Gears To Be A Trilogy, Ousts Halo 2

Epic's Gears of War has finally ousted Halo 2 as the most-played game on the Xbox Live service. It's not too surprising, given the game's popularity. Epic was apparently expecting that; GameDaily spoke with Microsoft Corporate VP of Global Marketing Jeff Bell, who as much as says that Gears is the first chapter in a trilogy. From the article: "Gamers today demand an excellent story in their games; they need to know what's at stake, and why they should care. Excitement tops the list of desired emotions, but they want to be scared, too. They want the rush that comes from being scared by an enemy or trapped in a dark room and escaping with their lives. The goal of this ad is to establish Marcus Fenix as the hero of the Gears of War trilogy. The intention is to create emotional connection with him that is lacking in typical third-person action title marketing, by communicating a sense of desperation, loneliness, overwhelming odds, and the ultimate futility of the situation he faces."

Duh

Epic was apparently expecting that; GameDaily spoke with Microsoft Corporate VP of Global Marketing Jeff Bell, who as much as says that Gears is the first chapter in a trilogy.

Not to be cynical, but after seeing the response and sales it's gotten they're certainly going to say it's the begining of a trilogy _now_, regardless of what they originally expected or had planed.

Sequels

I, for one, am extremely surprised that developers are willing to make sequels to an extremely popular game. This has never happened before in the gaming industry.

Mad World

I can't RTFA because of firewalling. From the quote, it sounds like he's talking about the 'Mad World' commercial they've been playing in theatres and on television. I've got to say that is one of the best game ads I've seen in a long time...

Yeah, its the new business model in gaming...

1. Take a good sized game and cut the story/campaign mode into 3 smaller parts

2. Sell 3x the games

3. Profit!

Speaking of Games made for pussies...

"Gamers today demand an excellent story in their games; they need to know what's at stake, and why they should care. Excitement tops the list of desired emotions, but they want to be scared, too. They want the rush that comes from being scared by an enemy or trapped in a dark room and escaping with their lives. The goal of this ad is to establish Marcus Fenix as the hero of the Gears of War trilogy. The intention is to create emotional connection with him that is lacking in typical third-person action title marketing, by communicating a sense of desperation, loneliness, overwhelming odds, and the ultimate futility of the situation he faces."

Apparently I'm a super gamer, then, since I want a challenge. Doom 3 was a yawn, and I have no desire to be alone, desperate and against overwhelming, futile odds.

Playing Tribes 2 several hours a day for 5 years does that to someone.

There is no death, only respawn.

Because when you ski at the enemy flag at a good 350KPH; mid-air the defender and the mine they just tossed as an attempt to kill you; killing them instantly from 300 meters; then disk the heavy-on-flag off of the flagstand who happens to be standing 3 steps foward and anticipating where you're going to try to shoot him off; and succeed at doing it with a well placed shot at 40 meters at speeds equaling half the projectile speed; then pull the flag out of 2 entrances barely larger than yourself that form a room barely large enough to hold 2 said heavies, while dodging turret fire, mortar fire, mines, and inventory stations through anticipatory movement; and happen to get it, then hit a diskjump on a hard ramp and blow back to your base at a good 400kph while ensuring to have enough of an un-anticipated arc-up that snipers can't hit you but also ensuring when you hit the top of the arc you jet left or right, anticipating when they hit the trigger and for lag, to force them to miss, you kinda get over nuances like fear, doubt, and uncertanty.

When other people see you do it, they are usually unimpressed, until they try to do it themselves.
And they get killed, over, and over and over, and over.

The few, the strong, grunt through it and go on to other games to find themselves outclassing other players. In tremulous, for example, I regularily gross 2-3 times the killcount of everyone else in the game. I was playing natural selection, but then I got board of it for the same reason. Serious sam was fun for awhile, until I memorized the enemy runs and got bored.

So when you go to their website, and see you have to look around, with a lit match at the links, and that there is absolutely no content accept junk that would only scare and entrance a 13 year old, your patience level immediatly drops to the point where you decide to do better things.

Like submit to slashdot.

And go about your merry way.

Cinematic gaming never suceeded and it will never succeed because it's based on communications, not empowering the user to create their own world and play in it.

GoW trailer will sell Xbox 360s

I was in a movie theatre waiting to see the new James Bond film. It was a Saturday night and it was packed. I had bought my ticket half an hour before the movie started because it was going to sell out. Everyone was talking and it was pretty noisy in the room and it was 60% full. There were ads playing on the screen while everyone was waiting, but it was pre-trailer time and the ads were ignored. When the Gears of War trailer came on the screen and the music started, everyone shutup and watched it. When it was over, people began speaking again.

This holiday season is a best case scenario for Microsoft. They have solved all of the their production problems and have an ample supply. Both Sony and Nintendo are dealing with supply issues (Nintendo less than Sony) and quality control (Nintendo less than Sony). Using Gamespot's reviews, there are 4 games rated between 9.0 and 9.6 and 35 games between 8.0 and 8.9 on the Xbox 360. There are 6 games rated between 8.0 and 8.9 on the Playstation 3. There are 7 games rated between 8.0 and 8.9 on the Wii (don't yell at me, Gamespot rated Zelda 8.8, I've seen it rated higher on other sites). There will be other games released, but right now the Xbox 360 has the better selection of games for next gen consoles. If Microsoft can't dominate this holiday season, then they are going to rank third place this generation.

Does anyone know if the Wii is having backward compatibility issues? I don't want to pick up a Gamecube, but I would like to play Resident Evil 4 (I don't have a PS2 either). If I remember correctly, the Wii is supposed to be backward compatible with the Gamecube.

Re:I Know Halo;Halo Is A Friend Of Mine;GoW You're

Unlikely [computeran...ogames.com].

In relation to Unreal Engine 3, how important is Gears' arrival to the market?

Mike Capps: It is quite important. Having been an engine licensee myself (with America's Army), I can attest that a major part of the licensing decision is trusting that the engine will get to a shippable state. All our licensees have known that Gears of War, for Xbox360, and Unreal Tournament 2007, for PS3 and PC, were on the way, and while we have an excellent reputation for shipping games, I'm sure they were all happy to hear Gears had gone gold. Now that our first 360 title is out of the way we can turn resources toward achieving the same sort of "finished state", that we've achieved on Xbox 360, toward UT2007 on PlayStation 3 and PC.

Re:GoW - 95 percent hype

Or maybe the people doing the reviews didn't buy into the halo hype...as in, maybe they were one of the people with a head on their shoulders.

Don't get me wrong, halo 1 and 2 were quite fun and all, but they were hardly revolutionary...compare them to PC shooters, and suddenly their graphics resemble games that came out 5 years prior to them...their stories horrible and canned and typical...their voice acting spotty...and quite frankly, their gameplay repetitive. Personally, I think the best thing halo had going for it was it's sound effects.

Still, in comparison to other shooters that were around at the same time, halo 1 and 2 did NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING that other games hadn't done ten times over. The CONSOLE fanbois (notice I didn't say microsoft) for some reason thought that they were a gift from god, when in fact they belonged in the bargain bin from the get-go

Re:I Know Halo;Halo Is A Friend Of Mine;GoW You're

None of my friends are playing GoW. Some of us did for a little bit just because it was new, but I am really depressed that a year into the 360's life and this is all we have. Microsoft really should have launched with Halo 3 or at the very worst launched it at the time of GoW. I don't think anyone would give a damn about the broken and limited gameplay in GoW if Halo 3 was out.

Games take time, and Halo has historically taken 3 years between installments (H1: 2001, H2: 2004, H3: 2007). Perhaps Microsoft could've shipped a Halo 2.5 at the 360 launch (one year after H2 shipped), but a Halo 3? No, you just need to be patient. The multiplayer beta/demo will be out next spring, and you can look forward to Halo overload throughout all of next year. And then around November (because Halos release in November, so assume Halo 3 will also release in November) you'll finally have your hands on Halo 3.

Re:GoW - 95 percent hype

Why are all these posts anonymous? I mean, can't a game get good reviews without the publisher being accused of throwing money at the sites and mags? Have you played the damn game? Have you read what the reviewers said about why they liked it? It's not a perfect game but it is extremely well done and extremely fun, which you're picking up on from the reviewers.

Go pick up your check at the Sony office and ask them if they'll throw in FF LXIII or Ratchet and Clank 19 as a bonus. Since you evidently think that no good game can come out unless it has come out before.

Re:I Know Halo;Halo Is A Friend Of Mine;GoW You're

You (and your friends) seem to be in the minorty.

Fastest Selling 360 Game [spong.com]
#3 Most Popular Game [gamerankings.com]
9.4/10 [ign.com]
9.6/10 [gamespot.com]

... actually, quite the opposite

There was a lot of hype for Gears of Wars. So much so, that I was beginning to think that the game had "jumped the shark" on hype alone. From my non-scientific observation (reading game sites, forums, etc.), I think people were starting to expect the game to suck. And in general, I am not a fan of hype at all, as it does tend to hurt more than help.

So, it was surprising to see that the game was quite good. In fact, better than what a lot of people had expected ... because it was so different than your standard FPS shooter. Go read some game forums, for example the Games board at Penny-Arcade [penny-arcade.com]. People are very pleased with the game. Heck, go read the earlier Slashdot article, and you can read people's comments about it.

Re:What is /.'s share?

Nothing, Zonk's just a 360 fanboi.