Cliff Bleszinski Leaves Epic Games

[Cat of Doom]

And not a single fuck was given that day!

He says In a thread full of people giving a fuck.

OT: Played all the gears games, though they are not favorites of mine, wish him well in his future endeavours and wish Epic well in his absence.

 

[koroem]

On a scale of 1-10, I'd say I give zero fucks about this. I hate Cliffy B and find him to be one of the most immature and irritating personalities in the gaming industry.

Thanks for the Gears of War and all, Mr. Bleszinski, but please... stay away for a very long time.

I find myself agreeing with this comment. He may of started off decent, but as time went on, I think he got to thinking a little too highly of himself. I think he realized he can't top Gears of War creatively and decided to bail at the "pinnacle" of his career. I mean, how many things can you reasonably put a chainsaw on? No chainsaw? Not badass. He said it himself.

He'll probably take some time off and in a number of years return to the industry doing some kinda indie/mobile development thinking it is the next big thing. Won't care then either.

On the bright side, maybe we will see less annoying opinions/statements from him.

 

[Imbechile]

Am I supposed to be sad that the Michael Bay of video game developers left??

I don't think so....
Good riddance.

 

[Stemer]

So... does this mean Unreal Tournament is coming back?

Please?

Spoiler

Seriously though, fuck this guy. I've always considered him this generation's John Romero. Hearing about his departure on top of Peter Molyneux's slow fade into obscurity means that Christmas came early for me. Good riddance.

Except, you know, this guy made games that some people actually like. I don't think Cliffy ever had a Daikatana incident.

We'll miss you bro. Good luck in all you do.

Apparently John Romero was the level designer on some indie game called Doom.
I hear that a few people like that game.

 

[Syzygy23]

I'm actually sad to see him go. He's one of the few game developers to leave the business in the last few years that actually understood what gamers wanted.

Generic Brown Cover Based Shooter Male Power Fantasies?

Also, didn't Cliffy B. fire an employee for being gay or something a few years back?

I didn't hear of him firing anyone.

Also, yes he's behind Gears of War, a game that most developers that made shooters shamelessly copied. You're ignoring a lot of his other accomplishments just to focus on that though.

The Unreal Tournament series was a milestone for shooters, that cannot be denied.

Jazz Jackrabbit was tons of fun. The First Brothers in Arms game (Road to 30) was one of the better WWII FPS games before COD came and had everyone copy them.

And Shadow Complex was one of the better XBLA titles in a market flooded with platformers that were not unique at all.

Point is, saying that Cliffy B is mainly responsible for "Generic Brown Cover Based Shooter Male Power Fantasies" is such a strawman. Most gamers that get tag a game with that 'generic brown' criticism have most likely never played that game in question and are just taking a glance at a game and hating on it without playing it past the first 30 minutes. Its a term coined by lazy reviewers that gamers started using to sound cool.

So it's HIS fault for starting the GBCBSMPF trend in gaming?

He shoulda left those conveniently indestructible chest high walls alone!

And I dunno what you're talking about "lazy reviewers" and all that. Too many shooters just imitate the Gears/Call of Duty formula because those games sold well. You must have played or bought several, so you know what I'm talking about. Our cups overfloweth with GBCBSMPF's. Gears was fun, everything else was more of the same except worse and with lazier design.

 

[D-Soul]

A true man to the gaming industry. Good luck Cliffy and thanks for Unreal and GoW

 

[Lt._nefarious]

Oh, yeah, what a funny joke. Cliffy can't leave Epic... Hahahahahahahahahaha! Yeah, no way, no way at all... Right? Right!? Of course not...

 

[The White Hunter]

At least we can't blame EA for this one.

Give it time, maybe EA poached him, then the blame can commence!

But in that case surely he can just go an make EA epic

...

Sorry...

[small]I want to die...[/small]

OT: Good luck to him, hope he has a good break and eventually comes back to make awesome stuff. Not a huge Gears fan though, lacking an Xbox as I do and Gears not being enough on it's own to make me want one.

 

[The White Hunter]

I'm actually sad to see him go. He's one of the few game developers to leave the business in the last few years that actually understood what gamers wanted.

Generic Brown Cover Based Shooter Male Power Fantasies?

Also, didn't Cliffy B. fire an employee for being gay or something a few years back?

Really? Link if you have it?

My opinion of the man will go from "hey he's alright though I haven't experienced his work much" to "burn the witch!" in minutes > >

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I'm actually sad to see him go. He's one of the few game developers to leave the business in the last few years that actually understood what gamers wanted.

Generic Brown Cover Based Shooter Male Power Fantasies?

Also, didn't Cliffy B. fire an employee for being gay or something a few years back?

I didn't hear of him firing anyone.

Also, yes he's behind Gears of War, a game that most developers that made shooters shamelessly copied. You're ignoring a lot of his other accomplishments just to focus on that though.

The Unreal Tournament series was a milestone for shooters, that cannot be denied.

Jazz Jackrabbit was tons of fun. The First Brothers in Arms game (Road to 30) was one of the better WWII FPS games before COD came and had everyone copy them.

And Shadow Complex was one of the better XBLA titles in a market flooded with platformers that were not unique at all.

Point is, saying that Cliffy B is mainly responsible for "Generic Brown Cover Based Shooter Male Power Fantasies" is such a strawman. Most gamers that get tag a game with that 'generic brown' criticism have most likely never played that game in question and are just taking a glance at a game and hating on it without playing it past the first 30 minutes. Its a term coined by lazy reviewers that gamers started using to sound cool.

So it's HIS fault for starting the GBCBSMPF trend in gaming?

He shoulda left those conveniently indestructible chest high walls alone!

And I dunno what you're talking about "lazy reviewers" and all that. Too many shooters just imitate the Gears/Call of Duty formula because those games sold well. You must have played or bought several, so you know what I'm talking about. Our cups overfloweth with GBCBSMPF's. Gears was fun, everything else was more of the same except worse and with lazier design.

Don't blame Cliffy B for other developers copying what he brought to the table. Blame a creatively dead console industry. If people didn't buy 5 differing versions of the same game we wouldn't be suffering this. What next? You're gonna blame Peter Molynuex for mediocre open world western RPGS?

 

[Parnage]

MEanwhile on the PCgamer front, much "meh" was given. Unreal aside, the guy pretty much stuck the unreal franchise out to dry and the PC market the finger. So... you'll excuse me if I am not too caring on his departure.

I mean I don't hate him but I just don't care about EPIC as a studio anymore.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Awww...it's actually really sad to see him go. He was a huge personality for the gaming business and it'll be a while before we have someone around like him again I feel. =/

The longer the better. Really, why do people find giant manchildren who act like cocky highschool jocks appealing? The man could have been leaking talent from every orifice, he still had one of the most unlikable public personas in media.

It's because he HAD a personality.

Wait, so a genuine, honest, fair, rational, hard working but fairly dull person is inferior in your view to a vacant, annoying, stuck-in-his-teens overgrown manchild, because the latter has a memorably bad personality?

Who knew that being really really terrible at something is actually better than being forgettably average at it!

Pretty much, yeah. I never knew who the other supposed person was so I could never care for them. It's a good thing Cliffy B loved what he did though and was passionate about it all and oh I dont know...was good at it too? It's a wonder why missing someone is so hard for others to comprehend.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Awww...it's actually really sad to see him go. He was a huge personality for the gaming business and it'll be a while before we have someone around like him again I feel. =/

The longer the better. Really, why do people find giant manchildren who act like cocky highschool jocks appealing? The man could have been leaking talent from every orifice, he still had one of the most unlikable public personas in media.

It's because he HAD a personality.

Wait, so a genuine, honest, fair, rational, hard working but fairly dull person is inferior in your view to a vacant, annoying, stuck-in-his-teens overgrown manchild, because the latter has a memorably bad personality?

Who knew that being really really terrible at something is actually better than being forgettably average at it!

Pretty much, yeah. I never knew who the other supposed person was so I could never care for them. It's a good thing Cliffy B loved what he did though and was passionate about it all and oh I dont know...was good at it too? It's a wonder why missing someone is so hard for others to comprehend.

I understand the concept of "missing someone" perfectly well, I'm just boggling at the idea that a person could "miss" an annoying fuckwad who lowered the tone of every discussion he took part in and acted like a 12 year old's fantasy of what being an adult is like. And whether he was good at making games is an EXTREMELY questionable issue.

It might be extremely questionable to you, and you might view him in the way you do, but that doesn't mean others do. You don't like the man, okay, fine, don't try and make it seem like I'm wrong for being sad that one of gaming's bigger personalities is leaving. I'll miss him, you won't. I care. You don't. Done.

 

[Traun]

After only 20 years in the industry he's leaving it entirely? Or is he going to continue other projects on a smaller scale on his own? I really hope that he does not up and leave, as it really says something about the whole state that the industry is in.

I dunno, maybe I'm over reading it...

You are not, the video game industry is hell - long working hours, no time for family and friends, stressful environment, underpayed, you name it. The standard is 15 years - after that most programmers/3D artists leave, mostly because they start a family of their own and want to pay attention to them.