E3 07: Gears of War PC Preview

Epic Games' system-selling shooter finally makes its way to PC later this year. We checked out the game firsthand and talked with producer Tanya Jessen about the PC-exclusive additions.

Chris Remo

July 16, 2007 10:16 AM

PC gamers have had to wait a fair amount of time to experience certain marquee Xbox shooters, but Epic Games' Xbox 360-seller Gears of War at least seems to be heading over more quickly than some, and with more enticing additional content. At a Microsoft Games for Windows showcase event, I was able to get my hands on the game and speak with Epic's Tanya Jessen about what's in the works for Gears of War's Windows incarnation.

First the facts: Gears PC will have three new multiplayer maps, a new game mode, five new single-player chapters, new Achievements, graphical improvements, and, of course, the option to play with either mouse and keyboard controls or an Xbox 360 controller.

Jessen declined to go into too much detail about the specific graphical tweaks that are being made for the PC game, since things could change before final release, but she did note that despite supporting Games for Windows Live it will run on Windows XP or Windows Vista and will have both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 support. Demo machines were running a smooth 60fps at 1920x1200 resolution on machines equipped with Nvidia 8800-series cards and 2GB of RAM, and the game looked great. While not in a whole new visual realm than its Xbox 360 counterpart, the game sports what are clearly more detailed textures and models and looks even tighter overall.

Epic is keeping most of the new single-player content under wraps at this point, but the company did show off a scene from one of the chapters. Picking up where the original game's brief Brumak chase leaves off, one of the new PC levels features a boss fight against the gargauntuan, heavily armed beast.

New multiplayer map Gold Rush is a dark, compact outdoor industrial facility with staircases and corridors connecting multiple levels. Sanctuary is a dismal gray graveyard constructed of stone architecture, whose battles frequently come to a head in a central intersection. Finally, Courtyard is a wide-open, nearly symmetrical daytime courtyard, essentially a large bowl.

Most crucial to the game's multiplayer component is the new King of the Hill mode, which Jessen noted draws from the original existing Annex. In King of the Hill, players must capture different zones placed at random locations around the map and continually occupy them to accrue points over time. It makes use of execution rules, meaning players must finish off downed opponents lest they mash the action button fast enough to swallow the pain and rise again. This adds a dimension of urgency to holding down a hill, as you frequently must rush out from the control zone in order to ensure that a nearly-defeated enemy does not get another chance at taking your territory. During that time, of course, you earn no seconds.

Mouse and keyboard controls--which, during my demo session, were being used by none of the other eight journalists sitting near me--feel appropriate to the game despite its third person perspective. In addition to the expected ease of aiming, I found myself better able to control my character while executing the "roadie run"--on that note, I found the skakycam of the roadie run to be noticeably more disorienting on PC than on a game console, but I became acclimated to it soon.

Epic considered inter-platform multiplayer between Xbox 360 and PC users, Jessen noted, but since the game was not designed for it from the ground up it was prohibited by technical limitations. Somewhat surprisingly, she also told me that Microsoft did not make a big bush for the company to release the game as Vista-only, after having released both Halo 2 and Shadowrun on PC as Vista-only titles. Epic wanted XP support from the beginning, and the company had its way.

All downloadable content released thus far for the Xbox 360 game will be included in the PC box. Epic still hasn't decided how much--if any--post-release content will be developed for the PC game or if any of the new PC content will make it to 360--or what potential pricing for such content would be. Regarding Xbox Live downloadable content, Jessen said, "We wanted to just release it out, but you know," likely referring to widely reported conflicts between Microsoft and Epic over whether the developer should be allowed to release its content to gamers for free. For now, however, Epic doesn't have the staff to be considering those plans. "For now, this content is PC-only," claimed Jessen, adding that Epic has other games in the works in greater need of the manpower.