Bleszinski: Gears Became a Negative Stereotype

[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.

 

[Flac00]

Wait CliffyB wants his games to be taken seriously...and yet he follows up with a game like BulletStorm.
This guy is a walking embodiment of a frat guy.
You want to be taken seriously but when people criticize your game your first reaction is basically akin to "you're all haters!"
Sorry Cliffy but when you conduct yourself as a Dbag and piss all over the PC market don't expect people to take you seriously and look at your with adoring eyes.

Sure the games might be over the top, but they have always had some semblance of a "touching" storyline to them. Even Bulletstorm, a game which embodies over-the-topness, had parts of the story that actually resonated and could allow you to connect to the characters. This guy might not be Ernest Hemingway, but his games are always at least consistently well made in the story section. I can definitely see where the original intension was with Gears of War.
Not to mention, the actions of a game designer SHOULD NOT play a part in the perception of a game. He could be an absolute dick, but that doesn't make his game any better or worse. Also, this is not the equivalent of "you're all haters", its "We kinda messed up in the designing of this game's original concept, in the end we can improve." Very different messages here.

 

[8bitlove2a03]

"If I were to pass Gears off to another studio, and they came back with a pitch of having a double-edged chainsaw, and the characters are more buff, and now you can pull off someone's head and shit down their neck, and they had a character that makes Cole look tame... I would look at them and say no, you're going in the exact wrong direction,"

Yeah, that's a really good point from...who was that again? Cliffy B? Oh man, doesn't he have a rather famous quote about another hyper-violent game his company made with overly-masculine soldiers which run around making grunting sounds that are supposed to pass for dialog? Something called Bulletstorm? How did that advert go again?

"Grandpa once told me I could do anything I set my mind to... So I made a video game where you could blow out a man's asshole. Here's to you, Pop-Pop."

Oh yeah, that's it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

You mean GoW WASN'T meant to bring Steroid Addicts and Fratwad Gamers closer together?
I HAVE BEEN DECEIVED!

ASIDE: Seriously?! That is the FOURTH fucking Captcha/SMedia I've had to fill out in a row now.

 

[Animyr]

Cliffy, if you're trying to see if people thought the story was working as a serious narrative, the answer is "no."

 

[Erttheking]

Huh, interesting bit of info. For the record I'm looking forward to fortnight.

 

[Santhenar]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.354148-Why-Gears-of-War-is-more-than-you-think-it-is

Gears of War has so much more to it than "Washing machines spraying bullets" I can completely see what Cliffy B is getting at and had they been just a little bit braver Gears 3 could have been a completely different game.

I can understand how people who may have only played a small amount of the series can have a fully formed opinion on it as a whole... Wait. Nope.

And speaking of Bulletstorm, yes it was outrageous and over the top but it also had some of the best writing and characters in all of videogaming. No seriously, how many games do you actually enjoy the cutscenes?

Anyway, it makes me kinda sad when people hate on Gears for being bulky space marines, when the game is far more emotionally involving than the vast majority of games available.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Band of Brother's? Sorry man, the GoW franchise did whatever it did, and it did great. So might as well have stuck with it, I couldn't have seen it any better. But it could have done without the emotional stuff, it still felt forced and cheesy in this type of game. Tight broship /brohood whatever, the

Spoiler

final sacrifice of the main character's brother

seemed very unnecessary, forced, and rushed in there for the hell of it, just for the heart-to-heart "i know that feel bro" chatter at the end.

Loved the game though, shit i loved the whole series to bits, but I'm glad it stayed that way and happy to leave it at that. Bulletstorm was a great parody. Now if you want to do something serious, I'd love to see what Cliff comes up with, but if he wants to stick to cover based macho shooters I got no issue with that.

 

[Scrythe]

Still no apology for taking the UT plane and nosediving it into the concrete. I mean, UT3 was just Gears of War without "Cover Based" added to it's "Shooter" title.

Now this asshole has the balls to proclaim that it wasn't his intention to create a series that didn't directly cater to the mouth-breathing, fratboy, fist-pumping generation that initially only purchased an Xbox so they could play Halo chest bump each other?

Fuck. You.

You tried that shit with UT3 and it didn't work, so you took your precious GoW cash cow and milked it as far as you could get away with it. Epic is just another Bungie now.

And Cliff Bleszinski is this generations John Romero.

 

[TrevHead]

I really dont understand why ppl think of Gears as the greatest cover shooter ever, its badly designed, ballanced and paced. Vanquish and even Binary Domain are so much better games in terms of ballancing and design.

I live in hope that one day in the future a modder will tweak the game and make it playable. Ie put in headshots, increase the dps of the ranged weapons, lower the spread of fire on many of the weapons, lower the hp on the rank and file enemies, add headshots and a host of other tweaks

 

[repeating integers]

Now this asshole has the balls to proclaim that it wasn't his intention to create a series that didn't directly cater to the mouth-breathing, fratboy, fist-pumping generation that initially only purchased an Xbox so they could play Halo chest bump each other?

Fuck. You.

You tried that shit with UT3 and it didn't work, so you took your precious GoW cash cow and milked it as far as you could get away with it. Epic is just another Bungie now.

And Cliff Bleszinski is this generations John Romero.

I was wondering when this particular Escapist stereotype was going to raise its head.

 

[Warped_Ghost]

I believe I saw a counter argument to this in video form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3RLglXGNOU

 

[Epidemiix]

Well now I have a problem.... When I played Gears of War all I noticed were the other themes (I think I pushed the macho man stuff out of the game completely and blocked it out) I felt that one of the biggest story points in the game was the fact that it wasn't the enemy that destroyed our homes and people it was ourselves. In the game when you have empty streets the mason work seems to echo the feeling of lifelessness. And the viscous combat was meant more to show that this war that is going isn't a "pretty" one(relatively speaking about war in general.)

Am I looking to much into it... probably.
(sorry if someone already said this I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this discussion.)

 

[Major_Tom]

Next time, fire that 5 year old kid who designed the weapons.

 

[SonicWaffle]

I was wondering when this particular Escapist stereotype was going to raise its head.

I think it's a bit unfair to blame the Escapist specifically. It seems more like there's something wrong with the gaming community in general. I can go to just about any forum and read through a thread, and there are always going to be a slew of posts (regardless of how interesting, well-thought-out or polite the rest of the posters are) that scream "I am an entitled, angry, arrogant elitist"

Sure, we're not all like that, but gaming (or at least, websites formulated around gaming and the discussion of such) seems to accrue dickheads like a dog turd gathering flies. Why is that, d'you reckon?

 

[repeating integers]

Sure, we're not all like that, but gaming (or at least, websites formulated around gaming and the discussion of such) seems to accrue dickheads like a dog turd gathering flies. Why is that, d'you reckon?

It's not just gaming - ever been to any Guardian article about music, and read the comments? Here's a hint: don't. Not unless you're a massively insecure hipster, anyway (which I hope you aren't).

I chalk it up to the famous GIFT. You know the one.