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Inside View of Epic, Preparing Gears of War 2
Subm writes "Lamborghinis, motion-capture rooms, secret new weapons — these are a few things included in the profile of Epic Games and its Design Director, Cliff Bleszinski. 'A Microsoft employee who works closely with Epic described the company as having a "band dynamic." Staff turnover is low, and many of Epic's most senior employees have been friends for more than a decade. This does not seem a very long time until one sits in on an Epic meeting and realizes that anyone over the age of thirty-five achieves the temporal stature of Methuselah. Epic's recent growth is regarded with wary gratitude by many of its employees, though some miss the old days, when, as Sweeney put it, "we were just a bunch of kids who had some cool ideas and were doing neat things."'"
Do you see the Xbox 360 as the main platform as opposed to the PC? During the whole Unreal time it was very much PC focused.
The PC right now is a fair amount different to what it was back in the day, with all the badly integrated video chips. Here's the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software. Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC.
So piracy was a main point for you...
Right now, it makes sense for us to focus on Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Not least PCs with multiple configurations and piracy.
But when the dust has settled, is there any possibility of Gears 2 on PC?
No.
Definitely not?
No.
From: http://www.totalvideogames.com/Gears-of-War-2/feature-13270.html
Me and U(buntu) - my blog about Ubun
NOW I SEE IT! It's so obvious to me now and i do not know how on earth i hadn't seen this before.
The unreal engine is meant to make one kill the prime minister of malaysia!
He has not earned the right to be called Cliff or Clifford. He has to own up to hundreds of stupid comments yet.
Like, you know, "all PC gamers are thiefs". Which version of GoW2 was leaked, genius?. 360, you say?. In your face, bitch.
It's a pity the New Yorker is losing valuable time with this idiot.
PS.- GoW is an average game, although I admire the big amount of bugs you were able to put into the PC version. Congrats.
Then I head over to TPB and see a discussion alongside an ISO for said game, its playable but multiplayer doesn't work. This option is also very easy, inexpensive and only limited by the no multiplayer factor.
So I am sorry to say I am tempted by the latter option, which means sadly that I give the developers no money. Perhaps they should make singleplayer free and charge a small monthly fee for multiplayer?
In conclusion, what he says is very sensible, they make money by selling games, not by having them used for free.
like phosphorescent desert buttons singing one familiar song
I played Gears of War 1 on the PC. And while it was kinda pretty, I closed and uninstalled it when I was unable to jump over an obstacle that didn't even reach my knees.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Oh come on, it's obligatory! You just wish you thought to post it first!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Yes, karma bedamned, Fuck Epic.
After a fucking YEAR we're still waiting for a useful version of UT3 to show up. The same damn game that they once talked about having linux and mac ports for, linux and mac editor for....doesn't have a decent linux SERVER, let alone non-windows Client! And the editor? It doesn't even friggin work in Windows half the time. And of course, it's not ported yet. To ice this cake of stupid? They are bitching about piracy hurting their games. Piracy? How about releasing Shit? Any chance that has hurt sales?
At the moment, the entire god damn game still has limited functionality compared to UT2k4. Despite my friends and I having a one of the better UT3 servers, those of us who still play have pretty much abandoned the game. This, after 9 years of playing the UT franchise.
Fuck Epic. We'll go play something else.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Epic can kiss my ass after that fiasco. The ut2004 had a great linux client. Was supposed to be one for UT3 as well as the editor. Hell it's even done but Ryan Gordan can't release it.
superman runs linux
I have played the first gears - the graphics was great, the testosterone-laden pieces of hunk were entertaining to watch, but after some time it just becomes boring. For me, there was no point in playing it, there was no drama, no engaging story, no twists to explore, nothing to justificate endless hours of repetitive wasting the same enemies. I mean, I wonder what all the hype is about, when someone will ask me of what can change the nature of a man again? What's the point in those unreal 10 & gears 20 & halo 30 where the only thing changed is the graphics and why do they blame it on piracy when any sane person can tell you if you make a bad game it won't sell.
Well first of all it's about the same features.
While all the game modes are more or less the same, niceties such as a PC-style options menu (i.e. meticulous control of the options), an included IRC client, and a playlist editor are nowhere to be found. I used all these features extensively in UT2004 and I thought it was a given that they would be in UT3.
As for bugs well what game doesn't?
I won'd deny that no software is free from bugs. However, I never experienced problems with an unpatched UT2k4 install, let alone the current version I have installed and play regularly right now. I'd be happy to remove this bullet point if Epic released 1.4 or whatever it takes to have the game functional enough to play without troubleshooting or ignoring features. Plus it's unacceptable to have this "beta" release as a demo. I believe the UT2004 demo had an update that included current code and new maps. But even if it didn't, the old demo just worked.
And last let us not forget that Epic much like Id is about the game engine
Being a "game engine developer" doesn't mean I'll give you a free pass if you make a shoddy game. That goes for id, Epic, or anybody.
So which came first? The low sales and then the "shitting"? Or was it "shitting" first then low sales? The thing about piracy is it makes for lousy ammo regardless of which side one's on.
It doesn't matter. If I ran a kitchenware company, auto company, or ANY company for that matter, it would be unprofessional and frankly stupid to insult my customers. If you've followed Epic over the past few months, they have acted atrociously toward their PC customers. Before announcing Gears of War 2 would not be coming to PC, they also announced that Unreal Engine 4 would be designed especially for "next-gen consoles first." Tim Sweeney is dealing with gaming nerds, he knows that sentence is flamebait. They have blamed the relative failures of UT3 and Gears PC on piracy, while ignoring the faults of the products themselves. (Gears was ported to the PC too late and too buggy to be relevant, regardless of any extra content they shoehorned in.) Forum topics politely voicing legitimate complaints about these products have been locked and ignored.
In other gaming news sites Epic still enjoys a level of popularity because of 360 owners who are hyped about Gears of War 2. Epic Games is a business, and if they feel there is more profit in consoles then that's their prerogative. Abandoning PC for console in itself is not bad. My anger comes from their burning bridges by treating their existing fanbase, one that has been loyal for over a decade, with such disdain. It's tasteless and PC gamers shouldn't put up with it. I won't.