Gears of War 4 Beta - Notes and Suggestions (Update #1)

G'day there guys and gals!

LAST UPDATED: 24/04/16

The following is a summary of the Gears of War 4 Beta and the feedback/info I can provide from my experience so far in the Beta. This page will be updated throughout the duration of the beta and will be reposted to social media accounts accordingly.

Summary - Gears of War 4 takes place approximately 25 years after the events of Gears of War 3. The Beta features many characters unknown to the fandom, including J.D. Fenix, Kait Diaz, Oscar Diaz, Del Walker and more.

ENEMIES: The Swarm - a Locust-eske humanoid creatures. Unlike Locust, they speak through hisses and grunts. Light brown and red skinned, incredibly scaly.

MAPS:

Dam - a relatively small area in a place called Veronia. With the dam in the background (Veronia Hydrolic Plant), players fight in a W shaped arena of broken down cars, pallets and crates. Well suited for close to mid range fighting, with one area good for long range

Harbor - taking place on docks and ships nearby, Harbor sees players ducking from cover to cover in a box-eske map. Players will take cover behind covered railings, walls and a large assortment of shipping boxes. Well suited for mid to long range fighting, with few short range areas.

Foundation -  arguably the largest map, Foundation takes place inside the walls of an unknown city,  once more mostly boxed shaped, but with plenty of alternative paths and areas to traverse to get across the map. Players will fight  inside the lowered industrial area or up high among the buildings. Perfect for mid range fighting, with plenty of open areas for long range and large covered areas for short range.

MODES:

Team Deathmatch - 6 vs 6 players, starting off with 15 respawns, first to 3 rounds wins.

Dodgeball - 6 vs 6 players, players can only respawn after death if a teammate kills an enemy, first to 3 rounds wins.

Co-Op Team Deathmatch - 6 vs 6 players, players fight against a team of Hardcore difficulty AI enemies, first to 2 rounds wins.

NOTES:

- Players can now pull enemies from behind cover instead of mantling over them
- Tagging enemies only lasts a few seconds
- Graphics look impressive, scenery is beautiful
- Controls are mostly the same
- New weapon - Dropshot. Fire exploding projectiles, zoom in to fire and let go of right trigger to send it plummeting to the ground
- Maps are even and work out excellently for strategy and all types of gameplay
- Bounty Cards freely given for in-match actions and offer XP boosts (*1)

- Cannot choose character, randomly assigned

- No customisation present
- Mantling is much slower if attacking enemies behind cover
- Range on Gnasher is much too strong
- Special weapon respawn is a little quick
- Smaller maps can induce spawn camping . Suggest upping spawn timer if players are killed consecutively

(1)* Some Bounty cards are set a little too high - players must either steal kills or be forced to camp in specific areas. Suggest lowering a few, or offering high set XP rewards for a limited time.
* Cannot view stats from ending game unless voting on the next game's map. Cannot view previous match's result in home menu either
* Can reload weapon at any time, even when weapon is full. Full and empty weapons alike are able to achieve the damage boost from the perfect reload. Normal weapons have a time delay (approx 10 seconds after boost ends) but specialty weapons (sniper rifle, boomshot, etc) have unlimited damage boost reloads. Suggest removing that and adding the same delay, special weapons are already incredibly powerful.
*Hardcore AIs almost exclusively use the Gnasher, like they know it's the best weapon for MP.
*Hardcore AI will automatically go after an enemy who killed them if they were killed by a specialty weapon
*Level up bug: playing the same map at least two times in a row in the same mode will result in your level never displaying any progress in the aftermath menu

This list and the info above will be updated during the duration of this beta. Check back soon for more!

Have fun and game on!

-Al

Review: Fallout 4 Automatron DLC

G'day there guys and gals!

With the second Fallout 4 DLC just days away, I was finally able to play the first DLC, Automatron. Available to players over level 15, the quest begins after receiving a distress signal from a group of travelers under attack from robots. After investigating, you discover Ada, a robot dealing with her consciousness and the loss of her friends. Learning that the attack was orchestrated by someone named The Mechanist, you and Ada must intercept the robots under The Mechanist's control and discover the reason why so many innocent people have died and where the perpetrator is hiding.

Without divulging any spoilers, the quest itself is very action packed and will definitely challenge the most seasoned Vault Dweller at times while still retaining the quiet, and even humorous moments known in the series, within the DLC. Automatron also offers new weapons and outfits, such as a return of the Tesla Rifle, robot construction to create your very own robot follower and even the very nifty Eyebot Scavenger that travels around your nearby settlement searching for whatever you desire.

Story wise, Automatron is very well done. The concept of the story is a little cliche (Ada even says as much if you ask) but overall as the Sole Survivor, you can take charge in how it unravels and ends. Unfortunately, the more downswing areas of the DLC involve a lot of repetitiveness; travel to a specific area, locate a thing, go back to your Robot Workbench and repeat. What does help with this is the newer robot enemies, most named Junkbot, and the new form of raider called the Rust Devils. Rust Devils do take a backset in Automatron and basically disappear around halfway through the story, but the huge variety of Junkbots will most definitely keep you engaged during your travels. Everything from flying swarms of Eyebots to incredibly powerful Sentry Bots can quickly overwhelm, outnumber and outgun, turning a simple skirmish into a fight for survival.

Voice acting is fairly well done, especially the dialogue between Jezebel and the Sole Survivor, with the ease of being light hearted to deadly serious, in robot and human, performed during the DLC.

After spending around 7-8 hours wrapping up Automatron, I have to admit, I am pleasantly surprised this DLC kept me captured for so long. There were a few issues here and there, such as being unable to select Ada for trading or conversation, conversations between the Sole Survivor and Ada being odd at times (I took Ada along with me from start to finish and yet she spoke like she wasn't there or witnessed anything first hand) as well as a few frame rate issues and unrendered graphics here and there, but what Automatron offers definitely aids in outweighing those slight issues. I have always been a big fan of customisable options, as it helps to immerse yourself into the world much more easily and having the option to build a giant, threatening, killer robot with a high pitched squeaky voice is a plus for me. It's these factors that help hold the overall score of this DLC up to where it is.

Automatron may be hit and miss for the more casual players, depending on your standpoint of DLC content, but for the average Fallout fan, this is a DLC that you'll want to add to your game time, taking into consideration the massive amount of customisation in creating your very own follower, the pacing and the story overall. A great start for Fallout 4's DLC releases.

Out of 10, I give the Automatron DLC an 8/10

Automatron is out now for the standard price of $15