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Games Entertainment

Gears of War Visual Exploration 43

Posted by Zonk from the ooo-shiny dept.
Shacknews has images from a small product information piece about Gears of War. The scans show off a booklet full of beautiful imagery and some interesting insights into the game. From the booklet: "Since Emergence Day, the residents of Sera have been paying the price. Crumbled buildings and ruined monuments loom over the battlefield as somber reminders of what the Gears fight for. The glory of Sera and everything that mankind has struggled to achieve collapses in upon itself, yielding to an unstoppable force. A brutal and protracted war has dashed this planet's veneer to pieces, and left the shattered bits to be picked up by the most unlikely few. The Gears of War continue to turn."
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Gears of War Visual Exploration More

Gears of War Visual Exploration

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  • Slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dizzle ( 781717 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @03:40PM (#12996886) Journal
    ads for nerds. Products that matter.
    • Slashvertisement or no, I have added one more to the list of games to try.

      Plus now they don't have to ship a manual we've all read it.

  • Is this game will ship before Duke Nukem Foreever? Or Lonworn? (eee... the next windows, watever the name is.)

  • Call it what you will... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HanClinto ( 621615 ) <hanclinto@NoSPam.gmail.com> on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @04:04PM (#12997120)
    ...whether you think this is astroturfing or not-news, I still think this is incredibly riveting.

    Am I the only one who believes this sort of thing is going to be the future of video gaming?

    Games are just the next level of interactivity. It was books, then radio, then movies, now video games. It's just the next level, and I for one am looking forward to getting some "good literature" out there in the form of video games. Classic storylines that are powerful and mean something and stir something from within us.

    The concept of "destroyed beauty" in the article's pictoral essay is quite good imho, and if you like the storylines of games like Half Life, Myst, FFX, or other games with rich, involved storylines, you may find Gears interesting.

    Here's hoping they don't b0rk it up and turn it into a cheesy shoot-em-up, but remain true to the concept and retain some of the good storyline.

    The only part that I'm worried about is the cheesy cliche'ness of the protagonist, but perhaps they can pull it off.

    I'll be watching this one with interest.

    • Re:Call it what you will... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by snorklewacker ( 836663 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @05:56PM (#12998185)
      God I hope this isn't the future. The writing adjacent to all the concept art is frightfully awful, hokey, cliched stuff. I'm talking high school melodrama here.

      Actually just about anything titled "noun Of War" is off to a bad start, cliche-wise.
      • No wonder, Eric Nylund is listed as a writer of the texts. He's the one responsible for the novels based on Halo. "The Master Chief runs down a corridor, then the Spartan kills a Grunt dead, and so the supersoldier saves the lives of his team."

      • There are very few video games that aren't full of frightfully hokey writing, if you start judging them by the same standards as movies or novels. Generally, the audience for video games doesn't have very refined taste in writing and doesn't value originality or sophistication very much.

        This for the very good reason that the cheesiest, silliest video game stories are often attached to the most fun games. So, most companies put minimal effort into storytelling, or intentionally go for the high school melod

        • There are very few video games that aren't full of frightfully hokey writing, if you start judging them by the same standards as movies or novels. Generally, the audience for video games doesn't have very refined taste in writing and doesn't value originality or sophistication very much.

          If you think about it though, there are very few books and movies that also aren't frightfully full of hokey writing. The ratio of "great" literature to the amount of "okay" literature is very small. For every really good

          • Oh, certainly, there are more trashy books than good ones. The problem video games have as a storytelling medium right now is that a good video game story is more likely to resemble a trashy book, in terms of writing quality, than a good one.

            This doesn't reflect on the possibility of telling great stories in video games, more on the likelihood. There's no reason to presume telling a good story in video game form is impossible, but also no reason - yet - to presume that doing so is a necessary or desirable

            • There's no reason to presume telling a good story in video game form is impossible, but also no reason - yet - to presume that doing so is a necessary or desirable thing.

              Certainly it's not any more necessary than it is for movies to achieve a higher excellence, but that seems to be the way culture is headed. I personally think a good imagination beats special effects any day (hence why the LotR books will always be better than a movie effort), but people aren't turning to books for their entertainment as

              • My point is more that you can make an excellent game with little to no story at all, or a story that would simply not be workable in a medium like film. Pac-Man, Tetris, Katamari Damacy, even the archetypal FPS multiplayer... these aren't gameplay styles that are compelling because of storytelling. They're compelling because they're fun experiences. Similarly, a lot of fun and compelling new games - Lumines, Meteos, Electroplankton, Nintendogs (arguably) - are fun and compelling precisely because they embod

                • I would imagine that, much like books, and movies, we'll see a split between the "literary" and the "fun". In literature, Charles Dickenson is considered a great writer. Sure, there's probably lots of made up reasons why this is, but his books are terminally boring. Terry Prachet on the other hand is not listed among the "greats" and his books will probably never be classic, but they are fun to read.
                  In the same way, Tetris, and the million or so clones, will never have a grand, thought provoking story

                  • Dickens is considered great more for historical influence than quality. A lot of books have been critted and duly acknowledged as really quite dreadful, but very popular. This is why you don't read too much Dickens in secondary school, but then get buried in it in English courses (or so I'm told, anyway).

                    he Pratchett comparison is a bit more on the mark, though I'd argue that Pratchett is considered a very great writer in a lot of quarters and just doesn't get much attention because of his genre. I imagin

      • Yeah, like that _Art of War_ book ... Man, that guy could have used a decent editor.
      • "Noun of War"...that's brilliant! I'm going to write a video game set in...a bleak future. OK! I'm done!
    • As the conversation with my friend went:

      Me - "Look at Gears of War."
      He - "It's just another Doom."
      Me - "It's supposed to be about story and 'cover'"
      He - "Is it a single-player FPS?"
      Me - "Yes"
      He - "It's Doom."

      It'll take a whole lot to make something other than a Doom clone. When you try, you mostly end up with a 'boring Doom clone.'

      Best of luck.

    • ...that I do not have "destroyed beauty". :P

      Sera

  • seems like a cool game, and probably the only reason other than the promise of halo3 for people to buy and xbox 360.

    but seriously, screenshot 10 talks about how they were looking for something unique and original to go for the lead characters look, but doesnt he look eerily reminiscent of the models for the upcoming unreal and UT? maybe its just me. or maybe they are just using the same engine. who knows... but ive definitely seen this episode before.
  • anyone else think that those shots are a mix of the game and some artistic embellishment?

  • An odd paradox (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @04:43PM (#12997546)
    I find myself exibiting an odd reaction to information about next generation videogames. It seems that as I am looking at pictures and videos I become instantly impressed at how far the graphical techonology has come; at the same time as I read about the game play dynamics and the story lines I become instantly disapointed at the little progress that has been made in these areas.

    I may just becoming old and cynical but it seems to me that there are (almost) no companies that can merge interesting gameplay with impressive graphics. For the most part the interesting game ideas are usually less impressive visually.

    Not to divert attention from this game but ...

    It seems to me that ever since Iwata has become president of Nintendo there is a far greater focus on inovation in videogames. Games like Warioware, Nintendogs, and Kirby Canvas Curse are great examples of unconventional game ideas that are interesting. The thing that actually has me interested in the Revolution more than anything else is probably the Nintendo DS (although I don't own one yet). Even with it's small game list, and limited upcomming supply of games, it has far more unconventional (and interesting) games than any platform at this point in its lifespan. I think regardless of whether you will own an XBox 360, PS3 or High-End PC Nintendo may give you reason enough (through inovative games) to buy a Revolution.
    • It is a big shift in videogames right now. I have been gaming since the Atari 2600 and had been a member of the videogame media for 4 years covering PS2 titles... I have the exact same feelings as you. After a while (especially to those of us who remember what fresh and innovative games really meant) all the FPS, Sports, Psuedo-movie RPG/MGS, Cliches, etc. become tiring.

      I have been predicting that the Revolution will actually be the real "winner" of the next-gen. As someone who has a bit more mature outloo
      • I really hope that the Revolution does well, the problem with it, as has been Nintendo's problem for a while, is that they focus heavily on producting fewer, supposedly higher quality games. The problem is, that this leads to not being able to find games you want. It's because of this that I have been unwilling to buy a Nintendo system since the N64. When it came out it had one or two interesting titles. After that it took forever for them to come out with anything else for it which I wanted. In the en
        • I find no fault with your comment, but I would ask that you look at this offering with a bit more open mind. Nintendo has already stated that they are commited to making development as open as possible with the Revolution. Nintendo is well aware of its mistakes, moreso than most game companies, and it is smart at combating them with innovation and style.

          Knowing full well the mass-produced junk that is out there by the hundreds, they strive to be different. Sometimes it is just too much and puts people off
          • I do intend to look at the Revolution seriously. Granted, I'll wait until it, and the other systems, have been out a year or so before buying one. The thing is that Nintendo is going to have to show a willingness to get more and different games on the system.
            I do agree, though, that both Sony and MS are pushing way to hard for this "media center" idea. What I want is a console to play games, not a stripped down PC to do a bunch of stuff half-assed. I'm not sure if I am alone in this, but I tend to li
  • All of the pictures in the article are drawn/created... none of them are in game screenshots... how can this be representative of the games actual beauty/graphics?

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