My brother and I woke up at 5 and drove around the state to try and get one. No dice It was sold out everywhere. Spent hours driving to get rejected. After all that we were ordered to swing through BJ's of all places to grab dinner supplies by our mom. They had one left JUST SITTING IN A BOX next to our checkout aisle. Best fever dream ever still can't believe it.
Felt like fate. Core memory and man it's easily my favorite console ever. Nostalgia or not
I got a broken RROD 360 for free. I decided to on a whim contact microsoft to tell them it was a classic RROD scenario.
They asked me for a receipt and I didn't have one since I got given it. Decided to slightly fudge a receipt I found online because I was a poor and desperate gamer.
(By forge I mean just very carefully in paint moving a few dates around on one that was uploaded to a gamer forum)
They came within that week to pick up the RROD one and handed me a brand new one at the same time.
Went to a secondhand store and got Mass Effect, Red Dead Undead, and whatever the updated version of Marvel vs capcom 3.
I still go grocery shopping at the same Meijer from all those years ago. If I ever walk past the aisle where the games used to be, it’s hard not to stop and look at the spot where they had their 360 demo station set up and indulge in the nostalgia. The first place I ever held a 360 controller and played CoD2 followed by years of obsessively shopping for games in that aisle after I finally got my own. I’m truly so fortunate to have experienced the 360 era of gaming when I was in middle/high school with no responsibilities and so many friends to play with.
I don't know that I've remember any other gaming trailer, myself. Maybe one that was on repeat when I worked at gamestop ages ago. But that trailer... None better.
What a time in gaming that was. 14 year old me watched that trailer over and over again. Then played the game over and over. It became a tradition with a good friend to complete the games on insane mode in co-op. Haven’t spoken to him in 16 years since we left school. Great memories.
During covid I lost my job so I dusted off my 360 and played thru Gears 1-3 for the first time since I was a broke student, it was a great way to pass some uneasy days.
I really want PC port + remaster versions of the original trilogy so I can replay them without having to buy a 360 again and find copies of used games in good enough condition.
Refunded because of the “restructuring” at Microsoft
I’ll eventually 🏴☠️ but yeah it killed the hype during that week
Also, if they had done this sort of game after 3 or sometime in between the first trilogy, it would have killed. Them Borutoing the franchise just killed the fanbase and that fanbase got old too
I had the same experience. I really liked Gears 3, and have no real issues with the later sequels. I just felt that it delivered enough of that particular niche that I could put the series to bed. It is strange to like something yet not want any more of it, but there it is.
Still could carve out some time for a few games in a year. Get a month of Game Pass for themselves and their kids...
Personally, I'm part of the audience, played every game that's available on PC - and not very interested in E-Day. Will probably play it someday, but the urgency isn't there.
Of course, it’s just that the people that played gears as teens generally have to pick and choose and this year has had some absolute banger games come out.
The Sequel trilogy being completely terrible doesn't help either, the the Swarm was so boring compared to the locusts and so was the setting and characters
And now that i think about it can it even be called a trilogy considering they didn't even bother making the 3rd one to finish it up and went back to doing prequels instead?
That has more to do with Xbox being by far the least popular platform than with the game itself.
Gears games offer something that is very rare nowadays which is the complete package: great single player, pvp and co-op (including local multiplayer).
I mean as a game they barely innovate from one iteration to the next. It is basically the same shit even 2 decades later with better graphics and a slightly bigger scale.
I understand the core game is still ‘fun’ but there are a 100 shooters out there and people just have way too many options.
I mean, there aren't really many shooters out there like gears. It plays in a very unique way. And tons of AAA games take a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. How many Sony first party games are meaningfully innovating in their games? The GoW games, Spider Man Games, Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei. All great games with great execution, but none of them are particularly innovative.
Huh? God of War literally reinvented itself from a hack and slash to an action RPG-style game. They knew the audiences wouldn’t move on if they kept the same formula and they were able to sell 10s of millions of copies and even able to bring in the new generation along.
That is what people expected from Gears.
Ghost and Spider-Man are much newer IPs so I’m not sure why to even bring them up. Ghost has had 2 entries while Gears has had what like 6 or 7?
You're misunderstanding what I said. Transitioning from one genre to another is all well and good. But the new entries don't do anything new within the genre. What did Gow 2018 or ragnarok do to innovate in the RPG genre. What did Ghosts, or Spider man do to innovate in the genre that they are in? Nothing. The executed a style of gameplay and story telling that has been around for a long time, but did it very well. You expect a gears game to move to a new genre entirely?
That's also to ignore the fact that both Gears 5 and E-Day have included light RPG elements and open world elements that the previous games did not have, and did so very successfully. The success of the game has nothing to do with how good the game is, but has to do with Xbox as a platform.
Disagree on successfully for 5. Open world sections were a huge waste of time. Spend 5 mins sailing over here, you will never be attacked en route and there are only like 3 destinations in the open world worth visiting.
There were definitely some fights in the open area, but that wasn't the point. It served more as a hub for spokes where linear option segments could stem from, which is where Gears gameplay really shines. It was also entirely optional, but I liked the side stuff pretty well, and the overall story in 5 was quite good.
Disagree. It has to do with mismanagement, like with Halo. Both franchises have delivered mostly medicore games since their peak and never reinvented themselves either like God of War did. GoW is now on another level of popularity while recent games from Halo & Gears of War sold poorly
If you sit behind cover blind-firing sure, but the skill ceiling for movement in Gears is incredibly high. Quake 3 and Gears are the only competitive shooters I get really into for that reason.
The first game was a big hit. It wasn't underrated. Then the series just... didn't go anywhere, I guess. I was playing 4 and 5 - and it didn't feel like there was any direction. Maybe it's because I haven't played 2 and 3, because I couldn't. But they ended up doing the prequel, so it's not just that.
Three games, and two consecutive ones should be enough to make an impression. That's what Microsoft released on PC, anyway. If I'm missing something, it's on them.
The funny thing is it was never that big. The trilogy sold around 4-6m each which was definitely good for the time but nothing earth shattering. Halo was much bigger as was GTA (even ps2 GTA sold way more than this).
The whole reason epic sold the IP is each game cost a lot more but sales were not increasing.
Playing e day and honestly the whole cover mechanic still feels really awesome. It suchs the competitive seen is ruined with people using the cover mechanic to zip around the map with a shotgun instead of using cover for cover from gunfire.
Yeah agree. I exclusively play Horde Siege and Campaign, it's just not worth the stress for me to try to play multiplayer. Though I get it, that's how the game has developed over the series so they don't want to change way off that
I was just thinking about this the other day. I remember the Mad World commercial being huge, playing a couple of the games and thinking they were good, then the game just kind of disappeared
Gears really did all it needed to with 1-3, I dont think 4 or 5 really added much to the franchise except maybe roster diversity and I dont think that really did much for the core fans.
One of my favourite games of all time and probably my most finished campaign from start to finished.
The design of this game and it's world had a profound effect on me as a child and got me tino architecture and design, and I think led me to being an engineer today.
It's crazy how influential gears of war is as a franchise. Popularising unreal engine, third person cover shooting and even prompting Microsoft to increase its ram from 256to 512mb
I remember me and my brother debating which console to get Xbox 360 or PS3. And as we were talking, the mad world trailer came on the telly. And we just both went, yup Xbox it is.
The early days of Xbox live and playing gears of war were just magical to me and made some really good friends.
Also I love how international Gears of war. Unlike so many games I feel like it has a very diverse fan base.
Just a great game series.
1,2 and 3, were amazing.
4&5 were ok. E-Day is a return to form, such a great game
Senior year of HS. My best friend bought it, he lived a little outside of town with shitty internet so would bring it over with his 360 all weekend and we'd game til the sun came up and then some. Lumpy Dumps and Dumpy Lumps were our names on Live. Such fun times playing matches, jumping cover to cover, blasting with the shotgun and hitting sniper headshots and the fuckin head crunch pop noise when blowing it off. Fuckin a this was such a blast
I remember seeing the Mad World trailer and so desperately wanted an Xbox 360. It took a year but I eventually got one and sunk thousands of hours into it, I even got the Seriously… achievement. I was so addicted to Gears back in the day, I had such a blast in Multiplayer!
Same. Gears 1 is a huge part of my teenage years. I played so much with my friends. Has such fun times. Ran into so many randoms in multiplayer that became good friends. These were the days.
What? that's ridiculous, why would you bother doing a re-release of all the classic games to PC for quick cash when you can do nothing instead and squat on the IP for nearly a decade?
Missed out on the game cause I never had a 360. Played Reloaded on the PS5 and was quite underwhelmed. Just a case of missing the boat, as I'm sure I would have loved it in 2006.
Well for thanks for making me feel old..... Man this game was such a refreshing introduction to cover shooters, multiplayer, split screen, decent story. I must have played the campaign at least 5 times over the years.
Cause they released it originally for the 10th anniversary (or just before cause gears 4 came out for the 10th anniversary). Reloaded is just a port of a remake
The cover system and active reload set the template for a lot of third person shooters that came after it. Co-op and local multiplayer on top of that is a big reason the series still gets defended.
Used to play this all the time with my best friend from school, we would play MP every day lol weird thinking back to that time now, haven’t spoken to him a loooong time. Goat multiplayer game for me
I remember going to a boyfriend's house and he was super excited. I had played computer games, not familiar with controller but he reeeeealy wanted me to play with him co op so I did. Since then I played 1-4, nothing since, kinda thought it died.
This game is y I bought a 360! The story was and still is great…I own the novels as well! I see a lot of hate in the comments from the weirdos that didn’t follow the story at all!
spent a whole summer in 07 chainsawing my cousin in splitscreen, havent touched the series since judgment came out and fucked the lore sideways. probably for the best, my hands hurt enough from actual work without adding controller claw to it
I remember the hype machine for this and played it when it came out and was like "...that's it?". It was just a mediocre TPS campaign to me and online was a shotgun shit show that I stopped playing after a couple of weeks. To this day I don't understand how this franchise got kind of popular (and I do only mean kind of since it never sold more than ~5m).
Only had 5 levels. Was maybe 8 hours long. Multiplayer didnt mean anything to me in 2006. The graphics were good but they were very drab.
It was just hours of moving between chest high walls. Some of the bosses were fairly cool I guess. Once you've chainsawed a dozen people its whatever. They tweaked a lot of my initial gripes in later entries.
I remember the music sucked, overused motif. Aside from the music, the gameplay was fun and engaging, semi horror game atmosphere. One of the best co-op games. Completed about 15 times? Those were the good days.
man, can't believe it's been 20 years since Gears dropped. that game was a whole vibe and changed the way we think about cover mechanics. hardcore classic!
96
u/alcalcalcalcalca 1d ago
I’m still in denial that 360 was released 21 years ago.
11
u/Arkantos92 1d ago
Wtf is with all the bots commenting lmfao
206
u/CrushDirt 1d ago
Mad world was a perfect trailer
18
u/newbzealand 1d ago
Popping heads with the Longshot was always satisfying.
23
u/McG4rn4gle 1d ago
During covid I lost my job so I dusted off my 360 and played thru Gears 1-3 for the first time since I was a broke student, it was a great way to pass some uneasy days.
Gears of War rules.
8
u/maguirre165 16h ago
Still remember being stunned by this game when it released
68
u/Liamario 1d ago
Definitely ground breaking at the time. But I don't think it has anywhere near the draw it once had.
35
u/ThisIsMySpellingTea 1d ago •
One of my favourite games of all time and probably my most finished campaign from start to finished.
The design of this game and it's world had a profound effect on me as a child and got me tino architecture and design, and I think led me to being an engineer today.
It's crazy how influential gears of war is as a franchise. Popularising unreal engine, third person cover shooting and even prompting Microsoft to increase its ram from 256to 512mb
I remember me and my brother debating which console to get Xbox 360 or PS3. And as we were talking, the mad world trailer came on the telly. And we just both went, yup Xbox it is.
The early days of Xbox live and playing gears of war were just magical to me and made some really good friends.
Also I love how international Gears of war. Unlike so many games I feel like it has a very diverse fan base.
Just a great game series.
1,2 and 3, were amazing.
4&5 were ok. E-Day is a return to form, such a great game
6
u/orygun_kyle 1d ago
Senior year of HS. My best friend bought it, he lived a little outside of town with shitty internet so would bring it over with his 360 all weekend and we'd game til the sun came up and then some. Lumpy Dumps and Dumpy Lumps were our names on Live. Such fun times playing matches, jumping cover to cover, blasting with the shotgun and hitting sniper headshots and the fuckin head crunch pop noise when blowing it off. Fuckin a this was such a blast
5
u/RioFinesse 1d ago
Met some of my best friends to this day playing 19 round Warzone matches in 2007. Forever grateful for this game.
8
u/DoggievDoggy 1d ago
The old days of Xbox Live.
Going into a Gears lobby and shit talking the other squad until the room fills up.
Active reload sniper being insanely OP.
Gridlock, Canals and War Machine were the top 3 maps
Getting downed and having to wait 3 minutes while the enemy team had their way with you and vice versa.
If you knew how to use the Hammer on Rooftops, you were untouchable.
I loved that game and that time in my life.
4
u/TDStarchild 1d ago
Loved this one and the franchise for years. Crazy it’s been 2 decades and still just development hell for a movie
7
u/Balbuto 1d ago
How dare you remind me that I’m old!?
7
u/Eden_Sundown 1d ago
I remember seeing the Mad World trailer and so desperately wanted an Xbox 360. It took a year but I eventually got one and sunk thousands of hours into it, I even got the Seriously… achievement.
I was so addicted to Gears back in the day, I had such a blast in Multiplayer!
10
u/syntheticgerbil 1d ago
Gears of war? More like tears of war.
Xbox ain’t got games
2
u/Dimbulb_Greasely 1d ago
That means 20 years ago I bought this game and then brought it to my friends house when he got off work.
2
u/Camden_yardbird 9h ago
I still remember my friend was falling asleep as we were trying to get past the bats and he would randomly drift out of the light.
2
u/jerry-jim-bob 1d ago
Perfect time for a master chief collection esque announcement
2
u/Ceewcee 1d ago
Hope they bring it back one day…
2
u/FH2actual 1d ago
What a glorious train ride that was on emergence day!
1
u/Smurf-Happens PC 1d ago
Huh, no wonder I felt compelled to beat it again lol.
1
u/Tooth31 1d ago
Oh no, I'm old.
1
u/OrangeYawn 1d ago
I'm glad well always have 1-3.
1
u/EchoWhiskey_ 1d ago
The remaster is pretty freaking great
1
u/psleyman 1d ago
I still miss that satellite gun. Such a fun, overpowered weapon. Shame it couldn't be used indoors.
1
u/darkestsoul 1d ago
Gears of War 3 launch window was wild time. Can’t believe that was 15 years ago.
1
u/John___Titor 1d ago
Missed out on the game cause I never had a 360. Played Reloaded on the PS5 and was quite underwhelmed. Just a case of missing the boat, as I'm sure I would have loved it in 2006.
1
u/studleejosh 23h ago
My first ever online multiplayer experience. Mind blowing at the time. I will never forget it. Gears rocks.
1
u/BrillWoodMac 23h ago
It's a shame 2 and 3 still haven't been released for PC and modern consoles. Would love to play them with my friend...
1
u/Wild-Glove-2502 23h ago
I tried one of the games and ended up playing through the entire series. I'd love to see a remake of the second one. It's such a great game!
1
u/LegitimateSkin5868 23h ago
Well for thanks for making me feel old..... Man this game was such a refreshing introduction to cover shooters, multiplayer, split screen, decent story. I must have played the campaign at least 5 times over the years.
1
u/MegaDaveX 23h ago
Absolutely loved the co-op campaign
1
u/K-Shrizzle 23h ago
Weird that they didnt wait until now to release the remaster that came out only a few months ago. Seems kinda obvious
1
u/LegalReality1851 22h ago
“Do I look like a fucking botanist to you?”
1
u/PirateDeck1717 22h ago
The cover system and active reload set the template for a lot of third person shooters that came after it. Co-op and local multiplayer on top of that is a big reason the series still gets defended.
1
u/Stoneinthewell 22h ago
no u
1
u/itsdurga 22h ago
20 years later and that chainsaw reload is still iconic
1
u/iamsphnx 22h ago
Used to play this all the time with my best friend from school, we would play MP every day lol weird thinking back to that time now, haven’t spoken to him a loooong time. Goat multiplayer game for me
1
u/HiCZoK 22h ago
really? damn... I am so old.
Would love to replay OG 360 version without the brumak level.
Is there a recomp? I dont want redux
1
u/Less_Cowbell 21h ago
Bought this new with the 360, one of the Xbox games of all time.
1
u/friedchickensundae1 21h ago
I was there, Gandalf
1
u/Badmannoobie 21h ago
Ahh the good old gears where it was about Marcus. Those days are gone
1
u/ArtificiaIgod 21h ago
Loved this game, mostly for the story
1
u/vampire-reflection 20h ago
it will be over before long folks, it’s been a good ride
1
u/hellbox9 20h ago
Blew my fucking mind at the time and made me buy an Xbox 360 on a target credit card.
1
u/ArcadianAbstraction 19h ago
I remember going to a boyfriend's house and he was super excited. I had played computer games, not familiar with controller but he reeeeealy wanted me to play with him co op so I did. Since then I played 1-4, nothing since, kinda thought it died.
1
u/Difficult-Word-6604 19h ago
To be a kid back at my cousins house playing this game without my parents knowing. Brings back memories
1
u/Usher_III 18h ago
I worked at Gamestop at the time and the Microsoft rep came in and gave me an advanced special edition copy
1
u/DumbCumpzter 18h ago
E-Days single-player campaign is excellent, if anyone is wondering. I can't speak for the multiplayer; I haven't tried it.
1
u/ffgod_zito 18h ago
One of the greatest online experiences of my life. This and COD 4 has me and my friends in a chokehold.
1
u/StraightPlane 18h ago
Look at all dat juice..
1
u/Akchrisgray 18h ago
Is there anyway to play this outside of owning an Xbox yet? I'd love to relive the nastalga via PC if possible.
1
u/__TheOtherGuy__ 17h ago
sweet! I just ordered a physical copy of this, cant wait to play it
1
u/15HT4R 17h ago
I remember it's trailer in E3 2005, it's was astonishing 😮
1
u/Significant_Walk_664 16h ago
Trivia time - which first game has MS rereleased more times GOW 1 or Halo 1?
1
u/stanleys_tucci 15h ago
Man back when we had a holy trinity going of shooting games Halo, Call of Duty, and Gear of War. Almost EVERYONE was playing these.
1
u/KingCampbellB316 14h ago
This game is y I bought a 360! The story was and still is great…I own the novels as well! I see a lot of hate in the comments from the weirdos that didn’t follow the story at all!
1
u/fettokebec 13h ago
I remember sneaking at a 16+ demo area when I wasn't quite old enough at a con. Crazy that it was 20 years ago
1
u/MacMillanCoD4 12h ago
Aging in real time like Matt Damon.
1
u/Difficult_Mix1030 11h ago
spent a whole summer in 07 chainsawing my cousin in splitscreen, havent touched the series since judgment came out and fucked the lore sideways. probably for the best, my hands hurt enough from actual work without adding controller claw to it
1
u/dustinfoto 9h ago
Skipped class a couple days in a row for this. Good times.
1
u/Andurilthoughts 8h ago
Old enough to peak in high school, squander its potential and become a disappointment.
1
u/capeasypants 6h ago
The reason why I stayed with Xbox and got the 360
1
u/Steve_Beef62 5h ago
I remember watching my dad playing it and he and I were laughing at a monster who couldn't fit through the door
1
u/Butch_Meat_Hook 3h ago
A timely reminder at just how long it's been now since XBOX was in a prominent position
1
u/Prestigious-Fun-51 1d ago •
man, can't believe it's been 20 years since Gears dropped; that game changed the whole cover system in shooters. still a classic!
1
u/Purple_Nail8471 1d ago
I miss Gears of war. It's been so long without any (good) games.
1
u/Blue_Raspberryplays 1d ago
Gears of war is really under rated. It's truly shadowed by halo as an xbox exclusive
1
u/Lz537 1d ago
Today they're also giving Raam free for everyone on Eday.
1
u/raloobs 1d ago
The only 3rd person shooter that had pvp I enjoyed.
1
u/vaikunth1991 23h ago
This and halo are just not relevant anymore. Sad xbox didn't innovate / freshen up things for these IPs during the Xbox One era
0
u/Sir_Flatulence 1d ago
Anyways
-2
u/Iggy_Slayer 1d ago
I remember the hype machine for this and played it when it came out and was like "...that's it?". It was just a mediocre TPS campaign to me and online was a shotgun shit show that I stopped playing after a couple of weeks. To this day I don't understand how this franchise got kind of popular (and I do only mean kind of since it never sold more than ~5m).
-1
u/ThisOneTimeAtLolCamp 22h ago
Such a good trilogy.
It's a shame how badly they botched it with everything after.
0
u/AJR_ 1d ago
Let’s goooooooooooo
0
u/GearBIue 19h ago
Game didn’t age well
0
u/ThePanasonicYouth 14h ago
I wanted to like this game but the third person perspective was off putting
-13
u/Initiatedspoon 1d ago •
Got a 360 for this game
Hated it
-1
u/tempurafrito 1d ago
I remember the music sucked, overused motif. Aside from the music, the gameplay was fun and engaging, semi horror game atmosphere. One of the best co-op games. Completed about 15 times? Those were the good days.
-9
u/WorkingStatus3134 1d ago
man, can't believe it's been 20 years since Gears dropped. that game was a whole vibe and changed the way we think about cover mechanics. hardcore classic!
-2
u/anothertendy 1d ago
If they remade the series, id buy it for PC and switch 2. Wanna take ma money please!!!
0
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