GoW, Game of the Year, Slate.com, and… Monopoly?
Judging by sales figure alone, one could say that Gears of War won’t be having a hard time bagging that much-coveted “Oscar award of the gaming industry” Game of the Year title. But does it have enough “oomph” to topple the other contenders (Twilight Princess and Wii Sports) also vying for the award? With quotes from Cliffy B himself, Slate.com has a couple of reasons why GoW will reign king.
For one thing, GoW has something up its sleeve that the said Wii games don’t – the processing power of the 360. Cliffy B has been heard to push for something called “cinemactive“; the game gives the player a “filmic” experience with all the graphics of a sci-fi gore-fest. The game-to-player interaction feels much like being put into an action flick.
The controls are also one of the factors. And development-wise, Cliffy B recounts how their efforts in mapping out the control schemes are actually much like playing the board game Monopoly:
In the grand scheme of videogame real estate the ‘A’ button is Park Place. The D-pad, Y, and back are Compton and Watts. When we put together our control scheme for our games we say to the player that the buttons that are prime real estate are the things that the player will be doing most often while playing.
There’s also that one tidbit about the pacing of the game. No, not plot line. But pacing. There’s a difference. As “Master Cliff” explained in the GDC conference:
Constant scares dull the senses. The scariest horror movies are the ones that lull the viewers into a false sense of security and then spring something scary upon them, and a great level is no different.
While these are all valid reasons for GoW winning the Game of the Year, of course, there will always be other factors. Check out the “Read” link below to check out Slate’s full explanation.
Judging by sales figure alone, one could say that Gears of War won’t be having a hard time bagging that much-coveted “Oscar award of the gaming industry” Game of the Year title. But does it have enough “oomph” to topple the other contenders (Twilight Princess and Wii Sports) also vying for the award? With quotes from Cliffy B himself, Slate.com has a couple of reasons why GoW will reign king.
For one thing, GoW has something up its sleeve that the said Wii games don’t – the processing power of the 360. Cliffy B has been heard to push for something called “cinemactive“; the game gives the player a “filmic” experience with all the graphics of a sci-fi gore-fest. The game-to-player interaction feels much like being put into an action flick.
The controls are also one of the factors. And development-wise, Cliffy B recounts how their efforts in mapping out the control schemes are actually much like playing the board game Monopoly:
In the grand scheme of videogame real estate the ‘A’ button is Park Place. The D-pad, Y, and back are Compton and Watts. When we put together our control scheme for our games we say to the player that the buttons that are prime real estate are the things that the player will be doing most often while playing.
There’s also that one tidbit about the pacing of the game. No, not plot line. But pacing. There’s a difference. As “Master Cliff” explained in the GDC conference:
Constant scares dull the senses. The scariest horror movies are the ones that lull the viewers into a false sense of security and then spring something scary upon them, and a great level is no different.
While these are all valid reasons for GoW winning the Game of the Year, of course, there will always be other factors. Check out the “Read” link below to check out Slate’s full explanation.