Gearheads of War

I'm not sure if anyone has written about this yet, but I haven't seen it.  Stephen Totilo, who joined SweetTea and I for one of the best Gearheads podcasts I think we ever did, wrote a piece basically saying that Gears of War 2 is pretty much what Nintendo legend Miyamoto would have made had he ever made a bloody shooter.  And if you think he's being over-the-top gushing about it, well, I beg to differ.

I haven't finished the game yet, so I'm not going to discuss the campaign in detail until I finish it.  I just don't think that it's fair and I don't want to spoil it for others who haven't had a chance to get through it yet.  But in this game, more than Gears 1, you can see it being a horizontal, 3-D platformer.  

This part, in particular, is especially true.

The best Miyamoto games have always been exceptional at teaching their players to do extraordinary things, one enjoyable, playable step at a time. You’re first encouraged to jump in "Super Mario Bros." so you can avoid a Goomba. As soon as you master that, you’re using that jump to break a brick. As soon as you’re good at breaking bricks, you find that breaking bricks lets you find secret passages. And so on. In every "Zelda" dungeon ever made, you’re given a new tool that you’re forced to use, usually initially, just to get out of the room you found it in. Then you usually have to use it to beat that dungeon’s boss. And after that, with that on-the-job training done, you’re usually good enough to start improvising.

I know somewhere my brother is smiling because Miyamoto was one of his great heroes growing up.  I know that of anything that will be written about Gears of War 2 in the weeks and months and years ahead, that post will touch him more than anything else.  The best part is that I fully believe it's true, especially if you've ever studied Miyamoto's game design and how he's sucked us all into those experiences for so many years.  It may seem strange to compare a game about sticking explosive arrows in your opponents' derriere to that plumber who grows by eating mushrooms and shoots fireballs out of his hands by eating a flower, but the essential foundation of both games is there as Totilo points out.

Now to finally try and get closer to the end of the game.

We just put up part one of the interview we shot with Cliff Bleszinki a few weeks ago. This video focuses on Cliff's background in the industry, and how he got where he is today.

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/22363

Bonus: I also just put up my video walk through of the New Xbox Experience. I'll give you a hint, I think it's awesome.

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/22359

I figured hot on the heels of the Gearheads' Cliff podcast, you guys might want to check out this extremely long look at Cliff and his views.

I found the piece to be fairly accurate in capturing my bro and what he's all about, course I would've loudly objected to this:

Mostly I would object to anyone ever calling Cliff shy.  Yes, he might have been shy with the ladies, but I can't count the number of times I had to fight other, older, much larger kids because my brother was mouthing off to them (often while playing ice or street hockey).  My role was definitely being the heavy as a child.  I bloodied many a kid's nose over Cliff's loud mouth.

This is going to be a bit of a rant, but the article also got me to thinking.  I do find it incredibly fascinating that shows like The Daily Show often bring on movie and TV actors, but don't often bring on game designers or even voice actors when they do parts in games.  I mean The Daily Show runs ads for video games all the time so it's their demographic.  It would be interesting to see someone like Cliff on The Daily Show to talk Gears of War 2.  Course, being that many of us see and hear from Cliff all the time, it's not like those interviews would really do much for us, but I do think that it's high time that late night shows and other television media begin to acknowledge the dramatic impact that this medium is having on our entertainment landscape.  I believe that's when we'll really see gaming cross over into the mainstream and not something just for the nerds amongst us.  I live to see the day when David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Jon Stewart might welcome my brother to the stage.  Not that gaming needs that kind of validation, but it certainly would be damn nice for some of these shows like Conan and The Daily Show to actually interview some folks who are speaking to their demographic, don't you think?

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to let you know that we have a new interview with Cliff up on GameVideos. This is only the first part of the much longer form interview which will hopefully go up next week.

Lead designer of Gears of War 2 Cliff Bleszinski takes a variation of Vanity Fair Magazine's own version of the Proust Questionnaire.

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/22158

• David