“Gears of War has ‘zero innovation'” – EA (sourgraping?) exec

Fellow writer Chris C. had the perfect comeback when he saw this story in Eurogamer. “In other words, pot calls kettle black, more at 11!” (Chris L. chuckles silently). EA Montreal General Manager Alain Tascan, speaking during the Montreal Games Summit, said what he thought of Epic Games‘ Gears of War.

What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter… Like, zero. Only two very brave UK-based journalists said, ‘You know what, Gears of War is a great game but it’s like what Quake was a few years ago.

Sour-graping much, Mr. Tascan? But, kidding and catcalls from Gears fans aside, his comments can be read as either the kind of putdown you’d expect from a competitor gaming company, or that he’s trying to point something out lost amidst the shuffles of War. Something a few radical, if very much-booed, commenters in our Gears coverage mention in reaction to the string of 9/10s or 10/10s the game’s been getting.

Tascan: I’m not talking about my tastes, I’m just saying, when you go to metacritic and you see a 96 for Gears of War, then you read the critics saying, ‘Okay, storyline – there’s none, gameplay is not innovative…’ Then I say, why did they give this 96? They were blown away by the high quality of the graphics… Myself, I prefer something more creative.

This writer’s not a fan of FPS/TPS titles himself, as he readily admits. The gameplay may not be that innovative – we found “strategic” infantry play in the not-really-an-FPS Full Spectrum Warrior, for example – but it is quite refreshing. Suffice to say, I can give Gears its props, it rocks, even if it’s same old, same old.

Gears of War is a beautiful shooter, especially for shooter fans, and non-shooter fans can even admit it does “look pretty”. There will always be a next step, marrying the high quality of digital image work Epic’s pulled off with even more new ideas for gameplay, story, and so forth. Whether or not the scores Gears of War received are well deserved, or just all hype, we’d like to think that this is just the beginning of the next step in video gaming.

How about this for a radical idea along your lines, Mr. Tascan? Epic + Hironobu Sakaguchi or Tetsuya Nomura? How’s that for creative?

Fellow writer Chris C. had the perfect comeback when he saw this story in Eurogamer. “In other words, pot calls kettle black, more at 11!” (Chris L. chuckles silently). EA Montreal General Manager Alain Tascan, speaking during the Montreal Games Summit, said what he thought of Epic Games‘ Gears of War.

What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter… Like, zero. Only two very brave UK-based journalists said, ‘You know what, Gears of War is a great game but it’s like what Quake was a few years ago.

Sour-graping much, Mr. Tascan? But, kidding and catcalls from Gears fans aside, his comments can be read as either the kind of putdown you’d expect from a competitor gaming company, or that he’s trying to point something out lost amidst the shuffles of War. Something a few radical, if very much-booed, commenters in our Gears coverage mention in reaction to the string of 9/10s or 10/10s the game’s been getting.

Tascan: I’m not talking about my tastes, I’m just saying, when you go to metacritic and you see a 96 for Gears of War, then you read the critics saying, ‘Okay, storyline – there’s none, gameplay is not innovative…’ Then I say, why did they give this 96? They were blown away by the high quality of the graphics… Myself, I prefer something more creative.

This writer’s not a fan of FPS/TPS titles himself, as he readily admits. The gameplay may not be that innovative – we found “strategic” infantry play in the not-really-an-FPS Full Spectrum Warrior, for example – but it is quite refreshing. Suffice to say, I can give Gears its props, it rocks, even if it’s same old, same old.

Gears of War is a beautiful shooter, especially for shooter fans, and non-shooter fans can even admit it does “look pretty”. There will always be a next step, marrying the high quality of digital image work Epic’s pulled off with even more new ideas for gameplay, story, and so forth. Whether or not the scores Gears of War received are well deserved, or just all hype, we’d like to think that this is just the beginning of the next step in video gaming.

How about this for a radical idea along your lines, Mr. Tascan? Epic + Hironobu Sakaguchi or Tetsuya Nomura? How’s that for creative?