Zero Punctuation: Gears of War 4

Mr_Jack

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Sorry if I sounded jumbled.

I meant like you said. The Locust were something from antiquity that could infect humans if need be, but were an ald species that could breed.

The sires were the thing that introduced lambency to the Locust making them into the current Locust, and with imulsion gone could have freed up the older Locust from being dormant, keeping away from lambency and away from imulsion. But being in such low number are using humans to incubate new Locust to start anew. Myrrah being the answer to their newfound madness.

But yeah, it kinda leaned either way but there was a lot of talk in game about how the Locust had some rather old architecture, and how it wasn't something newly made within the last few decades. Also their infrastructure and breeding to make new creatures would have taken longer than several decades. Aside from the fact that Adam Fenix's imulsion killer should have destroyed the Locust as they would have been the product of lambency alone if they were of the new origin/sire origin. I always wished to see the source of imulsion itself as it would be strange it never came up before if it always existed.

Still, it's nice to dream. Just that they could have done the man's hubris angle so much better.

But whatever, the gameplay was the same as always, good but not extraordinary, and there were a few good parts to be had. It's like Infamous Second Son all over again, with the end of Infamous 2 being almost totally closed but they just say "but it wasn't totally closed after all" and pushed out another game as a sequel.
 

Atratzu

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I've never actually gotten around to playing a Gears of War game, they do seem to be striker similar from game to game visually speaking. But yeah, the chest-high-wall jokes never get old when talking about the Gears of War franchise.
 

JohnnyDelRay

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Seems like the story, while serviceable in the previous games, just barely hangs on in this one. Looks like it'll be another "strictly for the gameplay" game, think I'll wait for a sale. If it ever does go on sale, probably be waiting for awhile unless I get an XBONE.

Speaking of which, is anyone playing it on Windows? Can anyone weigh-in on this experience? I'm mostly concerned about:
1) Acquiring, downloading and installing the damn thing
2) Optimization (rig specs, please?)
3) Did u play with controller/KB&M?

So far the only significant purchase I've made on Windows store was Forza Horizon 3, which was a goddamn nightmare from start to end (and still is)
 

Redlin5_v1legacy

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You know, Yahtzee now living in North America means he can now enjoy the constant media about the American election that all us Canadians have for the last seven months.
 

Hawki

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Mr_Jack said:
I always wished to see the source of imulsion itself as it would be strange it never came up before if it always existed.
I think the Locust calendar found in GoW2 implies that imulsion has always been there, since imulsion is listed as one of the twelve 'seasons,' so to speak. Implication I got is that the imulsion ebbs and wanes naturally - maybe it would have contaminated Sera entirely regardless of the events of the second game, but the flooding of Jacinto effectively 'supercharges' it, effectively dooming the planet until Adam's device was used. If so, it does ring true to the idea that every problem in the series is caused by humanity.

Oh, and "Mr. Jack?" As in, one of the editors of the Gears of War wiki?
 

Extra-Ordinary

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Hawki said:
Mr_Jack said:
You're kind of all over the place there. That the Locust are former humans mutated by imulsion, with the sires being the evolutionary link, was established awhile ago. The first three games hinted at it, and a dev post outright confirmed that the Locust were former humans.

That said, I do prefer the idea of the Locust being their own species, the idea that Myrrah came to a pre-existing civilization rather than building it from the ground up. That's a hell of a lot of architecture down there, even for a century, and I do like the idea of the Locust being the 'truth behind the myth' for much of Sera's folklore, that it's only because of the Lambent that they launch an invasion, whereas in the past, they were content to remain in the Hollow. Still, even by GoW2, the signs were there.
Wait, for real? I never knew that.

What are the big monsters then, the Brumaks and Corpsers and Reavers and such, what are they, just indigenous animals? I'm not being sassy, I genuinely always thought the Locust were they're own species and the new Swarm were just Locust without Immulsion. I will admit, I probably should've picked it up when the Juvies were captured humans being Locust-erized, there's a lapse in logic on my part, I'm good at turning my brain off.

Still, even if the signs were there, they're not always easy to put together (case in point, me).
And I also didn't know the developers outright confirmed it either. It reminds me of the storms in Gears 4; I recall one of the developers, maybe Rod Fergusson, said that the intense weather is the planet reacting violently to the sudden absence of Immulsion but that didn't really come across in the game.

Man, I love the Gears franchise but it's gotta work on it's communication here and there.
 

Hawki

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Extra-Ordinary said:
Wait, for real? I never knew that.

What are the big monsters then, the Brumaks and Corpsers and Reavers and such, what are they, just indigenous animals? I'm not being sassy, I genuinely always thought the Locust were they're own species and the new Swarm were just Locust without Immulsion. I will admit, I probably should've picked it up when the Juvies were captured humans being Locust-erized, there's a lapse in logic on my part, I'm good at turning my brain off.

Still, even if the signs were there, they're not always easy to put together (case in point, me).
And I also didn't know the developers outright confirmed it either. It reminds me of the storms in Gears 4; I recall one of the developers, maybe Rod Fergusson, said that the intense weather is the planet reacting violently to the sudden absence of Immulsion but that didn't really come across in the game.

Man, I love the Gears franchise but it's gotta work on it's communication here and there.
The corpsers and reavers are indigenous, the brumaks are apparently Locust creations bred from apes (no idea how). As for the windflares, I hadn't heard that explanation. Two I did hear is that a) the amount of Locust bodies burnt after GoW 3 somehow affected the planet's atmosphere, or that they're a result of the Hammer of Dawn strikes that were carried out one year after E-day (e.g. the amount of dust thrown into the atmosphere, with a lag effect). Haven't played GoW 4 yet, so I don't know if the game explains it.
 

Extra-Ordinary

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Hawki said:
Extra-Ordinary said:
The corpsers and reavers are indigenous, the brumaks are apparently Locust creations bred from apes (no idea how). As for the windflares, I hadn't heard that explanation. Two I did hear is that a) the amount of Locust bodies burnt after GoW 3 somehow affected the planet's atmosphere, or that they're a result of the Hammer of Dawn strikes that were carried out one year after E-day (e.g. the amount of dust thrown into the atmosphere, with a lag effect). Haven't played GoW 4 yet, so I don't know if the game explains it.
I'm gonna stick to a headcannon that says Brumaks are indigenous beasts that the Locust manhandled into submission, I personally find that cooler than a strapped-up King Kong. Actually, when you put it that way...

Anyway.

The storms, the Imulsion-absence was what I've been runnin' on, although mass destruction and fallout are equally valid ideas.
If you're truly curious about the in-game explanation, and I won't reveal any story points or even who says it, I'll be as vague as possible...

They don't. There's a part where a couple characters are talkin' about it and all they say is the COG have offered up theories (other than the ones we've mentioned if my memory holds) like sunspots but they haven't really nailed down what's making the planet go nuts

You know, between these conversations and fan-theories and reading a couple Gears-Wiki pages back in the day, Gears lore gets surprisingly complicated when you get into it.
 

Vigormortis

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Transdude1996 said:
That's the catch 22 of the entire problem. Outside of RPGs and strategy titles, games do not really use textures to point out anything important because you're mostly busy getting from point A to point B.
That isn't true, though. Quite a few games use clever texturing to indicate certain elements of the story, objectives, etc. As an example, many of Valve's titles do this. As an example, in the Half-Life and Left 4 Dead series, Valve artists and level designers will quite often use level and skybox textures to deliver hints, story elements, or a 'glimpse' of what's to come. A sort of 'beacon' towards your end goal. For example: In Half-Life 2, when your objective is to reach the Citadel, you'll see it looming in the distance, getting ever closer, across several separate maps. The same thing occurs in several Left 4 Dead maps. You'll even see this sort of thing outside of Valve games. It's a level design technique employed by From Software in the Dark Souls games.

This and more are often seen in a great many games, spanning far more genres than RPGs and strategy games. (Horror games, for example, make use of clever art details very often.) That people often miss these sorts of details doesn't negate that they are there.

Seriously, name a game in recent years that actually did well and didn't blow it's budget on the graphics.
Terraria
Undertale
Duck Game
Broforce
FTL
Monaco
Torchlight 2
Unturned
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dead by Daylight
Stardew Valley

Those were mostly off the top of my head. I could probably list more.

Don't get me wrong. I partly agree with the essence of your post. It is a 'catch-22' sort of situation, in some regards. But, if anything, recent history has shown that it's not as systemic a problem as it once was. The gaming public seems to be opening up and demonstrating a willingness to embrace a wider variety of games, even those with 'sub-standard' graphics.
 

Transdude1996

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Vigormortis said:
Transdude1996 said:
Seriously, name a game in recent years that actually did well and didn't blow it's budget on the graphics.
Terraria
Undertale
Duck Game
Broforce
FTL
Monaco
Torchlight 2
Unturned
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dead by Daylight
Stardew Valley

Those were mostly off the top of my head. I could probably list more.
One problem there, outside of W:TNO, XCOM, and Counter-Strike (Arguably, is Valve still considered a AAA dev?), all you guys have listed are Indie titles, not AAA games. And, that's what we're discussing here.
 

Vigormortis

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Transdude1996 said:
One problem there, outside of W:TNO, XCOM, and Counter-Strike , all you guys have listed are Indie titles, not AAA games. And, that's what we're discussing here.
"Excluding these, everything you listed falls into this category."

You see the problem, yes? You say we've failed to list any 'triple-A' titles, but only because you've chosen to exclude the ones we did list.

Besides, you said:
"Seriously, name a game in recent years that actually did well and didn't blow it's budget on the graphics."
You asked for one, we gave you at least three. That pretty much refutes your point, doesn't it? In fact, we technically gave you many more since your question did not specify they had to be 'triple-a' titles.

And if I may, how are we defining 'triple-A'? What criteria are we using?
 

Transdude1996

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Vigormortis said:
Transdude1996 said:
One problem there, outside of W:TNO, XCOM, and Counter-Strike , all you guys have listed are Indie titles, not AAA games. And, that's what we're discussing here.
"Excluding these, everything you listed falls into this category."

You see the problem, yes? You say we've failed to list any 'triple-A' titles, but only because you've chosen to exclude the ones we did list.
No, I didn't, I acknowledged the AAA titles you guys listed.

Besides, you said:
"Seriously, name a game in recent years that actually did well and didn't blow it's budget on the graphics."
You asked for one, we gave you at least three. That pretty much refutes your point, doesn't it? In fact, we technically gave you many more since your question did not specify they had to be 'triple-a' titles.
I thought it didn't need to be mentioned that I was referring to AAA titles since we're in a forum on a thread talking about a review of a AAA game. Also, yeah, you guys didn't happen to bring up three titles, but how many other games were released in the same year as those games? And, to top it off, what is it that made these games special over other titles?

And if I may, how are we defining 'triple-A'? What criteria are we using?
I would like to know what criteria is used to define a title as Indie since some studios are stretching that definition as thin as they can.
 

THM

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That fish-fingers line is one of his best. That absolutely killed me. :)
 

azazellee

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normalguycap said:
The end of this one really got to me. How do you make the artist's work noticeable? How do you make a game that doesn't force the player to look at a thing which is bad but also doesn't make them feel like they have to advance as fast as possible?


I do this a lot in games lately. Most of the time it's pointless to stick around and so you just go to the next set without seeing anything and somehow the experience as a whole feels hollow. Besides being an exploratory RPG thing, how can this be fixed?
I think the point he was trying to make is that the type of people that play Gears of War aren't the types that would appreciate beautiful textures and environments.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Often do find myself taking in the art design much more than ever these days, sniffing around the scenery for highly detailed work to appreciate as well as succulent secrets of that often yield bugger all. But it doesn't merge well with multiplayer, or to be more precise; team-based/co-op. Where everybody else races off to the next check point to get whatever items they can as I wander aimlessly down a particularly intriguing alleyway, staring at...whatever may be there. So at least there's one idiot sacrificing their social interaction and quick, violent fulfillment to appreciate designs that will never appreciate being appreciated. The gears of remorse.
 

Transdude1996

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Transdude1996 said:
Vigormortis said:
Transdude1996 said:
One problem there, outside of W:TNO, XCOM, and Counter-Strike , all you guys have listed are Indie titles, not AAA games. And, that's what we're discussing here.
"Excluding these, everything you listed falls into this category."

You see the problem, yes? You say we've failed to list any 'triple-A' titles, but only because you've chosen to exclude the ones we did list.
No, I didn't, I acknowledged the AAA titles you guys listed.

Besides, you said:
"Seriously, name a game in recent years that actually did well and didn't blow it's budget on the graphics."
You asked for one, we gave you at least three. That pretty much refutes your point, doesn't it? In fact, we technically gave you many more since your question did not specify they had to be 'triple-a' titles.
I thought it didn't need to be mentioned that I was referring to AAA titles since we're in a forum on a thread talking about a review of a AAA game. Also, yeah, you guys didn't happen to bring up three titles, but how many other games were released in the same year as those games? And, to top it off, what is it that made these games special over other titles?

And if I may, how are we defining 'triple-A'? What criteria are we using?
I would like to know what criteria is used to define a title as Indie since some studios are stretching that definition as thin as they can.
Think we can add Mafia 3 to the list? It just came out that it's 2K's fast selling game thus far with 4.5 million copies already sold.
 

RJ 17

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Gears of War 4 is the story about a brave group of plot writers as they struggle to continue a plot that was supposed to be decisively wrapped up by the end of Gears of War 3.
Sooooo basically it's the same plot as Halo 4?
 

Jburton9

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Thank you for the review Yahtzee! Great video post, had a lot of much, much needed laughs! Please have a great weekend, the weather is finally starting to cool down whew!
 

TheYeIIowDucK

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Is no one else disappointed at how stagnant gaming became since gen 7? The original Gears of War was released back in 2006 and yet here we are, a decade later, and all we're getting is just more Gears of War.