By Jim Rossignol on May 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am.
God knows when Epic’s hyper-muscular shooter sequel will chainsaw its way through a flimsy format-exclusive to find itself on PC, but here’s the first footage anyway. It’s introduced by the Internet’s favourite Clifford Bleszinski, Clifford Bleszinski, who is the lead designer on the game. By golly it looks a bit exciting: guns, giant machines, flying octopuses ridden by evil aliens. ClickJump for War.
That shot of dozens of baddies running along under the gigantic war machine is awesome. Yeah.
10/05/2008 at 08:56 Pidesco says:
The graphics are still impressive. The art direction, not so much. It’s still a gray guy fighting gray monsters, helped by gray guys, on gray vehicles, against a gray background.
I’m sure it will be a big hit, though.
10/05/2008 at 08:58 SuperMatt says:
Fuck me, that looks awesome
10/05/2008 at 09:00 Kanakotka says:
Even though it seemed awesome, had epic commercials and sweet hype, it seemed to be mediocre at best. On PC at least. I hope this one lives up better to it’s expectations.
10/05/2008 at 09:14 Okami says:
So the Locusts teamed up with the machines from The Matrix?
10/05/2008 at 09:21 Optimaximal says:
Looks alright, but the gameplay will probably be dull, boring and generally dire in all departments.
They even nicked the alien squids from Crysis and stuck a saddle on them. Go Epic, you masterful bastions of originality!
10/05/2008 at 09:24 hoohoo says:
color me unimpressed. the camera looks horrid, the whole thing looks like a bad greenscreen movie. it doesnt look like anything but the main character, his truck he is on rails with, and the enemies that step up on stage are being rendered real time. that whole brumack scene looked totally staged, like he was shooting a movie screen. plus i just love enemies that take 900 rounds to kill.
10/05/2008 at 09:34 Wurzel says:
Umm… i distinctly remember the squid-things in the 1st one, way before Crysis came out. Looks like they’ve got the graphics looking awesome, though the gunplay doesn’t look like it’s moved on much.
10/05/2008 at 09:37 Alteisentier says:
I dunno, maybe I’m just jaded from being a gamer all my life.But this doesn’t look terribly impressive at all, just gray gray gray, graygray.. Gray. Although I will say, the way they are able to render hundreds of baddies at once is pretty impressive.. But really, all it’s going to do is make you feel like even more of the invincible lone wolf. Why can’t they create epic scale battles with hundreds of your guys too?
10/05/2008 at 09:39 Ging says:
Optimaximal: They had Reavers in the first game, so I think it’s something of a leap to say they stole the alien squids from Crysis.
10/05/2008 at 09:50 Albides says:
…and if you look to your left, you will see the cave troll from Lord of the Rings, though we freely admit the guns are something of an anachronism, we hope you will forgive us in the interest of good, family fun…
On the right, inquistive Strogg are coming to say hello. Mind the bullets…
10/05/2008 at 10:08 Optimaximal says:
Ok, maybe the squids were in the original, but then I haven’t played it. I refuse to pay more than £10 for any GFW LIVE game out of principal and until someone gives GoW PC a sensible discount (or, get this, a proper port… haha!) it’ll stay that way.
10/05/2008 at 10:15 Leelad says:
You could see him struggling with that pesky controller at the beginning. MOVE QUICKER DAMMIT!!
hahaha
10/05/2008 at 10:16 derFeef says:
Needs more color. Maybe it looks good with a different color setting (the first one allowed that I think). The action looks nice, even if this is edited stuff and we dont see the whole sequence.
10/05/2008 at 10:17 Kitt Basch says:
Well, I was impressed. Maybe it was because I’m a massive nerd and I was looking at it from a technical perspective.
Hmm, chainsawed alien monster thing behaving like realistic chopped meat.
I like how Mr. Bleszinski refers to the plot in the first person, rather than the second person. “We need to fight back.” I bet he frowns at all us civvies because we’re not helping with the war effort.
10/05/2008 at 10:21 Okami says:
To be fair, the have a bit of green in their grey as well! Ha! Gears of the Green and the Grey, I’m so funny! Hmm… That reminds me, I haven’t listened to New Model Army in quite some time.
(Loads up Songza)
10/05/2008 at 10:22 trunk3h says:
havn’t you heard? real i brown guys.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/070119.jpg
10/05/2008 at 10:29 spd from Russia says:
you guys are all jaded. Its nothing groundbraking, but another quality game with great art. Not bad eh?
(me only careas about FO3 this fall)
10/05/2008 at 10:37 slang says:
Maybe my taste is just too European but to me this looks just like the first one – an action rollercoaster done by the numbers, bruckheimerstyle and with dislikeable and dull characters. Compared to stuff like this Stalker is an intellectual masterpiece. Just my opinion…
10/05/2008 at 10:48 rb_lestr says:
If you guys took a quick look at the Video settings in Gears 1 you would see there are different video modes. The default one is gritty and washed out (on purpose), but if you looked around there are a few others, including colourful and vibrant.
I play on the vibrant setting and greyness is not a problem.
10/05/2008 at 11:05 sigma83 says:
Gears isn’t meant to be an intellectual ride. The entire point of the game is to shoot things and feel badass. Mind, that may not be what you’re looking for in a game but don’t mistake it for what it isn’t.
10/05/2008 at 11:13 Pidesco says:
I don’t feel badass popping in and out of cover while automatically regenerating. I feel badass when playing DMC3, for example. Because there’s a challenge there.
I got Gears expecting to have a thrilling third person action ride. What I got was boring, repetitive and unchallenging gameplay.
10/05/2008 at 11:41 Lorc says:
Looks like a fun continuation of the original. I look forward to playing through it in co-op.
10/05/2008 at 11:57 Chaz says:
I wasn’t overly knocked out by the first GoW, but it was a highly enjoyable romp, and this one looks set to take the fun up a notch.
As for the game’s many detractors here, I get the feeling that it’s mostly down to sour grapes due to the game being an Xbox exclusive first.
10/05/2008 at 12:02 Arsewisely says:
When will the killing end?
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/gears_of_war_crimes_court
10/05/2008 at 12:14 Optimaximal says:
Does anyone else think cliffyb deserves 2008′s ‘Greatest Cockshine’ award for wearing that ‘YES It’s Really Me’ T-shirt?
10/05/2008 at 12:45 nakke says:
Are they really ready to begin using other colors than shades of gray & brown? This seems like something maybe GoW 4 could introduce, but 2 already? We live in a crazy world.
10/05/2008 at 13:19 Bobsy says:
So there’s some guys, who like to shoot other guys. And shout at each other. Also there’s a big guy who likes to carry big metal things, and gets shouted and shot at quite a bit.
10/05/2008 at 13:48 Masked Dave says:
Y’know I’m willing to bet all you guys who didn’t liked it didn’t play it in co-op mode. That was the only way to play Gears of War, and it was awesome.
This looks awesom/er/. Also, I really like CliffyB’s t-shirt.
10/05/2008 at 15:00 Stew says:
See, I love GoW2. The graphics are colourful and top-notch and though it’s nothing intellectual and does have the occasional cutscene and annoying QTE it’s still fantastic for making you feel like the baddest mother in the room.
That game’s God of War 2. Gears of War 2 looks like another tiresome grey/brown trainwreck without any real defining moments.
10/05/2008 at 15:06 MeestaNob! says:
GoW was perhaps much maligned for a few reasons:
a) Windows Live – SHIT, b) at the end of the day it was certainly NOT a $80-$90 game (AUD), but the $35 + $5 p&h I picked it up for on playasia.com was VERY fair.
It’s a fun blast fest but has almost zero re-playability. I certainly hope the sequel is a bit more involved, but it’s certain not to be.
10/05/2008 at 15:34 The Shed says:
Heh, I find RPS’ refusal to call Clifford Bleszinski ‘CliffyB’ pretty comical. Kudos.
The gameplay and graphics look practically exactly the same, but it looks like they’re pulling in ALL the enemy types and creatures/vehicles to make far more hectic (and large scale) battles. Seeing that massive horde of Drones running accross the plateau was pure liquid cool, although I’m wondering if any of you folk actually played the first game. Reavers (the ‘Matrix-esque’ creatures) were in the final level of GoW all the time, and were pretty decent opponents.
In terms of the actual gameplay it just looks a bit smoother. Note that now when people fall to one knee it’s pretty rapid, that grabbing/ kerb stomping them was instantaneous, and that generally all the moving around seemed much more responsive. Doubtful if that’ll save it from mediocrity though.
Isn’t the whole world grey and dead because of the war that has been raging for a fortnight of years? I thought that was why everything was dying, and the countryside was gone. Makes sense, although a less pale palette would be nice.
Also it was awesome seeing a Brumak properly in-game there. You only briefly see one in GoW, and it’s all in-cutscene. I remember seeing a picture of one and going “What the hell is that? That wasn’t in Gears?!”
10/05/2008 at 16:20 sinister agent says:
I thought the first was a miserable grey mess of dull, irritating characters and set pieces. I fully expected to think this looked rubbish, but I must admit it looks better. It has a bit more colour than the first (ie: it has a colour), the level at least appears wide and open, and isn’t just the same grey building from four hundred different angles. And the number of enemies on screen is quite impressive.
It looks like the guns are sill pathetically weak, though. They’ll need to fix that or it’ll play in exactly the same way – endlessly emptying clip after clip into every single enemy. That’ll be deathly tedious if you have to fight as many beasties at once as that clip suggests.
Also, that guy appears to be a pretty lousy shot.
Here’s hoping for a surprise gay love-in ending!
10/05/2008 at 17:26 restricted3 says:
After watching that, I believe Epic is in disarray
10/05/2008 at 17:29 Radiant says:
Masked Dave is right.
I played this online co-op with my brother on a high definition projected screen the size of a wall and it was A LOT of fun.
Multiplayer not so much [no anti lag?!?! wtf next gen xbox].
But Co-op was fun.
“BRO WHAT YOU DOIN’! WHERE YOU GOIN’!?”
“LETS GO!”
“FACK IT I’M COMING!!!”
“ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!”
Just don’t play it on insane. It’s not fun.
10/05/2008 at 17:35 Radiant says:
By ‘this’ I meant gears of war 1.
Also Bloom is this decades Lens flare.
10/05/2008 at 17:57 SixStringSamurai says:
people didn’t like Gears of war? what? this is insane! gears of war is badass beyond badass. you’re looking for the gaming experience people, not the little nuances and things the game DIDN’T OFFER.
10/05/2008 at 18:08 Pidesco says:
Gears of Wars is popular in the same way that Britney Spears is popular. Or in the same way that Epic Movie is popular. Or in the same way that soap operas are popular. Or in the same way that John Grisham’s books are popular.
10/05/2008 at 20:36 Muzman says:
I’ve never quite understood why they took such an evocative title and gave it to generic macho sci-fi scenario number 2256
10/05/2008 at 23:42 The Shed says:
The gun’s are indeed rubbishly weak- but that’s just part of the games staple “feel”. Imho Half-Life 2 was exactly the same way.
10/05/2008 at 23:51 subedii says:
Gears is popular the same way Britney Spears is popular?
Well I don’t know about that, since I never liked her music, but Gears was meant to be big bad and stupid. It was always just an unpretentious shooty game filled to the brim with testosterone and violence. I can appreciate more pensive games, more tactical games, but I can also have fun with a dumb shooter done well.
I especially agree with the comment that the game is most fun in co-op. And frankly, on the PC there are few enough shooters (third OR first person) with co-op that I can appreciate it when one comes along.
Personally I’m looking forward to Gears 2. I’m also looking forward to Left 4 Dead. There nothing inherently bad about a blast em up that doesn’t try for much more beyond good execution. The original Gears certainly had its flaws with pacing (and ESPECIALLY storyline, or lack thereof), but I’m fairly confident that things are going to be tightened up for the second game.
11/05/2008 at 01:04 Kadayi says:
He looks about 12….
11/05/2008 at 02:27 sinister agent says:
That’s really not a fair comparison, though. Gears of War wasn’t half as tedious or in love with itself as Half Life 2 (although the latter at least had opportunities for screwing around).
And no, that definitely wasn’t just an excuse to slag off a well-regarded game just to look all contrary and iconoclastic. Ahem.
I must admit though, some decent guns would have improved both games to the point where I’d consider taking them with me when I moved house. Why do people make shooters with ANY crap guns, let alone a pile of them? It’s like filling a racing game with milk floats, except without the redeeming comedy value.
11/05/2008 at 03:30 icegreentea says:
I like. If you look closely, they did add some new guns. There’s a new assault rifle that seems to pack more punch, with lower RoF and ammo. And then there’s picking up body and using as shield.
Honestly, improvements like that won’t be enough though. If they could clean up the cover system somehow (hitting A to do everything, and never getting what you wanted was frustrating), then I would say it would be definitely worth it. Oh and maybe better use of squad AI.
And remember, when GoW came it, it really was something special. Active reload, a decent cover system, and the roadie cam were all, well not new (I dare not say that word less a fanboy ‘correct’ me), but then not widely implemented.
11/05/2008 at 03:40 Fedora.Pirate says:
I’m was long time epic fan, and the weekend GoW1 came out a mate and I bored a 360 and played right through the game start to end, then we started on insane and worked on that for the next couple of months. I say Gears was great for what it needed to be, a high action, mostly low thought (more than Halo) great shoot ‘em up for the xbox. What it wasn’t was a PC game and certainly not a single player game if you’re not playing it Co-op You’re doing it wrong!
11/05/2008 at 05:23 DigitalSignalX says:
Looks like you still have to right click every single time you want to kill something.. which is like… ALL THE FRACKING TIME.
Sorry. No thanks. This horrible game mechanic made me quit long before the drab color scheme.
11/05/2008 at 06:55 vic says:
GOW: just slightly less homosexual than Army of Two. Not that theres anything wrong with that.
11/05/2008 at 10:09 sigma83 says:
To the person above who said you would have liked to see more Brumak: PC version
11/05/2008 at 12:13 charlie says:
Well I really enjoyed Gears of War. Looks amazing. But you have to play the game through on the hardest difficulty otherwise its boring. It’s all about desperate battles where you are out gunned out numbered etc. unlike most shooters where you have more health, more guns, longer range or whatever.
11/05/2008 at 12:56 subedii says:
I agree with that.
Similar could be said of the Halo series. You only really start to have fun with the games when you move it up to a difficulty level that’s actually challenging to you. Until then you’re not really going to enjoy yourself.
11/05/2008 at 15:27 propanol says:
The first game could basically be summed up like this:
Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot.
Insert shitty vehicle section.
Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot. Run, cover, shoot.
I expect the second to offer little variety from this, hence it is of minimal interest to me.
One thing that lends GoW some credibility however is the co-op multiplayer, which is fun (but not overly so).
11/05/2008 at 20:02 Xaero says:
You guys need to be less fanboy-ish. That was fairly impressive.
12/05/2008 at 00:18 Gwog says:
Can you ever actually KILL ANYTHING with the guns? Never played GOW1 and after watching a lot of videos have always wondered this.
12/05/2008 at 01:53 ache says:
Yeah, see, in co-op the shitty vehicle section, appaling characters and dodgy cover system are opportunities to laugh at the game, which is fun. Then you chainsaw someone into pieces, and the extreme violence and the humour are nice counterpoints and accuntuate* each other. Playing Gears in co-op is easily the most fun I’ve had with a current-gen console.
*typo but I’m leaving it in.
12/05/2008 at 03:07 Radiant says:
The guns do shit if you play on INSANE.
Play it on normal like normal people and don’t play it on super hard and complain.
12/05/2008 at 10:30 Lu-Tze says:
@Masked: “Also, I really like CliffyB’s t-shirt.”
It might as well have said “Yes, I am a douche”
12/05/2008 at 15:27 C0nt1nu1ty says:
mmm i kinda have to agree with the “its grey on grey” comments.
why arent there more games like Tron 2.0? yeah the engine is pretty much totally outdated and the gameplay wasnt perfect but i’d come back for more just because it looked so damn awsome.
This looks like the game play is good but my god it looks dull visually, a fong shaded grey man is still a grey man
12/05/2008 at 17:22 Paul Moloney says:
Never understood the excitment over the first one, myself. You have to get out of cover to shoot enemies as it seems to take, oh, 5 million bullets to kill each one. I’m sure it’s a laugh as a co-op game with a few beers, but as a single-player experience, it is meh.
P.