Gears of War: Reloaded has some of its code rooted in the 2006 original, so at times, certain quirks are bound to crop up that cause issues for players - especially given that the first Gears of War was always a little buggy. However, one that's seemingly become more widespread recently is related to an 'anti-cheat' issue, and it's breaking online multiplayer for some users right now.
We came across this issue last night while trying to play Gears Reloaded multiplayer on Xbox Series X|S. After a minute or two of playing a match, the game flashes up a "you have been rejected by the anti-cheat server" message, before booting you back to the lobby. Here's an example of what we've been seeing:
Now, we'd never noticed this message before until this week, but a quick look through the Gears subreddit shows that some folks have seen it on and off for months. Today, a new thread on the issue is getting some more attention as the issue becomes more widespread for Gears Reloaded players, seemingly on Xbox and PC.
We've also spotted another thread on this issue where some folks are saying that switching off crossplay on console is a way to potentially resolve things - although others are adding that the issue keeps cropping up every few weeks.
Hopefully, this issue gets picked up by the development team given that it's seemingly becoming more widespread, and we're hoping to see a more permanent fix ASAP. For now, we'll have a whirl on Gears Reloaded with crossplay switched off and see how we get on, we suppose!