There have been rumors in recent days thatGears of War 2would be getting a remaster a la theGears of War: Ultimate Edition. That’s not quite the case, but it’s not too far removed.Gears of War 2will be looking better than it ever has before.
As a part of itsInside Xbox livestream, Xbox has revealed that it’s enhancingGears of War 2on Xbox One X.Other Xbox 360 games that have gotten this treatmentmostly took advantage of a visual overhaul. As Microsoft has said in the past, this allows for: nine times the pixels as the original games had, a 10-bit color depth rather than 8-bit, increased texture details and anti-aliasing. Performance is optimized to some degree too with framerate smoothing.
However, the enhancements likely mean the idea ofGears of War 2: Ultimate Editionis dead — at least for now. Anyone who wants to playGears 2at its best needs to buy an Xbox One X, which is a much more significant investment than plopping down $60 for a remaster. But, anyone who already has an X stands to benefit.
Gears of War 2(and all the otherGears) has been a part of the Xbox One backward compatibility program for a long time now, so the opportunity to play it is still there. Accompanying the announcement, Microsoft revealed that it’s making all ofGears 2‘s DLC free. That should help bolster the game’s multiplayer map count.
The Xbox One X enhancements went live today forGears of War 2. Its upgrades aren’t launching alone, though. AlongsideGears 2, five more titles are getting the same treatment:Red Dead Redemption,Sonic Generations,Portal 2,Darksiders, andStar Wars: The Force Unleashed.
