cliff-bleszinski
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Gears of War 3 to include 'special unlocks' referencing other Epic games
Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has tweeted that Gears of War 3 will feature some "special unlocks" for fans of other games the company has had a hand in, including Unreal Tournament 3, the upcoming Bulletstorm and Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex. Don't worry if you don't happen to own one of those, though, as Epic tells Joystiq directly that Bleszinski was talking about "unlockable content" for everyone rather than something specifically for owners of those other games. "Everybody gets the content," we were told, but "those 'in the know' will just 'get it.'" As in "get a little more excitement out of it," because Epic fans will understand the references. In fact, Epic even added one more title to the list of references that the third Gears of War game will make: its iOS hit Infinity Blade. And if you don't know your God King from your Jason Flemming, or what an Impact Hammer is, then you've got plenty of time to find out before Gears 3 debuts later on in 2011.
UDK out for iOS, Epic demonstrates with Jazz Jackrabbit [update: video!]
The December update for the Unreal Development Kit is available, adding support for development of iOS games in Unreal Engine 3. To help you get started, the latest version includes the full source code for Epic Citadel (along with another new castle map), so you can figure out how those impressive medieval landscapes came to be. To further prove what's possible with the engine, Epic put together a technically impressive twin-stick shooter starring none other than Jazz Jackrabbit, star of Cliff Bleszinski's 1994 side-scroller of the same name. Check out screenshots of this proof-of-concept game in our gallery. Epic told Joystiq that it's currently just a demonstration; the company doesn't have plans to release it. [Update: There's now a tutorial video featuring the Jazz Jackrabbit game, and a "sizzle" video for UDK, after the break.]%Gallery-111515%
Bleszinski sounds off on Bulletstorm's Whedon-esque inspirations, cactus murder
Epic Games design director and Gears of War guru Cliff Bleszinski was recently cornered by PlayStation Blog to chat about the studio's upcoming, over-the-top shooter, Bulletstorm, co-developed by People Can Fly. The outspoken designer shares more than a few interesting pieces of insight into the foul-mouthed title, such as the game drawing creative inspiration from Joss Whedon's short-lived "pulp sci-fi" series, Firefly. Bleszinski also drops a few more details about the game's Horde-inspired co-op mode, Anarchy, which sounds appropriately insane. Additionally, Bleszinski describes his favorite kill (from the game) -- but we're not sure we can contextualize it in a way that you could understand. Just know that a cactus is involved.
No Kinect in Gears of War 3, Bleszinski assures
Cliff Bleszinski has curb-stomped the rumor of Kinect functionality appearing in Gears of War 3. Responding to a report by IGN that suggested motion-control features would emerge in a Gears of War game, the Epic Games developer said on his Twitter: "No Kinect in Gears of War 3." The IGN piece did leave some wiggle room for itself, noting that it "cannot clarify whether or not this is an all-new Gears of War for Kinect or if it's an existing Gears of War game, retro-fitted for the camera controller." The reveal will apparently be made at the Spike TV Video Games Awards. Master of WORLD EXCLUSIVES, Geoff Keighley, has already started to hype the show's "world premiere announcements," teasing two earlier reveals set for Wednesday. If Microsoft wants to combine Gears of War with some optional Kinect functionality, it seems like a perfectly reasonable way to get more core gamers interested in the peripheral, which is a little too family friendly with its catalog at the moment. However, if we don't get a Tickle-Me Dominic™ minigame, we'll consider any Kinect/Gears crossover a failure.
Cliff Bleszinski (probably) beat more NES games than you
Beyond being recognized as a high score champion in the first issue of Nintendo Power, Gears of War creative lead Cliff Bleszinski has an NES marked up with permanent tallies -- what he approximates to represent "close to 60" completed games. He's also got a totally rad sticker of Link on it.
Interview: Cliff Bleszinski on Gears of War 3
During E3, we managed to distract Cliff Bleszinski, design director for Epic Games and the face of Gears of War, long enough for an interview. Despite our intense interrogation, he remained a good sport throughout and offered us candid answers. The full interview follows. Joystiq: Most of the things we want to ask, you probably can't talk about yet -- like Gears 3 multiplayer ... Cliff Bleszinski: Can't talk about that yet. Okay, let's try it this way: in Gears 1, a lot of people complained about opponents being able to roadie run into them, stun them with a punch and then shoot them -- and you guys fixed that with updates. Are you concerned that the new spearing ability, with the retro Lancer, is going to lead to similar complaints in Gears 3 multiplayer? You know, we try our best that before we ship, we balance these things as much as possible. But when you release into the wild, you never know what the gamers are going to come up with. So in regards to the Lancer charge, we're going to try our best to, you know, play with it as much as we can and you never know. We did six title updates to Gears 2 and we continue to refine that experience. Matchmaking wasn't the best at the start, but we stand behind our products and continue to support them. %Gallery-90396%
Video: Gears of War 3 campaign demonstration
If you were absent, either online or otherwise, from the Microsoft press conference last week at E3, you probably missed out on Cliff Bleszinski's brief demonstration of Gears of War 3's single-player campaign. No worries -- through the power of internet magic, we've captured this moment in time and embedded it in a video posted after the jump. Now you can witness all the profanity, bloodshed and bayoneting from the safety and comfort of your own home.
Gears of War 3, now with Ice-T
That rumor about Ice-T playing a role in Gears of War 3? Totally true. The man himself took the stage at tonight's Gears of War 3 shindig in downtown LA, as indicated by Major Nelson on Twitter (and seen in the picture above, also care of Major's tweet). Apparently, he'll voice a character named Griffin, with Gears creator Cliff Bleszinski mentioning Ice "won't stop telling everyone about his role as Griffin in Gears 3." What's that, you say? You're just as excited as we are to hear Ice-T's debut gameplay voiceover role? Good! Now get back to reading about E3 2010, won't you? Update: Microsoft officially detailed Ice's character Griffin as the leader of "a rag-tag group of human survivors, known as the Stranded, who Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad will encounter as they battle the infected Lambent."
Epic's Mike Capps: PC piracy 'changed our business model'
Recent comments from Epic Games president Mike Capps in Edge Magazine (via Develop) show the developer's frustration with the PC piracy scene, as well as its hesitance to fully embrace the platform. "We still do PC, we still love the PC, but we already saw the impact of piracy: it killed a lot of great independent developers and completely changed our business model," Capps said. Of course, Epic's shift to console development (think: Gears of War) also makes a lot of cents ... err, sense. "And now, people are saying 'why do you hate the PC? You're a console-only company.' It's because the money's on consoles," he said. Capps' candid stance likely doesn't preclude future success on PC -- there's still fertile land out there -- but for now, Epic has prioritized console blockbusters. It's a shame it'll have to miss out on that $13 billion pie, though. We know how much Cliff Bleszinski likes his pie.
Impressions: Bulletstorm
Epic Games and Painkiller dev People Can Fly have finally taken the wraps off Bulletstorm, their FPS collaboration for EA, and it's looking like a brutal yet beautiful love note to fans of over-the-top action. Epic's design director Cliff Bleszinski and Bulletstorm producer Tanya Jessen (who also produced Gears of War on PC) flew in to San Francisco last week to debut the game. The duo kicked things off with the above trailer before getting into the nitty-gritty details in a live gameplay demo, with Bleszinski steeling the crowd for what he considers to be "a mix of Burnout, Duke Nukem and Firefly / Serenity." Bleszinski prefaced the demo by saying that, while still very much into the Gears series, "what really gets me out of bed in the morning is crafting a whole new world" -- something that he's excited to do on this project with the team at People Can Fly in Poland. He says he plays the game three to four times a week to offer his feedback, and that Epic's art and production teams in Raleigh, NC work daily with PCF. He said that Epic also sends techs to the developer on a frequent basis to ensure that it is up to speed on Unreal Engine updates. Whatever they're all doing, it looks amazing -- both from a visual and gameplay standpoint. Blezsinski said that, unlike most modern FPS titles, Bulletstorm "doesn't take itself too seriously," adding that it has the intense action, the headshots and the like, but "does it with a wink and a smile." But what does it do differently? Skillshots. "It's like a cat playing with a mouse before killing it," Blezsinski said of the game's core play mechanic, claiming that it takes the scoring system introduced in Unreal Tournament -- killing sprees, double-kills, etc. -- to "the next level." %Gallery-92124%
Watch the Gears of War 3 trailer right now
Why wait for Cliff Bleszinski to debut Gears of War 3 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon? Here's the trailer for the "worst-kept secret in the video game industry," posted to the Late Night website (and embedded above) ... before it's appeared on television. The trailer is prefaced by some banter with Mister B about his vintage Nintendo Power appearance and what makes a great game. The new game has playable female soldiers in it! Take that, Crackdown 2! Don't worry, it's still jam-packed with men who look like refrigerators and mellow music, like the famous Gears of War trailer (in this case, Sun Kil Moon's "Heron Blue"). Other elements mentioned by Cliff include new weapons and new aliens -- "crazy tentacle monsters" with mutating ability. Bleszinski said GOW3 will arrive "probably around April 8" -- one year after his Late Night appearance was supposed to be shown. Wouldn't that have been nice marketing? Oh, well. Update: Official release date is April 5, 2011. And catch Cliff's Late Night appearance after the break. %Gallery-90396%
Epic Games planning gala celebration to open Tokyo office
Fujisoft building in Akihabara [image source] Epic Games has announced the official opening of its Japan office -- on April 15, the company will hold an event in the Fujisoft Building in Tokyo's Akihabara district, and the guest list includes a few gaming luminaries, including No More Heroes' Suda51, Halo Legends producer Joseph Chou and, of course, Epic Games' Tim Sweeney and Jay Wilbur will be there as well. Cliff Bleszinski won't be in attendance -- he'll be delivering an address via video, which we presume will come from the underground bunker where he's working on Gears of War 3. Taka Kawasaki will also be there -- he's the "territory manager" for Epic Games Japan, and he'll give a short address about the purpose of the studio, which will be to handle both licensing and tech support for Unreal Engine 3 in the region with a team hired starting last year at TGS. This will be the sixth such center for Epic, which also operates centers in North Carolina and Utah, and overseas in Poland, Shanghai and Seoul. There was one set up on the far-off planet of Sera, but unfortunately it was destroyed by a giant worm. We're told Sera-based licensees should call Utah if they happen to need engine support.
Bulletstorm to induce yells in 2011
[Game Informer] It's official: EA has announced Epic and People Can Fly's Bulletstorm for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3, targeted for a 2011 release -- which means that both of the games we thought Cliff Bleszinski planned to bring to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon have been revealed by publishers beforehand. It was a scheduling error that got Gears of War 3 announced early; EA's motivation for sending out this press release before the show is less clear. Perhaps it's the fact that Game Informer beat EA to it. Or perhaps this press release was the Monday announcement Bleszinski was talking about, and Bulletstorm won't be on TV tonight. But enough of that: what's the game about? Bulletstorm stars Grayson Hunt, one of two mercenaries exiled to a distant planet when they're labeled as traitors. The pair end up "surrounded by hordes of mutants and flesh eating gangs in an abandoned paradise," and fight to survive, make it back home, and get revenge. Bulletstorm features a "skillshot" system that offers rewards (in the form of points that can be redeemed for weapons) for creative kills -- a system that the announcement says "produces unprecedented levels of frantic gameplay and yell-inducing satisfaction."
CliffyB: 'Two upcoming games' on Monday's Late Night; Us: It's totally Bulletstorm and Gears of War 3
When Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski got bumped from last night's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon because of a Justin Bieber-shaped "scheduling conflict," someone forgot to tell the Xbox Dashboard programming team who, inadvertently, spoiled Mr. B's big reveal: Gears of War 3. Re-booked for Monday's show with no big reveal has left Epic Games with only one alternative: reveal a second game! CliffyB took to Twitter with the following comment: "NEWSFLASH: Two announcements about two upcoming games on Monday. BOOM!" Lucky for them, Epic has a second game that's just about ready for its close-up, People Can Fly's Bulletstorm. Now, he didn't say specifically that Bulletstorm would be the second "upcoming" game, but the pieces are certainly in place. Take, for example, the cover of next month's Game Informer magazine, which can already be found floating around various corners of the internet. Of course, Epic could simply be following Nintendo's lucrative Pokemon strategy and releasing two editions of Gears of War 3. If so, might we suggest Gears of War 3 Brown and Gears of War 3 Gray? [Update: Not ones to let some internet scans steal their story, the Game Informer crew has come right out and said it, albeit a few days earlier than planned: "The latest issue of Game Informer Magazine [has a] world-exclusive look at People Can Fly's upcoming shooter, Bulletstorm." They've got some higher-res art too, if you're interested.]
PSA: Cliff Bleszinski's new game reveal on Fallon bumped to Monday, April 12
Those eagerly awaiting the network television reveal of Gears of War creator Cliff "Don't Call Me CliffyB" Bleszinski's newest game (that includes us!) will have to wait a few more days, unfortunately. Originally scheduled for tonight's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon taping, Bleszinski's appearance has been bumped to Monday night, April 12 at 12:35/11:35C. The news was dropped by Gavin Purcell, co-producer of Late Night, via his Twitter feed. Purcell cited a "scheduling conflict" as the reason for the last-minute switcheroo. We bet that Cliff's taking the weekend to add Extra Awesome™ to whatever he's about to spring on us.
Gears of War director to debut new game on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
It must be warming up outside the epic Games HQ in North Carolina, because Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski is gearing up to debut his latest game. The news comes from none other than Late Night host (and friend of games) Jimmy Fallon, who's tweeted that, "Game designer Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) debuts his new game on Late Night next Thur. Set your TiVos! And your Xboxes." If, like us, you're already grabbing your remote to do just that, Late Night airs on NBC at 12:35/11:35C and Mr. Fallon is specifically referring to the show that will air the night of Thursday, April 8 (or very early Friday, April 9 depending where you live). Any guesses that don't rhyme with "deers and boars tree?"
Overheard@GDC: The Cliff Bleszinski Pie Analogy
[Flickr: Ephemeron] "Save your fork, there'll be pie. The game is the fork and the pie is the DLC." –Cliff Bleszinski After confessing to having a big appetite for Borderlands, the Gears of War developer used the pie analogy to explain to Joystiq how games without any sort of DLC "hooks" are becoming increasingly rare.
Gears of War now available via Xbox Live Games on Demand
Put down that can of Imulsion energy drink, friend, 'cause we've got some good news for you (and we wouldn't want you to choke, you know). The original Gears of War has arrived on Xbox Live's Games on Demand service, making it that much easier to get ready for next year's big announcement from series creator Cliff Bleszinski (spoilers: it's probably Gears of War 3!). For the usual $19.99, all 6GB of Marcus Fenix's Locust murder opus can be yours -- without all that pesky 'physical media' nonsense -- through the Xbox Live Marketplace (except in Japan, sorry!). We've linked it below of course, for your convenience. Shortcut: Add Gears of War to your Xbox 360 download queue (via Xbox.com)
VGA 2009: Cliff Bleszinski teases new projects, more to come 'when the weather's warm'
This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Epic's Cliff Bleszinski. So you segued from Gears into Shadow Complex ... what are you working on now? I can't tell you that! It's actually quite agonizing for me right now, because there's a bunch of awesome shit we're working on, but I can't say a damn thing about it no matter how many alcoholic beverages you might try and feed me! Well, maybe if you bribe me with hookers and blow, that might work. Shadow Complex will be on sale during the holidays. Was that Microsoft's idea or Epic's? Microsoft is doing that promo. They're doing some other stuff as well to help drive the holiday sales. I mean, in this day and age look how crammed Christmas is, and it's like March is the new holiday. Everybody's moved out to March. I think it's good because the good games will rise, and the bad games will sink, right? I was getting tired of the fact that everyone had to cram everything into the holiday season. Hopefully we'll get some quality releases in March that will do well, and the gaming industry can sell more than 80% of its games outside of a three month period. What are you playing right now? I'm playing the hell out of Modern Warfare 2 and I hate those guys, because those guys are so awesome. Uncharted 2 I beat, which was absolutely stellar. Borderlands co-op is amazing ... that's the only way to play, really. I gush about it not just because it's our engine but because Randy and those guys are good friends, and it's the kind of game I really want to play. It's the perfect blending of the shooter and the RPG. So when will we hear about this "awesome shit"? Maybe sometime when the weather's warm, you'll be hearing something.
Gears of War COG and Locust Armor coming to Xbox Live Avatars
During the Gearsiverse panel at Comic-Con, Epic's Cliff Bleszinski and Ron Fergusson revealed that there will be Gears of War-themed armor of both the COG and Locust variety coming to XBL Avatars soon. One rule that Microsoft imposes on Avatar clothing and models is that they "can't look inhuman," according to Bleszinski. So they pieced together a workaround set of Locust armor that you can check out beyond the break.Look for these new Avatar upgrades to be available when the next Xbox Live dashboard update becomes available soon. Meanwhile, we're going to scurry out to our preview builds to see if they're already available. Be sure and peep the Locust image, just around the corner.
