Why Gears of War: Judgment Doesn't Cover the Series' Most Iconic Events

The Wooster

King Snap
Jul 15, 2008
15,305
0
0
Why Gears of War: Judgment Doesn't Cover the Series' Most Iconic Events


Cliff Bleszinski, explains why E-Day and the Pendulum Wars won't be covered in the latest Gears installment.

Many Gears fans are wondering why the upcoming prequel, Gears of War: Judgment, doesn't cover the two events that have influenced the world of Sera the most; Emergence-Day, the day the Locust came scuttling out of the planet's mantle to start eating people; and the Pendulum wars, the oft-referenced, 79-year-long conflict that shaped the planet's government. According to Bleszinski, neither setting would have made for a good Gears game.

Bleszinski' view of Gears of War's chronology is refreshingly simple. There are two distinct periods in the series' history: the period before people starting using chainsaws as bayonets (Before Chainsaw) and the period after people started using chainsaws as bayonets (Anno Chainsaw). Any game set in the former period simply won't work, apparently.

"The time came, we finished Gears 3 and obviously it's done well for us, and a prequel seemed like the next logical step," he told Joystiq. "So we started looking at the timeframes and what we could do. I looked at E-Day and was like, 'Yeah, there's no chainsaw on E-Day.' It took the COG a little bit to figure out that the Locust have thick skin and their bayonets are breaking, things like that."

The Pendulum Wars are even worse. Not only are there no chainsaws, there's no monsters either.

"Now you have no chainsaw and now you have no monsters," he continued "And now we're not Gears of War anymore. So we looked at the timeframe, looked at the timeline, and figured that there's a window there of several months after Emergence Day, where humanity got hit and quickly got their shit back together and figured out, hey, put a chainsaw on the end of the gun - that'll help. So that's the timeframe for the game."

Of course, switching up the series' focus on chainsawing malformed cave monsters in half could have been the perfect way for Epic to "further evolve [the series] in more of a Christopher Nolan way," as Bleszinski said he would like to do in an interview earlier this year. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.354010-Bleszinski-Gears-Became-a-Negative-Stereotype]

Gears of War: Judgment is due for release on Xbox 360 in early 2013.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/07/bleszinski-gears-of-war-judgment-e-day-pendulum-wars/]



Permalink
 

Jaeke

New member
Feb 25, 2010
1,431
0
0
Their ip, their rules.

Might not like it but eh. It is logical though, to say the least.
 

Hal10k

New member
May 23, 2011
850
0
0
"But sir, it's one of the defining events of the lore! Everybody wants to see a game made about it!"

"Steve, we've been over this. It won't work. Canonically speaking, nobody in that timeframe was stupid enough to mount a rotary saw on the end of a rifle."

"But- "

"It's chainsaws or nothing, damn it!"
 

Korten12

Now I want ma...!
Aug 26, 2009
10,766
0
0
:I Kind of sucks, I would be willing to give up chainsaws on guns for a game in the Pendulum Wars. Sounds more interesting then fighting the loctus... Again...
 

Torrasque

New member
Aug 6, 2010
3,441
0
0
The most dangerous thing about doing a humans vs. humans game, is that it might sink into "generic shooter" territory. Gears is really good at what they do, and if it is more of that, I am happy to support them. I just hope it is not more of exactly that.
 

A.Balthazor

New member
Mar 5, 2008
34
0
0
Descent: Freespace introduced a new, mysterious alien species into a space combat sim environment. At the moment you meet the aliens, which is maybe the 4th or 5th mission into the game, you are limited to spaceships with no shields and basic weapons for destroying the 'known' enemies. When the new aliens show up, and they have shields, even their weakest ship is capable of wreaking a lot of havoc, and it takes quite a lot of effort to destroy them.

Over the next few missions the story involves developing weapons that can penetrate shields, and eventually capturing enemies technology in order to put shields on your own ships.

It was an interesting way of introducing a new enemy and simulating how being unprepared can be a huge disadvantage, but was also involving in how the player's 'team' eventually creates countermeasures.

Gears of War could have done something like this with an E-day scenario, but it kind of sounds like they didn't want to put much thought into it. I guess it is easier to just re-use much of the weaponry already developed in previous games?
 

MercurySteam

Tastes Like Chicken!
Legacy
Apr 11, 2008
4,950
2
43
Yeah, but why are the Locust still a threat? We spent a good six years kicking them of Sera, they didn't have to make a comeback. Then again, I prefer killing them as opposed to the Lambent.
 

ScruffyMcBalls

New member
Apr 16, 2012
332
0
0
I give the fuck up! I've actually defended this franchise in the past, I've gotten into arguments with friends over this. And now I've just been proved wrong, the games were never about the characters or the setting even in the slightest. It's all just a vehicle for Cliff Bleszinski to further fuck us in the eye socket with a chainsaw rifle and piss poor writing. It didn't have to be this way Cliff, you could've made a good game, it wasn't that hard.
Oh, and don't get me started on the fact that in a prequel THE LOCUST HAVE MORE ADVANCED WEAPONRY THAN THEY DO IN THE FUTURE! Come on, man! Fuck sake...

*rant fin*
 

Racecar1994

New member
Nov 21, 2009
107
0
0
I looked at E-Day and was like, 'Yeah, there's no chainsaw on E-Day.' It took the COG a little bit to figure out that the Locust have thick skin and their bayonets are breaking, things like that."
Ah, so that's why the retro lancer bayonet wasn't an insta-kill in Gears 3. I'd wondered why so many locust were sleeping when I stabbed them and threw them to the floor :p

In all seriousness, a Pendulum-era Gears would be the only thing that might make me interested in another Gears, unless there's one in which Marcus dives under a tractor and Anya/Baird go rule the world.
 

Suave Charlie

Pleasant Bastard
Sep 23, 2009
215
0
0
Though the lancer mk2 is the most iconic gun of the series, it's undoubtedly the gnasher which really retained the fan base for the multiplayer. If it's pendulum era or even E-Day then the most used weapon in the games wouldn't actually exist yet..
 

bobmus

Full Frontal Nerdity
May 25, 2010
2,285
0
41
Screw trying something new, it's not like we could think up a whole new set of interesting retro weapons or something!
 

FFHAuthor

New member
Aug 1, 2010
687
0
0
The intro to Gears 2 shows fighting in the Pendulum wars and EVERYBODY has chainsaw Lancers. Did we do an ME3 style retcon for this or what?
 

BrotherRool

New member
Oct 31, 2008
3,834
0
0
I'm sensing a disconnect between Clive's aims to tell a deep emotional story, and his conviction that it's impossible to tell that story without chainsaws
 

JokerboyJordan

New member
Sep 6, 2009
1,034
0
0
FFHAuthor said:
The intro to Gears 2 shows fighting in the Pendulum wars and EVERYBODY has chainsaw Lancers. Did we do an ME3 style retcon for this or what?
Actually they all use retro lancers.
 

Clearing the Eye

New member
Jun 6, 2012
1,345
0
0
The franchise was milked and bled to death a while ago. Just hearing the name makes me uncomfortable, like the site of a car crash--it's too sad to look, but it's so damn hard to resist taking in all the spectacular failure. The paramedics are trying their damnedest to breathe life back into the soulless husks, but everyone else has given up and it's starting to get awkward.

At least Call of Duty already had a stream of copy pastes behind it before it went into Guitar Hero mode. Gears... well, Gears is just being forced on us and its zombie shell of a former franchise is getting more and more hollow with each puff of air and pump of the chest.

Just let it go, Cliff... Just let it go...
 

koroem

New member
Jul 12, 2010
307
0
0
Shit like this proves what I've been saying for years now. How about those retro lancer eh?

Cliffy B is a complete moron. Pretends people care what he thinks, constantly tries to prove he is more about meaningful substance than just flare, tried to convince us he isn't a "Dude Bro" worshiper, and then he makes a comment like this.

"DUDE WE PUT A CHAINSAW ON YOUR CHAINSAW SO YOU CAN CHAINSAW WHILE YOU CHAINSAW"