20 Things You Didn't Know About Gears Of War
Uncharted wouldn't be Uncharted without Gears of War.
The Gears of War series is one of the crowning achievements of the Xbox. Since the original game, which won over 30 Game of the Year awards, the franchise has rarely dipped in quality. It stands today as one of the best-selling Xbox franchises, and with modest praise for the new Gears Tactics, it appears the series will be with Xbox players for a long time.
Yet the series we know today has gone through numerous changes. The original started as another Unreal instalment called Unreal Warfare, set in the Unreal universe as a massive multiplayer game. But after developers returned to the project years later, it morphed into the title we know and love today.
For the best as well, as Gear of War's influence has had a broad impact on the gaming industry. The series has introduced pioneering game mechanics, built a strong community of fans including many celebrities, and has a surprisingly deep lore attached too.
So let's take a look at the hidden secrets upon planet Sera, along with intriguing details of Gears of Wars' development history that you might not have known…
20. The Demo Doubled The Xbox 360's Memory
As mentioned, the series has impacted much of the gaming industry. Still, you might not know that its existence paved the way for a mammoth upgrade of the Xbox 360 before launch.
At the 2005 Game Developers Conference, Epic Games presented a demo of the then-untitled Gears of War running on the Unreal Engine 3. Impressed by the realism, textures, and stunning graphics, Epic Games' founder Tim Sweeney pushed for the unreleased Xbox 360 to double its memory from 256MB to 512MB. Microsoft undertook the task.
Implementing that extra RAM came with colossal side-effects. Microsoft spent millions of dollars to develop the console, which also limited the amount of Xbox 360s available upon release.
On the upside, this change allowed future Xbox 360 titles to run in HD, with Gears of War being one of the first games released using the Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Engine 3 would, of course, go on to power such games as Borderlands, Batman Arkham, and Mortal Kombat.