Gears of War 4 - Thoughts?

[bsodmike]

Anyone grabbed it yet?

Got a 7-rating on Gamespot, and supposedly 9-hours of campaign.

I've finished the last 3 of these so I might as well get it... or... should I???

Thanks!!

[virtuo]

I played about half an hour of it on Monday, it looks nice and seems to be a good port (1440p 60fps maxed out with no issues)

I haven't played a GOW game for a while but it does feel much like the rest, the character feels a bit big and clunky and the controls aren't super intuitive - there's not much help it just drops you straight in, found myself fumbling for buttons to start with.

I'll be playing it through, can't comment on the story yet. Did I mention it looks nice? UE4 shining through.


Edit: and it almost 80 gigs to download

[bsodmike]

Yeah, I can't seem to make my mine on another title and this _should_ be a decent visual feast. Crazy big download too, oh boy.

[shaithis]

My experiences have been tainted by the Windows Store so far....

Installed to G:
Ran game and got error, checked event logs to find that even though it installed on G: it's looking for files on C:!
Try moving it to C: but refuses so end up having to delete it and re-download
Re-installed on C:
Played a bit until BSOD (page fault in nonpaged area)
Tiny patch gets released.....go to update and it requires an additional 80GB to install a tiny patch....
C: drive does not have 80GB free
Go to "Apps" and choose move the program, choose drive G: and then watch explorer/resmon and see it moving files from C: to C: until C: fills up.....like WTF?
End up deleting it again and trying to download and install to G: again, with the patch this now works.....only took 240GB of downloading!
Launch the game and fiddle with gfx settings, changing any option while in game or benchmark gives a high risk of page fault in nonpaged area....

So while I have enjoyed what I have played so far, I have spent twice as much time trying to install, patch and reboot after BSODs.

Can't be bothered playing it any more until they properly fix it.

[virtuo]

..

I had that issue with Forza Apex - store just wanted to download it to my tiny 120Gb C drive. Found the option in Windows Store to specify the download/install directory before preloading GOW - maybe it's a feature they have added since.

GOW preloaded and all launched fine - no huge patches, not a single blip so far, it even identified my graphics drivers and told me to update them as there were known issues with my version.

All those BSODS sound more hardware than software

[bsodmike]

Thanks Shaithis, good to know that as my C (partition) is out of space. I actually have partitions I can wipe to expand the boot-volume, but I'm only doing that once I get my SOHO box running later.

For the time being, I've been dumping games onto the Samsung 850 Pro D: drive, and I had some issues with Steam (wrong file-format!!); I don't care to be faffling with 80GB downloads so I'll give this a pass for now.

Need to finish Tomb Raider first, been far too tied up with work :O

[shaithis]

I had that issue with Forza Apex - store just wanted to download it to my tiny 120Gb C drive. Found the option in Windows Store to specify the download/install directory before preloading GOW - maybe it's a feature they have added since.

The Windows Store clearly offered to install to any drive I wanted.....it just couldn't handle it (kept looking for UE4 files in c:\) until the small patch hit the day after release. I have had Forza Apex installed to the G: drive for weeks prior without issue.

Maybe it wasn't the patch, maybe the Windows Store is temperamental ("No way" I hear you cry )

Oh and quite topically, I deleted my WindowsApp folder on the G: drive as part of the re-installs, now Forza says it's installed (even though it clearly is not) and there is no way for me to download or install it again, even if I log into the store with a different ID or log out of the store completely......Forza says Installed and there is no way for me to remove that entry. Even going into the "Apps and Features" is Windows, as it's not listed there!

I was actually really really liking Windows 10 until I started using the Store......

[virtuo]

Sounds like a nightmare, I don't like the store either - just feel like you have absolutely zero control over anything. I can put up with Origin and Uplay, but the Windows store is awful.

I played GOW from a different drive about 15 mins after it "unlocked" and it played fine with no patches/updates - I think the WS has just not had anywhere near enough testing and is messing itself up for some users.

Shame as WS does have some decent-looking exclusives lined up

[bsodmike]

I trust there's a return/refund policy similar to Steam for the Windows Store? If so, I will wager $60 to see if mine has the same issue.

I was actually really really liking Windows 10 until I started using the Store......

Interestingly enough, I started using Windows again for the very first time since 2006 and Windows 10 has been a pleasant surprise indeed. To the point that I'm liking it a fair bit! Oh Gosh, never thought I'd ever say that... given my Linux/Mac background (more so linux).

I've even started to use the WLS (windows linux subsystem) to do simple things like Git etc. and got some Android dev work running on there quite nicely.

Apps like Adobe Premier/Photoshop are great as in terms of UI, very similar to their Mac counterparts.

With things like VLC/uTorrent etc, it doesn't feel like I've lost too much - although I do use the Win 10 Gaming/Productivity rig side-by-side with my 5K iMac.

Still, it has been rather pleasant - something I never expected!

[Lowe]

I was going to start a new thread but you've beaten me to it.

According to my router, this game has cost me 310gb of download allowance since the weekend. I really feel for The Coalition because the launch of what is a pretty fun, good looking game has been utterly ruined by the clusterwhatsit that is Windows Store. I pre downloaded the game, best part of 80gb. This in itself was a mission, because of a memory leak in Windows Store, which causes the system to hang, in my case after about 45gb had come in. It took 3 attempts to finally get the whole thing downloaded.

On launch day I eagerly opened it up, just to find that it needs a 300mb patch. It says press Enter to patch, so I press it and the game is minimised and Windows Store opens. The patch trickles in (launch day load I guess) and then on completion fails. 30 mins of searching the web shows that this happens because the game doesn't close - it just minimises, so the patch can't be written properly. I close the game and then try the patch again. Very slowly it trickles in again, but then decides it can't be added because I've not got 80gb spare on my gaming drive. I shift some files around and make some room on another drive. Can't be installed. By this point I've had enough so delete it all. Theres then an OS update which the game requires and a Windows Store patch. I get these and then leave the game overnight to download - but silly me, I forget about the memory leak and the following morning find the machine hung half way through.

Eventually yesterday I managed to finish the download and get it working. Runs well and looks good. With everything on Ultra at 1080p I'm getting a solid 60fps so I'm happy. I want to try the cross play more than anything though, got some friends with Xboxes and I'm looking forward to showing them the power of mouse and keyboard.

[bsodmike]

@Lowe - were you able to install it on a drive other than 'C:'?

Thanks!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Meh,£40 to £50 for an FPS for maybe 10 to 20 hours gameplay and a 80GB install size?? This is comparatively bigger and more expensive than Fallout 4 or even The Witcher 3 which are large open world games with 100s of hours of gameplay.

Overpriced and an overbloated file size. It also appears to run like a dog on anything but highend hardware and its not graphical jump like Crysis either.

They can go and do one TBH.

Want a decent game which looks lovely and is now quite cheap - try Dragonage:Inquisition.

[Lowe]

No, it wouldn't move the install. In the end I had to delete it, and resinstall from scratch (thereby getting the post patched version)

[kalniel]

I just get:

[bsodmike]

Try signing in with the Xbox app thing in Win10. Ugh, I haven't either. Got 13.25GB leeched so far!

[Ferral]

You need to at least associate a Microsoft account with your Win 10 install, then sign into the XBox App with the same email address (must be the one you selected for the license).

Then to change the save place you have to hit the settings cog on left of start menu and select system, then select storage on left and the top option of where to install new apps change to where you want the stuff to go.

It will save under a directory in the root of the chosen drive named WindowsApps

It has been working fine on mine, granted only had a chance to play it for an hour since launch on Tuesday but it is basically Gears, plays the same way as the prior titles. Looks nice enough using UE4 and runs 1080p Ultra settings just fine on my setup with framerate hitting an average of 46 and lowest being 35 so all good