u/North117

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What's up gears, I was one of the lucky ones that got to play last night. I spent a good deal of time in boot camp and then played a few rounds Horde just to get to grips with the new playstyle so here's what I found:

- Going from playing Gears 5 to E-Day feels very disorientating, I recommend practicing the new movement before hopping into versus.

- Pressing Y to mantle instead of A is definitely going to take some getting used to, the sprint not so much but mantling over small ledges has been remapped to Y for the jump.

- Legacy controls aren't great and don't really fix the issue of Y being the new mantle over button.

- You can no longer grab people from the other side of cover.

- I need to test if you can still mantle kick an enemy on the other side of cover.

- Movement and aiming at first can feel a bit "floaty" adjust your deadzones appropriately.

- No more grenade tagging, instead you just kick (lame).

- No more meatshields. At first I thought it was maybe because they wanted the locust to be bigger and more intimidating but the regular drones seem really small.

- No chainsaw duals, I am still unsure on how the winner is calculated.

- The default FOV is much wider making both you and everything on screen appear less claustrophobic, I think this is actually a negative, it feels like we're too far from the action.

- The Longshot no longer has an over the shoulder aim for quick headshots, it has been replaced with a double scope. Looking at gameplay it does appear possible but I couldn't figure it out in the short time I had the Longshot.

- The Torque Bow sounds seem a bit off, doesn't feel like the Torque at all.

- The enemy AI is quite bad (on Rookie), I at no point felt in danger after several rounds of Horde, I will explore this on higher difficulties later.

- Latency issues were expected, it lead to firing and then an enemy dying a second later but with no kill sound but this was a stress test so no big deal.

TLDR; controls take some getting used to, a lot of missing features from previous games that had become a staple, and some definite tweaks to movement and aiming are needed before launch

Edit: fixed some gramma issue and added context for difficulty and new Longshot info

The new Rivals event has got me rewatching Age of Ultron and I can't help but fantasise about how things would have played out in the MCU if he'd have lived.

Assuming key events MUST play out the same here's my summary:

CACW - with Pietro alive he would have next been involved in the Civil War story. Helping clear the building at the beginning, Pietro is unable to reach Captain America in time before the Crossbones' bomb goes off, like before, Wanda is able to move the explosion but there are casualties.

When the team is approached about the Sokovia Accords, he has a hard stance against it as they are implying it's all Wanda's fault when deep down he also feels guilty. The twins are confined to the Avengers HQ, Pietro grows impatient and especially frustrated over the growing relationship with Wanda and Vision. While the story with Bucky and Cap unfolds, Pietro reveals he's been secretly sneaking out to contact Cap, he offers to take Wanda with him but she hesitates, wanting to stay with Vision until agreeing to join (this scene replaces the scene with Hawkeye).

Pietro is instrumental in gathering Cap's forces, being the main reason they're all able to group up in such a short time.

The airport scene plays out mostly the same, however, this time Pietro is strictly in charge of running Bucky to the plane, he is thwarted as Spider-Man is able to anticipate his moves slightly due to his Spidey sense. He is then captured alongside the others and placed on the raft.

Some time after the breakout, he and Wanda separate as she goes into hiding with Vision.

Infinity War - Once again, Pietro is the explanation of how Cap is able to appear when and where he's needed. Wanda chastises him slightly as it implies he'd been keeping a watch on them.

The events of Infinity War play out exactly the same, Pietro takes part in operation "stall while they try and remove the stone from vision". We even get the iconic Steve and Tchalla run only they're overshot by a speeding blue blur at the last second.

He reports back to Wanda when the situation gets dire and agrees to bring her to the battlefield in time to save Okoye and Black Widow.

When Thanos appears, Pietro attempts to take the Infinity Gauntlet off of him but is repelled by the power stone and crashes into the nearby trees.

He is NOT snapped, and subsequently horrified seeing his sister crumble to dust.

Endgame - Life has been hard for Pietro with the loss of his sister. He joins Captain America's team to finish Thanos off.

The biggest change I would make at this stage is actually introducing him to the Inhumans where he'd meet Crystal and form a relationship in the 5 years since the blip, eventually discovering that she is pregnant.

When it's time to muster the troops to go back in time, he refuses to join, his distrust of Stark and his concern over his unborn child cause him to stay behind, a decision he later regrets and eventually drives a wedge between him and Wanda.

He is next seen with the magic sparkle circles where he also gets a chance at the Infinity Gauntlet relay sprint. Pietro is unable to make the full journey as Thanos starts the orbital bombardment.

After the events of the film, he is seen consoling Wanda at Tony's funeral.

WandaVision - Because of his new life with Crystal and the wedge forming between him and Wanda over his regrets of not joining the mission to go back in time, the two have become estranged, leaving Wanda to grieve her life with Vision alone.

The only change, is now Wanda is no longer grieving Pietro's "life" but mourning the close relationship they had. When "Peter" shows up at the door it is still a trick by Agatha as Pietro has no idea this is happening. However this time they can actually use ATJ's likeness.

He does later arrive after Darcy contacts him. He helps disarm the soldiers that had entered the town to arrest Wanda. The two have a moment to reconcile their differences but Wanda explains how he can never understand her pain as he has a real daughter and a family now. This leads to why she is still tempted by the Darkhold so the events of Multiverse of Madness takes place.

Pietro is not involved in the events of MoM as that film's a mess but he would be the reason she survived the collapsing building, as that red explosion happens we'd also see a flash of blue.

And that's it! Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. What would you change to keep our boy alive and well in the MCU?