Bleszinski: Gears Became a Negative Stereotype

[Don Savik]

I own Gears 3, its pretty good, mainly for horde and beast mode, but nothing in that universe can be taken seriously when its macho steroid abusers with SLEEVELESS power armor killing mutant looking guys with chainsaws. And for SOME reason or other the queen of the aliens is a normal human woman. And the creator of this macho roid fest, who calls himself CLIFFYB is crying because people don't think he is intellectual.

To Cliffyb, I have 2 things for you.

1. Never steal ideas from Warhammer 40k again
2. Go f--k yourself

 

[Falcon123]

Wow, this thread got unnecessarily elitist and rage filled quickly, didn't it?

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the Gears of War series, but I do understand where he's coming from. There have been many overly violent movies that have been used to say something deeper about the human experience, so I don't think "attaching a chainsaw to a machine gun" as some of you have so quickly pointed out invalidates it from having the ability to be intellectual. There are seeds of it in the story, but they were abandoned as the series went on, which is actually a shame. I, for one, am glad to see him coming to this conclusion, especially if it means he'll act on it in the future (anything I say in this post is immediately revoked if he ignores his own advice and makes Gears of War 4: This time with even MORE machoness).

As for people's personal attacks of CliffyB, I'll say this: people grow up and change over time. Maybe he realized being a overly macho jerk in order to appear as if his games, as an extension of himself, had an edge was turning people off to his games. Maybe he realized that wasn't the person he wanted to be. Maybe he, I don't know, puts on an act and plays a characterization of himself in order to draw attention to his games and therefore changed his public personality to reflect the games he created. You don't like CliffyB? Fine. But Cliff Bleszinski just made what appears to be very sincere remarks on how he wants to change his games in the future, and if they are sincere, then I wish him all the best for him.

 

[Inferno_622]

Jesus Christ. This newspost perfectly encapsulates the decline in the Escapist's articles and in the hivemind community here. Just take a moment to read the Penny Arcade source and compare it to this article here.

The guy that mentions Dragon Age has it right on the mark. But wait, that's a BioWare game, so here we'll make excuses - it was trying to be gritty fantasty dude, that is why there was hardcore blood (on the inside of your clothing) and secks there. And swears made sense in that universe too!

And the folks mentioning how the chainsaw gun is part of the idea Gears is not an intellectual game for intellectual gamers such as yourselves? I bet if it lacked that chainsaw you'd be complaining about how it used generic dumb guns like every other game.

There was a lot going out in the background in the Gears games. Less so than two, admittedly. But replay through one again and watch the scenery. Yes your characters are large and often they cannot find an excuse to start communicating verbose, smart dialogue, but Gears doesn't happen on a stage. It happens in a world torn apart by more than a handful years of war. People wank over Half Life for things happening in the scenery but ignore other games where similar things happen. Not that I am complaining the storytelling in Gears to Half Life - Half Life wins every time, but I cannot not see plenty of people and the guy writing this article hating on a video game series because it has big characters holding silly guns doing ridiculous rolls.

 

[thehorror2]

I'm sorry, but ad spots do not raise the overall maturity level of a game, no matter how artfully-crafted. (See also: Dead Island, the Halo series, Mass Effect, Deus Ex: Human Revolution to some extent.)

Also, I'm having a hard time picking out what philosophy the game was supposed to put forward through the thoughtless devastation of moderately pretty grey-brown ruins.

 

[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.