Good bye, Cliff Bleszinski
- Thread starter Phil
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Right! Like that one game where you're rewarded with achievements for dicking around with the physics engine, something that gamers had never done before. Or what about that one game where you fight in a stark locale against an overwhelming alien foe. I speak of course of Lost Planet. And he's got way more exciting original stuff coming down the pipeline like...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War:_Judgment
It's weird. Videogaming is starting to get twattish useless celebrity creators (complete with inflated reputations) but without any of concurrent maturation of the medium besides very incremental improvements.
Phil represents the slavish fan side of the equation which shoots down valid criticism (the vast majority of Mr. Bleszinski's work is indeed derivative shooters, a few exceptions (for which he deserves credit) aside) by saying that detractors literally don't know what they're talking about.
Reminds me of that old Talking Heads song.
Same as it ever was... same as it ever was...
Not counting any Gears of War title?
Every Unreal Game(Eight if I recall correctly)
Shadow Complex
Jazz Jackrabbit games
Lost Planet 2
Now, I'm not saying that the games he was involved in are true masterpieces, but they sure as hell were fun, especialy the Unreal games. Those are just fun games that anyone can pick up and play if they played FPSs before.
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I thought this was a defining characteristic of the FPS genre. Attributing it to any one person is just wrong.
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I "picked up and played" Unreal III. It is not intuitive compared to otther shooting titles.
Shiuzu
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I'd call his involvement in Shadow Complex minimal at best. Chair is a subsidiary of Epic, that's like saying Bill Gates is responsible for Halo Reach...hold on, did you actually just envoke Jazz Jackrabbit?..alright my nostalgia will give you that one. Most of the Unreal games were pretty substandard FPS' which also I don't think Cliff was heavily involved in, at least not as a helmsman, that was Tim Sweeny I believe. Lost Planet 2? You're going to have to explain that one to me.
When you try to sound cool and hip to make a point you just come across as a ****ing plum.
Clearly.
I was mearly going off what his Wikipedia page said he was involved in, though it's been ages since I played Jazz Jackrabbit and I never played Lost Planet 2 save for the demo. It just agrivated me when someone thinks of Epic, all they think is Gears of War when there have been other good games before.
Wasn't trying to sound "cool and hip".
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This. And I already addressed Lost Planet.
You can argue (and have a totally valid opinion therein) that Epic's incremental improvements are fine for a game, but that does not address Kit's point of an essential sameness/genericness to their fare.
If a game is generic because it's core game mechanics are prevalent in many games throughout the industry (read: cover-based shooting and regenerating health), than I would argue that all games are generic in some form. What makes Gears of War any more generic than, say, anything Valve has ever made?
Anyway, sad to see CliffyB go, but the news doesn't surprise me. If Gears 3 and that crappy FPS that were made are any indication, Epic Games is kind of on the downward spiral anyway. Perhaps he'll find himself somewhere where his talents are more appreciated.
Anyway, sad to see CliffyB go, but the news doesn't surprise me. If Gears 3 and that crappy FPS that were made are any indication, Epic Games is kind of on the downward spiral anyway. Perhaps he'll find himself somewhere where his talents are more appreciated.
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If you keep going along that logic, then all video games are generic: all you do is press buttons while staring at a screen. I never actually played Gears of War, since I thought the game's art design was really boring, so I can't say much about the franchise at all.
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Well, the fact that Valve's games tend to have genuinely innovative mechanics (see portal) or fantastic characterisation and pacing and atmosphere (such as half life) as opposed to Gears, which was always just running to the next piece of cover, shooting, rinse and repeat. At least games like Cod and Battlefied have interesting set pieces. Gears always just felt like a cover based trudge to the next bit of cover.
But the gameplay isn't the only disappointing part of Gears. The story, pacing, atmosphere and characters were all quite weak. Never got into the games, they just never really had any pull.
I can't really name any breathtaking moments from Gears. By contrast, I can still remember parts of goldeneye vividly, and that came out nearly 15 years ago.
Portal wasn't innovative. It was a a first-person shooter puzzle game, hardly unique, and portal isn't the first game to have teleporter puzzles.
I thought Half-Life's pacing was terrible, especially the second game. It was far too long considering you spent huge swaths of time wandering empty landscapes by yourself. Alyx Vance was remotely interesting, but the characterization of everyone else may as well have been non-existent.
I thought Gears of War had much better pacing, and the characters are some of my favorite in any video game franchise.
So yah, obviously personal taste is probably the most important factor regarding video games, but from an objective perspective I really don't see how Valve's games are any more innovative or fresh than any Gears of War game.
I thought Half-Life's pacing was terrible, especially the second game. It was far too long considering you spent huge swaths of time wandering empty landscapes by yourself. Alyx Vance was remotely interesting, but the characterization of everyone else may as well have been non-existent.
I thought Gears of War had much better pacing, and the characters are some of my favorite in any video game franchise.
So yah, obviously personal taste is probably the most important factor regarding video games, but from an objective perspective I really don't see how Valve's games are any more innovative or fresh than any Gears of War game.
