More Gears of War 4 details and plenty of silliness emerged from a question and answer session, with Producer Rod Fergusson of The Coalition, on Wednesday. The door has been left open for the Xbox One exclusive to also come to the PC, while its resolution and frame rate for campaign and multiplayer have also been confirmed.
Fergusson sat down with Game Informer for a laundry list of 105 questions that consisted of everything from the meaning of J.D. Fenix’ initials to whether enemies will fall from the sky. Along the way, some pertinent details about Gears of War 4 were also revealed.
The resolution of Gears of War 4 will be handled much like the recent Ultimate Edition of the original game. The campaign will run at 1080p and 30 frames per second (fps) while multiplayer will stick to the same resolution, but bump the frame rate up to 60 fps.
The obvious reason for the 30 fps frame rate is this allows The Coalition to dial up the graphics and spectacle during the campaign. This includes some new weather effects that get more dramatic as storms ranging from category one to category four rack the planet of Sera. This includes high wind affects, spectacular lighting strikes, and even a mix of fire tornadoes.
Meanwhile, the Gears of War 4 multiplayer running at 60 fps has its own set of benefits as well. The primary one is this allows the third-person shooter to continue to develop as a competitive eSport, but the high-end framerate is also expected for multiplayer this generation.
The question of Microsoft’s push to bring more games to its Windows 10 Store definitely remains open. Fergusson was directly asked if Gears of War 4would come to the PC and he answered, “possibly.”
The Gears of War: Ultimate Edition recently launched for Windows 10 with mixed results. However, there’s a clear desire by Microsoft to promote gaming on its new operating system by bringing more of big franchises over. Quantum Break will be a cross-buy opportunity this spring, followed by a free version of Forza Motorsport 6 . There’s always the possibility Gears 4 could launch later for PC much like Rise of the Tomb Raider .
Still, let’s remember the same “possible” answer was used for Halo 5: Guardians before Microsoft circle back around to clarify the answer as it was “possible” to run the game on PC, but that doesn’t mean it would appear there. In short, a better question would have been, “Does Microsoft want to bring Gears of War 4 to the PC?”
Control freaks also got a good bit of news out of the interview. Fergusson confirmed Gears of War 4 will use a control scheme more like Gears of War 3 . There was some concern The Coalition would continue the controller layout used for Gears of War: Judgment , which was not particularly well-received.
Multiplayer was not discussed during the interview outside Fergusson’s mention of framerate and promised that it would all be good. However, he did acknowledge how important Horde mode is to fans of the Gears of Warfranchise, which most will imply it will likely return for the latest entry.
Fergusson would also not confirm or deny a Carmine sighting in Gears of War 4 . Epic Games infamously held a poll prior to the launch of Gears of War 3 to let fans decide whether a third Carmine brother would live or die.
He also would not confirm the identity of J.D. Fenix’ mother. It’s likely details such as that and the protagonists’ split from his father Marcus and the COG will be a tightly held secret up until the game’s launch this fall. Yes, The Coalition has tweaked the launch of Gears of War 4 from fourth quarter 2016 to fall 2016.
[Image via Gears of War]