Cliff Bleszinski: shifting gears

labaronx - 128 days 4 hours ago

he's still pretty good over all and Gears 1 and 2 are very good starts for someone with a very promising career... he should be warned however that not everyone embraces change or are open to new ideas... this new generation of gamers appear to play the same things over and over again gears, COD etc and whine about change (mirrors edge).

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PirateThom - 128 days 3 hours ago

Gears of War wasn't his first game though. His first game was in the early 90s. I think Gears of War was something like his sixth game (citation needed). I think he's vastly overrated as a designer, his games are fun (be it Jazz Jackrabbit or Gears of War), but he's hardly one of the video game greats, not yet anyway.

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Jockamo - 128 days 2 hours ago

Kojima, Miyamoto, Will Wright are dynamic stalwarts in the gaming industry.

I would put Blezinski in the same category as David Jaffe, but only because he hasn't made a decent Twisted Metal in a while...

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SevWolf - 128 days 2 hours ago

@ piratethom: OMFG, JAZZJACKRABBIT, sorry about spazzing but I havent thought of that game in sooo ling, man so many memories
@jockamo: I would put David J, a bit higher than Cliffy just because, he's created 2 of the most iconic character ever known on gaming(Sweet Tooth, Kratos) eventhough Marcus fenix is a great character, he cant compare with the other two, but Cliffy is still a great developer(overrated) but nonetheless a great one, and still up there with the greats

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KionicWarlord222 - 128 days 2 hours ago

What did that have to do with the interview?

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Jockamo - 128 days 1 hour ago

Yes, but you can't forget that Cliffy was also the lead designer for the Unreal Tournament series, one of the most successful FPS franchises of all time.

I say they're equal in that regard.

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dachiefsman - 127 days 22 hours ago

Nothing of course. Then claims not to be trolling. HAHAHAAHHA!

Cliff is a good designer, even Jaffe said this.

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zlatko - 127 days 21 hours ago

I thought Cliff was on to something with Gears of War 1, but Gears of War 2 proves he doesn't get how to make a game that works. He didn't beta test it, he didn't shell out for dedicated servers(even though a game like Left 4 Dead on Xbox 360 has it), and he didn't fix any of the bugs from Gears of War 1 + he let slide an onslaught of new ones.

As a game developer you are supposed to learn from your past mistakes not leave them be then scoop up a handful more to ruin your games potential.

To anyone who thinks Gears of War 2 was a success as a "good" game, then you probably only own a Xbox 360 and don't have options to try many online shooting games. I played Gears of War 1 for 6 months day in and day out, and dropped out of Gears 2 before even a month of its release. I was 500 in the world in 3 diff game types in Gears 2, but being good at a bad game was like bragging about coming in first in the special olympics.

Count me out on the Cliff love train, but until he learns how to do things right I don't wanna hear squat from him. You realize at E3 he had to end his stage demo short because it glitched on that spider boss right? He can't even handle a Xbox Live Arcade game that is glitchless let alone a multi million dollar project. He is far from being one of the "great" designers. He proves it time and time again.

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Redgehammer - 127 days 20 hours ago

Unless of course you belong in the Special Olympics right? I mean, you are not denigrating the good souls that actually compete in the Special Olympics are you?

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KionicWarlord222 - 127 days 20 hours ago

I think cliffyb proved he is a amazing dev with gears of war 2. Yes the multiplayer had a bad launch. But the single player was amazing in every way. With the new addition to horde mode, the training option,multiplayer,photo option, It really blew gears of war 1 away.

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zlatko - 127 days 19 hours ago

I like how I posted substantial non flame bait information about WHY I think he is a poor game developer and I got blasted with disagrees.

Seriously think what Gears of War 2 would've been like if crab walking, kung fu flipping, shield glitching, etc had NEVER existed in it? What if they had added dedicated servers too so you never have to experience a poor connection game? Would you have liked a beta test for Gears 2 to help catch the smoke grenade flaws, the weird bug with the mortar where it just fires a shot at your feet right away, and how the chainsaw on poor connections creates a massive funnel effect?

The things I'm stating are things a game developer who's supposed expertise is ONLINE MULTIPLAYER (Unreal games, Gears), is the crown jewel, yet here he is not upping the anty in anyway.

How big of a success would you have thought Killzone 2 would have been if it hadn't changed at all since Killzone 1 for the multiplayer and then to top it off had even more problems load into it? What if Rainbow Six Vegas 1 had no changes whatsoever to the multiplayer into #2, then to seal the deal threw in more BS to handle?

Think logically here. As a game developer he is NOT learning or taking his job seriously enough. The story for #2 wasn't even as great from an experience aspect as #1, since the final boss was a joke, and Dom's story just felt forced upon the player in every way. The game didn't really prove any answers from #1 either, but simply just added in more questions. Horde was a great thing to touch on for a week, for me it simply wasn't the reason I bought Gears 2 for and keep playing it. Plus, it lacked variety in Horde mode so that it got boring fast.

Please stop me where I'm not making sense, because this isn't flaming this is just stating things that are the way they are.

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KionicWarlord222 - 127 days 19 hours ago

How can i prove you wrong?

It`s your opinion.

But i will say...the last boss should have been better then ramm. I like stories that add more questions to the franchises story.

It`s all in everyone`s opinion of what they do like and what they dont like. Dedicated servers are in unreal. I keep asking my self why cliffy b didn't put it in gears.

*shakes head*

Well in my opinion cliffy b doing a good job.

But probably because im a fan of the series...

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Shbzshar - 127 days 19 hours ago

... more specifically the chainsaw in it... firstly the concept was all blezinskis idea and he pushed for having it in the game pretty hard during the pre gears 1 release...

epic and microsoft did not want it in the first game as it seemed too voilent yet he continuously insisted on having it... its all there in the gear 1 video doc ..so always remember, no blezinski - no lancer ...

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Shepherd 214 - 127 days 14 hours ago

it had nothing to do with it. Gwave is a troll. Cliffy B may not be a landmark developer yet, but then again, no one ever said he was one, did they? He makes fun games and does his job and gets paid, like every other developer. DO you know what a job is Gwave?

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pumpkinpunker - 127 days 6 hours ago

whatever sony haters...he's already heavily influenced your beloved Uncharted series and helped make improvements to 3rd person shooters and cover systems. He helped create the most used game engine of this console generation. Also, Unreal tournament was very influential in it's day. keep hating though.

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mastiffchild - 127 days 4 hours ago

Gears wasn't even out when Uncharted was being developed(not while it was formative in any case) and the similarities are NON existant between the two series-both of which I really love to bits)and I doubt you think UT was an influence on ND do you?

Cliffy is sometimes his own worst enemy and , I think, says too much when he's tired/drunk etc but this shows he's far more like us than we'd like, in many cases to think. Yeah, his tatoos are tasteless cliche in extremis but the guy plainly loves games-and gives props to whoever he likes be they Sony devs or MS or whatever as long as he likes the game-which is WAY more than some MS/Sonmy fanboys can do anout games on other platforms is it not?

It's also no coincidence that he respects those he's worked with(the guys up top at GG etc)and gets it from the likes of Jaffe(a pretty similar character)who shoots from the hip in a similar way-even if I'd put Kratos above the Gears boys-though TM is a totally US thing and I'm yet to meet many of us in the UK who've even played it let alone liked it much(I couldn't even find a copy way back when!).

Cliffy isn't perfect but compared to a lot of us he's VERY fair minded and not in any way as up himself as many say he is.

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matchgrade - 128 days 2 hours ago

k.

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StanLee - 128 days 2 hours ago

Jesus, you're an idiot. Did you even read the article?

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GiantEnemyCrab - 127 days 22 hours ago

No where did he say he is tired of Gears. There has been 2 games! Read that again... 2 GAMES! I'm far from tired of Gears of War and I'm sure many other games feel the same.

Take the name calling to the Open Zone fella.

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likedamaster - 127 days 21 hours ago

Edit: All devs watch Cliff/Epic closely on what they'll be working on like they have been this whole time. People like Cliffy and Devs like Epic(and others) are trailblazers, they pave the way for future gaming with their ideas only to be copied sloppily(Quantum) or borrowed from heavily(the games are endless). You'll never know which approach they'll be taking the next time around(Shadow Complex), but all we who have been following these great devs know to expect something spectacular regardless of genre or the naysayers. /end rant

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KionicWarlord222 - 128 days 2 hours ago

It`s a interview...

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Etseix - 127 days 18 hours ago

what game? i never call out any game in here, i only talked about the lazy-fat Gabe Newell lol

dunno if u mean Gears of War, and if u do, hey ive never said Gears sucks, lol i like the game, play it on a friend's xbox still, not worthy enough to buy a xbox, need more games =/

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k jules - 127 days 23 hours ago

nvm, wrong post

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