Welcome to What’s Up, your weekly update on all the latest news, game updates, and more in Gears 5 and beyond.

Here’s What’s Up in Gears this week:

Title Update 3 Patch Notes

Tour of Duty Highlights

Gears Tactics reveal at the Game Awards

San Diego Major Recap

Operation 2: Free for All

The new Operation begins tomorrow, December 11! A reminder, the game update will be available to download at 10:00 am PT but all of the new content – modes (FFA, Arcade Blitz & 2v2) and content (maps, characters & more) – won’t be active until approximately 1 pm PT.

Title Update 3 Patch Notes

Along with the launch of Operation 2: Free For All, we’re rolling a variety of improvements and fixes in our biggest update yet.

Added weapon Bloodsprays to your victims’ death screens in versus

Movement adjustments to improve strafing including increased acceleration and a minor reduction in the delay from roadie run to shoot

Updated visuals on the spectator HUD used in private versus matches – now includes a mini-map with numbered player icons

Added “Reduced Buffering” option for PC players that can reduce input lag when frame-rate is consistently much higher than your monitor’s refresh rate

Fixed an issue that could cause only a single map to be featured in the front end

Fixed HUD locators being clamped to corners of the screen when they should have been positioned along the bottom

Users are no longer able to use a Breaker Mace to kill players in elevated low covers with the Heavy attack

Fixed an issue where sometimes players searched for cover on the other side of cover they are facing

Fixed an issue that could cause players roll directly into covers when performing an ADS “Back-A”

Fixed an issue that could cause players to hitch after performing a cover slip+roadie run at certain angles

Fixed an issue where aim adhesion tracked enemies through low cover

Melee’ing with a grenade no longer causes the character to ignore player collision on friendlies

Fixed an issue that could cause all fortifications and weapons to be displayed when Emile joins in progress

Fixed an issue where weapon skins occasionally didn’t display on certain maps in Versus and Horde

Fixed an issue in Escape where sometimes split-screen Co-Op players experienced disabled melee and shooting until weapon swap when conducting an active reload with the Overkill

Fixed an issue in Horde where players can restart after wiping in Survivor

Fixed an issue where store updating forces the player to reboot the title to see new items

Fixed an issue in Escape where the Shock Grenadier mutator also damages nearby Swarm

Fixed an issue in Escape when a player joining in progress into the safe room could cause the next chapter to load indefinitely

Fixed an issue where DBNO players get revived with less than full health

Fixed an issue so that there is now blood splatter on the camera during pistol executions

Fixed an issue in Escape where the Poison Juvies mutator could continue to cause damage after poison puddle disappears

Execution previews now play

Fixed the issue where sometimes banners didn’t appear on the MVP screen, if the MVP is on the losing team

Fixed an issue in Escape where some players’ Ultimates did not display as full on TAC-COM

Fixed an issue where some players using the combination of a Controller and a Mouse get incorrect adhesion/friction

Fixed the issue where Mouse and Keyboard in the Arcade Deathmatch weapon purchase menu the input to repeated continuously

Fixed an issue in Escape where the players “best time” sometimes displayed as “—” even though the user is placed on that Hive

Fixed an issue in PC where players attempting to install the Ultra-HD Texture pack sometimes got stuck at 70%

Fixed an issue in Horde where Jackbot is occasionally unable to interact with the button that turns the forge on

Fixed an issue in Horde where joining in progress occasionally enabled the user to see items that are not allowed to be purchased by that character

Fahz Horde buff: Exploit Weakness – removed the constraint that it has to happen during the ultimate. Previously you would get extra damage to weak spots during the ultimate only, now with this card equipped you get it all the time

Additional miscellaneous bug fixes

End of Operation 1 rewards

As Operation 1 comes to a close, all players will receive division rewards based on the maximum rank they reached at any point during the Operation. So, if you peaked at Diamond in week two but finished the season at Onyx then you will receive a Diamond weapon skins for every weapon that was awarded.

Note: This may take a week or two to be deployed following the completion of the season.

Tour of Duty Highlights

With Operation 2’s launch just around the corner, we wanted to give better look at few of our favorite items that you can earn out of the more than 200 pieces of exclusive earnable content.

Blood Red Speaker

Deadeye

Gilded Baird

The Game Awards

The Game Awards on Thursday, December 12, 2019. Gears 5 has been nominated for three awards:

Best Action Game

Best Audio Design

Best Performance for Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz

There is still time to cast your vote: https://thegameawards.com/

Don’t forget, Gears Tactics is making its world premiere. Trust us – you’re not going to want to miss it.

San Diego Major Recap

This weekend, the top pros from around the world descended on San Diego to compete in the first major esports event for Gears 5. With an updated version of Escalation and a single elimination tournament, this event proved to be one of the wildest Gears Esports tournaments ever.

The top seeds from each region were knocked out early, including NRG (formerly OpTic Gaming), EU’s Finest, and Ghost Gaming – resulting in a wide-open bracket and lots of dramatic matches. In the end, Reciprocity overcame a two map deficit to win three maps straight to take home the title.

We also announced the locations and dates of the next two events.

Mexico City Major – March 6-8, 2020

Texas Major – May 8-10, 2020

Holiday Gift Guide 2019

Still looking for that perfect gift for your favorite player? Check out our Gears Gift Guide including some brand new items just in time for the Holidays!

Signing Off

That’s it for this week’s What’s Up. We can’t wait for Operation 2: Free for All to get under way.

See you online,

TC