X08: Cliff Bleszinski talks Gears of War 2

by Xav de Matos { Aug 22nd 2008 at 9:00AM }

During the X08 event in Toronto last night, Joystiq was able to sit down with Epic Games lead designer Cliff Bleszinski and talk chop about Gears of War 2. Cliff discussed the pacing and intensity of Horde Mode, the trouble with too many players in co-op and his quick impressions of Too Human.

X08 Toronto allowed invited gamers in the Greater Toronto Area (yes, the GTA) to participate in a showcase of upcoming Xbox 360 retail and Arcade releases. Gears of War 2 was a surprise showing with a multiplayer build from E3 2008. Everyone was on the edge of their seat. Jump in for a few choice comments from Cliff Bleszinski, perfect for those of your reading this in a library and unable to listen to the actual interview!

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Cliff on co-op

"The thing about a campaign is, when you start getting over two players - it's cool to have that, but - the narrative quality decreases exponentially with more players. Once you get a third or a fourth player in there then you're in the middle of fighting a bad guy and somebody's triggering a cutscene and people are flapping their gums and nobody knows what's going on with the story. Whereas if you keep it two-players, keep it focused, grab a buddy and go through the blockbuster experience and then grab five players and fight against the Locust. That's how we're doing it."

Cliff on achievements

"You can chip away at achievements (in Gears of War 2) essentially in every, single mode. So, if you're playing by yourself you can start chipping away at the Seriously 2.0 achievement. If you're playing in co-op, if you're playing in ranked or private matches ... all of it. Everything counts towards achievements this time around. We wanted to be a lot more forgiving with it. The nicest thing is we have a little achievement tracker that pops up in the bottom right occasionally so it's our way of just letting you know, "Hey, we're paying attention!" If you curb-stomp a guy we say, "Oh, you know if you do 10 more of those you might start getting towards an achievement. Kind of adds that kind of, psuedo-RPG grind element in the background."

Cliff on Too Human

"I have [played Too Human]. I think it's a solid game."

Tags: cliff-bleszinski, epic-games, gears-of-war-2, x08

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

emirabal @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:08AM

No talk about this seriously 2.0 though, but same old cliff, great interview Xav, keep up the good work.

emirabal @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:10AM

Scratch that, he just talked about it, looks like it counts in player as well. Looks like it is online and offline and player and ranked, this is worth playing now even 10 times more.

Jack @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:13AM

I'd buy an xbox just for this game because I played the first one and damn, its good!

http://www.squidoo.com/doughboy

WhoMe @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:15AM

"I have [played Too Human]. I think it's a solid game."

Oh, you LIAR!

Draco Basileus @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:52AM

Too Human is actually a pretty good game. Maybe you should actually play it before you make comments like this. That way at least your opinion can be "educated", unlike the rest of you.

Marty @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:01AM

Good idea - let's keep trying to make a mediocre (read: not entirely bad) game sound like it was the worst thing ever created.

The reviews average out to something that some people might enjoy, and others might not. That fits into the "solid" category in my book, even if it doesn't fit into "amazing" or "fantastic."

tmacairjordan87 @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:35PM

Well what is he going to say? He's not allowed to publicly trash another 360 exclusive. I'm surprised he just said a solid game instead "OMG TEH BESTEST GAME EVAR"

Fenix @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:21AM

Xav? You switched over? Real nice interview man. The game is shaping up very very nicely. Glad you can get the ch33voz in all modes. Its really gonna cut down MP achievement whores out there that sometimes ruin it. So he said theres gonna be 5 acts again. Guess they'll just be way longer this time.

Gears 2 and KZ2 have the best graphics ive ever seen on a console, CAN...NOT...WAIT!!! SHIT YEAH!

Maverick Saturn @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:23AM

Badman, bopping with his chainsaw gun in hand say any of you mfs come near me and you'll get it!

Good Cliffy, great interview ^^

Residentevil72501 @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:40AM

Dude Too Human rocks get off your little high horse, get your head out of a reviewers ass and go play it. It is flawed in ways yes but damn its a good game.

Fenix @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:03AM

Ok...what was that all about? He said its a solid game.

Madeira @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:13AM

Well said. TH is fun as hell, and the deep gameplay makes a lot of other games in the genre seem like kids' stuff. The bad reviews are so much BS.

edhc44 @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:41AM

I downloaded the demo in the first week, and waited a few days since my shiny new HDTV as gonna arrive... I had NEVER played an X360 on HD (up to that day, it I had was my old 20" CRT), so I could taste Too Human the first time as my first HD gaming experience... You know what? DMC4 and Lost Odyssey truly shine in HD... But not even that, and listen to what I'm saying, I was a HD gaming "virgin" so to speak, and not even that saved Too Human from boring the crap out of me after 5 minutes. So there you have it, say all you want, the demo is supposed to make you wanna buy the game but it showed me that this is a game I definitely want to stay away from.

TheAzureKnight @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:19AM

For once I agree with IGN. Too Human has/had so much potential but ultimately it just falls into the "average" pile for me.

The only aspect of the game that has me debating whether to cave in and spend my money is the STORY. And so far I don't hear signs that it's as epic as I would like it to be.

The controls and the camera are major issues for me as well when I was playing the demo. It gets frustrating after a while trying to get the right angle, etc when you're in the middle of a big fight.

Bottom line though is that while Too Human isn't "ZOMG!" perfection it definitely is nothing compared to the trash Haze was on the ps3...

An average of 7.3 or w/e is NOT the same as 4.5...lol.

Marty @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:46AM

I'm sorry edhc, but if you're relying on HD to improve your entertainment experience with video games, maybe you should try a new hobby. HD makes things look a little better, but from someone who routinely goes back and forth between the two, I can tell you with certainty that seeing everything a little bit crisper than before isn't going to change how good (or bad) a game is.

Vcize @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:57AM

edhc, Too Human is definitely not a "grab you in the first 5 minutes" type of game. If anything, after 5 minutes, even the most staunch supporters were still in the "wait, how the fuck do I use these controls again?" mode.

It's a game that you really have to spend some time getting used to the controls prior to it really catching you, afterwhich it does actually do a pretty good job.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:40PM

@Marty

Going from a smaller SDTV to a bigger HDTV adds a ton to the game and especially the immersion. I think it is obvious Too Human is a love it or hate it type of game. People throwing out accusations that everyone bring critical hasn't played the game is preposterous. They did release a demo.

I thought it was a great idea but my problem is the execution. In the end there was not any one single thing I actually liked about the game.

This is coming from a guy who liked a lot of games other people think were awful like Haze, Lair, Army Of Two, Devil May Cry 4 & Assassins Creed.

I think Too Human has great potential with future updates and expanded content. If SK can fix add more content to the single player experience, increased level system & bug fixes the game might garner a purchase from me.

On the flipside I have found some fo the more popular titles like GTA IV, Halo 3, GRID, Dead Rising, SSBB, Mario Kart, Final Fantasy Crisis Core & Resistance Fall Of Man to be less stellar than advertised.

Hot$auce_Magik @ Aug 22nd 2008 2:18PM

I played through the demo twice. Wasn't convinced on it until I read the Ars Technica review of the game.

I've gotten about half way through the Ice Forrest and I have to say, I am without a doubt hooked on it. The story is not a Peter Jackson joint, but it is pretty good. I think it helped to know a little bit about Norse mythology. Anyway, I havn't really been a big fan of loot fest games in recent years, but I've got the fever again and its not goin away.

Will you be blown away by Too Human? probably not, but i can guarentee you'll lose a pretty solid amount of hours to it. Especially if you take it online.

Vcize @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:24AM

Glad to hear that online private matches count towards seriously 2.0. After that interview a few days ago I was worried it was going to be single player only.

The achievement tracker sounds nice too. I don't understand why EVERY game doesn't let you track the progress of your achievements. The game is tracking it anyway, all they have to do is display it.

It would be best if that were a feature of XBL and MS forced the devs to write the achievement progress back to Live as you went so you could always look it up from the dash/XBL website.