Gears of War: E-Day's Best Change Rewires 20 Years of Muscle Memory

Gears of War: E-Day has the tricky task of convincing players that, despite multiple drastic changes to the franchise's existing systems, it's the same shotgun-toting series they grew up with, right down to the satisfying mechanical clunk of a well-timed Active Reload. Funny, then, that the change most likely to make a twenty-year Gears veteran feel like a stranger is nothing as dramatic as a jump button or a new engine—it's a bar that moved a few inches down and to the left. That's right—by default, the iconic Active Reload bar sits in the dead center of the screen in Gears of War: E-Day, and somehow, that single change might be more disorienting than any Gnasher to the back or pop-shot could ever be.