Talking to CliffyB and Mark Rein about Gears of War post-Emergence

Planet Gears of War got to talking with Unreal Engine.”>Epic Games‘ Cliff Bleszinski and Mark Rein on way-post-Emergence Day. About enough time for the glow from the launch party to subside, the hangovers to fade away, and sobriety to set in. And certainly more than enough time to talk about the future of Gears of War, among other things.

For now weÂ’re concentrating on making improvements and enhancements to the multiplayer side of Gears of War and not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves. Ask again in a year and we might have a better answer.

Okay, maybe not enough time. Then how about that loose – now squelched – talk about a Vista Gears? Finally, some word from someone who worked on the game. Mark: “ThereÂ’s nothing to announce at this time. WeÂ’ve said all along that, at some point in the future, we could adapt Gears of Wars for PC… For now however Gears is available exclusively on Xbox360.”

It’s funny how CliffyB described Xbox Live as “an umbilical crackpipe that an entire generation of gamers are rapidly becoming addicted to.” Currently Epic’s plans for downloads for Gears are limited to housekeeping and multiplayer: “any continuation of the single player experience remains to be seen” (Not that it precludes a Gears 2, anyway; see above). One fix to make is a bug regarding squished aspect ratios on non-widescreen VGA screens, and Mark says that’s the first thing that’s gonna flow through the crackpipe when the update’s ready.

And if you must ask, as Planet Gears of War asked Cliff and Mark, the best Gears player in the Epic office is AI programmer Steve Superville (it goes with the name, don’cha think?). And the worst? According to CliffyB, none other than Mark Rein himself. And we quote him: “Mark Rein is, without a doubt, the worst Gears player I have ever laid eyes on.”

Hey! Running the company behind Unreal Engine 3 is a lot of hard work!

Planet Gears of War got to talking with Unreal Engine.”>Epic Games‘ Cliff Bleszinski and Mark Rein on way-post-Emergence Day. About enough time for the glow from the launch party to subside, the hangovers to fade away, and sobriety to set in. And certainly more than enough time to talk about the future of Gears of War, among other things.

For now weÂ’re concentrating on making improvements and enhancements to the multiplayer side of Gears of War and not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves. Ask again in a year and we might have a better answer.

Okay, maybe not enough time. Then how about that loose – now squelched – talk about a Vista Gears? Finally, some word from someone who worked on the game. Mark: “ThereÂ’s nothing to announce at this time. WeÂ’ve said all along that, at some point in the future, we could adapt Gears of Wars for PC… For now however Gears is available exclusively on Xbox360.”

It’s funny how CliffyB described Xbox Live as “an umbilical crackpipe that an entire generation of gamers are rapidly becoming addicted to.” Currently Epic’s plans for downloads for Gears are limited to housekeeping and multiplayer: “any continuation of the single player experience remains to be seen” (Not that it precludes a Gears 2, anyway; see above). One fix to make is a bug regarding squished aspect ratios on non-widescreen VGA screens, and Mark says that’s the first thing that’s gonna flow through the crackpipe when the update’s ready.

And if you must ask, as Planet Gears of War asked Cliff and Mark, the best Gears player in the Epic office is AI programmer Steve Superville (it goes with the name, don’cha think?). And the worst? According to CliffyB, none other than Mark Rein himself. And we quote him: “Mark Rein is, without a doubt, the worst Gears player I have ever laid eyes on.”

Hey! Running the company behind Unreal Engine 3 is a lot of hard work!