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Cole Train's voice actor contacted for next Gears of War
Black Tusk Studios is tinkering away at the Gears of War series' future, but Twitter activity from Augustus "Cole Train" Cole voice actor Lester Speight suggests the former hero might be involved in the action. Speight confirmed that he had been contacted regarding the next entry in the series, though what that initial contact will amount to, if anything, remains to be seen. For now, we'll have to reluctantly guard our hopes for hearing Cole's enthusiasm on the battlefield once more. The Gears series' Lancers have gone quiet since last year's Gears of War: Judgment, a prequel to Epic Games' trilogy that was co-developed by Epic Games Poland (formerly known as People Can Fly). Black Tusk hasn't offered a glimpse of its continuation yet, but we do know that Xbox Live's former director of policy and enforcement, Stephen Toulouse, has joined the team to serve as director of community engagement. [Image: Microsoft Studios]
Raven's Manveer Heir urges industry to address ethnic misrepresentation
If there's one thing that Commander Shepard, Nathan Drake, Agent 47, Marcus Fenix, and ... uhh ... Mega Man all have in common, it's not just that they're all video game characters -- they're also all white dudes. And Raven Software's Manveer Heir takes umbrage with that fact (and, more importantly, the fact that being caucasian is a rather pervasive theme across game characters), telling Develop in a recent interview that "There are a large number of hispanic and black children playing games, percentage-wise more so than white children, but these guys aren't getting into the industry because they are not seeing themselves in the games." Moreover, Heir says it's not just a question of equality, but rather a question of missed market opportunity. "It's not about being fair. It's about bringing something new to the art." The Wolverine/Singularity dev also makes a point of sending out a rally call to the rest of the industry, saying, "I'm sure many people in the game industry are starting work on new IP. If we can ask people to think about it, then they are more apt to say 'hey let's try this.' You just need one game to succeed. The first developer or publisher to do this will enjoy a lot of success." For a much more thorough discussion on the subject, we've embedded a video after the break of a panel from DICE 2010, titled "Games of Color," in which Manveer speaks in far more detail on the subject.
A look inside Gears of War 2's arcade
Players who have wandered around spilling blood on the Day One mutliplayer map in Gears of War 2 might have noticed the retro "Playland" arcade in one of the corners, but have any of them checked out the amount of detail that's in there? It's pretty impressive. There are a lot of throwback games referencing 1980s - 1990s coin-op fare, a Thrashball machine and even "Swee Ball," which looks like Sera's version of Skee Ball.Check out the gallery below and read on for more.%Gallery-36688%
Gears of War's Cole singled out as a racial stereotype
As part of their Black Professionals In Games series, MTV Multiplayer had a chance to chat with Morgan Gray, the Senior Producer over at Crystal Dynamics, about his views on how blacks are portrayed in video games. And let's just say he had no problem pointing the racial stereotype finger at Epic Games.When asked his opinion on how black Gears of War character Cole Train is portrayed in the game, Gray responded by saying "Cole Train is basically like every other effin' black character in a video game. Like here comes the urban stereotype. Where is this 1990's - not even 2000 - black slang, where does this fit in this futuristic world that doesn't even take place on Earth? They go really far to do a lot of fictional justifications for this culture that they've built, and they go right back to this urban stereotype for the black character." Gray went on to say that a character like Cole Train, "all it does is reinforce dumb stereotypes and it sort of reinforces casual racism." Yes sir, this is one loaded and passionately argued topic indeed ...
