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Meh. Just give me the game[s]. Epic insists there's a deep backstory, but I've little sign of that- and historically, they're poor at the whole story thing. Much better at implying there's a story in there somewhere if only they could tell it.

Unreal was wonderfully atmospheric and implied there was a story somewhere underneath all the hints of one- but, even in the expansion, they didn't succeed in getting one across. I don't think there was one, ever.

Take away story, it's all just FX. Make my FX interactive (let me blow the stuff up).

No way will it be as good as the DOOM movie! 

I like how the entire Doom story consists of 4 paragraphs, and they still screwed with it.

Earendil the Mariner wrote:

I'm still hoping somebody will resurrect the Halo movie... and that it will actually be GOOD.

So you missed this? :whistle:

Edit: how the collapse of the movie and Chronicles led to ODST.

Last edited by Bat (2009-09-10 4:28 am)

Bat wrote:

Epic insists there's a deep backstory, but I've little sign of that.

Because you haven't read the books. Having read them the games for me now just fill in the gaps between the books. Due to how the second book ends. GoW 3 will be interesting.

Real Gears fans will understand, right, Cee?

Ya, Baird is the only realistic character aside from the no namers that get chopped up. Anya would maybe apply if she didn't look like a super model. For such a dirty/messed up world, she sure looks like shes had the luxury treatment.

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Real Gears fans will understand, right, Cee?

<-----.:::Avater:::. Hell Ya!!!

Bat wrote:

Give me the game, I'll play it. Contract novel[s] to fill out a backstory there's no sign of in-game, long after the game ships, could be mostly the writer backfitting a story to the game. In a *koff* certain other series we know, there are hints a-plenty of a pre-existing backstory that continued to grow and evolve over time, mainly cultivated by the Story Foury, pollinated by other staff, stored in the Story Bible in the care of Rob McLees until the split and Frank O'Connor's leaving to work for MGS, now heading the aptly-named 343 Studios.

Got detail like that for me? I'd at least hope the writer- er, I mean, Epic - finally [s]came up with reasons[s][/s] mentioned why there's no mention of the rest of humanity (as in, "Hellllp!"), other than to reinforce the 'backs to the wall, humanity's last stand' angle. I mean... they can develop and deploy satellite ion weapons in short order, but they can't call home?

You can tell you never played GOW. Gears of War takes place on the planet Sera, home is where they live and what they are fighting for.

"The Gears series takes place on a fictional Earth-like planet named Sera. The planet Sera had a history of conflict that took the planet to the brink of destruction. This shocked the people into a rejection of their destructive ways, leading to a golden age. Although most conflict was solved peacefully, civil liberties and crime remained as troublesome social issues. A golden age of culture, science, and the arts[1] ensued, yet one problem stood prominent above the rest: energy. Sera's sources of petroleum and nuclear fuel were not sufficient to meet the global demand. Imulsion-with its promise of near limitless energy-was thought to be the solution to mankind's great need. [2] Humans discovered liquid Imulsion, which flows underground, and became a key power source. The value of Imulsion led to a seventy nine-year war over the substance, until the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed to put a stop to the war. Shortly after peace settled, however, humans were attacked across the planet from the Locust, a race of beings that dug their way out from underground. Much of humanity was wiped out on the first Locust attack, otherwise known as "Emergence Day", and the remaining humans gathered their numbers on Jacinto Plateau, a mass of hard rock the Locust could not burrow through; the humans that could not make it became known as the "Stranded", and took shelter among the ruins. Out of desperation, the COG employed a "scorched earth" policy by firing orbital lasers across the surface of the planet to"

link

Last edited by CG5Addict (2009-09-10 9:46 pm)

Earendil the Mariner wrote:

Metacell wrote:

No way will it be as good as the DOOM movie! 

Doom was not bad.
They seem to have to screw with the story no matter what, but what they changed it to was pretty decent.
And the overall feel of it was pretty good in comparison to Doom 3.

I'm still hoping somebody will resurrect the Halo movie... and that it will actually be GOOD.

The movie did have no "this is a good movie" feel, but the best part for me was after he was given the shot. The 1st player view was awesome.

Sorry Bat, I edited my post when you where posting. Had to find info to back up what I was going to say!

Last edited by CG5Addict (2009-09-10 9:59 pm)

CG5Addict wrote:

You can tell you never played GOW. Gears of War takes place on the planet Sera, home is where they live and what they are fighting for.

[Sera stuff]

Sorry Bat, I edited my post when you where posting. Had to find info to back up what I was going to say!

So you managed to miss

I've co-oped GoW with Levi. Good fun. ("Fun. Do again?"[/grunty] )

I have GoW Collector's Ed. w/info booklet, not GoW 2. $$. And I know about Imulsion (a word play on 'emulsion'), the given backstory and all (which is pretty slim pickin's). You're missing the point- nowhere in GoW is the rest of humanity- Earth, other colonies, anyone- accounted for, even mentioned. My guess is that, at the time at least, they didn't want to go into the extra complexity of why there was no one within comm distance who might be asked for aid, even across decades. I doubt that was even worked out then, and don't know if it's been mentioned yet. You have to suspend disbelief and just accept you're on your own, whatever the reason[s].

(In addition to the barrels near the end, we played from around 2 or 3 on- long enough for one or t'other of us to keep dying at the bottom of the big fall, to where we got really tired of hearing how really tired the characters were about that kind of thing in general. [Just before fighting the Corpser]).

Metacell wrote:

Bat wrote:

Earendil the Mariner wrote:

I'm still hoping somebody will resurrect the Halo movie... and that it will actually be GOOD.

So you missed this? :whistle:

Edit: how the collapse of the movie and Chronicles led to ODST.

I wish they wouldn't do HALO as there is a perfectly superior story ready for adaptation in Ringworld.

Interesting read tho it and Engineers were, I find myself with little interest in seeing a movie made of it/them. Not a whole lot of emotional investment, either. And too complex, too little overall action for Hollywood to take an interest in. Niven's not a terribly cinematic writer. Obviously the ring construct idea was lifted from it- the owner/admin of the Bungie.org sites, including HBO, Claude Errera, has the username Louis Wu- but Halo blends a variety of source materials into a melange all its own, which I do care about.

Bat wrote:

So you managed to miss this
I've co-oped GoW with Levi. Good fun. ("Fun. Do again?"[/grunty] )

Your part right, I did see it, but was dumb enough not to remember it when writing my post.

I have GoW Collector's Ed. w/info booklet, not GoW 2. $$. And I know about Imulsion (a word play on 'emulsion'), the given backstory and all (which is pretty slim pickin's). You're missing the point- nowhere in GoW is the rest of humanity- Earth, other colonies, anyone- accounted for, even mentioned. My guess is that, at the time at least, they didn't want to go into the extra complexity of why there was no one within comm distance who might be asked for aid, even across decades. I doubt that was even worked out then, and don't know if it's been mentioned yet. You have to suspend disbelief and just accept you're on your own, whatever the reason[s].

(In addition to the barrels near the end, we played from around 2 or 3 on- long enough for one or t'other of us to keep dying at the bottom of the big fall, to where we got really tired of hearing how really tired the characters were about that kind of thing in general. [Just before fighting the Corpser]).

"The Gears series takes place on a fictional Earth-like  planet". My take of this seems to me, like us, they have no other people (that we know of) in their solar system to call on.  Imulsion became such a highly valued power source that it led to several wars between nations(on that planet). The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) became a union of all people on Sera  to join military forces after the 79-year long Pendulum Wars because of the common enemy, the Locust. I have not read the book(s), but looking at GOW 2 it almost seems that the Locust where man made.

What do you think?

Bat wrote:

You're missing the point- nowhere in GoW is the rest of humanity- Earth, other colonies, anyone- accounted for, even mentioned. My guess is that, at the time at least, they didn't want to go into the extra complexity of why there was no one within comm distance who might be asked for aid, even across decades. I doubt that was even worked out then, and don't know if it's been mentioned yet. You have to suspend disbelief and just accept you're on your own, whatever the reason[s].

::SPOILERS - MOSTLY BOOK SPOILERS::

First Sera = current Earth only a little more technically advanced. No FTL drives, no outside help. Like us for all they know they're alone in the universe. This isn't Halo. It's more like an alternate reality.

In order:

Book: Aspho Fields: Story on how Dom and Marcus meet. Weird relationship between Marcus and his Dad. The big shoes Anya has to fill because of her Mom. Ultimately ending with the Hammer of Dawn tech being stolen from the enemy. That was the Battle of Aspho Fields.

Gear of War: If it were a book it only be a chapter or two. Mostly about why Marcus was left to rot alone. Even after everyone else was let out. Slow healing process between Marcus and Hoffman. Growing relationship between Marcus and Anya. Dom's continued search for his wife. Intrigue into Alex's disappearance and how it affects Marcus & how it's related to the Locust.

Gears of War 2: Conclusion to Dom's missing wife. More questions on Alex and his relationship with Locust.

Book: Jacinto's Remnant: Picks up right where GoW2 ends. In the Ravens as Marcus is looking for Anya. The book bounces between current news and history. A few years after E-day humanity was loosing badly to the Locust. Chairman Prescott was forced to glass the entire planet with the Hammer of Dawn. The only remaining safe city was Jacinto. Billions died that day but it did stop the Locust routing out humanity. Now with Jacinto destroyed the book has very few Locust encounters. The whole book deals with the past & the decision to fire the Hammer and current events of saving the last of humanity.

So in answer to 'where's humanity?', 'where's the backup?', 'where's the help?' There isn't any. Only the few stranded here and there. Jacinto and the COGs that protect it are it. Humanity's Last Stand. That's always been the whole GoW motto from the beginning.

Bat wrote:

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

So in answer to 'where's humanity?', 'where's the backup?', 'where's the help?' There isn't any. Only the few stranded here and there. Jacinto and the COGs that protect it are it. Humanity's Last Stand. That's always been the whole GoW motto from the beginning.

Right. That's my point... I enjoyed the game a lot, and it's still one of only two games I've bought for the 360 (to be joined by ODST shortly, I hope). There's a certain amount of fleshing out of the characters, but you have to pretty much ignore those other questions and go with the flow. It doesn't deepen greatly, questions don't come up about larger/ deeper/ older things that eventually (mostly) get answered. 'Humanity's Last Stand' almost begs the question, 'where's every other human in the universe?'

It is Halo-like in some of the tech. Many of the weapons are such that players are familiar with many from the get-go- grenades, pistols, rifles, shotguns. Most of the ray guns are teh enemies'.

Anyone wants to give me a copy, I'll give it a try.

I got my copy off eBay for $12, brand new sealed box. Gotta love bidding on eBay!

O.K., maybe I see something different or I'm blind to the story (u guys set me straight), but 'Humanity's Last Stand' seems to me like that's the 'last stand' for the people in that universe. The story seems to evolve like Star Wars, from the middle to the end and somewhere along the way you find out about the beginning.