We're back with another episode of TheXboxHub Official Podcast, and with Episode 147 the team behind the written word get together to chat over the latest news to come out of the gaming scene over the course of the last week. This time around there's a huge focus on Netflix's Gears of War announcement as well as the newly released God of War Ragnarök...
I vividly remember my excitement when I heard the news that Gears of War was coming back. After being pleasantly surprised with Halo 4 a few years before, I was very much hoping for a similarly enjoyable resurrection of one of Xbox’s flagship franchises.
Gears of War 3 was truly an epic conclusion to a beloved franchise, which pulled out all the stops to avoid being an anticlimax, which is an easy trap to fall into for a finale. To do it justice you need to start from the very beginning of the journey, but you’ll be safe in the knowledge that some of the best moments in the series are saved right up until the final act.
When it first launched almost 15 years ago, the original Gears of War set the tone not just for the Xbox 360, but also for the generation to come. Flash forward to today, however, and the franchise in terms of reception and audience engagement seems to have taken a bit of a decline. The way I see it, it boils down to two questions: "Does Gears of War need a reboot?" and "Would Gears of War benefit from a reboot?".
These then are my memories of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Xbox One. I loved that the game didn't change, I loved that the action was as raw and bloody as always, and most of all I loved the way that the new HD visuals made it look like a genuinely ruined world.
Gears of War isn't just about partaking in cover shooting and beating back the swarm. It's about immersing yourself into the entire universe. And away from the games, what better way of doing that than by spending time with the written form? After seeing Titan Books and Jason M. Hough team up to previously create the awesome Gears of War: Ascendance, there is now another read hitting the shelves that is equally as good - Gears of War: Bloodlines. Once more we just had to find out more, so we sat down with Jason in order to learn a little more about the thought processes involved in creating the book.
Gears of War. A series synonymous with being at the heart of the Xbox gaming scene. But things have come a long way since the launch of the original game way back in 2006, with multiple entries in the series taking the cover-shooting greatness to consistently new heights. But what are the best of the Gears of War games?