Gears of War Developer Jumps Ship For Mass Effect

[Karloff]

Gears of War Developer Jumps Ship For Mass Effect

Chris Wynn is the latest Gears of War developer to seek greener pastures.

Chris Wynn, Gears of War [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/miracle-of-sound/4974-The-Grind-Gears-of-War-3] producer, is the latest member of Epic to flee the coop. In a Twitter reveal, Wynn announced that he was going to work on Mass Effect, as Senior Development Director at BioWare. This puts Wynn in a pretty sweet seat as far as Mass Effect is concerned; he'll be key in shaping the future of the franchise.

The last time anyone from Epic ran off to join the circus, it was Wynn [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122571-Mike-Capps-Leaves-Epic] went to Epic, he was Lead Producer at Microsoft, which he left in 2010 to work on Gears of War.

As for Mass Effect, there's not much to say. It's still as unformed as it ever was, and after announcing that BioWare had plans for another full game [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119654-BioWare-Were-Not-Done-With-Mass-Effect], the developers have yet to really let slip any details about it. "Where to go next" was the question on everyone's lips last September; maybe Wynn has some ideas?

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-03-gears-of-war-producer-quits-epic-for-mass-effect-4]


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[Kargathia]

Chris Wynn is the latest Gears of War developer to seek greener pastures.

Oh, I see what you did there.

 

[InterrogationBear]

so they are dropping all the pretense and fully embracing the chest high wall shooter genre

He was a Development Director at EA Sports for almost six years (his LinkedIn profile [http://www.linkedin.com/in/cwynn]).
I think they are making a "Mass Effect" kart racing game.

 

[Zipa]

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favourite shade of brown on the Citadel.

In seriousness though its hard to see how ME are going to get themselves out of the corner they boxed themselves into with the whole ending thing.
I would love to see a game focused around a Salarian STG group though or a RTS game. I can't see either happening though sadly.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I think they are making a "Mass Effect" kart racing game.

I would buy that, I would so buy that.

#Blue Shell# Calibrate this!

Otherwise, I hope the next Mass Effect is more ambitious than the last. One and two really felt like vast undertakings, three felt like it was made as quickly as possible, it more or less turned me off buying number four when it inevitably arrives.

 

[mechalynx]

Chris Wynn is the latest Gears of War developer to seek greener pastures.

Oh, I see what you did there.

Synthesis as canon CONFIRMED.

I fucking knew it!

 

[Zipa]

I would love to see a game focused around a Salarian STG group though or a RTS game. I can't see either happening though sadly.

Ugh dont even hint at an RTS, it would probobly end up like Shite as that Halo RTS did, and worse EA would likely go after those making GOOD Mass Effect RTS mods

I wouldn't worry about it, the RTS genre is likely not seen to make enough money for EAs liking anyway. being as it is not as Yahtzee would put it ''spunkgargle wewe'' . Its more likely that it will just carry on after ME3 somehow because space magic.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Chris Wynn is the latest Gears of War developer to seek greener pastures.

Oh, I see what you did there.

Synthesis as canon CONFIRMED.

My brain added an extra 's' to one of those words and I was momentarily confused in an odd way....

OT: Well, all the power to him, I look forward to seeing how Mass Effect: The Next Generation (if only...) turns out.

 

[Mikeyfell]

makes sense, seeing as how Mass Effect 3 was just like a shitty Gears of War.

At least now the developer behind the atrocity that was Gears is working hand and hand with the team responsible for the atrocity that was Mass Effect 3...

They should just title the game "Mass Effect 4: Shoot the Moon"

Because Shoot the Moon is a gambling game where you win if your hand is worse than the best hand is good, so if you get more negative points than anyone else has positive points you win. It's a fun game but it doesn't work in real life... someone should tell them that before they embarrass them selves. Even though they already have embarrassed themselves with ME3 and Gears 3 and Gears 2 and Gears 1 and ME 2 depending on who you ask... so maybe this is the best possible solution.

Now I only have to pray for one plane to go down over the Atlantic, to be lost without a trace, with no survivors.
Vengeance will be mine!

 

[UrinalDook]

Ugh, I knew I would come into this thread to find a stream of comments decrying the move purely because this guy worked on Gears, and because that game is used in oh so hilarious comparisons by ME's detractors. I knew it, and I was dreading it.

Guys, seriously. Just because one developer of many who worked on one series moves to become one developer of many on another, does not mean he intends to make the new game into a carbon copy of the old. Yes, he's been given the vaguest of vague middle management titles (does anyone have a clue what 'Senior Development Director' actually means?) and so therefore will have a little more than average say on the game's direction, he's not been handed Casey Hudson's maniacal, megalomaniac's reins.

And have any of you considered the possibility that he jumped ship because he's tired of making the same game? Maybe he's always wanted to work on a big RPG and do some real story work, and maybe that's why he decided to leave Epic and get himself in with Bioware.

Even if that's not the case, even if he does intend to bring some GoW mechanics into Mass Effect, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Seriously! GoW is, mechanically speaking, a very tight game. I've never found the visuals, setting or utter absence of character to be worth investing in, but I have played the first game and the shooting is, despite everything, a ton of fun. If new Mass Effect had the story, character and heart of the first ME game, and married it to shooting mechanics as well thought out, tight and enjoyable as GoW it would be a great game.

All this fucking pessimism really pisses me off.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Ugh, I knew I would come into this thread to find a stream of comments decrying the move purely because this guy worked on Gears, and because that game is used in oh so hilarious comparisons by ME's detractors. I knew it, and I was dreading it.

Guys, seriously. Just because one developer of many who worked on one series moves to become one developer of many on another, does not mean he intends to make the new game into a carbon copy of the old. Yes, he's been given the vaguest of vague middle management titles (does anyone have a clue what 'Senior Development Director' actually means?) and so therefore will have a little more than average say on the game's direction, he's not been handed Casey Hudson's maniacal, megalomaniac's reins.

And have any of you considered the possibility that he jumped ship because he's tired of making the same game? Maybe he's always wanted to work on a big RPG and do some real story work, and maybe that's why he decided to leave Epic and get himself in with Bioware.

Even if that's not the case, even if he does intend to bring some GoW mechanics into Mass Effect, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Seriously! GoW is, mechanically speaking, a very tight game. I've never found the visuals, setting or utter absence of character to be worth investing in, but I have played the first game and the shooting is, despite everything, a ton of fun. If new Mass Effect had the story, character and heart of the first ME game, and married it to shooting mechanics as well thought out, tight and enjoyable as GoW it would be a great game.

All this fucking pessimism really pisses me off.

Thank you! It would be like saying that Tim Schaefer only makes games identical to Grim Fandango, or that Richard Garriott was planning to make Tabula Rasa identical to Ultima Online. Game developers generally don't switch companies, or start their own, because they want to inject their franchise into other ones. I mean, even Bioware had an evolution in game design. Good luck arguing that Mass Effect is the same as Baldur's Gate. Funny thing is, the average person doesn't want to make the same thing over and over again for the rest of their life [insert EA Sports joke here].

 

[neppakyo]

And have any of you considered the possibility that he jumped ship because he's tired of making the same game? Maybe he's always wanted to work on a big RPG and do some real story work, and maybe that's why he decided to leave Epic and get himself in with Bioware.

If he wanted to work on a RPG, Mass Effect was the wrong choice. He should of gone to Obsidion or Bethseda.

ME3 was a shittier version of gears of war, I won't go into detail how crappy the plot and story of ME3 was.

 

[Woodsey]

so they are dropping all the pretense and fully embracing the chest high wall shooter genre

Yep, that's why Epic Mickey was a cyberpunk Immersive Sim.

 

[LGC Pominator]

Ugh, I knew I would come into this thread to find a stream of comments decrying the move purely because this guy worked on Gears, and because that game is used in oh so hilarious comparisons by ME's detractors. I knew it, and I was dreading it.

Guys, seriously. Just because one developer of many who worked on one series moves to become one developer of many on another, does not mean he intends to make the new game into a carbon copy of the old. Yes, he's been given the vaguest of vague middle management titles (does anyone have a clue what 'Senior Development Director' actually means?) and so therefore will have a little more than average say on the game's direction, he's not been handed Casey Hudson's maniacal, megalomaniac's reins.

And have any of you considered the possibility that he jumped ship because he's tired of making the same game? Maybe he's always wanted to work on a big RPG and do some real story work, and maybe that's why he decided to leave Epic and get himself in with Bioware.

Even if that's not the case, even if he does intend to bring some GoW mechanics into Mass Effect, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Seriously! GoW is, mechanically speaking, a very tight game. I've never found the visuals, setting or utter absence of character to be worth investing in, but I have played the first game and the shooting is, despite everything, a ton of fun. If new Mass Effect had the story, character and heart of the first ME game, and married it to shooting mechanics as well thought out, tight and enjoyable as GoW it would be a great game.

All this fucking pessimism really pisses me off.

You do realise this is the escapist right?

Seriously dude, the community here HAS to act somewhere between humourously nonchalant and downright disdainful at all times, if they don't then how are they supposed to separate themselves from those people who just enjoy games and have fun with them?

I hate it too, but the culture of aloof, snarky remarks about otherwise well received games is both expected and downright rewarded here, whilst any interest in maintaining physical fitness, drinking and partying, and just enjoying a good game of CoD on the weekend gets you labelled a "dudebro" and culled from the herd of so called "hardcore" gamers.

Honestly I used to stick around for ZP and extra credits, but EC disappeared off to PATV, and ZP is available on youtube now, so I can view it on my mobile and, despite being on youtube, somehow having a less hateful and angry comment section.

Jimquisition, when it arrived was kinda good, but even that has gotten stale and repetetive, with his arguments starting to sound like less well informed rebuttals to Totalbiscuit.

Oh and lest I forget, Moviebob somehow makes it his mission to point out how damn near every culture I belong to is somehow the absolute worst thing in the world every other video.

Its kind of annoying to be reminded that you are not a "true" gamer by people on a regular basis, though where the qualification comes from for that eludes me, (I mean third page on the XBL leaderboards here isn't THAT bad is it?)

So all in all, yeah, this pisses me the hell off too, but there are some good folks here, who you can have decent conversations with, so it can be worth sticking around when you get to talk with the better sorts, and just learn the avatars of the sorts who think they are better than you based on what games you like

BACK ON TOPIC

Good for this guy, I hope that his work on the GoW series carries over into more quality for any upcoming Mass Effect game, I enjoyed all of the Gears games, and all of the Mass Effects, so hopefully some cross-pollination between the development communities can bring something good for us.

The cover mechanics in the ME games were good, but not excellent, the sort of tweaking that comes with the GoW universes more in depth system will, with luck make the combat in ME4 (or whatever they are going to call it) even better.

An improvement to the Melee in ME4 beyond the Omniblade slash will certainly be cool.

Hardcore executions, if done right will be awesome to see in a mass effect game too!

 

[Lunar Templar]

Eh .. ?

Can't say I really care about ether game, but if he thinks it'll be better for him then best of luck to him.