This Gears Of War: Reloaded guide is a complete listing of all 33 COG Tag locations, spread over 19 Chapters between the five story Acts.

Act I: Ashes

Chapter: 14 Years after E-Day

1. No matter which path you choose, you will find the first Tag immediately
2. The room where the Locust breach the door
3. Through the breached door, bear left and up some stairs, and left again

Chapter: Trial By Fire

1. The open space after the entering the first building
2. At the exit of the next building, on the left

Chapter: Fish in a Barrel

1. At the fountain

Chapter: Knock Knock

1. Towards the front end of the white van abandoned on the stairway

Chapter: Hammer

1. In the first building with the Wretches, go up the stairs, then down the corridor till the very end
2. In the next building after using the Hammer of Dawn, through the sprayed door, then down

Chapter: China Shop

1. Right around the starting location
2. Near the exit of the final room during the Berserker sequence
3. Out in the open from the previous location, bear left

Act II: Nightfall

Chapter: Grist

1. Go down stairs, and over the stone barrier
2. Descend the stairway and look around underneath it
3. On the left sidewalk just in front of the settlement

Chapter: Lethal Dusk

1. In a shed, immediately after learning about explosive tanks
2. At the end of the spotlight sequence, scan around the starting location

Chapter: Dark Labyrinth

1. Outside the exit of the building, to the front of the sprayed car on the right

Act III: Belly of the Beast

Chapter: Downpour

1. Look for a building marked with a ‘3’ on the right and head down its right to the very end of the path

Chapter: Evolution

1. In the wooden floorboard section, bear right at the entrance and around the generator
2. Go downstairs, before pushing the button

Chapter: Darkest Before Dawn

1. Head right instead of left, after the platform section
2. The building on the right, after sliding downhill
3. At the entrance of the cave before the Corpser encounter

Act IV: The Long Road Home

Chapter: Campus Grinder

1. Post-combat, return to the starting location and check around the short stairs

Chapter: Bad to Worse

1. Right at the start, near the truck wreck

Chapter: Imaginary Place

1. In the destructible wooden desk in the library

Act V: The Long Road Home

Chapter: Comedy of Errors

1. Through the partially open gate in the gardens

Chapter: Window Shopping

1. Head in the opposite direction, to the bottom of the stairway in the parking structure

Chapter: Jurassic Proportions

1. At the start of the Brumak encounter, near the barriers around the other side

Chapter: Train Wreck

1. Plainly visible on the ground on the other side of the breached train door
2. In the third train carriage, just prior to climbing the ladder
3. In the fifth train carriage, press the second button then head through the now cleared platform area and back inside the sprayed carriage, following the path down to the far end where another button awaits

If you have missed out on any COG Tags during a previous run, you can simply load up the relevant chapter with chapter select and play long enough to acquire the missing Tags.

Three of the related trophies/achievements are gained after collecting 11, 22, and 33 COG Tags, and are “Time to Remember”, “Honor-Bound”, and “For the Fallen” respectively. “G-reader” is earned for simply reading the entirety of a comic.

Those are the locations of all 33 COG Tag collectibles in Gears Of War: Reloaded.

It took me back to an era of gaming in which straightforward storylines and mechanics were a thing, with more focused experiences as a result. Getting to play Reloaded on my PS5 ahead of the release of Gears of War: E-Day was a treat, and not just because it’s a solid game that’s a lot of fun to play.

The Gears franchise’s PlayStation debut is quite important in the broader context of a gaming industry that’s gradually moving away from console exclusivity, a factor that used to be a pillar of the value propositions that manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft have long relied on to boost their sales.

It also highlights how the PlayStation has become a very viable vehicle for well-crafted single player experiences – a detail made all the more significant by the PlayStation 5’s advanced haptics and improved capability for great visuals on its games.

It led me to ponder why a franchise that’s had such strong roots on the Xbox felt so natural to play on the PlayStation. And that’s why we’re here. Let’s dive in!

So Surreal That It Feels Unreal

Given that Reloaded presents a remastered version of the Ultimate Edition of Gears of War, I was expecting it to be quite a visual treat already. But The Coalition, Sumo Digital, and Disbelief have done a stellar job of using the power of Unreal Engine to bring a more immersive lighting system to Reloaded.

That worked very well with the improved resolution and framerates, allowing for an experience that felt brand new and even had me wistfully thinking that this was a game that deserved a full-blown remake. Those improvements and the PS5’s innate capability for blazingly fast load times courtesy of its SSD, along with 3D audio and the Dualsense 5’s haptics, made Reloaded feel like it was made for the PS5 all along. And hearing radio conversations play out on my controller’s speaker was a really cool touch!

All of these improvements made Reloaded achieve a level of responsiveness and immersion that the original release on the Xbox 360 simply could not have imitated, thanks to the technology that made all of it possible not existing at the time. That’s a fact that showcases just how much the PlayStation has earned its reputation as a console that makes great single-player titles feel so much better than its rivals.

But I couldn’t help but wonder if it was all in my head.

The PlayStation Perception

I’ve been fortunate to witness the console wars at their peak, and even felt a pang for how the latest iterations of Xbox have failed to keep up with the PlayStation 5 despite being quite capable consoles in their own right.

Personally, I believe that part of the reason for that perception is that younger players who may not have had the chance to be a part of the Xbox’s golden age now see the PlayStation as the console of choice for those who want to enjoy single-player titles without having to worry too much about whether their console can handle them.

That’s further exacerbated by the PS5 Pro, which makes an already powerful console even more formidable. Reloaded can achieve up to 120fps on the Pro in multiplayer, for instance, which would certainly be a blessing in a title that requires careful movements and well-placed shots to get ahead.

Even at 60fps, I found the experience to be so much better than it was when I first played Gears all those years ago on my best friend’s Xbox 360, lamenting the fact that I could not join the fun on my PS3. But things have changed now, and Reloaded feels like a title that’s right up there with Sony’s greatest hits.

Gears of War may very well leave its Xbox-exclusive identity behind. And that may be a good thing if the current approach to console exclusivity from Sony and Microsoft is any indication.

A New Home

With Microsoft moving away from console exclusives and even Sony gradually testing the waters by releasing PC ports of its greatest hits, it’s clear that the gaming industry is moving away from what it was 15 years ago.

Back then, the Xbox was the console to buy if you liked shooters, and the PlayStation favored cinematic experiences that blended sheer scale with narratives that stayed with you long after you were done with them. While that has gradually changed over the years, the clearest signs of changing times are how cinematic titles that were once exclusive to the Xbox have made their way to PlayStation.

Senua’s Saga immediately comes to mind, with its Enhanced Edition making great use of the PS5 and PS5 Pro’s advanced capabilities to present an experience that pushed the boundaries of what a video game can offer its players. Reloaded is another milestone in that journey, allowing the PlayStation to cement its reputation as a console that can handle blockbuster releases with relative ease and subsequently, with style.

That focus on spectacle, and its presentation, aligns perfectly with Reloaded’s emphasis on grand set pieces and shootouts against the Locust hordes that sustain the tension right from the start until you roll the credits on its main campaign. It’s a level of narrative quality that has not only withstood the test of time, but feels almost perfect for the PlayStation, given the manner in which Sony’s console exclusives have always upped the ante when it comes to the experiences they aim to present.

There are a plethora of excellent stories that the PlayStation has brought to life, such as Kratos’ battles against both the Greek and Norse pantheons in God of War, Aloy’s attempts to bridge the past and present in the Horizon franchise, or Nathan Drake’s many hunts for valuable relics from the past in Uncharted, or even Joel and Ellie’s riveting yet melancholy adventures in The Last of Us. I could keep going, but you get the point. 

Marcus Fenix now joins the illustrious ranks of these excellent protagonists, and if I’m being honest, it feels like he was just hovering in the background of that prestigious stage, just waiting for the spotlight to shine on him and his ragtag crew of battle-hardened soldiers.

I’m so joyful that the PS5 has managed to usher him into the fold and let him take his place among some of the greatest names from my many years of playing video games. But is that going to be the norm, or the exception? For my part, I’m hoping it’s the former and there are a few reasons why.

All Paths Lead to the PlayStation

That’s because it creates avenues that could be very beneficial to various facets of the gaming industry as a whole.

Let’s begin with the Gears franchise. Having a presence on a platform as popular as the PlayStation currently is could be an opportunity to expand its fanbase beyond Xbox loyalists, and perhaps even bridge the gap between them and PlayStation fans. Reloaded’s multiplayer options and its emphasis on cross-platform compatibility are a great indication of this, showcasing how the franchise’s greatest strengths are now available to a wide range of players. It could spell great news for E-Day when it makes its way into our hands.

For Sony, having franchises that were once outside of the PlayStation’s reach make their way to it is an opportunity to reinforce its dominance over the single-player blockbuster space. It’s going to be interesting to see if other developers begin to make their games available to PlayStation players in the near future.

Conversely, it could validate Sony’s decision to take its own exclusives to platforms like the PC after they have been given sufficient time to shine on the PlayStation. It’s a tactic that has worked well for franchises like Horizon and Uncharted, and for individual games like Ghost of Tsushima and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, allowing each release to earn an extended shelf life quite organically.

For players, it further blurs the lines between console-exclusive titles, effectively spelling out an end to console wars and the rise of the gaming community that enjoys the best titles together. That could lead to larger franchises down the line, as the presence of more potential players could help developers take on ambitious projects with bold new ideas. 

It’s what I would call a win-win-win situation all around. To me, Gears of War: Reloaded isn’t just an impressive release that’s technically sound enough to be a great PS5 title. It’s a symbol of what Sony’s powerhouse can do outside of running visually stunning games. It presents the PlayStation as a bridge between platforms and a console that makes the debut of games from other platforms feel almost inevitable when they make their way to it.

It makes me feel like the PlayStation is just a great home for great games and franchises.. And it doesn’t matter if they were born elsewhere. Now, excuse me while I power up my PS5 and take on another adventure that I’m going to talk about incessantly for the next few weeks.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

“The Chinese Room is a huge British success story that has rightly been recognised as a unique creative force capable of competing on the world stage,” said Hiro Capital partner Spike Laurie. “From hiring British people to making games set in the UK, they’ve been one of our foremost creative studios and now they are once again in charge of their own destiny while remaining British.

“We are at risk of overlooking these creative gems and letting them be sold to overseas corporations,” Laurie continued. “That is a travesty for the $5.5 billion British gaming industry which has a world-renowned reputation. We need to nurture this talent and support it through difficult times, because it is one of our leading creative exports.”

The studio has also stated that Sumo Digital was looking into selling The Chinese Room to a private equity firm. It is also worth noting that the studio’s former parent company had previously announced that it would not be continuing its work on original franchises. Rather, it plans to focus “exclusively on development services for partners”.

“This management buyout allows us to scratch the creative itch of continuing to work on new, original intellectual property, but also to partner with other studios on other projects when they fit in with our vision,” Daly said. “This is what we are doing and we want to carry on doing it, so we’re happy to carry on in this vein.”

As part of this announcement, The Chinese Room has also confirmed that it is working on two new IPs in development. These projects, it is worth noting, are completely separate from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, the publishing of which is being handled by Paradox Interactive.

Sumo Digital had announced its acquisition of The Chinese Room all the way back in 2018. At the time, the studio had agreed to be acquired by Sumo Digital because it was facing a difficult decision in light of its closure back in 2017.

The most recent release by The Chinese Room was its recent horror title Still Wakes the Deep. The game, released back in June 2024 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, also got its first story DLC—Siren’s Rest—just last month. For more details about the horror game and its DLC, check out our reviews of Still Wakes the Deep and Siren’s Rest.

In our review, we gave the base game a score of 7 out of 10. We praised its engaging story and well written and voiced characters, while also criticising how it wasn’t able to take full advantage of its setting and for being a bit too straightforward and simplistic. As for Siren’s Curse, we gave it a score of 5 out of 10.

In a talk at Develop:Brighton (courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz), former Deep Silver head of communications Martin Wein, now working at GameFlex Consultants, said that the version of Dead Island 2 that was being developed at the time would have potentially killed the Dead Island franchise.

Discussing the developer at the time, Yager, working on Dead Island 2, Wein spoke about how the project was delayed because the development team was veering away from the original design vision that was behind Dead Island 2. “I can actually give you an example where myself and the product team caused about an eight-year product delay,” said Wein at the talk.

“I was working on that with the creative team, and we were mightily proud of that [trailer],” Wein said. “But then, about 3 to 4 weeks later, we had a major milestone with the development studio that was in charge at that time. And boy, that game sucked.”

“It had nothing to do with what [made] the original Dead Island […] really fun,” he explained. “So we commissioned a play test and got horrific feedback. And we sat down with the development team and said, ‘Okay, what’s the course of action?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, leave it with us’.”

However, two or three months later, Wein described the game as being essentially the same as when it got the negative feedback from its playtests. Citing some of the feedback, Wein described them as being “this is not fun, this is not engaging, this does not feel like the Dead Island that I played.”

“So at the end of the day, we had to take the game away from that external developer, find a new studio, and that put the game on a journey of… well, it was supposed to launch in 2015. When did it come out? 2023?”

Wein spoke about the importance of publishers having to make some hard decisions with their projects sometimes, saying that “we could have, at that point, put out a s*** game. It might have made some money, but it would have killed the franchise.”

“I think at that point Deep Silver did the right thing, and Dead Island 2 was a commercial success in the end,” he said. “Because they took that step, and they said that we need to make a game that fits for the player.”

For context, Dead Island 2 had spent a notoriously long amount of time between its original announcement and final release. In that time, the development team behind the project was changed several times, including studios like Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager and Crackdown 3 developer Sumo Digital, before ultimately being developed internally at Deep Silver through its own team, Dambuster Studios.

Dead Island 2 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details about the co-op zombie hack-and-slash action RPG, check out our review.

Of course, there’s the question about the game’s user-created content, which the series is well-known for. Servers went offline indefinitely earlier this year because of technical issues, so said creations are unavailable to download. The campaign and other offline features will remain, and players can still create their own content. It just can’t be shared.

It’s unknown whether those same technical issues are the reason for delisting the title – neither Sony nor Media Molecule has provided any details.

LittleBigPlanet 3 launched in November 2014 for PS3 and PS4 – check out our review here. Alongside improvements and new features to the game’s robust toolkit, it introduced new playable characters with different abilities. It also featured backwards compatibility for levels created in LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2.

An important update on LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4) and LittleBigPlanet DLC on the PlayStation Store: pic.twitter.com/Nmm9e94DxD

— Sackboy: A Big Adventure | LittleBigPlanet (@LittleBigPlanet) October 8, 2024

The company says the decision to cut jobs was taken “to better navigate the upcoming challenges expected in the coming months”. The process will impact employees in Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland, Czech Republic, and India.

“Whilst Sumo has been able to manage through many of the recent difficulties the games industry has faced, we have not been immune and reshaping operations across the business to better navigate the upcoming challenges expected in the coming months is a path we must now take to ensure the security of the business going forward,” Sumo Group’s announcement reads.

“The difficult decision to reduce our costs across the business in a number of ways is a direct result of these challenges, and unfortunately will include a reduction in the number of people the business can support.”

Sumo Group owns Sumo Digital (the developer of Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Crackdown 3, Team Sonic Racing, and more) and indie publishing label Secret Mode, which is publishing upcoming horror title Still Wakes the Deep, developed by Sumo Digital-owned studio The Chinese Room.

Sumo Group joins an ever-growing list of companies that have been hit with layoffs in 2024, with the total number of job cuts across the games industry numbering at over 10,000. That includes companies such as PlayStation, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Sega, Riot Games, and many others.

This means that any content related to going online in LittleBigPlanet 3 on the PS4 is no longer available, including user-generated content, which was one of the biggest unique features of the title. It is worth noting, however, that any user-generated content for the game that was downloaded and stored locally on a PS4 will still be available.

LittleBigPlanet 3 will also continue to be otherwise playable offline, including its creation features. While players can make new levels and other content for the game though, they will be unable to share it with other players. Offline features like the campaign will continue to remain available.

Originally released back in November 2014, LittleBigPlanet 3 was developed by Sumo Digital. Series creator Media Molecule was, at the time, working on video game creation kit Dreams. Sumo Digital itself, meanwhile, later went on to also develop LittleBigPlanet’s 3D platforming spinoff Sackboy: A Big Adventure.

An internal document from that leak, shared on ResetEra, has also revealed sales and shipment numbers for several PS5 titles. For starters, there’s Bluepoint Games’ Demon’s Souls remake, which was available exclusively on PS5 as a launch title. As per the aforementioned document, which is dated February 2022, the remake has shipped over 2 million units worldwide, of which over 1.8 million copies have sold through.

Another first party PS5 exclusive, Returnal, has shipped over a million units, as per the leak, with 866,000 units having sold through. It’s worth noting, however, that the third-person shooter hadn’t launched for PC at this point (not that it enjoyed a great deal of success on the platform).

The last (and first) time Sony provided a sales update for Housemarque’s roguelite shooter was back in June 2021, at which point Returnal had sold over 560,000 units. Later that year, Sony revealed that the Demon’s Souls remake had sold 1.4 million copies.

Insomniac’s data breach also reveals sales numbers for Sackboy: A Big Adventure, another PS5 launch title, which has over 1.5 million units worldwide, with sell-through of over 1.2 million units. Like Returnal, it, too, hadn’t launched for PC at this time, though it, too, performed poorly on the platform. As per leaked documents, the platformer has sold just over 62,000 units on PC.

The leaked document also states that PS4’s Gran Turismo Sport has shipped nearly 13 million units to date. Back in February 2021, Sony announced that the game had surpassed 9.5 million players. The racing sim’s online services are set to end on January 31.

As spotted by social media platform X user @MauroNL3, LEGO 2K Goooal! was recently spotted on the PlayStation Store under the codename “Build Up”. Interestingly, the database listing for the title was also accompanied by official artwork for the game, showing imagery similar to leaks from last year. Potentially, an official announcement for the title could be coming soon- perhaps at The Game Awards on December 7?

It’s been claimed in previous reports that LEGO 2K Goooal! is being developed by British studio Sumo Digital. Stay tuned for more updates on the title in the coming days and weeks, hopefully in the form of an formal announcement.

LEGO 2K GOOOAL! spotted on the PlayStation Network under the codename 'Build Up'.

Official announcement looks imminent.https://t.co/u9AODmCNnq pic.twitter.com/vZEWGxTfSe

— MauroNL (@MauroNL3) November 8, 2023

As previously confirmed, on PS5 and Xbox Series X, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will feature a Performance Mode that will run at a dynamic 1080p and 60 FPS. Meanwhile, players will also have the option to opt for Quality Mode, which will run at 4K and 30 FPS. On Xbox Series S, on the other hand, it will run at a dynamic 4K and 30 FPS, with no 60 FPS option included.

Where last-gen consoles are concerned, base PS4 and Xbox One players can expect the game to run at 1080p and 30 FPS. There’s no specific details revealed on Xbox One X and PS4 Pro numbers.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is set to launch on August 18 for PC and consoles. You can check out its PC requirements through here.

Here are the Console Graphics and Modes for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: pic.twitter.com/n6VvpowbTF

— The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (@TXChainSawGame) August 9, 2023