‘Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition’ Retools Opening Cinematic, Check The Difference

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition officially went gold for the Xbox One on Thursday. To celebrate, Microsoft and The Coalition released the newly remastered opening cinematic for the third-person shooter along with a behind the scenes developer diary. When you compare the new and the old, the differences are quite stark.

Here’s the original opening cinematic for Gears of War captured by GoW Empire on YouTube. It’s the same 720p-ish resolution that we saw in the original with the kind of blurry textures we’ve come to mock nowadays but were top of the line in 2007.

Now here is the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition opening cinematic. You can tell that The Coalition has not just given the cinematic a 1080p refresh but also altered how the scenes play out. The camera gets more up close and personal with Marcus Fenix, while the scene with the Hammer of Dawn strike is more explosive. The final scene was changed to include a more dramatic setting with more enemies and more Dom.

The first in a new series of behind-the-scenes videos was also released. Titled “Remastering ‘Gears of War,'” the first episode doesn’t provide any ground-breaking details, but it does confirm part of the reason behind the Ultimate Edition. It provides a way for the new studio that is The Coalition to become familiar with gameplay and world of the Gears of War franchise. There’s no better way than to start with the game that helped define a new style of shooter and the Xbox 360.

Getting the experience and familiarity with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition gives the developers and artists the background needed for Gears of War 4. The surprising thing is that The Coalition only had 10 months to get the Ultimate Edition developed. Much of the content that needed to be upgraded to 1080p was farmed out to different studios around the world.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is now available for pre-order from the Xbox Store now that it has gone gold. The Standard Edition is $39.99 and comes with game plus the Adam Fenix and Civilian Anya multiplayer skins and Animated Imulsion Weapon Skin for use in multiplayer.

Meanwhile, the Deluxe Edition costs $59.99. It includes everything from the Standard Edition and throws in Deluxe Weapon Skin Pack featuring 10 different Animated Weapon Skins and 36 standard Weapon Skins, as well as the Civilian Marcus Fenix and Aaron Griffin multiplayer characters.

The release of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is set for August 25 on the Xbox One. As I covered for Inquisitr yesterday, the PC release will come sometime afterward. An exact release hasn’t been announced, but it is understandable that The Coalition would shoot for making sure the PC release worked versus rushing it out and finding themselves in a situation like Batman: Arkham Knight.

[Images via Gears of War]