What are you up to this weekend? Mowing the lawn? Running errands? Going to a concert? Not this time!. Whatever you thought you had planned, cancel it. This weekend, The Coalition and Microsoft are blowing the doors off Gears 5’s multiplayer tech test and giving everyone with a Xbox Live Gold subscription access to the mayhem. So if your family says they want to spend quality time with you over the next few days, you’re going to have to bellow a big “NOPE” in their direction.
The tech test download is available now, but the servers don’t go live until tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Pacific. It runs from then until Monday at 10 a.m. OK. Now that we’ve settled down a little from the news, we can say it’s basically the same test they released to Game Pass members a few days ago (you can watch our video on that here). It includes access to Arcade mode, King of the Hill, and Escalation. For a deeper look into those modes and multiplayer in general, take a look at Brian Shea’s extensive preview here.
If you played during the last test, you can keep plugging away at challenges, and also unlock a new Wreath Bloodspray by playing a match between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Pacific tomorrow.
Gears 5 is coming to Xbox One and PC on September 10, but Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can get it September 6. Also, you can probably incorporate the Gears 5 tech test into your existing weekend plans in a healthy way. That’s probably a good idea.