I've seen.
That but yeah, I I liked a lot of the dialogue.
Like there's there is a weird level of humor that runs through
it, like the back and forth, just banter between Baird and

(06:45):
Coltrane. They just kind of like they're,
they're like buddy cops basically, where they don't
really like each other, but theydo.
Yeah, but getting into the story, I mean, because I have I
have some things to talk about here because I forgot how
disjointed the story is. But you have the story of Gears

(07:06):
of War. As I said, you know, this takes
place on an alien planet. So I guess technically this game
is a sci-fi game, but I you really wouldn't think of it.
But it's a far away planet with humanity on it.
The plan is known as Sarah. And, you know, humanity has
lived on this planet, little ones waking up, but humanity has

(07:27):
lived in this planet from like, obviously since the beginning of
time. I guess as far as I could tell,
there was no space travel. And these are people from Earth.
But anyway, there's these creatures that have lived
underground known as the locusts.
One day they have decided enoughis enough and they've risen out
of the ground and have decided to take back the planet of Sarah
for unknown reasons. If you've only played this first

(07:47):
one and you know, they've essentially brought humanity to
the brink of extinction, you know, since they the locusts
live under the ground, they can pop up anywhere.
So they've literally been able to just appear in the middle of
cities, wipe them out. All right back would take two.
Liz will be back in a little bit.
Our little one just woke up. So she's trying to get him back
to sleep. But continuing with the story.
So as I said, you know, the locusts came up and started to

(08:09):
destroy humanity and you this takes place 14 years after the
locusts emerged. So at this point, humanity is
kind of at the brink of extinction.
They have one major city, Jacinto, that's the last
remaining bastion, and it's because it's on a huge bedrock,
so the Locust can't Burrow underit and dig up at it.
But you play Marcus Phoenix, whowas wrongfully imprisoned.

(08:29):
I mean, it's kind of vague in this game, but you had something
happened and Marcus Phoenix was found guilty and was thrown into
prison. But since humanity is almost
dead, you are pardoned. So now you're back in the war,
man. But this is something like we
were to kind of talking about atthe beginning where like the
story is like missing a lot. This is like, this is like a

(08:50):
common thing in 2006 games. I feel like, because I remember
Halo, the first Halo was also the same way, which just like,
yeah, yeah, you know, the aliensare attacking and now you're
shooting aliens. But like, the story was
explained in the manual. Or if you were someone like me
who followed video games, you kind of knew some pretext stuff.
But obviously playing this game now in 2025, it's like, what the

(09:12):
heck is this talking about? I mean, obviously all the games
are out now. You can obviously fill the
pieces, but that's obviously if you've played the other games.
So we're obviously trying to come at this.
I mean, we were, we covered Gears Five.
I think that was the only one wedid.
It's obviously that was farther in the future.
Yeah. And I, I wanted to do that
because I wanted to kind of get you guys perspective of like, do
you need to play all the Gears of War games to kind of figure

(09:34):
out what's going on here? And I, I remember the time the
answer was kind of no. So overall with this game, do
you really need to know the context of stuff?
No, not really. But the first thing that really
cracked me up about the story isthis takes place 14 years after
this war started. And I like when you get broken
out of prison, you meet the general who's like, oh, I got a

(09:55):
plan to end this war. We're going to drop a bomb in
their base. And it's like they're taking 14
years to figure out, hey, we should nuke their base.
Man, why didn't we think of this14 years ago?
But he figured out where he's going to drop the bomb.
Now he. Figured he figured out, yeah,
wait, we need to create a map oftheir base and then bomb them.

(10:17):
And it's just like, OK, 14 years, but you know the
transition here. I think it's meant to be very
tongue in cheek, honestly. The, the thing about the
storytelling overall in Gears ofWar, and this is something that
I actually did appreciate, is itit's a, it's a very serious
overtone. I mean, humanity is at stake at

(10:40):
least 14 years in the running tothe point where, and I thought
this was kind of cool that they were like, you know what?
They decided they're just going to destroy themselves.
So basically humanity just nukesitself because they're not good,
they're not going to live. That was a locus first.
Our first strategy of our killing ourselves did not work.
How about we finally kill the enemy?
So we're still here, so let's goahead and try them now.

(11:04):
The enemy's plate is to kill us while they can't complete their
plate. If we kill ourselves, that'll
teach. I mean like.
I was a really strategy, but it's kind of funny when you
point it out I. Thought it was like.
I thought it was like kind of like, oh, this is kind of cool.
Like it was so desperate that they were just going to end it
all themselves. But no, that's funnier.

(11:25):
But yeah, like you said it, it is, I think, meant to be kind of
goofy. I mean, yes and no, because it's
obviously very grim. You're going through these
obviously abandoned cities and you're seeing dead bodies
everywhere. You're literally seeing, I love
every other soldier sucks. They literally just get like
absolutely decimated in seconds.And you guys are four man squad
just decimating all the enemies,which is also a thing that

(11:49):
always cracked you up in the story.
You're just four people versus ahundreds of locusts and you're
costing like let's split up yes,because for man is too much of A
squad. Let's make it two people like
what? What is the strategy?
You know so. Clearly.
Don't want to slow down? For people, but I also think

(12:09):
that like it's kind of funny that not to like get ahead in
terms of graphics, but you kind of know very quickly if someone
is important just so I have the sheer body mass of the she will.
No, they're important to see their face.
If their character, you see their face.
No, because there's there's definitely some characters that
you see their face, but they endup dying pretty quickly.
And generally anybody who's not a hulking behemoth of a human

(12:32):
being is bound to die with. And they still might.
They're still, there's still a possibility, but I yeah, like, I
don't know, I think that there'sdefinitely like there's just
certain things like the death scenes a couple times.
I want to say it's the someone. Fairly early on, Lieutenant Kim.
Yeah, like his is kind of funny if I remember and he said.

(12:54):
Here's the one that gets knifed,and then you have Carmine who
gets sniped. Maybe, I don't know, but yeah,
like Carmine's the one. His gun was jammed and then he
picks his head up and gets sniped.
Oh yeah, but along which? Is tired of a running gag.
There's always a Carmine in every gears and they always die.
OK. But yeah, even along the way,
there's just different little NPCS that are just killed off,

(13:18):
and it's just kind of funny because they're just like, well,
anyways, he's dead. Let's keep going.
Yeah, Don't forget every case that's.
Going to make me laugh. And he's just like that our guy
moving on with the war. But yeah, the the story, like I,
I was obviously playing this like kind of in different
segments. And there's a lot of times where
I'm like, I don't really know what I'm doing.

(13:39):
They're like, oh, we need to go to the Phoenix estate to get a
map. And it's just like, OK, I don't
know why, but I guess we're getting a map there.
Like obviously, like I said, it's filled in in the grander
story of things, but like it within this game, we were just
watching the cutscenes. The context of stuff going on is
just like, OK, we're just go to this destination to get a map

(14:00):
now. Like literally you do the
resonator. Oh, we need the resonator to map
out the the their base. And you do it.
Oh, it sucks. It didn't do enough.
But luckily Baird found a littleorbit.
He's like, this has more of a map.
And it's like, well, that was convenient.
He just found a random orb. OK, I guess we're doing this
now. Yeah, I thought he was picking
like up a random helmet of of somebody.

(14:23):
But so here's an interesting thing, and this is not this is
actually an episode I always wish we had Aaron on, which is
rare to say, but I actually wishhe was here because I need like
a movie perspective because there was something about the
storytelling that, at least in my mind, comes to is like

(14:43):
warriors. Like, have you seen that movie?
If you're do you remember like the video game too like.
Warriors is that the? The it's like the 1970s like
gang movie. Oh, oh, oh, the Warriors, yes, I
thought it was just. Warriors But anyways, like not
not squabble over that, but it had this like storytelling kind

(15:04):
of similar to that. Like you're just like this gang
who kind of gets left out and you're trying to get back home.
And it's always just like he they think they're Gunu and the
end of the mission comes and I'mlike, oh, actually here's one
more thing that went wrong. And it's just like, all right,
here we go. They just like suit up for the
next one. And it just it reminded me of

(15:26):
that type of storytelling. And I'm sure there's other
stories like that, but then thatthat was the one that came to
mind for me. Oh no, I feel like because
that's the other thing, it's funny.
It's like, is there no other squads?
Are you guys literally like the last squad?
Because this is all I guess I, Iguess you could argue that some
resting moments here there, but this is essentially start to
finish them doing this entire mission.

(15:47):
And it's just like, yeah, it's like, why is there no one else?
Like, was there literally no other squads?
Because, yeah, like I said, at one point you got to go to the
Phoenix estate. It's like there's literally no
one else that's closer. Like it's, it's super far away.
You can't just send someone elsejust to get a stinking map.
Like why do we have to go? There we go.
Yeah, but now you're just like, OK, I guess we're going now.

(16:09):
I will say my one of my biggest complaints with the story is
actually the the main bad guy, General ROM.
I kept feeling like they were trying to build this guy up to
be this hulking, menacing, scaryguy.
I I guess spoilers, but I mean, the heck, this game is 2006.
In the end, you fight him and you kill him and it's just like,
OK, that's the end of him. And it's like, oh, like I felt

(16:31):
like they were trying to build him up to be like, oh, he's
going to be the main bad guy forall these games and he's he's
going to be, you know, this constant looming threat.
Nah, he's just he kind of shows up once or twice and like shows
himself to your squad and then so you guys at the end of the
game and it's like, OK, and that's why we saw it was weird
in like future games were like, Oh, you you can place general
ROM. He even showed up in a fighting

(16:52):
game. I think killer instinct.
And to me I was just like, OK, he's just like a bigger Locust
dude, but I don't think he neversays anything.
So I'm like, is he really that menacing?
Well, that's one of those things.
I wonder, did they have a plan to make this go six games or
however many games it's? Gone.
No, I think originally 3. So yeah, exactly.

(17:15):
Like was this supposed to be a kind of a wrapped up story that
was supposed to just be like maybe like a little chapter in
the story? Yeah, a big chapter, obviously,
you know, 5 Acts and and all thelikes, but it was it supposed to
be this grander thing? And also 2006 just games were
built a little different in terms of the story.

(17:37):
That was actually still quite a bit of story.
I feel like for a 2006 game, maybe not an RPG but for a
shooter action type of game likethis.
I mean, you're not wrong becausethere is a decent amount of
cutscenes. They're all quick.
But yeah, you're dealing with a lot of cutscenes.
Gosh, But this game also does another thing that irks me,
which is also I think a very 2006 kind of era game because I

(17:59):
know Halo did this a couple times and Halo 3.
But irritates me when like your characters stop and like you can
move around, but there's a talking thing like it's
dialogues going on and you can'tdo anything.
You walk at a slow pace because there's a handful of times
playing Co-op. An enemy is literally attacking
me and my guy is just putting his hands up to his ear talking
on the intercom. I'm like, can I shoot the enemy

(18:21):
here? Like I'm I'm literally stuck
here just walking like an idiot and I hate that.
It's just like like games I've learned to like, oh, like
dialogue will go on, but you canstill play the game.
No, instead this it hinders you of just let me walk really slow
and talk to this person on the late on the radio.
That was driving me nuts becausethere was a point in particular
I was getting kind of stuck at. And when I tell you that every

(18:46):
time I reload that probably 3 or4 times and he immediately cut
to holding his ear, talking, walked about 100 feet.
And then there's a slow, probably only about 7 second not
cutscene, but like zoom in on some enemy that screams really
obnoxiously. It wasn't even a Wretch, but

(19:07):
those are the worst. But it was like something along
those lines. And then it's just carries on.
I was like, if I have to do thisone more time I swear to God.
Yeah, but I mean overall though,like I don't, I don't hate this
game, sorry like. No, I thought it was.
Like talking, like talking aboutit now, like it didn't hook me,

(19:28):
like even when the credits rolled.
Like that's the thing too, because I remember, because I
actually remember. I see sweet.
I don't remember much of this game, but I remember bits of the
story and I remember the ending.I remember going that was it
like, OK, because it literally is ladies.
Like, oh, they don't know why wefought this war, the end.
And it's just like, okay, I remember the ending pissed me

(19:51):
off so. You know why we fought this war
then? Because I don't.
I mean, honestly, I don't fully remember.
Like I said, there's it's weird,there was moments of this game
like Liz was playing ahead of me.
And she was asking me these moments and I was like, oh, I
thought that was in Gears 2. So like a lot of these games
actually kind of blended together.
Like the only thing I really remember of Gears 2 is Maria

(20:13):
over and over again. That's about it.
That's honestly all I remember of Gears 2.
That means nothing to me, but that's good as again, I really
played a lot of the franchise like we did Gears 5 and I played
this. That's really it.
I've probably played bits and pieces of it and I think a lot
of times I played multiplayer orsome like either Co-op

(20:35):
multiplayer or online multiplayer when I did it.
Like a friend's house, Like yourhouse or something.
Yeah, which is surprising. Yeah, did.
Like, did you and Aaron not playa lot of Co-op games?
No, we really didn't. Maybe some Call of Duty.
It wasn't until Overwatch until like, Aaron and I at least
started playing a lot of video games together online.
See, because that's the thing, like I remembered, yeah, like

(20:57):
playing this with Dave and beinglike, this is a fun game.
Like I had a blast playing Co-op.
And then now like I said, this was kind of on our list.
Like we kind of did this podcastbecause I'm like, hey, this is
an excuse to make Liz play some Co-op games with me.
And this was always kind of on my list.
I'm like, I remember this being a lot of fun of a Co-op game.
And then yeah, sure enough, playing it now it's like, man,
this, this holds up. But yeah, I guess getting into

(21:20):
the gameplay of it, you know, this game really like changed a
lot of games. Like this game really defined
cover based shooting. Like this really wasn't much of
a thing growing up. Like, yeah, yeah, first person
shooters or third person shooters, you can stand behind a
wall, but like you didn't reallydo much.
Like some games had slight cover, but this game is all

(21:42):
cover. If you are not taking cover, you
are getting smoked very quickly.And like this was a game that
really kind of defined the genreand it just, it holds up still
to this day very well. But yeah, it's a third person
shooter, you know, you are taking cover behind walls,
taking out enemies moving across.
But the other big thing that's also very different about this
game is the active reload. You know, usually you hit X

(22:03):
reload your gun, the end. This it was a mini game, which I
remember at the time I was like,this is insane.
Like they made a mini game in a reloading an activity you
constantly do in a shooter. Like super genius of it.
And it's like. Devious, though.
It does, but you don't have to do it.
It is optional, but it's obviously a reward.
If you do it perfect you get bonus damage.

(22:25):
If you just do it good you get afaster reload.
Or you can just ignore it. You hit reload and just wait the
second it takes the reload. That's it.
So that's what I liked. Yes, it can get tedious, but you
can't ignore it. That's true.
There is something to be said for that.
And I think the big thing is that if you're going to ignore
it, you got to just ignore it entirely.
Like don't try to like half do it or whatever because if you if

(22:49):
you get the penalty, you get thepenalty.
It sucks. Although I think if you hit it,
if you like double tap it quick enough, the penalty offsets the
amount of time it would take to just generally reset the gun.
I don't know if that's true in every case, but at least with
the the main Lancer rifle and I'm pretty sure it's about the
same amount of time. I don't know.
I never actually confirmed that.I I definitely didn't either.

(23:12):
Again, journalist integrity doesn't happen, but I'm pretty
sure. That's what they got.
Latest statements and say like it's back.
Yeah, No, no, no, just don't test it.
Just if you, if you want to justdouble tap real quickly, it'll
be fine. But that's another complaint I
have right away is there's what,6 guns in this game?
It feels like OK, this is. Just.

(23:35):
About 2006. It's just so my the gameplay is
fun and I'm sure the other the the later on in the series it
gets a lot more in depth. But overall I just thought even
the gameplay was very flat. It was just like, hey, here's a
gun, you're going to use it forever.
It doesn't change. You don't upgrade it.

(23:57):
The enemies are going to get a little stronger, but you're not.
There's something to be said forthat.
You know, the difficulty actually gets harder as you get
to the end of the game, but it'slike, I don't know if there's no
incentive to keep playing almostother than the story.
And as we said, it's interestingenough, but is it enough?

(24:19):
Well, there's fun set pieces. I mean, you could argue this
with a lot of games though, Keith, and that's something it's
not, it's not a long campaign. You're looking like 9 hours for
the campaign. Because if you think about
that's how Halo is you're, you're shooting aliens are
granted you also don't like Halo.
But yeah, the aliens themselves really don't change.
They get slightly more health, like they they're higher ranked
aliens. But yeah, you're just getting

(24:41):
the same guns over and over again.
It's just, but it's the set pieces and the music and like
the stuff that's going on. That is just a genuinely fun
time. See, Keith, I feel like you're
getting brain rot where it's youneed to have a dopamine hit of
something. Give me a loot box or something.
Any flashing colors and number go up.
I do I do need number go up, butbut really, though, like I need

(25:06):
maybe I need I want to at least have a little bit more expansive
of the gameplay. I don't want the gameplay to
just feel like I'm doing the same thing.
I don't know again, I guess yes,10 hours like that's definitely
within my range of general acceptability on a game.
No, no say holding me hostage, but making me, you know, getting

(25:29):
to the end of the gameplay, so to speak.
So. I I don't know because like
there there is different game, but like you, you get eventually
the junker when you're driving acar and you got to get rid of
the krill. Yeah, there's the moment the
Kriller invading 10. Minutes.
You got to you got to make lightto get rid of the krills.
That's something different. The Krill, that one was kind of

(25:52):
cool. It was like a little bit.
It wasn't stealthy, but it was also, I don't know, after the
first five barrels I shot, therewasn't a lot of like, oh, OK,
let me craft out how I'm gonna do this.
You were just like, let me quickly scan the area, find the
barrels and that's my path. Occasionally I think in the

(26:14):
area, there's like 2 at least secrets that I found that you
scan a little bit further to your left and you'll find
another barrel that you can shoot and run off into a
building or something. I'm not criticizing it because
it, it, it was fun and I actually did like that part of
it. But kind of like the
collectibles thing, like, I don't know, does that really

(26:36):
change things enough that I'm like, wow, this is so much more
interesting now? It was fun.
The gameplay was fun. I just, I wanted more exciting
guns. I wanted more glory kills and
things like that. I mean, that's not the gun.
And I, and I will say I, I, I get that.
I've seen that does happen laterin series.

(26:57):
Yeah. I've got this thing in frightful
with a chainsaw on the end of it.
And the best thing I can do is kind of swing it and it's dead.
And gosh, that's janky, is all that.
Was that was a most impressive chainsaw noise I heard.
It sounds like a dying cat. Yeah, totally started on that.

(27:19):
I make a mean dying cat sound. I'm so, he started.
I'll never end. I really had to make a dying
cat. Apparently I know a lot about
Dying Cat's house. I don't know.
I actually don't know what I meant by that, but what but I
will say is that, yeah, I just, I, I wanted a little bit more

(27:41):
and I and I get that the series gives me that later on.
And this is just a retouched up version of a 2006 game, but it
felt like it should be there andit wasn't.
And it just, it's a little disappointing.
I mean I understand where you'recoming from but This Is Us.
I think a little bit of an issueis you did not play Co-op or at

(28:03):
least you didn't play with me. I don't know if you played with
anyone else. And to me the Co-op like was
it's because that's the thing when it's like Co-op, it's like,
oh, we're just doing the same thing together.
Two people are shooting guns. But honestly the Co-op works
really well in this because it'sa cover based shooting.
So it's fun to have someone kindof flank.
And then every once in a while it has these things where it's
like, oh, we're splitting the group up.
There's 2 paths, 2 people go oneside, two people go to the

(28:25):
other. So it's a human player and an AI
and another human player and another AI goes the other path
and they're well designed because they kind of
crisscrossed with each other. So there's times when I'm like,
crap, I'm stuck by a turret. Now I need my partner to kind of
go and hopefully take that turret out for me so I can
progress. Oh, I see they're pinned down.
They're the enemy's not shootingme, but I can shoot them.
So it's like this fun kind of support of each other.

(28:47):
It's but it like it's like more organic than it is like forced
like when you're playing a Co-opgame like it takes 2 or a way
out where it's like, oh, you have to have a doors locked, you
know, where's your partner opening up the.
Door red key. Yeah, there you go, there's your
Co-op moment. To me, it's just this feels more
organic of, you know, one person's up high, the other
person's down low. The up high person can really

(29:09):
take out the people in cover, you know, but the down low
person maybe has access to Hammer Dawn.
I don't know, it was just it's avery fun Co-op game because it's
simple. No, that I can get because and I
could and I could absolutely even see that as I was playing
through it because because of those moments where like as you
said, you know, you're splittingthe paths up or even in you

(29:29):
know, I joked about how short that little cutscene is in the
junker, but not having to just switch back and forth because
even though again, yes, some slight variation in the
gameplay, it was that's kind of boring and it was it was kind of
annoying to be switching back and forth.
I wanted it to be a little bit more intense and either having

(29:50):
an AI or, you know, ACPU in the gunner or a friend is going to
just make that game play a little bit more fun.
Yeah, but I mean, honestly, having a cop in that one, it it
does kind of suck because yeah, either the car's driving or the
car's shooting a laser. You can't do both.
So I will say, I mean, granted, that segment's super cool, like

(30:12):
short, and that's the highlight of the game.
No, and that's why I kind of laughed when you were like,
well, no, you get to do in the junker.
Like I was just saying, it does change the gameplay.
It is a change the gameplay for.Not a good change, but it is a
change for. 5 minutes and changes change only if you have
to do a single player. It can't be more than three if
you're doing that as Co-op. I mean, it's like I said, but

(30:35):
like there's got about defensiveones where enemies attacking,
you got to kind of hold off the wave.
Like those moments are fun. Those moments when you're like
doing a bunker down and kind of fighting off hordes of enemies,
which is, well. That's a lot of what the
multiplayer outside of campaign is, right?
Like they were. No, hordes didn't come till the
2nd. OK, because but even still, like
Gears of War is the franchise. They were the ones who like

(30:58):
really, I don't say perfected horde mode, but popularized it.
Or was it just more around that era and they were a big one of
it because I couldn't think theywere a lot of.
The Gears of War came out with Horde first.
Halo I feel like didn't do it until.

(31:19):
ODST is when they came out of the horde mode.
It's called firefight. OK, that's what I was trying to
come up with. I was going to say and I'm not a
Halo expert but I thought ODST was it and Gears.
I thought it was because I had 2008 gears 2 and I'm 2.
ODST so Gears of War came out first with the horde mode.

(31:39):
Yeah, so I've and and Horde kindof fits them a little better.
Like I feel like it would have been branded differently if ODST
had different done it. Well, they call it firefight, so
they did brand differently. They did but but it was but it
but when people were playing it,they're like, oh, it's horde
mode. Like that's what it would be,
would have been branded as by everyone else.

(32:04):
But yeah, which did you play themultiplayer at all?
I didn't. I.
Play live if you can actually, like if you play online.
Yeah, Oh yeah, Because this justcame out and this is now on
PlayStation, so there's cross play a lot of people.
PlayStation people have to buy the game, though.

(32:24):
You get it on Game Pass. And it's so wild because not to
not to sidetrack us too much, but like I there haven't
necessarily been in this isn't in a shot way at all, but there
hasn't been a lot of games on PlayStation.
They're like, Oh, I've been itching to play like spider man.
There's definitely has been games I've wanted to come to
Xbox. Hell divers.

(32:45):
Hell, divers. And actually I have, I haven't
played as much of it as I've wanted to, but I did get it.
And it's just funny to see, likeI don't know, to see games like
this going over to PlayStation to think they're people who've
never had access to any of these.
And we've had, what, 5-6 of them?
Yep, yeah, 6 because there's a prequel called Gears of War

(33:05):
Judgement, but yeah, it and it'sweird because like during this I
was looking at locations for thecog tags, the collectibles, and
it brought me up to like a PlayStation trophy website.
And I was like, Nah, this feels weird, but also it I don't hate
it. I'm not like I'm not we've we've
done an episode on. I'm not a salty fanboy.

(33:25):
That's like, this is an Xbox game for me.
You know, this is an old game. It's a great game too.
So for me and like this is great, that's hitting other
audience. But it's surprising that Gears
of War, the very first one here,this is technically like it's
second remastering because it was Gears of War Ultimate and
now it's Gears of War Reloaded. But they haven't done any of the
other Gears of War 2 or Gears ofWar three.

(33:46):
And it's just like, OK, I'm assuming those are next on the
block like obviously they want to do because this is the first
one. The Gears were reloaded.
It's now on PlayStation. So to me it's like, OK, this
makes sense of them introducing the PlayStation people and the
other games are going to be coming, get hooked.
And now you're going to want to buy the other ones.
I don't know, I play. OK, so, but yeah, I played one

(34:07):
game of the multiplayer and it'sstill, it's still Gears of War.
I used to love this game back inthe day in high school.
But this is also the multiplying.
This game is also very much, as I say, like Rocket League, where
there is a huge skill gap. You're either someone who knows
how to. In Gears of War, it's all about
wall bouncing. You either know how to wall
bounce or you don't and you die very quickly.

(34:29):
When you see like people who know how to wall bounce, they're
literally just ping ponging everywhere with a shotgun and
just taking you out in one hit. And it's like, OK, this is
insane. So like I just always got turned
off with a little bit of the multiplayer because I'm too old.
I am not going to be wall bouncing.
I am not going to be doing that anymore.
Like I used to be OK with it in high school but I don't have the

(34:49):
time for this now. I just never in.
I don't know, maybe gimmick isn't the right word, but I've
just never. Been good.
Yeah, like never been good at gimmicks and games.
Like if there's like a hey, you have to just do this thing.
Like, and maybe this is me. I don't even say old man yelling
at the cloud because probably for as long as online video

(35:12):
games have existed, it's been mything.
Like I hate one trick pony or quoting even like meta
strategies. Like if there's 25 characters in
the game, all 25 of them should be playable.
Don't tell me that I should onlybe playing ten of them.
That's just. You need to have this guy on
your team or you lose. I hate.
Unless it's hot zone, I never play Hanzo.

(35:33):
But outside of that, like yeah, exactly.
But but realistically, like every character, everything
should be playable. Everything should be functional.
And I just I hate that game star.
I think more like we were jokingabout this a little bit, you
know, earlier. Of course I like it because it's
a rogue like your survivor game,whatever.

(35:53):
But those are the best games that going, hey, here's 150
different options and 150 ways to beat this game, which turns
into really limitless ways to beat a game and everything is
functionable and playable. And I love that about those
games. I don't know, Keith, I'm going
to pull a push back here. I feel like a lot of those rogue

(36:15):
legs have a meta that you need to do.
You're just talking about, oh, you need to have this card with
this and then you could have infinite damage, but you got to
have those cards. Yeah, if you want to completely
maximize the game, but I could beat everything.
Like I can go through now. Some are different than others,
like we'll say like an inscription and we've talked
about that like, you know, it was like a, you know, you have

(36:38):
to get it on the first five run,you know, rounds or whatever
basically, and you know, you're going to win or not win around.
But overall, did I think though even within that kind of genre,
I think there's just certain ones that are different than
others. Like we'll talk about it at a
probably future date, but Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, I think
it's a really good example of a game that basically anything you

(36:59):
pick can be playable if you kindof just play it right.
But I'll have to say we we kind of got sidetracked here.
I we never mind gameplay. I just, I don't like gimmicky
things of well, balances and thediving and and all of that crap.
I just, I just, I just give me afight and I'm still going to

(37:21):
lose either way. I just I wanted to be a fair.
Loss, It's a yeah. But I agree with you.
I can't stand gimmicky stuff like building in Fortnite, drop
shooting, Call of Duty. Like I cannot do that stuff.
I always hate that. But Speaking of the online
multiplayer, that was kind of made me chuckle.
Like I said, I booted up the original.
So the original Xbox 361. Do you remember the beginning of

(37:43):
games? They always said online
experience may change. Yeah, yeah.
It's like, man, every game had that.
That had online. You don't see that anymore.
It was always there, subtle warning of like.
Just like, yeah, it's going to be awful.
You know, just so you know, if you play online, you'll probably
be called terrible things and people will be doing things to
your mother. They don't do that anymore.

(38:03):
They don't bore you anymore because they don't ban people
all the time. Before it was just a slight
warning. Now they're just like, hey,
you're older than 13, right? Right, right, you said.
Yes, it's not a problem. We're monitoring your chat.
You say something naughty, you're gone.
You said yes, it's not our problem anymore, we're just
going to try to loosely pay attention.

(38:28):
But yeah, the gameplay like to me it's still, I guess Keith
disagrees. I I to me that's I like, I don't
fully disagree with you. You are doing a lot of cover
shoot, cover shoot. But I don't know, I think I
think you just really missed outplaying Co-op because I I can
see where you're coming from. I was playing single player a
lot, which got to I also got to ask what difficult you play

(38:49):
Keith. Normal.
OK, which of that's also I did not realize.
I thought they always had it, but when I booted up the
original, there's only three difficulties.
Casual, hardcore and then Insane, which Insane's locked.
You have to beat the game in order to unlock Insane.
But in Gears of War, we're loaded.
There's five difficulties. There's like, yeah, casual,
normal, hard and insane. You know, I think it's just 4.

(39:13):
But yeah, I liked that they did this.
The thing that stuck, it took mea while to figure out.
So Liz was playing on easy because she's like, I just want
to beat this game. So she's like, I'm just.
And she was, she really enjoyed easy because she could actually
one hit kill people. The sniper and I jumped into her
game. But I was playing on hard and it
did this weird thing. It didn't tell me, but it took

(39:35):
me a while to figure it out. So since I was normally playing
on hard and she's uneasy, I was playing on her game.
The enemies had easy health but they were doing hard damage to
me and it was pissing me off. I'm like, why am I getting
downed and casual? I'm like, this makes no sense.
And it's pissed me off 'cause this is like, I have to revive

(39:56):
you again. And I'm like, I'm not bad at
this game. I.
Swear. But I'm like, I'm like, I'm
taking people out super quick. Like it's taken like 1/4 of a
clip to kill somebody. Like that's not how it's played
and hard. I'm like, I don't get why I'm
struggling. And it took me a second.
Then I saw her screen. She took a direct sniper shot
and her health, which Oh yeah. This game also like kind of

(40:17):
revolutionized health of you always regenerated health.
You didn't have a health bar. Like this is an early game that
kind of did that. And this would have a pretty.
Early on, right? No Hill one had health and it
was a Halo 2 where they got rid of the health bar.
OK. Which I'm pretty sure this came
out first before Halo 2. Yeah.

(40:39):
I got to quickly Google this, now this.
Is O6 you said? Well Halo 2 you said was O 8.
No ODST was O 8. O8O4 OK so I guess Halo 2
actually. Man that's crazy.
I did not realize Halo 2 came upbefore Gears did to me.
In my mind Halo One and Gears were like a year or two apart,
but I guess not. That's crazy.

(40:59):
It could have been one of those like late earlier release hips
things, but anyways. Yeah, but anyway, so I saw Liz
get hit with a sniper and she barely took damage.
So that's what it dawned on me. I'm like, oh, I'm taking hard
damage while we're playing on easy.
So it's weird. This game has this weird meta of
like, you know, you're choosing your difficult day playing.

(41:19):
I don't know, because also when I look at my chapter select, it
says I beat those levels on easy.
So even though it was a harder time for me, I only got credit
for technically beating it uneasy.
And it's like, that sucks. Yeah.
And it's it's weird that they just don't tell you.
I thought I heard something about it because that's what
they do in the the new gears, like gears 4:00 and 5:00.

(41:42):
If you play Co-op, it specifically asks each player
what difficult do you want to doand adjust the difficulty that
way. So that I remember we did that
with gears five. I was like, oh, I'll play on
normal or hard and let's play that easy.
And, you know, it could cater toour, you know, entertainment.
Yeah. It was just didn't tell you.
And it was just odd. It was irritating me because,
like, Liz is obviously doing fine.

(42:03):
And I'm like, how am I dying? I'm sorry, like half done too,
where you're doing easy difficulty.
So you're just like, well, wait a minute, not yeah, I'm getting
like half the fun. Exactly, It was it was throwing
my brain off constantly because I'm like, Oh yeah, this is easy.
I'm smoking people that I'd stopinstantly get out of cover and
then instantly die. And I'm like, what the heck,

(42:25):
What's going on here? Yeah, so there's a little
forwarding. If you're playing on difficult,
different difficulty, make sure you're both like on the same
one. Adjust, adjust your difficulty
accordingly. But anyway, let's get into, I
guess the graphics. I guess this probably will not
be able to join us. I hear our little 1 is not
having a good night graphically though this game I OK what do

(42:50):
you think of the graphic keys? Because you ice I forgot to
mention this at the beginning. You never played the original,
you said. Not the original, no.
Just fixing Gears 5 I guess. So the one we covered in the
podcast. No, I thought overall like it
was nice and shiny and everything looks good.
There's there's bad model interaction in terms of like

(43:13):
melee kills and things like that, but everything looks
really good graphically. Yeah, you can see it's still on
the same engine. It just has like a new coat of
paint on it. Yeah, there is some weird model
stuff even to like in the cutscenes, like their mouths are
moving, but it's like not organic.

(43:33):
Like this is a kind of before mocap really was good.
So you kind of see in like some of the cutscenes, like the
emotions don't quite hit. But overall the graphics look
very good. But what's actually surprising
me, these actually aren't that different of graphics from the
original game. Like obviously there's more
pixels, better frame rate, but like that's the other thing that

(43:54):
surprised me. Like I booted up the 2006
version. I'm like, this game still looks
very good that this is. The other thing that also is
very iconic with Gears of War isthe ragdoll physics.
I love when you have these big beefy creatures and you just
kick up around like they're justa like a paper bag.
Yeah, trying to throw them off the walls and stuff, which it
won't let you do. Every wall is an invisible

(44:16):
barrier to its own credit sometimes.
Nice. No, no accidental deaths.
But that said, yeah, there's there's really good things
there. But I would be curious of 2006
that would have been pushing 1080P originally.
Now I know 1080P actual graphical capabilities are two
different functionalities but all the same like they that

(44:43):
would have been on the cusp of where graphics started to I
think breakthrough and I could see Gears of War being a studio
that would have had access to. Push.
It was 720 more. OK. 1080P wasn't much of a thing
to the Xbox Series Elite, the Xbox Series, the Xbox 360 Elite.
There we go. That's when they actually

(45:04):
started to normalize 1080P. OK, so yeah, I remember this was
OG Xbox 360 C, It only did 720. But yeah, in like in like, that
was definitely what you could see is pixelation.
The fidelity obviously got increased.
And like I said, the big thing too was darkness, like the

(45:25):
beginning of this cutscene, the very beginning of the game,
Marcus Phoenix is in prison. He looks up, there's wretches
looking at him. In the original game, you could
not make them out. It is like pitch black.
Like you see a little outline ofkind of their face, but
everything else is super dark. That's like, man, I had to go to
the options of bump up the brightness because it's like
this is game is just baseline very dark.

(45:47):
But yeah, overall, though, I it impresses me actually how well
these graphics hold up. But the audio, the idea though,
in this game, what do you think?I I liked it.
It's still iconic sounds. I love the voice acting.
The voice acting is still the same and which actually holds up
very well. I think it's hit or miss on

(46:12):
varying levels. Sound effects pretty awful
mostly like guns good the the locust like I said, the wretches
just all they just scream at notjust the wretches, but just
about everything is screaming, which I didn't I didn't bring

(46:33):
this up, but this this always makes me laugh like make a weird
preference to like Lord of the rings as as another one.
But like you have these like theorcs or the locusts and they
just have this weird level of technology and like industry
that makes no sense for the factthat they're otherwise basically

(46:55):
language less monsters. I I don't fully understand the
concept of that. Like you have these giant
hulking corpses, but they're also armored up with technology
and stuff like but. They're essentially like an
animal. What weird sci-fi world is this?
But it's a very common thing, soI don't know.

(47:15):
We've just all come to accept it, but it's just a weird thing
to me. See, but this is the thing I
really like about the scheme though is it's world building.
As I said, this is an earth. This is.
But everything in this is true and they.
Don't, they don't make a big deal about that, though.
It's very subtle. And I and I will agree with you
on that. I think it's very much they're
just like, Oh yeah, Sarah's in danger.

(47:37):
And they don't say it in a way that makes it sound like Sarah
or a person like, you know, thatthey're talking with the planet
and then you're like, oh, wait, we're not on Earth.
They don't really explain anything else about it.
You're. Like, hey, you're not.
There they just, they just casually mention you're not on
Earth and then nothing ever against about it.

(48:01):
So it's one of those weird contacts that even without
having played all of the Gear series, just knowing that they
exist, I'm like, yeah, I'm sure all of this lore that I don't
know and can't make sense of in this one game is out there, but
constantly but constantly. Like none of this makes sense.
But yeah, I what we were talkingabout though, is the audio is I

(48:24):
hated the sound effects overall of the monsters.
They just, they didn't make sense It well, they didn't make
sense. They were just screechy and
annoying. The guns were fine.
The music, I want to talk about the music.
It's really, really good, but it's also really, really weird
to me because it has a very who's the guy who did Star Wars

(48:50):
I, I should know? Oh my gosh, you should know
this. I know.
Oh my gosh, I. Feel like there's AZ in there
somewhere. Hans Zimmer, is that it?
Is that it? John Williams, Thank you.
John Williams, there's a. It has that kind of thematic

(49:14):
sound to it. It's like there's flutes in full
orchestras, but it's not like Halo where it's thematic and
big. It just, it's there and it's and
it points. It almost feels like even fun.

(49:36):
There's just something about it.The music is really, really
good, but it's weird to me. Does that make sense?
No, it does like because a lot of times it's kind of in the
background, but this isn't like 2006.
Like they really put effort in the music because like Halo did
like Halo obviously is one of the most psychotic soundtracks.
And it's just I, I, I mean, I didn't fully play the original

(49:58):
because I was, I was curious. I'm like, is some of this
copyright that it needs to be quiet or change?
I don't think it was. I couldn't remember.
One of them ends in a rap song. I mean, we didn't watch the
whole credit. Amazing.
Yeah. It has Cole like saying lines as
he's like, kind of like. Oh, that's even better.
There's. Like a little bit of techno
which I have a question. So this is planets called Sarah,

(50:21):
the people would be called Sarans or Sarans, right?
Saranites. Yeah, but so that be called
Saran wrap? Yeah.
When you do rap music, is it Saran wrap?
I'm not going to dignify that with any type of
acknowledgement. I'm just going to agree and say,
yeah, that sounds great. There's got something to think

(50:42):
about it like it's a Saran rap OK, but but the music I do agree
is is good, but it's just I don't know actually I'm coming
curious. Like it almost doesn't make
sense at times. OK, Like I don't want to call it
Disney movie because it's not like light hearted and like

(51:03):
skipping through the forest typeof music, but there's points
where it just feels a lot lighter than what the moment is.
Yeah, so Kevin Ripple is the onewho did this music, and he did
then. Then Steve Jablonski does gears
to. Blonski.
That's a great last name, but I remember, I remember the music

(51:24):
getting better in the games, so.But it's not bad though.
That's what I'm saying. I don't, I don't want to talk
down to it because it actually is really good.
And I was like, I was trying to pay attention.
I was like, oh, I really like this.
But at the same time I was like,this is weird.
It's it's it's strange. But I love do you you got who
the voice actor was in the in Marcus Venus, right?

(51:47):
No, actually. John DiMaggio, the guy who does
the voice of Bender, I mean, he does a ton of voices.
He does Adventure Time. He's been in like, honestly just
about anything like, but yeah, his one of his narcotic roles is
Bender. I have to go back and listen to

(52:07):
it now, but yeah. I mean, the guy has range
because like, you would not hearBender.
There were some moments, he said, where, my God, I kind of
sound a little bit like Bender. I bet, I bet I can hear it now
if I go back and listen to it, even if not like consistently,
but I bet like like you were saying, like, oh, I can kind of
hear that, but I never would have fixed that up.

(52:30):
Yeah, as far as like sounds go, though, like with your complaint
with some of the aliens, I get where you're coming from.
For me, the most annoying part is when the game like, pauses
and it zooms in on a ratch and they scream loud and loud and
louder. It's annoying.
Liz had a note on that that she wanted to say, unfortunately
it's not here, but when that first happened, our dog freaked
out. Like a dog just started barking

(52:52):
at the TV and wanted to attack the TV once again that's a very
2006 thing of like stopping the game and giving you this
annoying thing you can't skip. But anyway achievements, though
the achievements of this game are great.
Well, Nope Nope, I'm taking thatback Single player achievements
are pretty good, but this game once again very 2006.

(53:15):
There's a ton of multiplayer achievements.
I remember a lot of games have gotten rid of multiplayer
achievements like they'll have some here and there but I'm I'm
honestly not half but the achievements are multiplayer
leveling up your account to a certain level, getting the
iconic achievement for the Gearsof War.
It's called seriously. Which in Gears of War one it's

(53:36):
getting 10,000 multiplayer killsor 1000 I think it's 10,000.
And then of course, Gears 2 has seriously 2 point O and it's
getting 100,000 kills in anything, so even single player
counts. And then yeah, Gears three had
seriously 3 point O. So it's like an ongoing
achievement thing. So it's kind of iconic.
But yeah, the achievements to dothem are pretty easy.

(53:58):
Like getting the single player ones, like being this game on
Insane isn't very hard, just gotto take your time.
But the collectibles are very easy.
Did you ever catch the trick forthe collectibles, Keith?
Yeah, see. Liz didn't notice it, but once
again, this is something. I just knew from old gaming
knowledge, but the red bloody gear symbol you will see in the

(54:19):
game is an indicator that there's a collectible nearby.
Oh, so I did pick up on that red.
That red symbol, I thought it had something to do with like at
least trying to almost like the yellow paint type of thing.
What kind of But yeah, I mean, it is, but yeah, I.
Was thinking a bit more. Like a you're going in the right
direction, but I mean, how many are there in total, 33, 33?

(54:44):
Oh yeah, OK. That makes sense.
Did you get a lot of them? Yeah, I think I had like 7.
The cool thing though? With this, remastered is when
you're collecting. Them you're unlocking pages of a
comic book. Comic books, there's 5 because I
remember there was a pretty significant comic book series
with Gears of War, like filling in the war, especially the
prequel, which is the Pendulum War, which was the two nations

(55:05):
kind of fighting each other. And it's cool that you get a
full-fledged comic book, and youalso get an achievement for that
too, if you read the comic. Book Yeah, I I didn't get the
achievements then because it's a.
Full comic. Book, but so that's a great
thing about this. Remastered for the PlayStation
people who haven't played the other games other and have more
of the context. There's comic books here and

(55:26):
those will help fill in the gap.Will you walk so you can run?
Enjoy it. But yeah, it's really cool.
Nice feature. I'm glad they added it.
But yeah, I guess let's get intoour final thoughts here.
So for me, Gears of War Reloaded, it's very much Gears
of War. If you have never played the
Gears of War games, you absolutely should, then this is

(55:49):
a great starting point. It actually that's the other
thing I forgot to mention, the controls.
I think it's more because of theframes are better but are way
smoother than this. Going back to the original 360
version, it felt jankier, like trying to aim.
But like I said, I think it's because the frames were probably
lower. But yeah, this is a ton of fun
if you have someone to play with, they don't need to be

(56:10):
hardware gamer. Like this isn't a very hard
game, but it is a very fun Co-opgame.
So playing it on easy or normal,it's just it's a fun buddy buddy
game. So absolutely, absolutely
recommend playing this Co-op with somebody.
But it still holds up. It's still a very the shooting
solid. The story is is OK.
You know, obviously there's somegaps missing, but there's other

(56:32):
gears games you can play to fillin those gaps so you don't have
to wait around like I did back in 2006.
But it's it's good, you're goingto have a ton of fun.
The multiplayer is still good, it's still solid, but there is a
pretty significant skill gap. But heck, doesn't have to try.
You know, there's skill based, skill based matchmaking.
So hopefully it won't get go against sweaty people.

(56:52):
But for me, this is still easilya 90.
You know, I have some issues a little bit with the audio and
the unskippable moments, but that's a just kind of part of
its age as far as the package goes for this game.
I had a ton of fun with this andI forgot how much I enjoyed
Gears of War now. You know, overall, like he said,
and I'm and I'm glad I actually kind of stuck to my guns on this

(57:14):
a little bit because I think I've maybe talked to myself a
little bit more as we've talked it out here.
But even still, like this is a game and that's where I started
with and I and I would stand by,but I'm just not excited about
it. Like it for me personally, it
doesn't make me want to go play the other Gears games, but
having this crossover into PlayStation and really unlocking

(57:37):
this series for a whole new setsof gamers, I think that yeah, I
would recommend going and playing this and checking it out
because maybe it is for you. Just because I know that it's
not for me doesn't mean it's a bad game because there's a lot
of things I did like about it. I think thematically it's it's
pretty cool. The story is kind of flat, but I
think the, even though the characters aren't overly

(58:00):
engaging in people that I care about, they're entertaining
enough. Especially like I mentioned
that, you know, the Coltrane andthe Baird relationship, like
they're just kind of entertaining, you know, the the
two of them bantering back and forth.
I like that. Yeah, the gameplay, again, kind
of flat. It doesn't have a ton, but it's

(58:22):
fun enough. And I and it really like we've
talked about it opened the doorsfor so many other things.
I think the biggest thing it comes down to is I don't like
cover shooters. I don't have the patience for
them. I want to get in there and I
don't like shooters. I do in some cases I.
I just. Want to doom style it.
More than anything I just want to get in there.
I want to action, have fun, and this is fun.

(58:45):
I just don't like sitting back and hiding behind a barricade.
Just doesn't seem as fun to me, but I also didn't play
multiplayer and I could even playing a single player could
see where it's more fun multiplayer than not.
Still not going to go crazy withthis and I'm going to give it a
79 in a game. I know you know, whatever, but

(59:08):
I, I was, I was ready for low 70s with the game on this, but
I'm going to give it a 79 because it really is good.
And the music, while it doesn't make sense, it's so good.
It really is like just listen tothe music and it's good.
It just doesn't make sense. And but that makes it
entertaining. And I think that there's moments
that they, the, the, the dialogue is even intentionally
goofy, like for the purposes of what they're trying to do.

(59:31):
I just, I don't know, I like what they're doing is the
product. And I think if you're looking to
get into the series, start here.Like don't start with the
original 1 like Deandra did who did for nostalgia to go back and
play the 2006 version and play this one.
And if you like it, keep playingon Game Pass and hopefully they
bring them to PlayStation or just get like game pass

(59:51):
subscription and go stream it onthe cloud or something.
Yeah, you can literally cloud stream it on your phone.
So just go do that. But anyways question, is this
on? Is this on PC?
I don't know, but it like, well,Gears of War.
Well, this one is, but yeah. I guess two and three are not

(01:00:13):
because they haven't done a remastered with them.
Say you know not to, not to be all.
Xbox advertisement because they're not paying us, but they
should be because I just, I do this for free, but everyone's
got a smartphone now. Get a Game Pass subscription and
you could be playing this on cloud on your phone.
Even if you're a PlayStation person through and through in

(01:00:34):
your life, you could just have Cloudplay on your phone on so
many games that are Xbox exclusive.
But also it's cool that they're coming to PlayStation 2.
Like, I'm happy that they're doing that for you guys and all
the likes, but all righty, I think that'll do.
It for us this week. Sorry Liz can be more in this
episode little ones kind of struggling but please make sure

(01:00:56):
you go to gamepassgoback.com. Check out our past reviews.
You can write us an e-mail. Go to our link tree.
You know, I'll have that in the show notes as well.
Join our Discord. Write us an e-mail, say hello.
We always love hearing from you people.
But yeah, I've been your hardcore game Los Angeles.
You can find me. Xbox Live at Firebird is 0952.
Thank you. I was going to say no, no, no,

(01:01:17):
no, no. I was going to say it's weird
without air until like abruptly into this.
So I was glad that you just did the music because I'd have
nothing to say and I'll just saybye.
I've been Keith. I'm I'm, I'm playing, I'm
playing the intro. Hold on, hold on.
Wait, wait, I you know, you say that there's a difference.
That I I couldn't tell you that there is one it's.

(01:01:40):
Good. Love you all, we'll see you get
next. Week.
Hopefully you get Liz onboy.