To the fans of the cover-based classic Gears of War who have been dying to get their hands on the latest entry in the franchise, the wait will soon be over. The news came from a post on Microsoft’s Xbox blog. Fans can expect to get their hands on Gears of War 4 on October 11th, exclusively for Xbox One.

Is October too long to wait?

Microsoft also announced that there will be a multiplayer beta for the game coming out on April 18th. The beta will initially be open to anyone who played the Gears of War Ultimate edition on either Xbox One or Windows 10, with a general open beta on April 25th.

In other Gears of War 4 news, Entertainment Weekly showed off the box art for the game, which gives us a look at the new principal cast, who you can read about here.

The cover art also highlights the weather effects, one of the new editions to the gameplay in GoW4. In a video interview with Game Informer, Lead Campaign Designer Matt Searcy said that after the events of Gears of War 3, Sera was ravaged by weather, causing extreme weather patterns. What that means is that randomly during a fire fight some weather effect will alter the battlefield in some way ranging from strong winds to a lightning storm.

One of the biggest points about this game is how it will focus more on the horror elements that fans enjoyed in the first game, when Entertainment Weekly asked  Studio Head Rod Fergusson about the change in tone he had this to say:

…For me I really like the words “tension” and “drama.” It’s really where we’re trying to push. By the time you get to Gears 3, it felt a little bit like it could be a WWII game…the Locusts were well understood… Whereas Gears 1, there was still a lot more discovery and still being scared and trying to understand this threat that you had never seen before.

Fergusson also talked about how creating characters has changed since the Gears 1. Saying how there was essentially no room for story and all the characters had to be summed up in two words (i.e Marcus the anti-hero, Cole the Sports Guy) to quickly get people invested. He goes on to say that people prefer more nuanced characters, which is what we can expect to see in the new game.

…That’s the kind of thing we’ve been trying to work on, is to provide them with a story that is not so pithy in terms of their description. I can’t say what JD really is in two words.

Those who played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition can expect to receive a code for the Gears 4 multiplayer beta via Xbox Live messaging sometime on April 18th, while everyone else will have to wait until April 25th.

Gears of War 4 will be out on October 11th for Xbox One.