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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."
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.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
If they succeed, it'll be impressive, and apparently they're not off to a bad start. It'd have been easier, though, if they hadn't saddled him with such a weak, corny, obvious reference as a last name.
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.
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...
That's surprising..I had always assumed UT2007 would be 360, PS3, and PC. I guess their 360 'division' was too focused on Gears of War? That's the only reason I see why they would miss the 360 with UT.
I can't imagine the amount of cash Microsoft must have thrown around review and press sites getting the absurd scores and reviews for the game. I can't imagine anyone would give a damn about the game if Halo was out. Or that when Halo comes out next year that anyone will still give a damn about playing a sequel to GoW.
I guess the game was a needed crutch for Microsoft to get through the end of 2006. But let's be serious, that's all it is. People are waiting for the good stuff coming out next year. And that isn't more Gears.
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.
You (and your friends) seem to be in the minorty.
Fastest Selling 360 Game
#3 Most Popular Game
9.4/10
9.6/10
1. Take a good sized game and cut the story/campaign mode into 3 smaller parts
2. Sell 3x the games
3. Profit!
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
Really, why are there 2 articles on GoW, on the front page, both posted by the same person, within less than 2 hours? Only 2 articles between them.
Worse, I fully expect to be modded into oblivion for even mentioning such a thing, despite having the balls to post this from my account rather than flaming as an AC.
This stinks of a number of bad practices.
No Comment.
"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.
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.
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.
... because it was so different than your standard FPS shooter. Go read some game forums, for example the Games board at Penny-Arcade. People are very pleased with the game. Heck, go read the earlier Slashdot article, and you can read people's comments about it.
So, it was surprising to see that the game was quite good. In fact, better than what a lot of people had expected
-- jchenx
Nothing, Zonk's just a 360 fanboi.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
I get cold chills from the anticipation for the release of this game.
"Okay, who put a "stop payment" on my reality check?"
How can you possibly compare the Xbox 360 and the amount of 'quality' games they have [...] when they've been out for a freakin' year and the other consoles have been out roughly 2 weeks?
Why should one not compare them? People are buying them right now - this is how things stand right now, and those 360 games are available today, to play today. What good are promises of future goodness, when you go to play a game today?
This is the whole point of getting to market a year sooner - to get that head start.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?