Windows Vista Update

July 12, 2007 - While we had the chance to see Gears of War at the Microsoft conference for the first time, Microsoft was also offering up a chance to play the game at their hotel suite. We took the opportunity and found out a couple of interesting things about the control system.

As you would expect, the mouse and keyboard will be supported for Gears of War, something we actually had to get used to, which we weren't expecting. I guess playing the game for so long on 360 warped our minds. Thankfully, if you get too confused by the superior aiming system, you'll be able to switch, on the fly, between the 360 controller and mouse and keyboard.

The interesting thing about it is that even the visual cues for the special maneuvers when under cover, like jumping over a wall or moving from cover to cover, will also change on the fly. Sure, not a huge thing, but certainly cool that they're putting the attention into such a small detail as that.

The game itself is pretty easy to get into. That initial control shock was gone pretty quickly and we found ourselves dashing around the environment taking down enemies with little to no problem. WASD works just fine with a modifier key for walking instead of jogging.

Dash and use cover still use the same key however. I was hoping with so many new keys on the board that they would have separated the two actions so that dashing along wouldn't cause us to stick onto walls and other objects accidentally.

Everything else is just as easy as you would expect from any PC shooter. Weapons can be switched easily, active reloads can be pulled off easily, and aiming around corners is quick and simple (right mouse button).

The visuals on the PC version are no joke. The 360 version was stunning enough compared to most PC games so seeing it on a nice PC monitor was really great. It'll be awesome to pump it up to 1920x1200 at home and utter disdainful obscenities along with Fenix and his ape-like crew.

We're certainly pleased with what we've seen of the game on PC. It's pretty clear this port is going to be a good one, especially with all that extra content that was announced earlier at the show. Look for more info on Gears of War once we get it.