Gears of War Creator Is More Than Chainsaw Guns

[The Wooster]

Gears of War Creator Is More Than Chainsaw Guns

Cliff Bleszinski has plans to start a new studio, it's just a "matter of when and with who."

Cliff Bleszinski is widely known as the face of chunky, murder-festival, Gears of War, but there's more to his body of work than grimacing beef-slabs butchering each other in the third person. In a simpler, more innocent time, when he called himself "Cliffy B" and looked like this, [http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/1468/181199-cliffybbb.jpg] Bleszinski worked on a number of ground-breaking games. Of course, the only people who remember the likes of Unreal or Jazz Jackrabbit are us ancient nerds. When Cheetos and Hotpockets claim the last of us, only the young will remain, and they'll remember Cliff as "that guy who put a chainsaw on a gun."

Fear of that dark legacy seems to partially motivated Bleszinski's surprising decision to end his 20-year career at Epic Games this October.

"I don't want the chainsaw gun to be my legacy," he recently admitted in an interview with X-play. "It is pretty cool and whenever somebody puts together a top 50 weapons in video games and it's up there with the Halo sword and the lancer and the Doom BFG, that's really flattering, but a lot of these kids who have only been playing games for the last however many years, that's the only thing they think I ever did."

While there's still no news on what he intends to do next, Bleszinski did confirm that he would be starting his own studio at some point.

"It's not a matter of if," he said. "It's a matter of when and with who."

Source: X-Play [http://www.g4tv.com/videos/61742/cliff-bleszinski-talks-life-after-epic-games/]


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[hazabaza1]

Well then he shouldn't have made fucking chainsaw guns.
Once you do that, that's all people remember you for.

 

[fix-the-spade]

So, when is Unreal Tournament 4 coming along then?

It could bring back the Gauntlet, Cliffy helped invent the Chainsaw Glove as well you know!

Seriously though, it's five years since the last Unreal game, with large swathes of players bored with Gears of Halofield 3: War Ops, there's a nice big space for some bunny hopping hexa-barrell Rocket Launchers to move in.

I miss that rocket launcher.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Well then he shouldn't have made fucking chainsaw guns.
Once you do that, that's all people remember you for.

So you're saying that Gears of War is Cliff's Evil Dead?

 

[teebeeohh]

Don't worry, we will also remember you as the guy who insulted and made fun of your fans of ten years because you believed there were MOAR dollars in the console market.

So you are chainsaw gun AND pc-gaming-is-dying guy

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Everything I hear of Cliffy B of late just further confirms to me that he's all talk and no trousers. If he so despises the thought of only being remembered for Gears of War, then he shouldn't have made 3 (soon to be 4) fucking Gears of War games. Besides, there's nothing wrong with Gears. It may not be to everybody's taste (I'm not too keen on it) and the formula has been copied far too many times by now, but it's a perfectly functional formula that a lot of people enjoy for perfectly legitimate reasons. To vocally distance yourself from that (without actually doing anything else to distance yourself from it) just because you're jealous of the indie scene is achingly pretentious.

Stop talking about it, and go do it. Then, when you do it, we'll judge what you produce on its own merits, not on how hard you're trying to give yourself a legacy other than Gears.

 

[teh_Canape]

well I always remember him more for Jazz Jackrabbit as a whole than for 50 Shades of War

 

[surg3n]

The kids won't remember him, he's not the icon that he thinks he is. Really, gamers these days don't pay much attention to developers, and they shouldn't - there are far more important people out there.

For me, true game developer icons should be remembered for what they have done to benefit the world of gaming, like David Braben (Elite), Peter Molyneux (god games), Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario etc). Cliffy B hasn't done enough groundbreaking for anyone to really pay too much attention... but the main thing is that you can't go expecting fame, or looking for it, when all you do is design videogames, why can't he just be socially awkward, lofty, anti-social, or dismissive like other developers . We remember the people who changed and improved the gaming world, created their own genre, started out with an idea and nurtured it into something tangible and great, Cliffy just designed some games.

I'd even go as far as to say that Ed McMillen (Team Meat) is more famous than Cliffy B, and for better reasons too.

I think we remember the important people, we don't need to be whined at by people like him.

 

[Colt47]

Actually, I remember him for the few maps he did for Unreal Tournament, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Gears of War. Don't know why he thinks people will remember him for chainsaw guns.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

I'm one of those "kids" and I hadn't heard of him until 30 seconds ago...

There a plenty of more important people out there that need to be remembered.

 

[LordLundar]

Actually, I remember him for the few maps he did for Unreal Tournament, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Gears of War. Don't know why he thinks people will remember him for chainsaw guns.

Probably the pictures of him around the net posing with the chainsaw gun like it's his first born child.

 

[Waaghpowa]

The kids won't remember him, he's not the icon that he thinks he is. Really, gamers these days don't pay much attention to developers, and they shouldn't - there are far more important people out there.

For me, true game developer icons should be remembered for what they have done to benefit the world of gaming, like David Braben (Elite), Peter Molyneux (god games), Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario etc). Cliffy B hasn't done enough groundbreaking for anyone to really pay too much attention... but the main thing is that you can't go expecting fame, or looking for it, when all you do is design videogames, why can't he just be socially awkward, lofty, anti-social, or dismissive like other developers . We remember the people who changed and improved the gaming world, created their own genre, started out with an idea and nurtured it into something tangible and great, Cliffy just designed some games.

I'd even go as far as to say that Ed McMillen (Team Meat) is more famous than Cliffy B, and for better reasons too.

I think we remember the important people, we don't need to be whined at by people like him.

I totally agree. The average person these days will more likely remember him for Gears of War rather than games like Jazz Jackrabbit simply because A) they're not old enough or B) Were late to the video game party and simply have no knowledge of his past works.

Gears of War is popular and all, but not something that will be remembered throughout the ages. If anything, he will be remembered most for being a total cock about PC piracy.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I don't associate him so much with Chainsaw Bayonets as I do with cover-based shooting as a core gameplay mechanic. Hey if Cliffy doesn't want to be remembered completely for Gears maybe his next game should be about space exploration on the back of a magical whale. Include fantasy elements and a love sub-plot about your wife (or husband) having been turned into a honey dew. The twist coming towards the middle of the game where instead of turning your lover back you just cut it up and fuck the melon. Nobody would associate with Cliffy with anything BUT that.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

and what if I actually LIKE chainsaw guns? >.>

seriously though, I still have a copy of Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and The Secret Files right here, I'm very curious as to what he'd create on his own this time around.

 

[Baresark]

This is backwards. I don't want to be remembered for my Chainsaw gun, so I'm retiring. Seriously though, the answer is to make something that isn't a chainsaw gun or involving chainsaw guns. You simply have to make something equally as memorable, but I don't think he has it in him. He is always going to make something with a chainsaw, give the opportunity. Also, I wish people would stop bringing up Jazz Jackrabbit. The character was part of almost 4 games over the course of 8 years. They were fine games, but they weren't the end all do all of games and hardly the best of what Cliffy B has done. I think he would be better off being remembered for chainsaw guns. I think people bring up Jazz Jackrabbit as a name drop to show "how long they been in the game".

 

[ThunderCavalier]

... Am I the only one that doesn't get the fascination with the chainsaw gun?

I know that the Lancer is a solid weapon in the game and the concept is neat, but the chainsaw is actually pretty impracticable in the actual game. Aside from Chainsaw battles, there's really no reason to use it.

I know it's there for the Rule of Cool, but when compared to the Gravity Gun, Portal Gun, and BFG, it doesn't really hold up.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Actually, I remember him for the few maps he did for Unreal Tournament, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Gears of War. Don't know why he thinks people will remember him for chainsaw guns.

Probably the pictures of him around the net posing with the chainsaw gun like it's his first born child.

I somehow misread that as having something to do with pictures of him still in the womb, holding a chainsaw gun.
Does that make sense?