#405: Boom town

October! That went by fast. As the nights draw in — as the curtains actually get closed, the big jumpers come out of the cupboard, and the most popular topic of conversation at Hit Points Towers is whether it’s cold enough for a fire yet (no, put a jumper on; in fact, child, look, you are not even wearing socks) — the seasoned game-lover’s thoughts naturally turn toward the sort of shiny blockbusters that, in days of old, huddled together in the Q4 release schedules like those big penguin lads in Planet Earth. While things are different these days, now the triple-A industry has finally realised that other fiscal quarters exist, to those of us of a certain age October means big budgets, big graphics and, hopefully, big ideas — but if no big ideas are available then we’ll probably be happy enough with the first two. So the following proves. Presenting: October’s Playlist!

Gears Of War E-Day

I’ve never been a massive Gears guy. I played the first one, obviously — we all played the first one, I think, since it was the poster boy for the 360 and the game that truly kicked off the era of HD gaming. I definitely played Gears 2, too, though I remember none of it apart from that legendarily silly bit with the coffin. But that was pretty much it for me and Gears, aside from the ten or so minutes I spent with Gears 5 at launch. A funny thing about games that once symbolised the fresh and new is that they have this tendency to age the worst of all. As I recall, Gears 5 opened with a turret section. Like, come on lads. There’s wearing your age with pride, and then there’s just taking the piss.

In its way, Gears Of War E-Day also takes the piss a bit, a game that somehow needed seven years, two thousand people and a reported five hundred million dollars to basically just do Gears Of War things again. Yet while Gears 5’s turret gun so turned me off back in 2019, in 2026 E-Day’s rather conservative, timeworn design values feel warmingly nostalgic, and almost refreshing. Blockbuster shooters have spent the 2020s chasing the live-service dream, wanting to be the next Destiny or Fortnite or Tarkov. It feels rather nice to finally have one of these games go, right, here’s some cool weapons. Here’s a bunch of enemies we’ve designed around those weapons. We will now deploy those enemies in increasingly tricksy combinations and contexts. Please enjoy.

Enjoy it I have. The Torque Bow, a charged explosive crossbow capable of one- or two-shotting many of E-Day’s beefiest enemies, is immensely satisfying in the hands, the sort of design masterclass that had me wondering why I ever stopped playing Gears Of War games, why I haven’t been playing Gears every day in fact, why I have ever bothered loading up anything else. The Hammerburst, a three-shot burst rifle that whispers sweet nothings to my inner COD4 M16 / MW2 FAMAS sicko, never leaves my side, and rewards me by becoming steadily more powerful — an increasingly laser-ish recoil pattern, bullets that set enemies on fire — through the (new, I think?) weapon-mods system. The point-blank shotgun blast that turns your quarry into chunks that splatter the screen... This, all this, is the good shit. Good, reliable, old-fashioned shit.

Yes there are turret sections, and slightly irritating boss battles, and bits where you and your squad are forced into a slow trudge to pay leaden tribute to the gods of exposition. Such is Gears. There are problems elsewhere, most of them pacing concerns: a pseudo-open-world structure that slows things down a bit; pointless yet pathologically irresistible collectibles that train you to tune out the splendor of this $500m world, and focus only on its flashing bits; and above all a final third that I’m not sure needs to be there at all. The game hits its peak in act three — there are five acts, which I’m not sure is how acts are supposed to work, but never mind — with a frantic battle across, and then in defence of, a tactically vital bridge, and if the final boss had turned up there and then I’d have felt perfectly satisfied. Instead there’s another four or so hours of turgid storytelling, a miserably overlong helicopter section, and a protracted battle across a big boat that I’m sure sounded great in the design meeting but plays out, in the end, as an endless sequence of staircases, elevators and gantries, riveted together with little gunfights. At one point, series hero Marcus Fenix complains about a lengthy staircase that leads to an elevator, and squad banter ensues. Good gag, very fourth wall. Quite instructive though isn’t it? When the writers’ room has to step in to mea-culpa a level-design issue, you can’t help but wonder whether all that money, and all that time, have been all that judiciously spent.

Despite all that I had a whale of a time, and when the credits finally rolled I immediately reinstalled Gears 4, which my PC’s Xbox app reckons I have owned since launch but never played. Sorry, Ocarina Of Time, but I have other plans this weekend. If only your Hookshot did explosions.

Dragon’s Dogma II

Longtime readers with particularly good memories will remember that I spent a rather puzzled few hours with this back at launch, when the constant witterings of my assembled gang of computer-controller ‘pawns' — particularly their rather wearying penchant for pointing out particular items of scenery every time we returned to town — caused me to later refer to Dragon’s Dogma II as a “well-regarded ladder-noticing sim”. The chatter, annoying as it definitely was, wasn’t the only reason I walked away from the game. It was also rather rickety on PC at launch, the framerate lurching every time I turned a corner, the stuttering all too often rendering its busy combat unplayable. I also regretted my choice of class, the support role of Mage relegating me to healing and buffing my ladder-loving companions while they climbed onto the heads of griffins etc and basically had all the fun.

I’d scroll past it in my Steam library every so often, pause for a moment and think, man, I really should give that another go at some point. But it was never the right time. Quite how or why I decided that the peak of high season, in one of the busiest-ever years for new releases, was the aforementioned time is a bit of a mystery. (I imagine I’d had a drink.) But I figured I’d left it long enough, and it would surely be in much better shape now. The intervening years would have given Capcom a chance to fix up the game’s wonky early performance; the new Dark Arisen expansion would presumably do some cool quality-of-life stuff as well as serving up new quests and loot. I could restart as a different, more involved and enjoyable class. And hell, if I was really lucky, maybe they’d toned down the pawn community’s love of ladders.

I was right on all counts. The game runs like a dream, and combat is an actual delight now I’m playing as a Thief, and get to have all the fun while a Mage companion hovers on the fringes, fussing over the party’s health bars. And the pawns? Why, they’re no trouble at all, despite the fact that for some reason (drink) I opted to give my creation most sneeringly obnoxious voice on offer. I have romped all the way to the second town and had the most wonderful time, and while I’ve got to put it to one side again for a while — Zelda, GTA and some imminent consulting work demand it — it will not be another two years before I return. One for the Christmas holidays, perhaps. A perfect time of year for this sort of thing.

Red Dead Redemption II

With GTAVI drawing ever closer, I figured it was finally time to finish the Red Dead II playthrough I’ve had on the boil since I first bought the Big Hit Points PC in 2023. I would load it up once a month or so and just saunter about, knock out a main mission or two, then quit out and forget about it until the next time I yearned for a bit of the ol’ cowboy stuff.

Those hankerings, I’d noticed, had grown progressively further apart over time. My playthrough had reached St Denis, the New Orleans analogue where the pace of the story rather falls off a cliff, and whose urban setting, while a fine illustration of one of the game’s central themes — the slow death of the cowboy as industrialisation and urbanisation take over — is not the reason I find myself yearning for Red Dead Redemption II at 11pm on a Saturday night. I resolved to finally push through, and see Arthur Morgan’s adventure through to the end.

That resolve was short lived. While I know the first half of the game like the back of my hand, I’ve only ever finished it once, when I blasted through the campaign in a single, blissful week while reviewing it for Edge. I had forgotten just how much of a bummer it is towards the end. Everyone is either sick in the body, sick in the head, furious about something or other or already dead. Arthur’s coughing up blood; Dutch has lost his marbles; I have endured the turgid, needless sojourn to Guam, but am not sure I can face the heartbreak I know is coming at the close. There’s a sweet spot in Red Dead II, a point about halfway through the game where you’ve got a decent chunk of map unlocked, have access to most of the systems, and can just potter about doing cowboy stuff, which is where the game is at its best. If I have one big hope for GTAVI it’s that it reflects a Rockstar whose approach to emotional storytelling has evolved a bit beyond ‘yeah we’ll just kill everyone innit’. We’ll find out soon enough, eh. Absolutely cannot wait.

No indie stuff this month, and nothing retro either; just good old-fashioned October blockbusters. Lovely. See you next time!