Interesting article, and some interesting posts in this thread as well.
One thing I noticed in Gears that's been touched on a bit in this thread is that the game, while predominantly over-the-top machismo, did have some serious elements. As the game goes on it seems more and more like the over-the-top machismo is in a large part a cover for the fact that most or all of the CoGs are scared out of their minds. Marcus even mentions it directly to Dom at one point, when Dom admits to being afraid of going underground -- "Don't tell Baird. He's scared shitless as it is." And that's all part and parcel with the 1980s sci-fi space marine thing that seems to have been the main influence on the game outside of Resident Evil 4.
The blatantly American nature of Gears and Epic's parking lot full of expensive cars also bring to mind kind of an interesting parallel. Silicon Knights, a bunch of artistes who put extraordinary effort into setting and narrative in their games but whose games are also not known for their technical execution, don't seem to have gotten along very well with Epic. Silicon Knights are a bunch of Canadians from the quiet Ontario town of St. Catharines. I don't think there are any Ferraris in the SK parking lot.
One thing I noticed in Gears that's been touched on a bit in this thread is that the game, while predominantly over-the-top machismo, did have some serious elements. As the game goes on it seems more and more like the over-the-top machismo is in a large part a cover for the fact that most or all of the CoGs are scared out of their minds. Marcus even mentions it directly to Dom at one point, when Dom admits to being afraid of going underground -- "Don't tell Baird. He's scared shitless as it is." And that's all part and parcel with the 1980s sci-fi space marine thing that seems to have been the main influence on the game outside of Resident Evil 4.
The blatantly American nature of Gears and Epic's parking lot full of expensive cars also bring to mind kind of an interesting parallel. Silicon Knights, a bunch of artistes who put extraordinary effort into setting and narrative in their games but whose games are also not known for their technical execution, don't seem to have gotten along very well with Epic. Silicon Knights are a bunch of Canadians from the quiet Ontario town of St. Catharines. I don't think there are any Ferraris in the SK parking lot.