Bleszinski: Gears Became a Negative Stereotype

[BrotherRool]

I don't think he succeeded but he tried for some awesome things, I can see it too. I mean those ads alone showed the power of the idea he had.

I really hope he does it again. If he does it'll make me wish I had an Xbox

 

[faspxina]

Going to a more profound place is something that we must do.

 

[80Maxwell08]

So basically not even Cliffy B likes the Gears characters. Wow I wish I still knew that fanboy from high school so I could slap him in the face with that little bit of info. Well whatever he likes Gears I don't.

Cliff never said he hate gears, he just said he would have preferred a different direction.

I like it the way it is personally.

I was being sarcastic actually. I knew he wasn't saying that just wanted to poke some fun.

 

[Magnalian]

I just can't take CliffyB seriously after having read this in the GoW booklet:

"How are we going to make hiding behind a wall interesting?" Answer: "Make it real."

I can safely say they failed at both of those things.

 

[Lunar Templar]

o.o?

well this is news to me, i though it was just some lame ultra violent cash in aimed to get money from the gamers that like FPS games but need it to be more 'extreme'. this just makes it more sad > i love it

 

[fozzy360]

If he wanted people to take Gears more seriously, then maybe going with a less exaggerated body style for the characters and a more character driven story to match up with the wonderful scenery would have been the best route. But asking people to take a game seriously that seems to revel in the opposite of that is nonsense. Look at those male characters. If I'd been told that I was playing a serious toned game revolving around sacrifice and loss, I would have laughed my ass off because I thought I was playing some tongue-in-cheek riff on the space marine trope.

At least Cliffy knows that, and hopefully, it'll make for a more even toned and paced game in the future.

 

[ElPatron]

Yeah, when you mention gears of war everyone thinks of steroids. Of course it's a negative stereotype.

Oh well, better luck next time eh? I still thought Gears 2 and 3 were really great games. Also, don't you dare let Microsoft cash in on this franchise like they are with Halo. That would be really shallow.

Is it bad that I find all the Halo "cash ins" superior to the Gears of War franchise?

 

[RJ Dalton]

Color me skeptical. But then, you should worry that there's something wrong with me on the day that you don't.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

Even though I don't like Gears of War very much I love Cliffy B.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

"Gears was always meant to be a lot more Band of Brothers than Predator"

Shame it ended up like neither, almost as if caught between the two.

Predator was a great movie because it embraced what it was, cheesy, melodramatic and awesome rather than sombre, deep and profound. Gears floundered because it wanted to have both but got neither.

Still a good game even if meh narrative/characterisation.

Precisely what I think. If those two were at either ends of the spectrum, Gears would be bipolar. That said it has rock solid gameplay and that's what kept me powering through all three games. The inconsistency made that emotional parts just a little jarring, but Dom's sacrifice was gut-wrenching.

 

[Vigormortis]

CliffyB is the king of butthurt amongst developers.

Actually, I'm thinking CliffyB is the Michael Bay of game developers. With Gears being his Transformers.

Think about it. Bays films are often big-budget, walking-talking cliches featuring testosterone fueled violence and explosions. The Transformers movies made hundreds of millions at the box office. People just ate 'em up. But then, given time, people started to realize how bad they were. Bay came out some time later to apologize publicly for how terrible they turned out, but that it wasn't his intention. Wasn't his fault. He then said he'd do better in the future. That his films would be more "intellectual" and feature better writing. That they'd be something the likes of Nolan or Scorsese would make.

Then Transformers 3 hit. And, we were all shown just how much BS could come from Bays mouth.

Now take CliffyB. His games are big-budget, walking-talking cliches featuring testosterone fueled violence and explosions. And people eat 'em up. Then, in some cases, regret it some time later, wondering what the hell they liked in the first place.

Then he comes out some time later and says something to the effect of, "Yeah. I know they sucked, but it wasn't my fault. It's not want I wanted. The next one will be better. I'm gonna be the next Nolan."

Sound familiar?

 

[Zen Toombs]

I would definitely play any sort of Band of Brothers style videogame done right. Cliffy B, you have my money!

Totally. Band of Brothers is great.

I would like it to have elements like Mass Effect 2's Haelstrom mission with Kal Reagar, but not too many required deaths (because those loose their impact) and not too many "be personally good with a gun or else they die" sequences.

Gears of War was as intellectual as Bulletstorm.

Except Bulletstorm was a parody.

...What does GoW make it, a self-parodying parody?

Sometimes you just want to shoot stuff. *shrug*

Gears could have had intellectualism in it (and had the beginings of it[footnote]GEARS of war, COG, so on and so forth. Everyone being a piece of the machine, etc etc.[/footnote], but any deeper meaning that could have occurred was drowned in the bigger-faster-stronger-"now with 750% more MAN"-ness of the series.

 

[Jegsimmons]

brothers in arms was the band of brother game we wanted,

Also, id take this more seriously if epic didnt make EVERY GAME THEY HAVE EVER MADE LOOK LIKE GEARS.
Bullet storm, unreal, ect.

the games are boring, not fun, and so shitty looking i feel ill, no its covered in a thin layer of plain old bullshitting.

 

[badmunky64]

at least he's self aware

 

[byterunner]

I don't get the Bulletstorm comparison. They're two different Franchises.

He wanted Gears to be a more serious game more complex and...I guess "deep" themes running throughout the series.

Bulletstorm was suppose to be a parody of the macho man franchise. And one of the reasons Cliffy decided to make the game was maybe because he wanted to make fun of what Gears had become during its trilogy, because he didn't like that, per se.

I don't see why a person can't enjoy and support both styles.

I never really found Cliffy to be this "bro" douchebag that everyone thinks he is because of Gears. Every time I saw him talk about the game, he was super serious about it, and really loved it and wanted to show these themes to more people. Not just kill dudes with Chainsaws. I do believe that the game became this naturally and that Cliffy was somewhat shocked about the reception that game got. Its somewhat sad really.

Also, just look at those damn trailers. Obviously they were trying to go for something more serious and somber about brotherhood and war with those songs. They could've just had like death metal or dubstep or something instead.

 

[X10Unit1]

Cliffy is going to be Cliffy.

He had his chance to do this in the GOW2 and GOW3 and I think he might have tried. Maybe some of you, myself included, were disappointed in his attempt. Also, he might have leaned too hard on the novels and other non game items to flesh out the GOW universe leaving us with little in game to discover.

However, for me:

I enjoyed all three games. Playing through the campaigns was fun and the story was enough to keep me interested for the next installment. Sadly, most of the story in GOW3 felt very forced and answer to a lot of the questions raised in the previous games were maybe a bit cliche.

At the end of the day, I am still glad I bought all three games and played them through. As a gamer, that is a win in my book.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Some people really don't understand what they read.

I was howling with laughter over "some of the game's more intellectual themes got lost during the design process." though.

Yeah, and someone missed the subtle romance of Blue Velvet.

I'm glad you posted this. I scoffed at the same line you did. But I only played the first one, so what do I know? And everyone in the comments was taking it so seriously...

 

[Xanadu84]

Respect Cliff. Mad respect. It takes balls to say you would have rather said something meaningful then play it safe and make a bazillion dollars. Self criticism is a virtue, especially when you still made a perfectly fine power fantasy, which are not inheritly bad. I even forgive those commercials that completely lied about the games tone.

One nit pick though...maybe part of that detour came from things like guns with chainsaws on them. I believe you, but I think you got sidetracked to the predetor side of things a little too easilly.

 

[Coldster]

Yeah, when you mention gears of war everyone thinks of steroids. Of course it's a negative stereotype.

Oh well, better luck next time eh? I still thought Gears 2 and 3 were really great games. Also, don't you dare let Microsoft cash in on this franchise like they are with Halo. That would be really shallow.

Is it bad that I find all the Halo "cash ins" superior to the Gears of War franchise?

...Halo 4 hasn't come out yet...or are you calling the others games "cash ins"?

EDIT: Let me make my earlier statement a bit more clear, by "Halo cash in" I mean the games Bungie didn't make. I guess that means you can count Halo Wars and Halo Anniversary.

 

[ElPatron]

...Halo 4 hasn't come out yet...or are you calling the others games "cash ins"?

EDIT: Let me make my earlier statement a bit more clear, by "Halo cash in" I mean the games Bungie didn't make. I guess that means you can count Halo Wars and Halo Anniversary.

Well, I think that the "Finish the Fight" deal was a cash in, even with Bungie developing it.