Grave Gamer News & Views — gears of war

Next-Gen Gears of War: Sometimes Innovating Means Betrayal

“This isn’t a great way of phrasing it, but I always talk about shipping a sequel to customers as ‘managing betrayal.’”

After Microsoft bought up the rights to the Gears of War property from series curators, Epic Games, the company’s in-house development studio, Black Tusk Games, was quickly assigned the job of carrying the franchise to the Xbox One. Rod Fergusson, former production head at Epic, joins Black Tusk in keeping Gears’ cogs turning.

Though Fergusson was put in place in order to keep the fabric of Gears – it’s identity, so to speak – intact, the producer wants to stray from the familiar. “They want something new but they don’t want something so new that it doesn’t feel like what they want,” said Fergusson to OSM. “But if you put out something that’s very familiar and is the same as the game they just had, then it’s like 'I’ve already had this. This isn’t new enough.’”

Black Tusk basically wants to avoid Back to the Future Part III Syndrome. It’s a wise play. Fergusson's philosophy on how to achieve this, however, is unique. “You actually have to betray them enough to give them something new and surprising but not so much that they disconnect, and I think that is a big thing that we have to focus on.

It’s how we can innovate and bring something new to the franchise while at the same time really proving that we understand Gears - that this is the franchise that you know and love.”

Fergusson has broken down for his team which core conceits of Gears have to remain unchanged versus rusty joints in the gameplay where innovation is needed. It may be a good long while before fans endure the betrayal of change, as Phil Spencer, Xbox’s new commander-in-chief, has stated he wants to give Black Tusk all the time in the world they require to evolve Gears of War for the Xbox One. 

Microsoft Buys Up Gears of War From Epic

Already a flagship Xbox exclusive four games running, Epic’s blockbuster Gears of War IP has been bought up by Microsoft Studios.

The deal puts Microsoft in ownership of all current and subsequent games, media, and merchandise. The Big M announced its intent to put all future development duties of the series onto Black Tusk Studios’ shoulders.

The production house, formerly known as Microsoft Vancouver, is having its staff bolstered by one Mr. Rod Fergusson, whom you may recall as having worked at Epic in a Director of Production role. Fergusson most recently has been bombin’ around 2K supposedly setting up a new studio for the company, but his assuming of a “key leadership position” at Black Tusk means 2K is a Rod short these days.

Epic released a fluffy statement saying that they’re pleased Microsoft will be able to “forge ahead with the Gears universe on their industry-leading platforms” and yada, yada, and some-such. It would seem Epic is moving onto other projects but fully intends on licensing out their Unreal 4 Engine to the Xbox One – which could mean a future Gears may benefit from it.

This isn’t the first shakeup in a renown franchise under Microsoft’s belt. Halo saw its creators in Bungie leave the property behind for greener virtual pastures while Microsoft coordinated internally to create a dev studio solely for the purpose of proliferating Master Chief’s universe. Hopefully Gears of War’s transition into new hands will be handled as carefully as Halo 4 was.

(Also interesting to note, both Bungie’s and Epic’s last titles in their respective IP’s ended in prequels. History will eat itself as they say… If they say that.)

[source: IGN]

“New ideas and some slight refining tweaks skirt around Epic’s established formula, but People Can Fly’s unwillingness to stray off the beaten path, paired with a relatively inconsequential story, ensures Judgment is the weakest entry in the series to date.  Ah, don’t make that face.  ‘The Bad One’ was bound to happen sometime.”

Could There Ever Be a Gears of War FPS?

“I’m a big believer in ‘never say never.'  It’s all about what’s interesting in the industry at the time and where fans want us to take it.  We don’t want to say never but it’s not on the top of my mind either.  We look at what makes sense and move in that direction.”

-Rod Fergusson, executive producer at Epic Games, in an interview with OXM.

While next year’s Gears of War: Judgement, under the guiding hand of People Can Fly, certainly cuts its own swath with its focus on real time action and adaptive enemy AI over scripted thrills, the game doesn’t stray far from Epic’s third-person formula.  But if you want it and if you’re vocal about it, the collective fanbase could order up a very different kind of Gears experience.

We’re all well aware that there’s no shortage of first-person shooters on the market.  Here’s a hard number: if you take every FPS off store shelves, there’d be a total of twelve games to choose from and half empty pack of Tic-Tacs (Hey, hey!  Stay away from Google.  How dare you fact check my lies?), but I’m all for expansion in a franchise.  Risk breeds innovation; innovation in gaming often begets fun.  Switching perspectives in Gears isn’t too wildly off base, yet the change to game mechanics needed would probably agitate the ever loving shit out of series diehards grown accustomed to the cover hopping, blind-firing action of the original trilogy.

So, the question stands: anybody out there interested in seeing a first-person Gears of War?

Gears of War: Judgement Officially Dated

No more of this “sometime in March” hogwash, folks. Developer People Can Fly, under the guiding eye of Epic Games, are bringing the Locust slaughtering prequel to our Xbox 360’s on March 19th, 2013.

Just as 343 Industries is injecting fresh blood into Halo, PCF is tossing new ideas into Judgement like grenades, hoping to transform the terrain. A character class system, a varying narrative dependent on your difficulty, a quicker pace to the action, and the mash-up of Beast Mode and Horde Mode into one out of control offering called OverRun all go towards setting Judgement apart from the main series and giving it an identity unto itself.

First quarter next year is filled to the brim with AAA releases, but I think it’s safe to say Gears of War: Judgement will stand tall in 2013.