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."

Comments

Sequels

[anjin-san 3]

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

[C0rinthian]

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...

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

[Evangelion]

Unlikely.

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

[DarkJC]

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.

Re:GoW - 95 percent hype

[Pojut]

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

[calbanese]

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

Fastest Selling 360 Game
#3 Most Popular Game
9.4/10
9.6/10

GoW trailer will sell Xbox 360s

[ConfusedSelfHating]

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:GoW trailer will sell Xbox 360s

[Planesdragon]

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.

Both the Wii and the Gamecube are powerPC chips. The Wii's backwards computability is enough that the GameCube distribution of Linux will run on the Wii in "Gamecube mode."

I highly doubt that Resident Evil 4, one of the best games for the 'cube, will fail to run.

... actually, quite the opposite

[jchenx]

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. People are very pleased with the game. Heck, go read the earlier Slashdot article, and you can read people's comments about it.

So?

[Namarrgon]

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.