Why Gears of War Ultimate fails to deliver on PC

[Administrator]

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is the first big PC game to be released exclusively as a Universal Windows Platform application and its problematic release highlights some of the key challenges Microsoft faces in moving forward with its storefront. In getting the game up and running, we encountered more issues than just about any other PC game we've played over the past year - a disappointing state of affairs considering Microsoft's ambitions for UWP. It's all been a bit of trial to be honest, and that's a shame as we rather enjoyed the Xbox One version, and hoped for even better things from the PC port.
Unfortunately, right now, it's difficult to avoid the sense that UWP simply isn't ready to host ambitious triple-A titles. It completely lacks the ability for users to tweak, mod and adjust game files (which would really help us in addressing some of Gears PC's fundamental issues), while the lack of support for often essential driver-level GPU functionality also compromises the ability for users to whip the gameplay experience into shape. Meanwhile, the Windows 10 background infrastructure itself is currently not fit for purpose in hosting larger PC titles - or even downloading and installing them smoothly. Put simply, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition shipped in a sub-optimal state, and owing to its status as a UWP title, users cannot use existing techniques to help address some of the key issues.
There is some good news though. While it's certainly been a difficult launch, the game's developer - The Coalition - is listening and has already released multiple patches that have improved the title. Bringing the game up to version 1.7, a multitude of improvements have been implemented, but we still have our fair share of complaints and remarkably, it seems that new bugs have been added to the game since we first played it. But as things stand right now, these are the reasons why we simply can't recommend Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - and why Microsoft has a steep mountain to climb in getting UWP into acceptable shape:
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