STACK #130 Aug 2016

GAMES

FEATURE

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This month, Xbox One owners will get the opportunity to revisit the original Gears of War – remastered with 90 minutes of previously unseen campaign to play through, in glorious 1080p and running at 60fps. Check out these 20 useless facts about the GoW universe. ...you may or may not know. Franchise

Anyone for toast? In Gears of War 2, hidden inside a stone pillar in Act 4: Chapter 5 (The Best-Laid Plans), is a toaster. When activated and the toast pops, Marcus asks, “Who wants toast?”. Gears of War 3 was the first game in the series to feature playable females. English sci-fi author Karen Traviss, author of five books based on the Gears of War universe, was brought

Epic Games, Inc, was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991. It was originally called Potomac Computer Systems. The popular game engine, Unreal Engine, was developed by Epic for its 1998 first-person shooter, Unreal.

A Gears of War title without a chainsaw bayonet is like Alien without Ripley. And it nearly

happened. Microsoft tried to veto its inclusion and it was only added after Epic pleaded with the publisher. Lead game designer Cliff Bleszinski

in to write the GoW 3 story. Ice T’s band Body Count recorded ‘The Gears of War’ for GoW 3. The rapper also voices a role in the game. Gears of War: Judgment is the first game in the series not to feature Marcus Fenix. Every main character in Judgment is playable during the game. The game was written by Rob Auten and Tom Bissell, who collaborated on the single player campaign for Battlefield Hardline . In January 2014, Microsoft bought the Gears of War rights from Epic, effectively ensuring that the game will never appear on a PlayStation console. Gears of War 4 is the sequel to 3 and will be released on Xbox One only in 2016. GoW 4 is being developed by Canadian studio, The Coalition. Microsoft hired Rod Fergusson, executive producer on the first three Gears games, to oversee the project.

developed his first commercial game

at the age of 17. Bleszinski joined the Gears of War project after achieving success on the FPS Unreal franchise.

Gears of War had originally been designed to be part of the Unreal universe. It was going to be called Unreal Warfare. Initially conceived as a FPS, Bleszinski – influenced by the Resident Evil Over-the-Shoulder camera concept – changed the design. Epic had planned to call the Locusts (the antagonists in Gears of War ) 'Geist'. That was until Nintendo released a game of the same name on GameCube. For Gears of War 2 , Epic enlisted notable comic book writer Joshua Ortega to pen the plot.

AUGUST 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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