Gears of War: E-Day launched worldwide on October 6 on Xbox Series X|S, PC, Game Pass and Steam. Twelve days later, on the morning of October 18, a modder going by rockonthehill (@rockonthehillc on X, a brand-new X account) uploaded a 2 minute 53 second trailer and announced it on X:
"Full VR for the entire campaign: stereo rendering, full-body IK, manual reloads, two-handed aiming and more. Early WIP build. Free at release."
The video description says "All footage in this trailer is real gameplay captured by me from the current build of the mod" and warns that "bugs and visual issues are expected and being worked on." There's nothing to download yet, so I haven't played it; everything below comes from the trailer, its description and the modder's replies under it.
What already works
The description lists eight features: "Full VR support for the entire campaign", "Stereo rendering", "Full-body IK", "Manual reloads", "Manual weapon switch", "Two-handed aiming", "Fight from cover" and "King Raven gunner". The trailer walks through them as numbered chapters.
Gears is a cover shooter first, and the trailer's fourth chapter keeps that: you lean out past a bullet-holed vehicle and fire one-handed down a road lined with wrecked cars.
What's coming next
Under the video, a pinned comment from rockonthehill within a day of the trailer is headed "Changelog 1". Its first line is the one fans asked for:
"Lancer chainsaw: start it with the lever, it cuts wherever enemy it touches with a lot of blood"
The same list adds physical melee, hands and weapons that collide with "enemies, walls and objects", a Longshot with "a real working scope", and per-weapon manual reloading: "Longshot bolt action, Gnasher shell by shell, pistol slide rack". It ends: "Everything will be shown in the next gameplay video coming soon!"
The modder's replies in the comments fill in a few more details:
- Takedowns: Locust takedowns and abilities "work the same as in the original game, but you can see it in first person" (reply).
- Left-handed play: "I will be implementing a setting to change hands from right to left" (reply).
- Comfort options: "I will add an automatic reload setting in the menu", and a laser sight is "already added" (reply).
- Performance: "its working pretty well on my 5080 after some optimisations in the mod" (reply), though to a commenter who saw stutter he answered, "There are still a lot of optimizations to be done for the mod" (reply).
- Release: "the link will be available when its done and ready" (reply). No date has been given.
Gamers.plus lists six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) movement and credits a project description on Reddit, which we couldn't load; XboxDynasty also covered it. France's Xboxygen covered it the same day. At Windows Central, Adam Hales went further than the mod: "The short demonstration uploaded to YouTube has seriously made me consider dusting off my Oculus Quest 2. But perhaps more surprisingly, it has made me want a first-person Gears of War game."
The AI question, in one reply
One commenter wrote: "The mod is made entirely using ai." rockonthehill's answer: "Go do it yourself without assistance form AI, we will see the mod ready after next gears game launches". It doesn't deny using AI tools, and it doesn't say how much of the work they did.
The Titanfall 2 comparison
The comparison everyone is reaching for is Titanfall 2. CircuitLord released Titanfall 2 VR on the evening of September 29 (ET), and that post had passed 1.3 million views and 22,000 likes when we checked October 19. Quoting the E-Day trailer, Terry (@TerryHB_), whose X bio calls him a Gears of War PC community owner, wrote: "This + the Titanfall 2 VR Mod is making me re-consider picking up a VR headset again."
Open on XThe @rockonthehillc bio reads: "Currently working on Gears of War: E-Day full VR support to the campaign. It also includes stereo rendering, full body IK, manual reloads, and more!" CircuitLord's installer README says: "Titanfall 2 VR adds full VR support to the Titanfall 2 campaign. It also includes stereo rendering, full body IK, manual reloads, Titan controls, and more!" The bio borrows the structure of CircuitLord's README almost word for word. That's the bar this season's conversions get measured against.
The wave isn't slowing down. On October 19, dariulone's Cyberpunk 2077 VR port shipped version 0.1.8. VR developer Lakuza's attempt at "ranking every VR mod released this past month" was a tier list packed with so many tiny thumbnails that none can be made out.
The chainsaw is the one I'm waiting for. Revving a Lancer with your own hand might be the most Gears thing VR could do.
