Gears of War PC details released

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 17th July 2007

The PC version of Gears of War will include new singleplayer chapters and extra game modes, as well as a game editor.

Man, we're tired of crappy console ports. It used to be that we could rely on companies to spend a decent amount of time rebalancing console games to work well on PC. Not anymore.

Still, at least PC owners can count on getting some extra content over their 360 cousins, as Microsoft has let slip is the case for the upcoming PC port of Gears of War.

New features and content for the multiplayer game will include new multiplayer maps, extra game modes and a brand new level editor. The singleplayer side of things will be bulked up by the addition of five new chapters, one of which reportedly involves fighting a Brumak.

Meanwhile, Mark Rein of Epic has hinted in recent interviews that 360 owners will have to cope without the new content as to include the extra PC content would require a patch significantly larger than all five updates combined that are currently available for the game.

Downloading an update of that size would mean leaving the Xbox on for a long time and, as we all know, leaving a 360 on for too long can be a risky business.

As for the matter of crossplay, referring to the ability for PC players to battle online with Xbox 360 gamers (and promptly trounce them with superior hardware and inputs), Microsoft has confirmed that there will be no such feature in Gears of War and the multiplayer with be only PC to PC or 360 to 360.

They have graciously opened the game to both Vista and XP users however, instead of leaving it up to crackers and hackers to open the compatability for XP for them. Nice of Microsoft to save the community some effort, eh?

The PC version of the smash hit game will be available later this year, but until then you can always share your comments with us and tell us what you think of console ports.