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Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski is a nice guy. He’s also in charge of the creative side of one of the most powerful entertainment brands on earth. At a recent London press event for the action sequel we got to drill the developer on the game, his views on PS3, how much graphical power’s left in 360 and tons more, all of which you can find below.

Have fun! Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. Check out our play impressions and the game’s new screens, released today.

• Gears 2: Playtest of the first two chapters in co-op
• Gears 2: ‘Bigger, better, more badass’ thing: it was marketing speak, says Bleszinski
• Bleszinski: Gears of War “is no longer a game: it’s a platform”
• Gears 2: Campaign and story were primary focus for improvement, says Bleszinski
• Gears 2: “Risks” in narrative are first for videogames, says Bleszinski
• Gears 2: Josh Ortega is a “force of nature,” says Bleszinski
• Gears 2: “There’s plenty more to be seen,” says Bleszinski
• Gears 2: Extra colour doesn’t mean game looks like “Care Bears and rainbows and unicorns,” says Bleszinski
• Gears 2: Much of Gears 1 setting inspired by London architecture, says Bleszinski
• Gears 2: Colour palette restriction claim isn’t valid, says Bleszinski
• Bleszinski on Unreal Engine 3: “Every single thing we have we share with our licensees”
• Gears 2: “Predator” locust has dual chainsaws, is “bad motherfucker”
• Gears 2: Marketing campaign to include COG tag gimmick
• Gears 2: Server host advantage is “reduced,” not eradicated, says Bleszinski
• Bleszinski: 360 graphics limit quote was “taken out of context”
• Bleszinski on PS3: “I hate the fucking controller, I love the Blu-ray player”
• Bleszinski on Gears 2′s vehicles: “If people want a tank, just give them a tank”
• Gears 2: “It’s a perfect example of playing through an interactive movie,” says Bleszinski
• Gears 2: 16 amazing new screens released

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent London press event, has given his single reason anyone looking for a game this Christmas should buy his project in the face of the likes of Resistance 2.

“I think it’s really a perfect example of playing through an interactive movie in regards to a tremendously good Hollywood blockbuster,” he said.

You can’t say fairer than that. After playing it, we kind of have to admit he has a point.

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent London press event for the game, has admitted that the vehicle section in Gears of War could have been better, but that the sequel more than makes up for any disappointment.

“The Krill sequence was just ‘alright,’” he said. “It was one of those things we were trying to do that was an original twist on the ‘you drive, I’ll shoot’ formula, and it turned out just to be kind of ‘there.’

“This time around we brainstormed which type of vehicles we were going to do and we were like, ‘If people want a tank, just give them a tank. And well, Metal Gear tank happened, let’s twist it and make it ours. Well, let’s give it giant monster truck wheels.’

“So it’s bouncing up the mountain, and everything like that. Suddenly when you start combining active reload and a faster tank shot with a snowy environment and the occasional icy lake, and crowd-locusts that you’re power-sliding through and knocking over trees and doing jumps, suddenly the level starts getting cool.”

Locust creatures were also added as rideables for the second game.

“We were like, ‘Alright, what else can we do?’ Well, we’ve always wanted to see how the guys get on with some of the locust creatures, and have a sequence when you’re on reavers, when one player’s on one reaver and one player’s on another, and then the ultimate: the brumak,” Bleszinski added.

“We call them sorbets. They’re palette cleansers between the main courses of combat. They really switch up the pace a little bit. It really made sense to do a better job.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Say what you think, why don’t you. Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent London press event for the game, has said he’s envious of PS3′s Blu-ray drive, but not exactly enamoured with DualShock.

“I hate the fucking controller,” he told VG247. “I’m sorry, I can’t stand the PS3 controller. I love the Blu-ray player.”

Bleszinski added that PS3 did have some good games, though, whether he likes the controller or not.

“I think there are some great games for PS3,” he said. “I think Metal Gear’s great. Heavenly Sword was great. But at the same time, right now, I’m always working on Xbox with Gears.”

Is there anything he’d like from PS3, though? Os is he comfortable with 360?

“I’m pretty comfortable with 360,” he said. “I like its controller.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent London press event for the game, has claimed that this quote, in which Rod Fergusson appears to have said Epic was reaching the limit of what’s visually possible with Xbox 360, was taken out of context.

“That was a Rod [Fergusson, Gears Of War 2 franchise senior producer – Ed] quote that was taken out of context,” when quizzed on the story.

“I think we’re pushing the 360, but the system’s not going to get any more RAM, it’s not going to get a faster processor, but at the same time that puts the impetus on our programmers and artists to be smarter with what they work with.”

Bleszinski went on to liken Xbox 360′s life cycle to that of SNES, saying there was more to come from the machine graphically.

“I always like to use the metaphor of the SNES,” he said. “You know, the first games that came out for the SNES we were like, ‘Wow, this is a new console, this looks great.’ The next generation came out and it was like, ‘This is good,’ and by the time they got to the end it was like, ‘Holy fuck, I can’t believe they’re doing this with the Mode 7 graphics, how did they figure out how to do this?’ Right? All these ninja code tricks.

“If you look at whole demo scene, from Assembly in Finland and all these sorts of things – they could make an amazing graphical demo in 32K, right? It’s amazing what programmers can do. I wouldn’t count our guys out yet.”

We asked Bleszinski is we can expect another graphical bump up for Gears 3. He wasn’t having it.

“If there’s a future product I have a feeling it’ll probably look better than what we’re going, but whatever percentage that is remains to be seen,” he said.

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event for the game in London, has admitted that multiplayer game hosts will still have an advantage in the sequel, but it’ll be knocked back from the overt plus hosts had in the first title.

“It’s reduced,” he said. “The person who’s the host in a client server game will always have an advantage.

“It’s an unfortunate side effect of doing a client server architecture. We’re not a peer-to-peer architecture. But we’ve optimized the back-code to reduce it as much as possible, as well as balancing the game better with things like stopping power.”

Don’t expect multiplayer to switch to peer-to-peer architecture anytime soon, multiplayer fans.

“It’s one of those things that’s fairly engrained in the engine right now,” added Bleszinski when asked if there was a chance of a change in tack.

“There’s been some talk about it but we haven’t confirmed our engine plans right now.

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event for the game in London, has confirmed that there’s going to be some kind of COG tag marketing gimmick in the run-up to the game’s launch, but wouldn’t confirm what.

“There’s some interesting stuff they’re doing with the marketing campaign, with the COG tags,” he said. “I can’t really talk about it just yet.”

Bleszinski said, though, that the ploy was all part of making the game more personal, as were many touches in the narrative.

“When you find a note on the ground, for example, of someone who’s writing home about their experience of the war,” he added, “writing back to their family about all the horrors they’re going through and how difficult things were, or finding a complaint level in the hospital saying the soldiers weren’t getting enough medical care, and things like that, then I think it starts pushing through on other buttons and themes beyond just killing monsters.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Skorge, the “Predator” style locust seen in a recent Gears of War 2 movie, is a “bad motherfucker” with double chainsaws that can cut through a tank. We know because Cliff Bleszinski told us so at a recent Gears of War 2 press event in London.

“Did you have a chance to get to [his part]? So you got to see that he wields a staff with dual chainsaws that can cut through a tank,” said the developer. “He’s a bad motherfucker.”

Bleszinski gave some background on the locust boss. He sounds a bit mental.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the Kantus?” he asked. “They’re the locust priests, and they have all these abilities: they take a lot of hit points, they can evade, they’re kind of like ninjas almost in regards to their mobility.

“They can summon tickers by using their voices, they can control other creatures by using their voices, as well as reviving other locusts that get knocked down with kind of like a rallying cry. If these are the priests of the locust, he’s the head priest, and he’s also very high up in regards to the locust hierarchy, and of course, you have to deal with him later.”

Definitely more badass. Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent Gears of War 2 event in London, has refuted insinuation that anything is held back from Unreal Engine 3 licensees, saying good games made on the platform are a boon for the firm in general.

“Absolutely not,” he said when asked if anything was held back. “Every single thing we have we share with our licensees, because it’s in our best interests for them to have a game that looks amazing.”

Bleszinski joked that “Mass Effect and BioShock looked quite good,” but said that Gears of War looked exceptional thanks to the quality of Epic’s art team.

“We have, in my opinion, some of the best artists in the industry, if not in entertainment in general,” he added.

“We’re incredibly picky with who we hire, and we have incredibly high standards with the content that they produce, and they work extremely hard to make sure that every single itty-bitty little bit of that model is battened down and looks perfect.

“It’s the same toolset that our licensees get, and I think the key is having amazing artists.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War was grey, right? The sequel looks a bit brown, right? Wrong. We leveled the accusation at Gears 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski at an event for the game in London recently, and got short shrift.

“I think to say a game that has a long campaign is limited to one colour palette is a bit of a misnomer,” he said.

Bleszinski added that later levels in the title add variety to the game’s colours.

“When you go into the underground and you see the beautiful blues of the indigenous plants of the Hollow, as well as the reds of the flames that appear later in the Sinkhole level… Yeah there’s, you know, more brown than grey this time around, but there are other colours that bleed through. You know, there’s a little more green with the trees, and things like that,” he said.

So there we are. Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event for the game in London, has assured that despite the fact Epic’s been up front with the title’s content up to now, there’s still a heap left top see.

“I think the fact that you only get to see three quarters of the first act when there’s five acts says that there’s still a lot that remains to be seen, and if anything it’s a little frustrating for me right now to tell you about all the cool stuff in the game when I know there are so many cool twists and turns and moments in the campaign later that I can’t show yet,” said the developer.

“It’s kind of agonizing. There’s plenty more to be seen.”

The first few chapters of the game’s campaign were playable at the event – impressions here – as was multiplayer, of which Bleszinski said we’d learn more soon.

“There’s a couple [of surprises] that we’re not supposed to be confirming too much at the press briefing, but as we get down to the release date – coming up very, very soon – we’re at the point where it’s in our best interest that journalists out there and gamers have a pretty good idea of what’s in the game as far as a bullet-point list on the box,” he added.

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 writer Josh Ortega is a “force of nature,” according to dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, who’s fresh perspective has lent the project’s narrative a needed boost.

“He’s a force of nature, and he knew when to pick his battles and what things to push for, and I think it’s that kind of system of checks and balances that ultimately yields the best product, especially with the narrative,” said Bleszinski, speaking at a recent Gears of War 2 event in London.

Ortega took over the game’s plot from Susan O’Connor, who penned the first title.

“I think sometimes having a bit of a fresh perspective – you know, Susan O’Connor is an excellent writer – but I think bringing in a new writer for Gears 2 helped a lot, to have a new angle on existing characters, which is what Josh brought to the table,” Bleszinski added.

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event in London, said that the title contains as yet unrevealed narrative elements that have never before been seen in a game.

“I can’t talk about any of it without spoiling it to be honest,” he said. “Let’s just say that narrative-wise we take some risks in the game that I haven’t seen a videogame ever do.”

Bleszinski wouldn’t be drawn on the specific nature of sequel’s risky aspects, so you’ll just have to wait until November 7 to see for yourself.

For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event for the game in London, has picked out the first title’s campaign and story as the two aspects prioritized for improvement in the sequel.

“The campaign and the story were the obvious ones,” he said. “Doing something that has a little bit of heart in it.”

Bleszinski added, though, that core gameplay elements were also targeted early on as features in need of a bump up.

“At the same time, though, I was dying to get back into the code and tweak the cover system, because when I played the first game I thought we did a really good job, but then there’s so many little moments when you’re running and you accidentally slam into a wall or you want to slot turn and you can’t interrupt the slot turn – and you can now – or you dive toward cover and now you can interrupt that but you couldn’t in the first game.

“You know, when you’re knocked down but not out I wanted to crawl around, and all that sort of stuff. Tweaking all those things were very, very high on the list, and that’s one thing I’m really happy we were able to do.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event for the game in London, said that additions to the sequel over the first title have moved it from a game into a “platform.”

“It’s no longer a game: it’s a platform,” he said. “Each mode is huge.

“The campaign’s longer, the co-op has two… basically you can play through the campaign and then Horde, as well as the many multiplayer modes.

The sequel’s longevity isn’t in question, said the developer, who said the idea of the game’s development was to “build a package that people will play for months, if not years, to come.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski has admitted the unthinkable: that the “bigger, better, more badass” slogan Epic used to push the game at GDC this year was a marketing ploy.

“We were saying that whole, ‘bigger, better, more badass’ thing: it was marketing speak,” he said, speaking at a recent event for the game in London. “It had alliteration and things like that. Ultimately we wanted it to become a bit of a self-parody, which is why we we’re reinforcing the fact that the game’s epic but more intimate this time round.”

The developer said the catchphrase summed up the intention of the sequel.

“We all just got together and went through a process we called, ‘new, better more’: what would be new in Gears 2, what would be better than the original, what would we have more of,” Bleszinski added.

“We came up with a huge list and voted on it as the leads and hashed out what it would be, and we knew the campaign would be longer, and we knew we’d have a better story. We knew that we’d have, of course, new weapons, multiplayer modes, bots in versus; then we set out building it.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event for the game in London, said that the use of addition colour in the sequel is more “saturation” bleeding through than brightening the title up.

“I kind of disagree on saying we changed the entire look of the game,” he said when asked about the thinking behind graphical changes from the first Gears.

“I still think it very much looks and feels like Gears. I think we’ve allowed a little more saturation to bleed through. That’s not to say we’ve made the game look like Care Bears and rainbows and unicorns now.

Style changes also included the addition of more open areas, said the developer.

“And also there’s more expansive open environments where you see beautiful vistas with trees and mountains in the background, which are things you didn’t see a lot of in the first game,” he said.

“I get a lot of people saying their memories of Gears 1 were a lot of grey pillars and claustrophobic environments: it made sense to blow things out a little bit in regards to draw distance because the engine was optimized, as well as letting a little more colour bleed through.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski, speaking at a recent event for the game in London, has revealed that the original title’s style was borne from a previous trip he made to the British capital.

“The European influence was there in Gears 1, honestly,” he said when asked if the game’s European style had increased since the first project.

“So much of Gears 1 was inspired by the trip I took a few years ago to London, and took a day to do the 500-step climb to the top of Saint Paul’s, watch the sunsets over London and looked at the architecture.”

New areas included in the sequel take the European idea further, with Austrian mountain villages being the inspiration for some of the levels.

“We decided to go Austrian, you know, mountain hamlets,” said Bleszinski. “For some reason mountain hamlets have that kind of construction set look, like gingerbread houses. If you’re going to do a mountain hamlet they give you the pre-fabs to put in, right?

“And it’s a location you still haven’t seen yet in Gears. It’s still feeling like Gears but we’ve evolved the style to show you things you hadn’t seen before. That was the goal.”

Gears of War 2 ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, click this.

Microsoft and Epic released 16 fantastic Gears of War 2 shots today, as part of the lifting of an embargo on coverage from a recent London press event for the game.

After the link.

It ships for 360 on November 7. For the rest of our coverage from the event, including play impressions and new shots, hit this.

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Is Gears of War 2 any good? Do you see Dom have a little cry? Is it good? Are the derrick bits fun? Is it good? Is it good?

We’ve played it. It blew us away. It’ll blow you away too.

First things first: Gears 2 could very well be the game you’ve been dreaming of for the past two years. It’s Gears of War to the power of ten. The hour we spent playing co-op at a recent press event was practically transcendental: it takes puerile fun so effortlessly to the next level the action games of the past 12 months evaporated in seconds. Sorry for the gush, but we really were knocked out.

Why? After our chat with Cliff Bleszinski, a journalist was talking on the phone to his mate.

“It’s the first one with tons of new stuff, the graphics through the roof and all the shit stripped out,” he said. “It’s more than that, though. You won’t believe it.”

Summed up our thoughts. Find out what it’s like to play the first bit after the link. Obviously there are MASSIVE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON. Read at your peril.

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