Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

This page is for the 2016 remake. For the original version, see Gears of War. For the 2025 remaster of the 2016 remake, see Gears of War: Reloaded.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

Developers
Original	Epic Games
Original (Windows)	People Can Fly
	The Coalition
	Splash Damage
	Lemon Sky Studios
Publishers
	Microsoft Studios
Engines
	Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows	March 1, 2016
Reception
Metacritic	73
OpenCritic	83
IGDB	78
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter, TPS
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series	Gears of War

Gears of War
Gears of War	2007
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition	2016
Gears of War 4	2016
Gears Pop!	2019
Gears 5	2019
Gears Tactics	2020
Gears of War: Reloaded	2025
Gears of War: E-Day	TBA

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action, shooter and TPS game in the Gears of War series.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Microsoft Store		Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	The game does not contain microtransactions.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Rename video files
Reboot in safe mode. Go to <path-to-game>\WindowsApps\Microsoft.DeltaPC_1.5.0.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Wargame\Movies\. Rename SplashScreen.bik, MGSLogo.bik, TheCoalitionLogo.bik, and UE3AnimatedLogo.bik. Notes Undo this change before downloading any update for the game otherwise Microsoft Store may download the entire game again.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DeltaPC_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\WarGame\Config\

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DeltaPC_8wekyb3d8bbwe\SystemAppData\wgs\

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Xbox Cloud

Video

Video Settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Supported. Cutscenes are pillarboxed to 16:9. Use this mod from RoseTheFlower for 32:9 and wider.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Fullscreen acts like Borderless Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		In game setting added in Title Update 5.2x, 4x, 8x and 16x options.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA or None
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		In game setting added in Title Update 5 (also requires Windows 10 Update KB 3156421). Enabling Vsync may cause stuttering even if the system can otherwise run the game well.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Framerate can be unlimited or limited between 30-120 FPS. Unlimited framerate is capped to your monitor Hz. Cinematics are rendered to 30 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 3 page for more details.

• 

  Game Settings

Input

Keyboard and Mouse Settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Delete cannot be bound to commands as it is used to delete bindings.
Mouse sensitivity		From 0 to 10.
Mouse acceleration		Mouse smoothing disabled as of Title Update 2.
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Control scheme: default, alternate, tournament; sticks: default, legacy, left-handed, legacy left-handed; triggers: default, left-handed.
Controller sensitivity		Look sensitivity, target sensitivity, zoom sensitivity.
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger support		Xbox One version only.

DirectInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Nintendo controllers

Other controller(s)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Controller Settings

Audio

Audio Settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound Effects and Dialogue Volumes.
Surround sound		7.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				United States. United Kingdom not supported.
German
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
French
Italian
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Traditional Chinese

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		10	Co-op, Versus 2 players for co-op.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	53, 3074, 14001
UDP	53, 80, 88, 500, 3074, 3544, 4500, 5000, 7777, 8700, 8701, 9000, 13000, 13002, 14001, 30000–30099

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

RTSS (Rivatuner Statistics Server) can't see the game .exe

This is due to the folder where the game is installed requiring administrator access.

Give the folder administrator access.

Right click the folder and go to Properties. Go to Security tab. Click on Advanced tab at the bottom. Click Change right next to Owner. Click Advanced... at the left. Click on Find Now at the right. Here you can choose which one you want, scroll until you find Users, click on it and press OK. Now names will appear in white column and press OK. The Owner has changed and now check Replace owner on subcontainers and objects, press Apply at the bottom and now OK and OK again.

Issues unresolved

Discord can't see the game

This is due to the game being an UWP app. Even giving the folder administrator access will not work.
In order to show it, you'll need to stream your desktop screen, but this is not recommended since all sounds will be heard and everything that comes in contact with desktop will be shown.

Explicit multi-adapter support

Support for multiple GPUs was being worked on as of March 2016.

Frame rate drops after Windows 10 update 1809

Frame rate on ultra settings varies from 120 to 30 FPS independently of hardware. It is a known issue that the developers are aware of but regard as a low priority. Setting shadows to low can fix FPS drops for some users (even when reported GPU load is low).

This may be internet folklore according to Digital Foundry.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video 2	Cutscenes rendered at 1920 x 1080.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10 (version 1511)
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5 2.7 GHz AMD FX 6-core		Intel Core i5 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	60 GB
Video card (GPU)	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMD Radeon R7 260X 2 GB of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible		NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 AMD Radeon R9 290X 4 GB of VRAM
Other			For 1080p.

For 4K additional information can be found on the Xbox Store game page.