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Read my lips: Gears of War will pwn
NextTechNews calls attention to a glossed over nugget of Gears of War goodness: Epic took the time to include some fancy lip-synching so that when you yell obscenity-laced voice commands into your headset, the character on the screen mouths along in real time. Very cool -- and no small task judging by the crusty choppers at right. It's nice see Cliffy B & Company sweating the small stuff. We all know that sometimes it's that little extra detail that makes the difference between a great game and an honest-to-God killer app. [via Xboxic]
GoW takes it to the next level
The lovely Tina wood from The 10 Show lends her slightly annoying reporting talents to this otherwise watchable video of a nameless Epic staffer showing off Gears of War level design via the Unreal 3 editor. Did you know they design these next-gen games on "high-end PCs" as opposed to decade old garage sale laptops?[Via Xboxic]
Midway announces Unreal Anthology
The impossibly gorgeous Unreal Tournament 2007 won't be out for quite a while yet, a fact which appears powerless to stop Midway from making a few bucks from the franchise they previously snatched away from Atari. Dubbed Unreal Anthology, their neat little package will contain the original Nali slaughterfest, Unreal, its Return to Na Pali expansion pack, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition and Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition. Come this August, you'll be able to waltz into a store and pick up three great first-person shooters (and one alarmingly average one) for the satisfying sum of $29.99. You may also want to peruse the rest of the PC section and discover all the other titles you've missed in the years that you've been trapped in cryogenic suspension (yes, Half-Life has a sequel now).
CliffyB gears up for war
Here's a pre-E3 interview with the famous CliffyB. Old stuff, but interesting nonetheless. I like to think the "B" stands for "Bunny" instead of Brez..Blez... whatever.
Cliffy B: Epic in talks with Nintendo
While conducting a Q & A over the phone with Epic's Cliff Bleszinski, Joystiq's Chris Grant managed to get some of Cliff's opinions on the Wii as well as the juicy nugget of info that the company is currently in talks with Nintendo. Some of Cliff's interpretations on the new control scheme are refreshingly objective. "I reserve judgment of the Wii until I get hands on with it. I was very judgmental about the DS until I actually got to play hands-on with it and I love Trauma Center and stuff like that. You know what, Nintendo is zigging while everyone else is zagging and they'll be just for it. I give them props for doing something different. My advice to anybody developing a first person shooter for the Revolution is: even though you have a new way to control and make a new FPS you still need a cool, compelling FPS underneath that. [Control] is only one of five things that you need. Give us a Half-Life 2 with those controls and I'll be first in line to buy it."Hopefully the talks will go well and Epic will get a chance to bring a compelling game like he is describing to the platform.
Joystiq Interview: Epic's Cliff Bleszinski
To help promote the MTV2 special on Gears of War airing tonight, Microsoft was facilitating some quick phone interviews with the game's lead designer, Cliff Bleszinski (aka CliffyB). We got his thoughts on the game's reception at E3, the ongoing console wars, his application of the "mom test," and thoughts on episodic content (hint: he digs it). I wanted to congratulate you on the success of Gears of War at E3. In a year without a lot of standout titles, Gears of War was the talk of the show. That said, why wasn't it playable on the show floor?We wanted it to be playable with the versus multiplayer. Thing is, the show floor -- to me -- is a clusterfuck. It is an absolute trainwreck of noise, and boobs, and sweat, and swag, and there is no worse venue to pick up a game and start to play than the show floor of E3. Taking people away from the show floor and putting them into the little theater is a much better experience and that's what we wanted to do with the versus multiplayer. Our gift and our curse with Gears is we're doing something slightly different: you're not out there looking out the barrel of the gun the entire time; shooting enemies that die in two shots; running and gunning like every other game. You have to take cover. You have enemies that take more than two shots to take out, and they're smart, and they take cover, and flank you. Learning that in E3 is not the proper venue to do that, which is why we chose to go with hands-on versus multiplayer because it was a bit more accessible. Now when a person buys the game and sits down in their living room and they go through the tutorial and go through the proper steps to learn how to play the game, they'll dig it. We're really feeling they'll get what we're going for. But presenting that at E3 would have been a mistake.
Gears of War special on MTV2 2nite
As promised during Microsoft's keynote, the inside look at the production of Gears of War is airing on MTV's more music oriented (but, but, but) sister site MTV2 tonight. Sure, we all remember the disappointment of the Xbox 360's MTV debut, but Gears of War: The Race to E3 has the right idea. According to the media alert, production is being handled by LivePlanet (the Project Greenlight guys) and Geoff Keighley (who actually knows a thing or two about games), so you can start setting your expectations unreasonably high now. The show airs tonight at 10PM Eastern/Pacific on MTV2. Don't worry about missing it, it'll air again and again and again. Check out an additional clip from the show of CliffyB meeting world's richest gamer, Bill Gates (embedded after the break.) Apparently Bill likes the chainsaw/gun combo. [Via Gamerscore]
MTV to broadcast Gears of War: The Race to E3
You know the game, you know its creator, and now you're about to get the chance to see it all come together for the biggest videogame gathering in the world. MTV2 is going to be showing Gears of War: The Race to E3 tonight at 10PM EST. Not unlike the other reality stuff you see on the channel, this is also guaranteed to have drama, angst and outlandish acts of geek life. Actually, this show will feature all of the behind-the-scenes action from one of the most badass development houses in the industry. Backed by CliffyB, it will follow the six-week road to LA and all the development from the inside. Speaking with IGN, Cliff had this to say: "MTV captured the essence of us making the game. They caught us going to the airport, me getting nervous backstage at the news conference, they caught me with talking with Bill Gates, givin' each other s&^%, all sorts of stuff. It's pretty amazing." His hopes are that it will give everyone, not just fans, a taste of life behind the game. This will be a rare sight to see, including some game elements that we haven't had a chance to look at yet (like the sidekick Anya).
CliffyB's guided tour through Gears of War
You already know what we thought of CliffyB's space marine action shooter, Gears of War (in case you don't, it's awesome!). Now listen to what CliffyB has to say about it. Gears of War Realm (that's right, a GoW specific fansite is already up and running) has posted a video of CliffyB's part in an E3 panel with a troika of console-specific gaming luminaries including Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid 4 on PS3), Xavier Poixwho (Red Steel on Wii), and Cliff Bleszinski (Gears of War on Xbox 360, duh). Cliffy talks a bit about his design of the game -- "it's almost like a platform game but instead of jumping up, you're jumping forward and around the world" -- before walking us through the first level with running director's commentary. I always love the juxtaposition of thoughtful CliffyB (see Smartbomb) and pimp-suit CliffyB. Thoughtful CliffyB is on display here. [Thanks, Luke](Update: I've embedded a higher-quality video after the break. Thanks for the link, James!)
New Professions Guides
The official WoW site recently featured a fairly comprehensive list of profession guides culled from the US and EU forums as well as external websites. After looking through them, I have to say these are excellent references for any profession. Still looking for more info on your profession of choice? We posted a brief guide to power-leveling certain professions a while back as well as a guide to the game's craftable epic items. (Expect the latter to be updated some time today with a few new recipes!)
Unreal Tournament 2007 coming to Xbox 360
Not sure if this wasn't planned all along, but the above image from the May 2006 issue of GamePro magazine clearly says Unreal Tournament 3 will be coming to the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. During Epic's press preview at GDC, Mark Rein said that UT2007 was being developed on both the PC and PS3 platforms; however, Gears of War is obviously being developed on the Xbox 360. Since the Unreal Engine 3 middleware is built for both systems, there is no technical reason the games couldn't be cross ported. GoW is still a 360 exclusive ... for now.[Thanks, Mike]
Status Symbols
I have recently come to the conclusion that I would really like a Winterspring Frostsaber mount, which has started me thinking about some of Warcraft's biggest time sinks - rare items that few acquire due to the difficulty involved, that make your character stand out in the crowds of players all wearing the same top-tier armor. The first players on the my server with prized items such as the Ashkahndi, the Staff of the Shadow Flame, and the Claw of Chromaggus had minor celebrity status for a while, but as more and more players have acquired the same drops, the unique factor of them has worn off. There are even enough players on the server with legendary items such as Sulfuras and Thunderfury that those no longer get a second glance. However, there are still a few items in-game that remain sufficiently rare as to be status symbols of a sort. Rare mounts rank highly among these, such as the Winterspring Frostsaber (which requires a long quest grind), the Swift Razzashi Raptor (a very rare drop from Zul'Gurub), the Swift Zulian Tiger (another very rare drop from Zul'Gurub), and Baron Rivendare's steed (such a rare drop that I have never seen anyone riding one).Are there any other items that you see as in-game status symbols (for good or bad)? Or any such rare items you plan to spend the time or effort acquiring for yourself?
CliffyB says GoW is "oh-so-fun"
You gotta love Epic's Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinki. And not just because he looks like a cross between a Backstreet Boy and some ad agency's idea of what a gamer "should" look like. I don't want to be accused of hanging on his every word concerning Gears of War, but why not? Here the self-proclaimed attention whore unleashes his giddy glee about the coolness of co-op:"We had a press junket this week at work where I was FINALLY able to unveil some of the reasons why Gears will be oh-so-fun to play” explains CliffyB.'It's not anyone's surprise that co-op is going to be a big feature and being able to show it off in full glory with good ol' Rod next to me was a heck of a milestone. It makes quite a bit of difference when both of us are actual characters in the story and not just clones of one another."Let's all pray GoW meets our co-llossal expectations. The rest of Cliffy's attention-whoring post was about Kobe Beef.
Mod summit looks at modmaking from all angles
Computer Gaming World has (by way of 1up) a roundtable chat with various game developers and modders. If you've ever flirted with modding or downloaded a mod or two then it's a great read, looking at mods from both sides of the game engine.A couple of interesting points for would-be modmakers include the fact that modmaking is becoming more complex, linked to the increasing sophistication of game engines, and a tip from modders that FPS seems to be the genre of choice. While modmakers have no salary or loyalties, meaning that their creativity can run free, sometimes modding is a hard and unrewarding business. Fortunately, there are also success stories from modders who have moved into the games industry as a result of their work.[Update: Corrected CGW, thanks Stevo.]
New Gears of War screens, for real this time
Last time we saw screenshots from Gears of War--the 360's most anticipated title (remember: Halo 3 doesn't even exist!)--Epic was quick to kill our buzz saying the shots "don't come anywhere close to representing what the game looks like today." 360Monster has our fix: 25 shiny new shots of Gears of War; let's see Epic shoot these down! With playable demos being spotted in the wild, we expect to be able to get our hands on GoW come E3... maybe even some XBLM demo action. Come on Epic, we'll be gentle.[Thanks, Russ]UPDATE: The first 25 shots in 360Monster's gallery aren't actually new (they're taken from the X05 trailer), though the following two in the series are. Check out the high-res versions at Xboxic.
The Gears of War buzzkill post
Earlier today we received several tips pointing us to a user-submitted piece of guesswork by an indiviudal using the nom de guerre "Hedgehog Boy" on gaming site GameDreamZ. He wrote, "One particular game demo that set the net alite [sic] was a 'Gears of War' demo possibly hitting the Marketplace this month! Yeah, the timing is laughably imaginative, but the demo is real, and may be coming sooner than you think." We've been spared the trouble of effusing skepticism; Epic's Mark Rein responded to the rumors saying, "There is no chance a demo level of Gears is hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace this month, next month or the month after that. We love the Xbox Live Marketplace and Xbox Live Arcade and have lots of cool ideas how we can leverage them but not until the game is finished and we don't realistically know when that will be at this point in time."We weren't spared completely though! The screenshots that we linked to yesterday had been released by Epic's publisher without their permission. Rein said, "They were never intended for release and they don't come anywhere close to representing what the game looks like today." That gets me to my final point:No demo and no screenshots? Yesterday I wrote "Let's hope the gameplay lives up to the screens." Epic seems to be preempting the hype by playing their hand very close to their vest.[Via Gaming-360]
The trouble with epics?
I must say, in all my forum travels, this is one of the more educated posts I have read in a long time. It is a well thought out piece of writing that goes over epics and their high damage output.The post goes in to detail as to why tier-2 epics are overpowered from a damage output perspective and not enough damage absorption. The crazy part is when he compares a blue equipped mage versus a blue equipped hunter, or the same pair wearing MC epics - the mage can crit for 38% and 42% of the hunter's life, respectively. A BWL equipped mage can score a 71% crit on the hunter's hp. That is insane!The poster also goes on to mention various ideas to bring things back into balance, which I applaud him for! Nothing will get a problem solved faster than having a solution attached to the complaint. While I think this isn't something we will see fixed quickly, hopefully Blizzard will take notice before they release the expansion (one of the solutions).I also liked the idea of changing spell resistance to be more of a partial blockage of the damage (similar to AC and melee damage) rather than an all or nothing deal.Kudos to Arash for such a fine post.
Unreal Championship 2 review round-up
We've already stressed that UC2: The Liandri Conflict is not for everyone. But for those gamers that welcome the challenge, UC2 offers arguably the most intense players-vs-player(s) action on the Xbox. Whether FPS or 3rd-person hand-to-hand, UC2 exploits the Live! medium almost flawlessly. Current reviews: EGM (82) Game Informer (93) GamePro (80) Games Radar UK (90) IGN (93) Maxim Online (100) Official Xbox Magazine (93) Play Magazine (65) TotalGames.net (74)
Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
Unreal Championship is not for everyone. Around here, we like to think of it as Halo on speed, a lot of speed. Old school Quake-junkies eat this kinda thing up-along with any unknowing newbies. Just be aware of what you're getting into and prepare to learn the true definition of "respawn". A look at some print scores: EGM (82) Game Informer (93) GamePro (80) Official Xbox Magazine (93) Play Magazine (65)
Unreal Championship 2 is coming
And it's for Microsoft's little black box. This preview of "Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict" drops some interesting facts. Like finishing moves for your character, ala "Mortal Kombat". Hmm... There are various other features that raise an eyebrow too, but then I'm looking at the game from an "Untreal Tournament 2004" perspective, having never played the first game. It sure sounds like good chaotic fun, though. While I don't think I'll ever get the urge for a Nintendo machine (sit down big "N' fans, that's not an insult, just personal choice), Microsoft's box is looking more appealing with each big release...
