It doesn't happen a lot that I play a new game and basically love it after a few hours. Really enjoyed the campaign and the open world elements was a good direction for the franchise and dislikes always happen especially in games with a multiplayer history. Only thing I can complain about is no more lootboxes means an insane grind for some objectives but maybe no so much if you are very active online.

At 60fps, with expansive open hubs and all those graphical settings, I believe Gears 5 is the most impressive game overall, this gen on consoles.
The Coaliton has on Rod Fergusson one of the best game directors in the industry, ask Ken Levine. He led the studio to accomplish Gears 5 in 2.5 years of development, on UE4.
Gears 5 is a Microsoft of old (Xbox 360 and OG Xbox) type of game. It is a game with a rich presentation, coupled with the best game mechanics in its genre. I say this because MS 1st party games were varied by genre and contrary to popular belief, Xbox was not just shooters, it only had two 1st party shooter IPs always in development.

I learned my lesson. 😢

I will play it with Gamepass on PC but I have no Ultimate so I still have to wait. Maybe I will post some screenshots as well the next days.

I got the 3 month ultimate gamepass for $15 and then cancel it just to play gears and blairwitch. Should be enough time to beat the games a couple of time. I am in the process of downloading the game.

I'm tempted to get a Xbox One for Gears. From my understanding I can download Gears 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5? Same with Halo 1, 2, 3 and Reach?

I've been really enjoying Gears 5. I'm on Act 3, and it's hands down better than Gear 4. I'll say my final verdict of where it stands between all the Gears game once I complete it. There were connection issues early on. I've played some multiplayer today and haven't had any issues yet. Hopefully it will be sorted out once the standard game launches.

Keep in mind I'm a console only gamer! But I'm having a hard time thinking of many games that made me say "Damn, this game looks good" as often as I have with this one. God of War, Horizon, maybe Hellblade (but I haven't played it in a while). Plus 4K (dynamic of course) 60fps with HDR is not something I'm really used to.

I don't often look at reviews for games I know I'm gonna buy (and this game was practically free) but I watched Jim Sterling's video and I loved it.

https://youtu.be/dMUpcXoT7RU

In case you're wondering, he gave it a 2/10.

Here is an interesting video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BiQaRO2oco