Santy C

Remasters were ubiquitous last gen; more often than not they were quick and dirty cash-grab ports and it’s hard to blame a company for taking the low-hanging fruit. On occasion, however, developers would go the extra mile and meticulously polish a gem in their catalog until it was brought to the technical standards of more modern titles. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is one such title. I remember when I first played Gears of War back when it first released and being dumbstruck by how good it looked, here I am all these years later and having that same feeling all over again. Sure, there’s some performance hiccups and some of the texture work isn’t to my liking. Additionally, I noticed some unnecessary but harmless changes were made to a few cutscenes, so it’s not a one to one remake. Still, all things considered The Coalition and Microsoft did an excellent job; having a version of the game that matches my nostalgia tinted memory of how it looked is too cool for words.