Gears 5 (2019) (PC) (The Coalition)
0For no discernable artistic reason, the series formerly known as Gears of War reappeared three years ago with the admirably polished but mindnumbingly formulaic GoW4 (2016) from new-ish studio The Coalition. After having unceremoniously dropped two thirds of its trademarked title, Gears is now back with its fifth installment. Like the preceeding entry, this is another technological achievement that runs like a dream while also managing to look really good with crystal-clear textures and impressive visual effects.
The basic gameplay remains rooted in the last generation of consoles, however, and despite some changes to the campaign structure there's still a whole lot of overly familiar cover-based combat to trudge through here. I never cared about the characters and lore of the series, so the mere fact that the new story arc involves the sons and daughters of the battle-scared COGs from the first trilogy doesn't do much to get me invested in the increasingly convoluted machinations of the plot.