Gears of War 4 graphical settings revealed at Gamescom

Gears of War studio The Coalition has been saying for awhile now that the PC release of Gears of War 4 will have all kinds of graphical settings, so that players “really have full control” over what they see on their screen and how it impacts performance. And going by this bit of Gamescom video recorded by HomeCinéma-FR.com, and the stills posted in its forum, it wasn't kidding. I have no idea what “Temporal AA Sharpening” is, but by God, I can adjust it if I want to.

Ambient occlusion intensity? It's here. Dynamic resolution scaling? Check. Aliased render targets? We got 'em. Async compute? Sure, why not. And that's on top of the usual stuff that I do have some slight understanding of, like grass draw distance, motion blur, separate texture detail levels for characters, world, vehicles, effects, and lighting, and screen space reflections. (I'm not sure what that last one means either, but it's in there.)

What's important in all of this is not just that it provides PC players a tremendous level of flexibility and scalability, but that it demonstrates—hopefully, anyway—a real commitment to doing proper justice to the PC release.

Microsoft revealed the Gears of War 4 system requirements earlier this week, which you can catch up with here. It's set for release on October 11.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.