UPDATED: Dead Space Producer Slams Gears of War Script

[getoffmycloud]

I am willing to forgive gears because as much as the writing is bad its nice to be on the side of the underdogs for once which is rare in modern gaming and there are some good themes to the game if you can look past all the machismo bullshit.

 

[Sis]

Coming from the producers of one of the most forgettable stories in existence.

 

[Bigeyez]

So the pot just called the kettle black?

 

[yundex]

It's like half the people in this thread didn't even read the full article! Dude already explained the shortcomings of dead space, and if he can't slam a shit story than I guess you all should stop having opinions about anything. But yeah, I was one of those people that didn't think gears even had a story, let alone one to bash.

 

[VonKlaw]

Seriously, the guy who made a game that was basically "Find missing girlfrind, evil company experimenting with crap, shit jumps out at you" is moaning about someone elses story.

 

[weirdee]

heh, yall make it sound like the only people qualified to have an opinion is yourself, who as far as we know have never written a plot

have any of you even read the entire article? they KNOW their plot sucks

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Gears of War, the first game, had a pretty bad story. It assumed you already knew a lot of background stuff, and some of the elements just left you scratching your head (um...why was the bomb on the train to begin with?). Gears of War 2 seemed to straighten its act out a little and get the story more focused: raised some new questions and set the scene for the third game. And I, for one, enjoyed the books as they filled in several missing pieces for me.

And then Gears of War 3 came out. And everything fell apart. I think what happened is that Karen was trying to tell a different story in the books, and when she was put in charge of writing for the game, she forced her story into the game's story and the result was a train smashing into another train.
Still, worst writing ever? Not by far. Bayonetta had horrid writing if you ask me, and the Ninja Gaiden games' stories are just silly ways to move you from one area to the next (I'm in New York, then suddenly in Italy? How? Because I'm a ninja!), but at least they're fun to play just like Gears. And I heard the Duke Nukem's latest game is painfully bad.

As for the Dead Space series, until this man explains how the main character from Extraction is suddenly missing and his (supposed) girlfriend is married and pregnant with his best friend's baby and they don't even mention him in Severed, I think he should keep his mouth shut. Dead Space's story is fun, but it has a lot of work to do. At least he's pointing out that his isn't perfect either.

 

[evilpaul13]

The correct answer to, "Worst game story?", would be Final Fantasy 8.

 

[mjc0961]

Chuck Beaver is an idiot. Nothing else to really say about this. The Gears franchise, while not a master of storytelling by any means, is also not nearly the worst story ever in a game. I can think of quite a few games that were actually trying to tell a good story and failed miserably, and for that are far worse. Sonic Adventure 2, Command and Conquer 4, inFamous, and other games like that. Games that tried to sit down and tell a decent story, but fucked up so many times throughout the tale that it becomes a mess of plotholes and general nonsense.
[spoilers=Spoilers for all three games I just mentioned inside.]How the fuck did they not know Robotnik was on the space station that he just fired a GODDAMN LASER AND BLEW UP PART OF THE MOON from and then threatened to do the same to Earth next? And how the fuck did SEGA think any of that Gerald Robotnik/GUN/Shadow/Ultimate Lifeform crap made any sense?! And then they just made it even more incomprehensible with Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Kane is an alien who wants to get back home?! Really EA?! After all those years, all these games, that's the best you can come up with?! You know that running gag of taking things with crappy endings and captioning them with "Still a better ending than Mass Effect 3"? Command and Conquer 4 did NOT have a better ending than Mass Effect 3.

Really Cole? You can't tell that a character who's been saying that he wishes he had super powers too for the ENTIRE FUCKING GAME would betray you when the bad guy offered him the chance to have super powers? You are surprised by this? In fact, you did not see this coming? This is horrible writing. Oh, and the bad guy is actually Cole from the future?! A chimpanzee could write a better story than Sucker Punch did.[/spoilers]

Yeah, those games and more are all far worse offenders than Gears. Gears just had an okay story, but it wasn't really going for more than that. Trying to have a great story and failing miserably, now that's a far greater offense. Either tell a story properly or have just enough story to string the game along. But trying to be heavily story based with a shitty story, that's when you should complain about "atrocious, offensive violations of story basics".

 

[The Wykydtron]

Gears' story was so mediocre it hurts... I would have prefered all out loltastic failure than just plain boring basic stuff. I was more upset when Random Guy Voiced By Yuri Lowenthal died than any of the important deaths... Nobody kills Brosuke and gets away with it

Though, not gonna lie, Cole's little Thrashball flashback moment did make me cry a little, y'know, Manly Tears an' all.

Of course, the worst writing has to go to Soul Calibre V's story. Ha, that was so bad it was MALFESTED *ahem* funny. I meant funny.

Ahhhh fuck, Max, you're up again XD





Really you talk about bad writing fighting games have to be up there with the worst, simply by the way they're made.

Are we talking about character writing or overall story writing as well? Cuz Bioware's overall storywriting is pretty damn basic 99% of the time. They seem to be trying new things as of late, so that's interesting. Though anyone who's even glanced at the Internet in the last few months can tell you that XP

 

[Jumplion]

I see a man in a glass house with a large sack of stones...

Seriously, the guy who made a game that was basically "Find missing girlfrind, evil company experimenting with crap, shit jumps out at you" is moaning about someone elses story.

So the pot just called the kettle black?

Someone should remind Mr. Beaver of the old adage "Those in glass houses should not throw stones."

Seriously, it's hard to take insults about story telling from a guy who wrote Dead Space, a game with more plot-holes than a story about swiss cheese.

Coming from the producers of one of the most forgettable stories in existence.

Really, did none of you fully read the article? He was damned critical of his own game, the full article shows more criticisms he gave to his own game.

"People in glass houses" my butt, people should read the note saying "Don't throw stones in this house" before readying the rocks.

 

[Bigeyez]

I see a man in a glass house with a large sack of stones...

Seriously, the guy who made a game that was basically "Find missing girlfrind, evil company experimenting with crap, shit jumps out at you" is moaning about someone elses story.

So the pot just called the kettle black?

Someone should remind Mr. Beaver of the old adage "Those in glass houses should not throw stones."

Seriously, it's hard to take insults about story telling from a guy who wrote Dead Space, a game with more plot-holes than a story about swiss cheese.

Coming from the producers of one of the most forgettable stories in existence.

Really, did none of you fully read the article? He was damned critical of his own game, the full article shows more criticisms he gave to his own game.

"People in glass houses" my butt, people should read the note saying "Don't throw stones in this house" before readying the rocks.

I sure read it. How exactly does that change anything? He is still the pot calling the kettle black. Just because he admits it doesn't mean he is exempt to that. He is still someone who helped write a horrible story complaining about a horrible story in another game. Hence the pot calling the kettle black.

 

[RJ 17]

I see a man in a glass house with a large sack of stones...

Seriously, the guy who made a game that was basically "Find missing girlfrind, evil company experimenting with crap, shit jumps out at you" is moaning about someone elses story.

So the pot just called the kettle black?

Someone should remind Mr. Beaver of the old adage "Those in glass houses should not throw stones."

Seriously, it's hard to take insults about story telling from a guy who wrote Dead Space, a game with more plot-holes than a story about swiss cheese.

Coming from the producers of one of the most forgettable stories in existence.

Really, did none of you fully read the article? He was damned critical of his own game, the full article shows more criticisms he gave to his own game.

"People in glass houses" my butt, people should read the note saying "Don't throw stones in this house" before readying the rocks.

I think you're lost, my friend. This is the internet, a land filled with text that no one bothers to read. And besides that....

Really, did none of you fully read the article? He was damned critical of his own game, the full article shows more criticisms he gave to his own game.

"People in glass houses" my butt, people should read the note saying "Don't throw stones in this house" before readying the rocks.

I sure read it. How exactly does that change anything? He is still the pot calling the kettle black. Just because he admits it doesn't mean he is exempt to that. He is still someone who helped write a horrible story complaining about a horrible story in another game. Hence the pot calling the kettle black.

^This.

 

[gigastar]

The update part sounds a tiny bit like he got a slap on the wrist from some higher ups.

Though it is worth keeping in mind he was always referring to the games story.

 

[Anti-Robot Man]

Speaking as a fan of Gears I've always felt the story was amusingly bad, almost to the point of self-parody - it's quite close to the equivelent of a Michael Bay movie as a videogame. That said "quality" of the story in Gears is pretty irrelevant to enjoying it because the actually gameplay is solid and reasonably diverse for it's genre (well before Horde mode got added to everything else). I think the 3rd had easily the worst story because (a) I hate Karen Traviss as a writer (b) the plot-holes were even bigger than before, and (c) the attempts at emotion were cheesy and fell-flat.

Story matters a lot more in games where the narrative is important or intrusive. Obligitory Mass Effect 3 reference - that series was heavily story (and lore) driven and that was one of the key features that people became fans over, the atrocious writing of the last 10 minutes mattered far more for fans than all the bad writing in Gears put together. Grand Theft Auto 4 failed miserably in merging it's gameplay with it's story - Niko's actions in the players hands are inevitably at odds with his characterisation in the story.

Basically what I'm saying is if the story isn't important to the game (be it a summer blockbuster like experience like Gears, or a highly open ended experience like the Elder Scrolls games) it doesn't need to be well written, and in fact could be detrimental to the experience if it was. However, where a story has been focussed on and the gamemakers failed (it isn't just the writer's responsibility) that is very damaging.

I tend to think we're just at the beginning of gaming as a narrative medium and hope it will develop into a very powerful storytelling form (I think it has the potential to ultimately surpass films and even literature) - but I do fear that it may just settle for the low bar of big dumb fun (which I like to, but it's great to have something really crafted), or even devolve into "social gaming".

 

[Jumplion]

I sure read it. How exactly does that change anything? He is still the pot calling the kettle black. Just because he admits it doesn't mean he is exempt to that. He is still someone who helped write a horrible story complaining about a horrible story in another game. Hence the pot calling the kettle black.

Self-awareness does exempt him from this because that's the whole point of the expression, the pot calls the kettle black but doesn't realize that it's in the same situation. Same thing with "people in glass houses," the implication is that the person throwing the rocks doesn't see himself in the same situation.

He knows that his own story that he created had some enormous flaws, to call him out on something he would completely agree with is just pointless and frankly I find it slightly mean-spirited, as if everyone on the internet must try to be oh so clever and twist the tables around. "Aha!" one might say, "You say his game lacks proper writing! Well I posit that it is you who employs subpar writing, and so you should shut up!" like his critique is somehow void just because he created a less-than-stellar story (that he fully admits to doing, so shouldn't that make him a better critiquer? Takes a bad writer to know a bad writer.)

 

[Kargathia]

The update part sounds a tiny bit like he got a slap on the wrist from some higher ups.

Though it is worth keeping in mind he was always referring to the games story.

That little stab about the "rabid" fanbase sure sounded that way.

 

[Dr Pussymagnet]

Oof, that update sounds like some major back peddling.

Well, for what its worth, I'm sure most people agreed with his original statement anyways.