Gears FAQ

[KhaOZ]

Created by Madfish from GearsofWar.com & #GearsofWar on Gamesurge

1.0 - Release Dates
EVERYONE and their DOG should now know that they game is being release for distribution on 7th November 2006 in the US. This means the game will be in STORES in the US for 12th November (yes, a Sunday) with suitable fan fares and smashing of drums. There is speculation it may appear a few days earlier than the 12th in overly-zealous stores who receive it early. Start buttering up your store managers now!

European release - The friday of the same week, on 17th November 2006. The Collector Edition will be coming to the UK (confirmed by Mark Rein) but I think retailers are being hesitant until their suppliers say so. Keep looking on Amazon etc...

Australian release - I could be entirely wrong, but I believe its a week later on the 24th November.

2.0 - Features
Some of the exciting twirly bits we can drum up excitement to the non-GOWing philistines out there.

Co-op Play
You'll be able to play through the single player campaign with another buddy (2 players, for those who can't count). Significantly, your pal can join you even if you are already playing a "single player" game - he comes on line, you fire of an invite and BAM in he comes and controls Dom. Consequently Dom Santiago will always be with you in the campaign. Note this differs from other co-op games which tend to simply "clone" the lead character.

Lip Syncing of scripted and player LIVE! speech
That's right! As you speak in multiplayer (co-op or pvp) your other buddies - and enemies - will hear AND SEE YOU LIPS (er ok CHIN) moving in time with your speech. Volume will affect how much the mouth opens. Awesome.
Source for general mouth movement here. Also confirmed here.

Voice Controlled NPC squadies
Though you won't need to nurse maid your NPC squad mates you will be able to order them using your MIC. Details are vague at present, however this technology has been in use by Epic since UT2004, so don't be so surprised.

Cover system
The primary game play mechanic, Gears implements a cover system allowing various complex activities. The design direction gives the cover system a very visceral "meaty" feel; shoulders slam against walls, bits fly off under fire etc - making it far improved over any fore runners (GRAW for example). Gameplay treats the cover such that you will almost use it as a character would in a platform game - popping from cover to cover to advance through a zone whilst under fire. Other elements such as dynamic cover and destroyable cover will keep things varied.

Active Reload
An optional mini-game based on reloading click timing can either improve your weapons damage temporarilly or - if done badly - jam your weapon for a second. Jamming is also accompanied by a curse / noise - making it a tactical queue to your enemies and allies alike! It will work like so; you press the RB to begin reloading - somewhere during the reload process (marked by a vertical bar moving across the ammo indicator, left to right) the ammo indicator will flash for a fraction of a second - hit the RB again to receive the bonus (decreased reload time and increased damage). The damage affect will last to the end of the current clip, or for X seconds (ie you if your out of combat for a while the bonus is lost). The muzzle flash will include a blue heat edge to it to indicate the extra power.
Source from this post by CliffyB.

Advanced AI
It's not just a case of popping out of cover and shooting. Those evil locusts will out flank you, retreat, aid each other, shout insults and the fricking rest. It's going to be awesome. Those who've played UT2004 at LANs with bots filling the ranks won't be surprised here - Epic is well accomplished at some of the best AI in the business (god damn fanboi).

Chainsaw
We've all seen it. The human "Lancer" comes with a chainsaw esq blade under the barrel. Get in close enough to an enemy and hold "B" to engage the attack.

* Chainsawing can be interrupted by allies if you're taken down - this has to take place before the animation is X time through
* They have made chainsawing more difficult since E3 2006 (where is first debuted) but details have not been given.
* The chainsawing animation is set to the front (face to face). Cliffy has confirmed the locust will twist around to face you (more intimate).
* The chainsaw can be revved without any target by pressing B.


Mature Content
Lots of blood, lots of swearing, with kick a$$ dialogue! Volumetric blood and blood splats on the "camera" will ensure a gore-tastic experience!
Source for blood splat on "camera" post here by CliffyB

Emersive "better than hollywood crap(tm)" story
Years in the making, the story will be kick ass. We don't know many details, and I won't go into it here. The lads at Epic have poured there very souls into this baby (Cliffy being the main originator, so expect some f&*ked up stuff! ). Professional voice over add to the stories weight.

3.0 - Technology
Engine
Gears of War is utilising the most recent (since they wrote it!) Unreal 3.0 engine. Mark Rein has said GOW will be the main showcase for what the engine can really do!

Loading times
The Unreal 3.0 engine allows for streaming of level data - in a similar way to how the Halo series deals with level progression. Epic do not want us to see loading screens. Thanks to multithreading (below) this shouldn't even be noticeable as we play through the single player campaign without a loading screen.

Frame rates
During the 1UPYOURS pod cast, Lee attempted to pin down CliffyB for some frame rates, sighting the sometimes chopping rate in the E3 demos. The engine has since been optimised and significantly configured to perform multi-threading (more than one process at once) giving good performance boosts. Quite how much remains to be seen, but the target is to have a steady 30 fps (60 fps just ain't gonna happen).

Decal and body stay
Decals (bullets holes, blood splats) will remain for relatively short periods of time, certainly based on the E3 demo. In a similar way, bodies appear to vanish reasonably quickly, though again the E3 demo indicated this may be out of view. These are unfortunate facts, but a necassary trade off to ensure good frames per second and available video resource when they're needed.

4.0 - Single Player Campaign
No times have been released for end to end play of the campaign. Even Epic don't know - they're still playtesting!

5.0 - Multiplayer
Split Screen
There has been no confirmation if split screen will be available in GoW. However, CliffyB has made passing comments about enjoying playing GoW after a hard days work with the good lady - we can safely assume 2 player split screen will be available in Co-Op.

System Link
System link has been confirmed in this post here. Good work SE7N! Of course... didn't they need system link support for all the MP demo's they've been doing?

Co-Op
You will not be able to team kill whilst playing co-op through the multiplayer campaign.

PvP
Excuse the MMO term! Currently only Team Deathmatch on small maps has been confirmed (technically, last man standing). Maximum of 4v4 players will create intimate shoot outs on the well designed maps. Epic has said GoW is being developed with a 70% / 30% balance to single player campaign (and co-op!) / multiplayer development time.

Communications
There has been no confirmation of how communications will be handled in multiplayer matches. The use of lip sync (still strictly unconfirmed by Epic in these forums) would infer communication is mainly "local" and therefore can be heard by the enemy. No information of whether voice masking will be on by default for Locust players or if private team channels will be implemented.

Character Customization
Colour or other customization will not be possible - you select your player model (locust or COG based on your side) only. Unclear the number of player models that will be available.

Respawning
No solid confirmation has been given, but Cliffy has inferred either very low respawn or no respawn, to encourage the use of the cover system. Respawning directly impacts the use of cover and gameplay pace. Info source is S7EN, who heard this directly from Cliffy in IRC; second hand I know, but until we hear otherwise...

Game types
Only team deathmatch has been confirmed for release at this time. CTF will not be in release (if indeed it will happen). Epic are being quite quiet about multiplayer; that could mean they have some surprises or that it's going to remain quite limited game type wise.

Clan Support
Mark Rein has confirmed there will be no clan support on release. Don't be so surprised here - remember that Clan support needs a database infrastructure for it to work, and that takes time and money to setup. This will be mitigated by the low game sizes (4v4); it will be relatively easy to hook up with 4 friends. In addition, there is some speculation (a big RUMOR on that one) that XBOX LIVE may be modified at a later time to support clans natively.

Game Preparation Mechanics (Lobbies)
There has been no information to date on how matches will be created, any lobby being used, parties etc.

Death mechanic
There will be no traditional health bar, rather a red omen that appears indicating you are close to death. There is limited regenration, but details are sketchy. Once you do get taken down you will not immediately die - rather you will enter a "Down but not out" mode for approximately 10 seconds. During this time an Allie can bring you back into the fight or an enemy can finish you off with normal damage or for extra satisfaction by a "curb stomp" to the head (obviously close range melee) (press X for CurbStomp).

6.0 - Controls
Preferences for stick orientation (pull down to look up, or push up to look up) are set in the game itself when you first take control of Marcus - Dom asks you to look at a torch to check your sense - however you choose to look at the torch will set the preferences! (In the words of Marcus - "Nice!").

* R-stick - Look
* L-stick - Move
* A - Cover / Roadie-run (For getting in and out of cover and Roadie-running)
* B - Melee (Hold to rev the chainsaw)
* Y - Point-of-interest-indicator
* X - 'Action'-button (Reviving team mates, curbstomping locust and probably opening doors and picking up ammo)
* R-trigger - Fire
* L-trigger - Aim (Where it get's slightly zoomed in)
* RB - Reload (and "Active Reload" mini-game).
* LB - Objective / Squad status.
* Directional pad - Change weapons.


Thanks to jackrubyn for the list!
Theres also a screeny of the control summary hand out from the E3 multiplayer sessions here

I *think* (great factual grounding then) you will only be able to hold 2 weapons + pistol during all play types. This has been a proven mechanic in many games to date. An added thing for Gears is the unused weapon will be visible on your back (ok a few other titles like PlanetSide have done this already).

7.0 - Weapons
Thanks to M005E and Unreal Havoc for the info
There are at least 13 split into 3 categories of weapons - Coalition ones - usually shiny and higher tech; and Locust ones - lower tech, cobbled together; and finally Stranded ones - old military issue leftovers. Here's the weapons we know of so far;

* COG weapons: Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Lancer (assault rifle with chainsaw bayonet), Longshot (sniper rifle), Snub pistol, Frag Grenades, Smoke Grenades, Flash Grenades.
* Locust weapons: Hammerburst (assault rifle), Boomshot (basically the equivalent of a brute shot, except when shot, the one grenade splits into multiple grenades), Torque bow (Crossbow that shoots remotely detonated arrows (that stick?)).
* Unknown faction but confirmed weapons: Hammer of Dawn (basically satellite controlled laser), Gatling Gun.
* Unconfirmed weapons: Flamethrower


8.0 - Game play
Will there be head shots?
Oh yeah baby. Check out this!

Death
There is no traditional health bar - when you're near death the crimson omen (ok, a cog) appears in front of you (certainly based on the E3 mp build). A screen is here. Once you buy the farm, the screen goes red as you drop - screen shot here.

Crouching, Prone and Jumping
Cliffy has confirmed there is no jumping (who the hell jumps in combat?) and free standing crouching - remember that "crouching" is included in the taking cover activity. No one in the right mind would crouch in combat without being behind cover. There is also no prone (head shots anyone?).

Hitting body locations
It looks like that if you hit a locust in campaign mode in the legs, theres a chain you'll knock him down or slow his charge.

9.0 - Downloadable Content
Mark Rein and Cliffy have confirmed there will be strong Downloadable content post release; chiefly patches and extension to the mutiplayer campaign. Epic have sighted their previous support of UT products to support this; however there has been no clarification on the cost (if any) of these expansions across Xbox Marketplace. Pre-release content has not be discussed at this point.

Demo
There will be no demo prior to release. Lets face it, this is going to sell like a hot cakes, so it's unlikely a demo post release will be needed for a number of months.

10.0 - Community

Websites
www.GearsofWar.com

IRC
irc.gamesurge.net
#GearsofWar