Gears of War 5

Aren't you confusing peak brightness with contrast ratio?
A showroom with bright lights will never give you the same effect as a barely lit room at home. I've taken back displays that looked fine in showroom and at home it turned out that my eyes hurt after sitting in front of it for 10 minutes.

My display is 300cd and the brightness is set to 38%. So I'm using maybe 100cd. So why would I want 1000cd/m2 ? I'd end up returning that display too, that scorched my eyes with 1000nits.
Did you go into Video options -> HDR Calibration and set it up? Apologies if you already said whether or not you did. You need to set these correctly to get the proper effect. The values or out of order in how how should set them, in my opinion, so start from the bottom.

Start by setting HDR Brightness to the correct value for your monitor according to its specs (1,000 for my PG27UQ).

Set the white point next. Some displays like the PG27UQ allow you to see the exact value in the OSD settings. This is the floor of the brightness values, so the higher you set it the more bright the whole image will be. On the PG27UQ this is set a little low by default to 80. Most HDR content is mastered with a white point of 100-120. I set it to 100 on both my monitor and in the game. If you don't know or can't find the value, general rule of thumb is to start with 80 for OLED, 100 for FALD, and 120 for edge lit.

Finally adjust the contrast. I would use the real time rendered image to set this instead of the static image it shows by default. This is really more of a gamma setting. Higher values will crush the image while lower will do the opposite. I left this at 50 as it looked best in my pitch black room.
 
Looks like the audio issue people have been having is due to a recent cumulative update. They removed a compatibility check that exposed multichannel audio for some games due to "user feedback" and it fucked up those games. This is why game devs just need to include the damned option to let us manually choose our speaker configuration instead of hiding it from us and relying on the global Windows setting... Microsoft claims the issue will be fixed "later this month."

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/4515384/windows-10-update-kb4515384
 
finished up Gears 4 last night...really glad I played that first as Gears 5 seems like a direct continuation...G4 had pretty much no ending and was almost a prologue for G5
 
I finally made it through the desert areas last night. The devs actually did a pretty nice job with some red herring shootouts that don't occur until much later than you assume.
While the boss is super impressive visually, that fight is a bit of a joke. Especially compared to the first boss which is legit tough IMO.
Weapon-wise, I'm not feeling the Claw. Even when it's firing in an optimized way I don't think it's as good as the Lancer, Hammerburst, Markza, etc.
I find myself sticking to one of the Lancer variations and either the Relic Longshot or Markza. Those refill with ammo drops so you can keep 'em indefinitely.
 
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...and I'm done now. After the desert, the final chapter is short by comparison. You lose your weapons repeatedly, so don't fret if you didn't bring your best items.
Kinda like Gears 4, the ending feels a little abrupt. I didn't really care for the final fight. The chapter 2 boss was also more imposing and difficult than any of the others. Great game, though. Light years ahead of 4 and probably better than all of the classic games, too. It's at least no worse than 2, which was my old fave.
I ended up getting all of the Jack optional upgrades along the way, but didn't max everything out. I used pulse, flash, hijack, and stim a decent amount while barely using several others. I still wish pulse showed collectibles.
Since I have another 6 weeks on my Gamepass, I'll probably go back through and see what the higher difficulties are like now. Might as well grab the other hidden stuff I missed, too.

EDIT: Looks like I actually got 90% of the collectibles on the first pass (including all of them in Acts 1 and 4), but missed about 1/4 of the components. You can chapter hop to to go after specific collectibles you missed, but it starts you with a totally barren Jack. There appears to be no NG+ function, too. In other words, collectibles carry over, but nothing else does.
 
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do Ultra textures come pre-installed on the PC (Game Pass PC) version?...I'm confused because under 'Texture Settings' it shows 'Ultra Textures- Select to Install'...but I already see Ultra available under 'World Texture', 'Effects Texture' etc...plus when I click install it seems to stay stuck at 70% downloading...how do I know if Ultra is installed?

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They did not come preinstalled on mine. I had to turn install them. It took a while to do so. Mine did not get stuck. I don’t think I could choose ultra though until I installed them.
 
They did not come preinstalled on mine. I had to turn install them. It took a while to do so. Mine did not get stuck. I don’t think I could choose ultra though until I installed them.
I could before I installed them. Honestly ultra didn't seem to add much if anything. Guess I am just going blind in my old age.
 
I don’t think I could choose ultra though until I installed them.

that's what I'm confused about...I'm already seeing the 'Ultra' options even thought it says it's not installed...looking around online apparently the texture pack doesn't change any of the graphics settings themselves but I'll see an 'uninstall' option when it's installed properly...it's supposed to make the 'Ultra' settings look even better
 
that's what I'm confused about...I'm already seeing the 'Ultra' options even thought it says it's not installed...looking around online apparently the texture pack doesn't change any of the graphics settings themselves but I'll see an 'uninstall' option when it's installed properly...it's supposed to make the 'Ultra' settings look even better
The various texture detail settings are for LOD. You need to press enter on the "Ultra Textures" setting to get the higher quality textures. Doing so initiates a download that runs in the background if you're on the Microsoft Store version. On Steam you download it like a normal DLC. It's an additional 10GB download that took about 10 minutes for me.
 
do Ultra textures come pre-installed on the PC (Game Pass PC) version?...I'm confused because under 'Texture Settings' it shows 'Ultra Textures- Select to Install'...but I already see Ultra available under 'World Texture', 'Effects Texture' etc...plus when I click install it seems to stay stuck at 70% downloading...how do I know if Ultra is installed?

I finally got it to install properly...I actually had to uninstall the game, re-install it and finally the texture pack downloaded correctly...of course since Game Pass PC is a store/app run by Microsoft nothing is easy...
 
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I've tried returning to the game and playing it, but I'm extremely bored.

It feels like a budget ripoff of Mass Effect, even some of the map designs felt familiar from mass effect.

It truly feels like it was made by wage-slaves with zero passion.
 
I've tried returning to the game and playing it, but I'm extremely bored.

It feels like a budget ripoff of Mass Effect, even some of the map designs felt familiar from mass effect.

It truly feels like it was made by wage-slaves with zero passion.

I wouldn't compare it to ME at all because there are no RPG mechanics, aside from upgrading the drone thing. But upgrades are so common in pretty much every game that I don't think that qualifies it for being an RPG. Otherwise it is a generic 3rd person shooter which is more or less what you'd expect. Once you play one you've played them all, small differences aside. Movement and everything is far more clunky than ME games though.

I wouldn't say it was a bad game but as expected, very generic. I can't comment on the original 4 games made by Epic, maybe those were more special story wise. But 4/5 were nothing special. Gameplay is dated although fans of the series love it, story is weak, graphics weren't even that good but perfectly average. So you're right about this game being a has-been. Epic literally sold the IP to Microsoft and while not terrible it isn't spectacular. This seems to be the case with all of Microsoft's games currently, all IPs that they continue to milk ranging from bad to mediocre.

The only new game from MS coming out that seems to push any gameplay/boundaries is the new Flight Simulator. But that is more of a platform than a regular game so I'm not sure the comparison is fair.
 
It's not the RPG mechanics, it's the way the shooting works. Waves of enemies, exactly like in ME3, and some of the level designs are eerily similar to certain ME2/ME3 maps.
Enemies are slightly more bullet spongy than I'd like. But at least there is no looting. The upgrade mechanics are absolutely confusing in the game, if sg, is not self-explanatory then it's bad design. I completely ignored them because I had no idea how to handle them. They seem to be unnecessary mechanics for a shooter.

But the main issue is that the conversations seems to have been written with 12 year olds in mind, or by 12 year olds idk.

Anyway the game is boring as hell. Just started playing Battlefront II yesterday and it's so much better.
 
I will say that the enemies do feel awfully spongy after playing the Uncharted games. It makes the weapons feel like they lack "umph" in some cases, although the sound and impact noises really help.
 
I will say that the enemies do feel awfully spongy after playing the Uncharted games. It makes the weapons feel like they lack "umph" in some cases, although the sound and impact noises really help.

I assume that is how Gears of War has always been. I only played 4 and 5, but I think the series is known for being very clunky with bullet sponge enemies. Kind of awkward because the recoil is so high that you can't really weapon the weapons on target, even in semi auto for some of them. So you have very hard to control weapons yet enemies that adsorb many rounds. Typically it is harder to hit when the enemies have less health or they're bullet sponges but there is little recoil. I assume it caters to a certain demographic that absolutely loves this design, but to me it is just bad combat design.

Not a terrible game, and I will say the desert map had some interesting areas to fight in. I liked the whole rocket facility area. But aside from that, thoroughly forgettable.
 
I assume that is how Gears of War has always been. I only played 4 and 5, but I think the series is known for being very clunky with bullet sponge enemies. Kind of awkward because the recoil is so high that you can't really weapon the weapons on target, even in semi auto for some of them. So you have very hard to control weapons yet enemies that adsorb many rounds. Typically it is harder to hit when the enemies have less health or they're bullet sponges but there is little recoil. I assume it caters to a certain demographic that absolutely loves this design, but to me it is just bad combat design.

Not a terrible game, and I will say the desert map had some interesting areas to fight in. I liked the whole rocket facility area. But aside from that, thoroughly forgettable.

The guns have been mostly the same for the whole series. It's always a matter of concentrating rapid fire on an enemy's head when they peek out to return fire. It doesn't seem like the enemies regen health, so you can win most battles via attrition. It's mostly just a matter of knowing when to stop firing and to return to cover yourself.

I don't mind it, but I do prefer the higher risk/reward/damage in the Uncharted games. While they didn't invent it - Gears did mostly pioneered the cover shooter genre. The games are obviously still popular, too.

IMO the weirdest thing is multiplayer. It's a different sort of experience and a disjointed one IMO. Lots of rolling around and close range stuff. Guns that seem almost too powerful in story mode (like the Lancer) lose to shotguns, melee, and blind firing. The cover aspect tends to get lost and it looks like a bad Dark Souls invasion.
 
The guns have been mostly the same for the whole series. It's always a matter of concentrating rapid fire on an enemy's head when they peek out to return fire. It doesn't seem like the enemies regen health, so you can win most battles via attrition. It's mostly just a matter of knowing when to stop firing and to return to cover yourself.

I don't mind it, but I do prefer the higher risk/reward/damage in the Uncharted games. While they didn't invent it - Gears did mostly pioneered the cover shooter genre. The games are obviously still popular, too.

IMO the weirdest thing is multiplayer. It's a different sort of experience and a disjointed one IMO. Lots of rolling around and close range stuff. Guns that seem almost too powerful in story mode (like the Lancer) lose to shotguns, melee, and blind firing. The cover aspect tends to get lost and it looks like a bad Dark Souls invasion.
In my experience it seems that enemies actually die quicker in this one if you're able to focus on their head. In the first game you could empty half your Lancer into a Locust's head before you killed them.
 
This game is listed all over the place on the Geforce forums where it's crashing on people I had that same problem with GOW 4 for like months at a time.
 
I never had any GOW4 or 5 crashes. For me the biggest issue was related to savegames. Sometimes the game simply doesn't trigger savepoints. I had to re-do a couple different sections because of that. I beat the (pretty damn hard) Matriarch on my second try and it didn't save. When I had to do it a second time I bet it took me a dozen or more tries.
 
I have not had any issues with game crashing.

I did at least once, but didn't loose much progress. Maybe twice but to be fair, I was minimizing the game a lot and opening other things which tends to crash games much more easily.
 
Gears 5 is on sale on both Microsoft Store and Steam for 50% off this weekend. The Ultimate Edition is 45% off.
 
This game is worth trying if you have the game pass but I wouldn't buy it. It got old quickly for me, the two open world areas kinda killed it. By the end I was almost forcing myself to play just so I could finish it.
 
Just started playing this. Graphically looks pretty so far with a decent improvement over GoW 4, core gameplay mechanics seem identical apart from some minor tweaks, plot looking to be the same brain dead nonsense that has plagued the series since the beginning (although GoW 4 was exceptionally more stupid and lacked necessary exposition).....will probably start getting bored from the usual repetitive gameplay after a couple of hours, but will try the MP to break up the monotony (assuming anyone is still playing online).
 
I'm fine with a break between Gears games. Gears 5 is/was pretty amazing and I enjoyed the hell out of it. There's no reason to rush a sequel if it can't improve upon the last game. Gears 4 was a step back from the earlier games (except for the graphics, obviously) and we don't need that again.
 
Going through my 2nd playthrough because of the update 2 weeks ago. This time with a gamepad.
I gotta say, I enjoy it more with a gamepad.

I finished Gears 3 two weeks ago on Xbox and just wanted to skip judgement and go right into this game.
 
For those of you who are Gears of War fans - try Outriders.

I only played the first couple Gears of War all the way through, and only briefly touched on the last three --- but Outriders, in my opinion, could just as easily be Gears 6 and nobody would bat an eye. The game play is similar, but more action RPG oriented. It's like if Gears of War met Diablo and had a baby.

I only missed the chainsaw loaded assault riffle from Gears of War - otherwise the gameplay and weapons felt eerily close to Gears of War!

It's quite enjoyable - and two or three player co-op is supported through the whole single player campaign.
 
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For those of you who are gears of war fans - try Outriders.

I only played the first couple gears of war all the way through, and just touched on the last three --- but Outriders, in my opinion, could just as easily be a Gears game. It's quite enjoyable - and two or three player co-op is supported through the whole single player campaign.
Outriders is kind of in a bad place right now. The developers are making similar mistakes to Anthem right now in updating the game. There is a new patch to be released today that hopefully fixes all the things they broke in the previous patches without breaking more stuff.
 
Been playing this game recently, another unreal engine game, and another broken POS, now my issues with borderlands are a minor inconvenience (panning the map is broken on an AZERTY keyboard), trying to drive the skiff in this game with an AZERTY keyboard is frustrating as hell.

I use ZQSD for movement, alas, the skiff controls seem to be hardcoded and still require W to go forward wich makes steering that thing an exercise in frustration, might abandon the game at this point.
 
Been playing this game recently, another unreal engine game, and another broken POS, now my issues with borderlands are a minor inconvenience (panning the map is broken on an AZERTY keyboard), trying to drive the skiff in this game with an AZERTY keyboard is frustrating as hell.

I use ZQSD for movement, alas, the skiff controls seem to be hardcoded and still require W to go forward wich makes steering that thing an exercise in frustration, might abandon the game at this point.
Can't you use a key remapper to fix it?
 
Can't you use a key remapper to fix it?

I probably could but then I have to find a good one figure out how it works and not mess anything up in other programs only to be able to drive forward in a game. Why allow players to remap keybinds and only work with 50% of the actions bound to that key? Even the onscreen prompts are wrong as they point to "Z" but it does not work
 
Could you change your software keyboard layout to qwerty to trick the game?

you are using a atypical keyboard layout, and this is far from the first time a game had lackluster rebinding options. I'd probably have gotten a qwerty keyboard just to game with.
 
Finally finished this. All up probably the most enjoyable GoW I have played......great graphics, more varied gameplay, smarter enemies, open world segments to break up the linearity, etc.

My biggest gripe is that the narrative pacing of the entire series is garbage and each successive sequel introduces more plot holes than a block of Swiss cheese. The writing is also poor....although I haven't played GoW 2, 3 and judgment, what appears to be a major revelation regarding the true origin of the locusts barely registers as significant with the characters when they learn of it.
 
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Ah fuck, didn't realise that I still have the Hivebusters DLC to play. So much for thinking I could move onto something else.
 
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