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Bat · 2008-10-11 4:27 pm

Ooh, lookit that heroic box art... anyway

Cliff Bleszinski discusses the Gears film, why the factory-bound sequel will never come to the PC, and his belief that Dead Space will be the year's sleeper hit

This morning, the inevitable happened: Gears of War 2 went gold. The M-for-Mature-rated sequel to GameSpot's 2006 Game of the Year will ship worldwide on November 7. In the US, the Xbox 360 exclusive will be available in a $59.99 standard and $69.99 limited edition, with Amazon offering a $139.99 preorder bundle featuring a replica of the game's lancer rifle.

Unsurprisingly, Cliff Bleszinski is psyched. "Now that Gears of War [2] is done, the internal vibe from Epic is cautiously optimistic," the game's design director told GameSpot. "There's a lot of expectations to match up to from the first game, as it had a 94 percent average review score and over 5 million copies sold."

Now that the game is gold, Bleszinski's work as the design lead for Gears 2 is, for the moment, done. However, his task as promoter-in-chief is just beginning. At a recent Gears 2 gameplay event in San Francisco, the artist formerly known as CliffyB sat in a darkened room waiting for interview after interview.
...

... "And I can guarantee that Gears 2 does answer a lot of questions for the universe, but at the same time, it does raise a few questions."

Oh, and that trilogy talk is just that--talk. "I'm somehow quoted as saying Gears would be a trilogy, but I never actually said that," the designer complained. "There was somebody at Microsoft who made some sort of comment like that, but it's not the case. We're taking it at a very much game-by-game basis. If Gears 2 comes out and sells like hotcakes and has great reviews, then we'll consider doing another one."

...right. It's Epic's "premiere franchise" now, but GoW 3 is only 'under consideration.' What about that hat o' cash you're wearing, Cliff? Quadralogy? Quintology? Let's do lunch. It's cash... you'll do them until the series tanks.

According to Bleszinski, Epic Games is drifting away from the PC roots laid by its Unreal and Unreal Tournament games in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. "It's pretty safe to say that Epic is a console-focused company that does still support the PC in other ways, such as Unreal Tournament III coming out on the PC and whatnot," he said. "But Gears of War will remain a console franchise... It's one of those situations where the PC market is so scattered between the different hardware configurations and things like that [that] we'd rather continue to have a console focus as a company."

Yup. CoD4's on PC, Crysis and SC2 is/will be PC-only, but Epic can't even see doing a port in the distant future. Kaching.

The designer also discussed the Gears of War film [..]

Will Levi and I be in line for our copies opening night, or will he be getting the Lancer version early? It's a nice day; I think I'll go get some air... :dizzyfromspinmax:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6199138.html

formerly 'Video Q&A: Gears 2 golden, Epic console-focused'

Last edited by Bat (2008-11-08 11:14 pm)

robco · 2008-10-11 6:30 pm

I can understand why the desire to stick with consoles. Trying to nail bugs on PC versions is a royal PITA. So many different configs running Zeus-knows-what on their systems. People with smurfy graphics cards complaining about performance, people with high-end cards complaining about lowering the quality for people who have smurfy cards. Different versions of Windows, some current, others not, some 32-bit, some 64-bit. It's a nightmare. With consoles the devs can focus on making a good game.

I can see why RTS games do much better on a PC as they require more buttons than a typical console controller. But for FPS, why put up with the headaches?

Bat · 2008-10-11 8:08 pm

From whose POV? I'd hate playing Deus Ex on a console; as it is, GoW and the Halo games, especially 3, have (way) too many functions mapped to the limited number of controls. You have to contend with auto-aim, you're stuck with limited resources that cannot grow during a game's lifetime. The console's strengths are also weaknesses; a fixed target is bad as well as good. No upgrades. Consoles cater to the throwaway mentality of entertainment.. on and on.

Others can and do make it work; and few who've played, say, UT3 on both PC and console think it's better on the former. Controllers will never equal m/kb control in FPSs.

...The biggest weapon-based change that you’ll notice is the auto-aiming feature. This, as the name would suggest, involves the game nudging your crosshair towards enemies in order to counteract some of the inaccuracy of the analog sticks. On the whole, this feature is welcome addition. There’s no doubt that without it many insta-hit weapons like the Shock Rifle, Sniper Rifle and even the Enforcer pistol would become basically useless.

On the other hand there are a few irritating quirks that’ll start to bug you about UT3 360’s friendly little aimbot. The first and most obvious is that it does eliminate some of the skill required to use certain weapons. If you’ve played shooters with a keyboard and mouse it does feel a little cheap when someone with a using a gamepad and auto-aim scores a moving headshot on you from halfway across the map. Performing shock combos also becomes a little harder once you add auto-aiming into the mix. Most of the time auto-aim wants you to shoot the enemy you’re trying to combo with the primary beam rather than the shock ball that’s rapidly approaching him.

This ominous point brings us on to the goddamned Link Gun. I have to say plainly and simply that the Link Gun in this version of UT3 is just overpowered in the extreme. The combination of the auto-aiming feature and heat-seeking projectiles means that the weapon itself basically does all the work for you. Got the Link Gun? Guy running towards you? No problem – the Link centers your crosshair over your opponent’s face and the projectiles themselves hone in on him to counter any evasive moves that he might be able to make. In most cases your opponent is toast in under a second, and all you have to do is hold down the right trigger button until this happens.

It's a similar, but different game on console.

Having to target multiple dissimilar consoles like 360 & PS3 tend to debunk the 'dev simplicity' argument; GoW is a 360 exclusive, not just console-only. Throw in the Wii for less-demanding games and suddenly simplicity is out the window; the controls aren't even alike. It's a shibboleth, and both Valve/Steam and Wild Tangent are finding ways around the compat/config issue.

ed sp, quote, link

Last edited by Bat (2008-10-12 3:27 pm)

Bat · 2008-10-12 3:25 pm

"It's pretty safe to say that Epic is a console-focused company that does still support the PC in other ways, such as Unreal Tournament III coming out on the PC and whatnot," he said.

[ibid]

I for one want to see what the 'whatnot' is. UT3 PC came out nearly a year ago, so it's basically maintaining tech support for an aging game. GoW PC also is a year old, and was patched just once AFAIK... what new PC games are in Epic's oven, Cliff? Jaz Jackrabbit? 'A Legend Returns!..'

I wonder now how much of this might be tied to NV's recent spate of problems. They've been pretty much joined at the hip since their 'strategic alliance' of 2000, IIRC even predating TWIMTBP... everything after that was D3D-focused. Unreal was never updated to Glide 3 with its 32-bit color tho the Voodoo 4/5 supported that, and it looked great... I guess the writing was on the wall, go where the cash is and to hell with pride in work done. Now NV has in decline, everything from a spate of bad drivers to a run of bad chips, core logic as well as video. I'm starting to think abandoning the PC is partly preamble to a coming split with NV... if you're off the PC, what need have you of NV? GoW was in dev early in the 360's lifecycle, ATi vidchip and all; I'd be surprised if UE3 wasn't heavily optimised for 360, growing up together as they did, and the NV chip in the PS3 is certainly well understood by now.

This bears further thought and continued observation. At least if this is preamble to leaving TWIMTBP, it leaves the door open to a later, if lesser, return to PC. Maybe.

LLEVIATHANN · 2008-10-13 9:41 am

Bat wrote:
Will Levi and I be in line for our copies opening night, or will he be getting the Lancer version early?

Nope. Well not opening night as for opening day... I will be at C.City at 10AM when the doors open to pick up my preordered limited copy. That is unless CC makes a policy change and starts with midnight sales.

The real question is should I take the day off? Dunno I'm in the middle of a huge project. That will dictate if I can or not.

Booksley · 2008-10-13 11:15 am

LLEVIATHANN wrote:
Bat wrote:
Will Levi and I be in line for our copies opening night, or will he be getting the Lancer version early?
Nope. Well not opening night as for opening day... I will be at C.City at 10AM when the doors open to pick up my preordered limited copy. That is unless CC makes a policy change and starts with midnight sales.

The real question is should I take the day off? Dunno I'm in the middle of a huge project. That will dictate if I can or not.

You'll be back the day after, so it's okay! wink

LLEVIATHANN · 2008-10-13 11:30 am

Booksley wrote:
LLEVIATHANN wrote:
Bat wrote:
Will Levi and I be in line for our copies opening night, or will he be getting the Lancer version early?
Nope. Well not opening night as for opening day... I will be at C.City at 10AM when the doors open to pick up my preordered limited copy. That is unless CC makes a policy change and starts with midnight sales.

The real question is should I take the day off? Dunno I'm in the middle of a huge project. That will dictate if I can or not.
You'll be back the day after, so it's okay!

Koff...koff...I'm sick...sick with anticipation. wink

Bat · 2008-10-13 5:18 pm

LLEVIATHANN wrote:
Booksley wrote:
LLEVIATHANN wrote:
Nope. Well not opening night as for opening day... I will be at C.City at 10AM when the doors open to pick up my preordered limited copy. That is unless CC makes a policy change and starts with midnight sales.

The real question is should I take the day off? Dunno I'm in the middle of a huge project. That will dictate if I can or not.
You'll be back the day after, so it's okay!
Koff...koff...I'm sick...sick with anticipation.

You both realize that 11/7 is a Friday, right? Cliffy hopes the bars and theaters will be empty, everyone playing somewhere... and Hollywood moved back the opening of the next Bond film a week thru, um, sheer coincidence. wink

Anyway, a little more honesty at last...

Shack: I know you mentioned piracy as one of the primary reasons behind the decision, but I’m wondering if you’ve considered any others. Do you think the idea that many of the potential PC customers had already purchased the 360 version a year prior had anything to do with it?

Cliff Bleszinski: That could be a potential factor, but it’s a very complicated formula. And honestly in regards to strategy and platform strategy, I’m the guy that sits around and says, you know, “Let’s make a gun with a chainsaw on it.” It’s not my call.

And because I’m the one that’s doing all the interviews, suddenly everyone’s assuming that I’m the one that makes that call. It’s like, alright, I’m going to make the best game I can with the talented people I work with, and it’s up to the powers that be to decide where it winds up.

Shack: So you wouldn’t say that your attitude toward the PC applies to Epic’s ventures down the road?

Cliff Bleszinski: Too early to comment on future products.

Shack: What would you say to fans that claim you’ve abandoned your roots by not doing a PC port of Gears 2?

Cliff Bleszinski: We’re a business and we’re going where the market is. There’s a hundred guys at work, a number of which have wives and kids, and there’s a certain amount of responsibility to make sure that they can afford their Pedialyte and their Enfamil. And you know, we’re a business, and it makes sense for Gears to keep it on the 360 and have Microsoft market the hell out of it and make the best game that we can.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/06/cl … nce-on-pc/

Maybe the torrenting of Fallout 3 will give the higher-ups pause. Lord knows, MS could sure do better putting its money where its PRs are about GFW Live.

C'mon, MS-bois, let's get $erious. Your crossplatform strategy sucks.

ed sp

Last edited by Bat (2008-10-14 2:17 am)

Bat · 2008-10-13 5:25 pm

And remember, GoW 2 will nevar, evar be on PC. Not, nada. Zilch. So buy it now, and get a spare.

Until a year later when everyone with a tree-sitty has it, and maybe the Powers [s]announce otherwise[/s] have a change of heart. Yeah, that's it- heart. Because this is a business of love, and we love our [s]$$[/s] fans. This much.

tongue

Booksley · 2008-10-13 11:26 pm

Microsft doesn't care about PC Gaming either! lol

Bat · 2008-10-14 2:29 am

Booksley wrote:
Microsft doesn't care about PC Gaming either!

That's sort of what...

Bat wrote:
C'mon, MS-bois, let's get $erious. Your crossplatform strategy sucks.

...meant. tongue wink

Some, at least a few, of them realize its importance, but I get the feeling the X-crowd has gotten too entrenched over the years. They're an OS/ software company, but they've come to lack focus here.

Alex St. John wrote in the '90s that MS needed competition or they lost focus, lost their way. Who do they compete with for PC gaming? Linux? Loki didn't last long.

That's why I said/say, get serious. Spend some money, buy a clue. Get refocused. It could all be better. You, me, whoever else vs. Levi, Jr. and 54 at GoW2... us on PC, and no gimping the port. smile

I like our chances. cool

Last edited by Bat (2008-10-14 2:30 am)

Bat · 2008-10-14 6:01 am

Speaking of the Other Platform, Books, it's out.

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=505

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2 … 330,00.asp

Bat · 2008-10-20 6:18 pm

Oh, dears. What will Cliffy say now?

Gears of War 2 has started popping up on torrent sites as a 6.7Gb download.

In a word, “Whoops.” Obviously, you need a chipped box to play it, but this is unlikely to go down well with Microsoft and all its vengeful legal ninjas. Like, at all.

The game’s retail release is November 7.

Gears of War 2 leaked

"Piracy is killing PC and console gaming, so Epic has decided to only make... um, iPhone games. Yeah, that's the ticket." big_smile

LLEVIATHANN · 2008-10-27 3:56 pm

A seven page look into Epic and Cliff.

Epic Games is a privately owned company and does not disclose its earnings. But on a Monday morning in late April, while standing in Epic’s parking lot, at Crossroads Corporate Park, in Cary, North Carolina, awaiting the arrival of Cliff Bleszinski, the company’s thirty-three-year-old design director, I realized that my surroundings were their own sort of Nasdaq. Ten feet away was a red Hummer H3. Nearby was a Lotus Elise, and next to it a pumpkin-orange Porsche. Many of the cars had personalized plates: “PS3CODER” (a reference to Sony’s PlayStation3), “EPICBOY,” “GRSOFWAR.

Bat · 2008-10-27 9:40 pm

Did it mention this?

Epic Acquisition Rumor [October 24, 2008, 10:05 am ET] - Share

Variety reports "Private equity-backed film financier Legendary Pictures is in negotiations to acquire Epic Games, the North Carolina-based developer of videogames including 'Gears of War.'" They say this is based on reports from multiple sources, but that both Legendary and Epic have declined to comment. Shacknews has a comment from Epic's Mark Rein, who says this is "just another rumor." Of course when it comes to deals like this, "rumor" can mean something that will never happen, or is already a done deal, so we shall see.

Legendary is making the 'Gears' movie.

LLEVIATHANN · 2008-10-28 11:14 am

Bat wrote:
Legendary is making the 'Gears' movie.

And has a small mountain of cash from the success of Dark Knight.

Knee jerk is 'Ohnoes!!!!111!!'. More thought is could be good could be bad. Good that maybe Epic would have better financial backing to do more risky (push boundaries) games or even killer multivenue/cross over gaming movies. Bad that it all goes to hell and everybody leaves. Giving Legendary a nice game engine with nobody to support it. Thus the end of the Unreal Engine.

Dunno it's kinda a WTF moment. IF Epic is doing so well why muddy things up with buyout/partner? If they really need cash why not go public. Since I have no idea how Epic does business this is speculation. Maybe Epic is feeling the crunch like many other businesses and can't get a loan for the next big thing. They say GoW took 10M to develop. Question is was that 10M theirs or some loan they paid back? Business sense and gut tell me 'why spend your money, when you can spend someone elses money.' With current state of things it's much harder to spend someone elses money.

Bat · 2008-10-28 4:51 pm

It'd help explain some recent statements, tho.

Hopefully, if they made GoW 2 on loan money- and NC (the state) has been heavily hit by the banking/credit crunch- and are acquired or even get new financing from Legendary, the filmco'd be hands-off. They need the talent to make more GoW games to make movies from. Besides, there'd likely be' no-quit' clauses involved.

Bat · 2008-11-08 3:14 am

Oh, poor Books...

NextGen Player has just received words from a tipster that Future Shop has cancelled the two large Gears of War 2 launch parties scheduled for Toronto and Vancouver. The launch parties were cancelled out of respect for the recently deceased Xbox gamer Brandon Crisp whose body was found yesterday morning near Barrie, Ontario.

Future Shops PR company has issued the following statement regarding the cancellation:

"Future Shop and our vendor partner have decided to cancel promotional activities prior to the midnight release of Gears of War 2 in Toronto and Vancouver out of respect for the family and friends of Brandon Crisp. The game will still be available to the thousands of customers anticipating this release at Future Shop stores across the country at midnight on November 7, 2008. All stores in Quebec and Sudbury, Ontario will offer the game at 8:00 a.m."

...not to forget Brandon Crisp.

Future Shop Cancels GOW2 Launch Parties in Toronto & Vancouver

Booksley · 2008-11-08 10:58 pm

Since I think this is the Gears of War 2 thread (do you think you could chance the topic title?), what did everyone else think of the game?

Because one of my friends broke up with his girlfriend, and GoW2 came out, we cancelled plans to drink ourselves silly, and instead stayed up until 5am Friday night playing the co-op campaign. We didn't finish it unfortunately, and I don't think I'll be able to play GoW2 for the rest of the weekend... stupid homework.

The single-player was pretty good. Oh my god the puns are terrible in the game.

Bat · 2008-11-08 11:16 pm

Looks like it'll be awhile before I can afford it.

Some1 · 2008-11-09 11:11 am

robco wrote:
I can understand why the desire to stick with consoles. Trying to nail bugs on PC versions is a royal PITA. So many different configs running Zeus-knows-what on their systems. People with smurfy graphics cards complaining about performance, people with high-end cards complaining about lowering the quality for people who have smurfy cards. Different versions of Windows, some current, others not, some 32-bit, some 64-bit. It's a nightmare. With consoles the devs can focus on making a good game.

I can see why RTS games do much better on a PC as they require more buttons than a typical console controller. But for FPS, why put up with the headaches?

Because shooters weren't meant to be played with clunky dual-analogue sticks.

LLEVIATHANN · 2008-11-10 10:08 am

Booksley wrote:
What did everyone else think of the game?

Everyone I played with this weekend said it's a huge improvement over the first. I agree. Cliffy said bigger and better. Glad it turned out to be true. From big changes like the MP interface to larger levels in both solo and MP. To the little things they added like the bullet contrails and the guns glow red when fired constantly. Horde is nice even tho it's not much different than UT's Invasion. So personally I've been there, done that. Spent the first four hours in solo and got to the point of meeting my first Blood Mount. Rest of the weekend was in MP. Best of all NOBODY bitched about host advantage! YAY!!!!!!!

There is room for improvement. Getting out of the MP lobby isn't easy. You can't invite people who have their profiles set to 'show offline'. Even if they are on and in the game. Adding a second split screen MP player is a PITA too. JR just couldn't log in and jump into the lobby. I had to back all the way out (see above, getting out isn't easy). Get him on and both of us rejoin. The Ready button is gone. We missed that and wondered why. So far near as I can tell custom map rotation and weapon swap is gone too. I only hosted once over the weekend and I may have missed where to do it. Only allowing new games the retro map pack is going to cause issues. MoF it already has as some of us took the time to enter the code and others didn't. That forced us to skip them. Why take the time and resources to make content people won't or can't play? Adding bots w/o a way to control them was a WTF moment. Having a drunk 'Flag' that shoots back, taunts and cusses at you is fun AND annoying.

As for cheese...well I like a lil cheese with my whine. wink

Bat · 2008-11-10 3:50 pm

LLEVIATHANN wrote:
As for cheese...well I like some Cheezy Poofs with my whine.

Fixed... or is that one of Books' 'terrible puns?' smile

"...BUUKsMAK!" wink

Booksley · 2008-11-10 7:24 pm

Bat wrote:
LLEVIATHANN wrote:
As for cheese...well I like some Cheezy Poofs with my whine.
Fixed... or is that one of Books' 'terrible puns?'

"...BUUKsMAK!"

You really have no idea how bad they kept on getting. I was face-palming near the end of the game.

Also, the Riftworm was a fantastically awesome level.

Bat · 2008-11-10 11:29 pm

"Help, Cecil, help!" big_smile

:collectioncupmax:

Forums | MacLife

#1 2008-10-11 4:27 pm

Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#2 2008-10-11 6:30 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#3 2008-10-11 8:08 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#4 2008-10-12 3:25 pm

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#5 2008-10-13 9:41 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

Bat wrote:

#6 2008-10-13 11:15 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Bat wrote:

#7 2008-10-13 11:30 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

Booksley wrote:

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Bat wrote:

#8 2008-10-13 5:18 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Booksley wrote:

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

#9 2008-10-13 5:25 pm

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#10 2008-10-13 11:26 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#11 2008-10-14 2:29 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

Booksley wrote:

Bat wrote:

#12 2008-10-14 6:01 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#13 2008-10-20 6:18 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#14 2008-10-27 3:56 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#15 2008-10-27 9:40 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#16 2008-10-28 11:14 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

Bat wrote:

#17 2008-10-28 4:51 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#18 2008-11-08 3:14 am

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#19 2008-11-08 10:58 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#20 2008-11-08 11:16 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

#21 2008-11-09 11:11 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

robco wrote:

#22 2008-11-10 10:08 am

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

Booksley wrote:

#23 2008-11-10 3:50 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

#24 2008-11-10 7:24 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

Bat wrote:

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

#25 2008-11-10 11:29 pm

Re: Gears of War 2 (retitle)

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