It's like Epic has given up on creativity.

[JCD]

Wooooo! Gears 2.. I guess.

Does anyone else feel like Epic has totally given up on trying to make good games? There's really nothing on their resume besides the Unreal games and Gears anyway, but at least their efforts from 1998 to 2004 paid off in great games.

Gears of War amounted to little more than a tech demo. I thought it was extremely impressive at first but in retrospect? I finished the singleplayer in a dozen hours and haven't played the game since.

And now that the half-assed effort they put into UT3 has not paid off like they thought, their going to go back to what put cash in their pocket and make Gears 2. It's like a typical hollywood attitude. Go with a sequel that's guaranteed to make a few bucks rather than come up with something original.

Sometimes I wonder if they should stick to making game engines and leave it at that. Have Unreal Tournament be your running tech demo and do graphical updates to it every year.

:mad:

[Nines]

If Gears is so bad, how come it's so popular? :rolleyes:

[haslo]

If Gears is so bad, how come it's so popular? :rolleyes:

Yeah, after trying to play it for a couple of minutes (with an XBox controller on my PC) I was pondering that question as well. It made me feel all itchy inside.

[Haarg]

Gears PC may not have been perfect technically, but I found it very fun.

[Sir_Brizz]

I've played Gears with my 360 controller on PC and I can see why people like it so much. It controls very tightly and you can do pretty well with just a controller.

[dub]

If Gears is so bad, how come it's so popular? :rolleyes:

Because (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Young) things (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red_and_Blue) that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_throughout_history#Worldwide_highest_grossing_films) are (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books#List_of_best-selling_single-volume_books) popular (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7156078.stm) are (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush) always (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s) good (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_band).

[GGA_Nate]

Heheh

[UBerserker]

I liked Gears.

Marketing is really a godsend in the gaming world nowadays.

[DazJW]

Businesses have to make money. Sequels to popular things make money.

Besides, aren't you a bit late to comment on Gears of War 2 considering we're on the 4th incarnation of Unreal Tournament that's not really much different to the first one?

[awaw]

Jees part two not even out and people are already complaining on repetition? Come ooon...

[Leonardo]

Wooooo! Gears 2.. I guess.
Does anyone else feel like Epic has totally given up on trying to make good games?

:eek: no.

[T2A`]

Because (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Young) things (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red_and_Blue) that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_throughout_history#Worldwide_highest_grossing_films) are (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books#List_of_best-selling_single-volume_books) popular (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7156078.stm) are (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush) always (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s) good (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_band).D00d, Pokemon was pretty fun, I have to admit. The successive games got less and less fun because they were the same f**king thing over and over, but the originals were pretty awesome, IMO.

[Skakruk]

Wooooo! Gears 2.. I guess.

Does anyone else feel like Epic has totally given up on trying to make good games? There's really nothing on their resume besides the Unreal games and Gears anyway, but at least their efforts from 1998 to 2004 paid off in great games.

Gears of War amounted to little more than a tech demo. I thought it was extremely impressive at first but in retrospect? I finished the singleplayer in a dozen hours and haven't played the game since.

And now that the half-assed effort they put into UT3 has not paid off like they thought, their going to go back to what put cash in their pocket and make Gears 2. It's like a typical hollywood attitude. Go with a sequel that's guaranteed to make a few bucks rather than come up with something original.

Sometimes I wonder if they should stick to making game engines and leave it at that. Have Unreal Tournament be your running tech demo and do graphical updates to it every year.

:mad:

I partially agree with you but this thread is in the wrong forum - it should be in the UT3 forum. Gears was OK.

[JCD]

If Gears is so bad, how come it's so popular? :rolleyes:

With that logic, Halo 3 is the greatest game ever made. :)
No, Gears was good, but it was just like.. B material polished to a shine.

Gears PC may not have been perfect technically, but I found it very fun.

I played in on the 360. Probably is a bit more fun that way actually. It was pretty remarkable really - not at all hard to get used to the way FPS's normally are on consoles.

Besides, aren't you a bit late to comment on Gears of War 2 considering we're on the 4th incarnation of Unreal Tournament that's not really much different to the first one?

Yes.:) And I don't see UT in the same light. I'm probably biased.

[Kantham]

The whole concept of "take-cover-and-blind-fire" was a good idea back in 2006-2007. I don't think it is anytime now for the one fact that it is indeed getting old. We seen it and played it a lot, unless Epic can't put it better than Ubisoft this year, I doubt gears 2 will make it so different, like CliffyB said. But hey, given all the promise about UT3 being uber good, and everyone would like it... I wouldn't expect anything much from GoW2.

Gears is a good Epic Game title, if not their best of all time in therm of success. Ever since, PC users are the #3 on the rack. And the Unreal Tournament title is noobed up. Hopefully not for ever.

[Nines]

With that logic, Halo 3 is the greatest game ever made. :)
No, Gears was good, but it was just like.. B material polished to a shine.

So, would you play a game you don't like? That's right, you wouldn't. It's as simple as that, imo.

[weem]

I enjoyed Gears on the 360 - the "duck and cover" gameplay was quite innovative.

The storyline and dialogue were dreadful though - im still none the wiser as to what the hell was going on.

Can Epic please hire some decent scriptwriters in future?

Doesnt bode well for the upcoming movie.

[-Jes-]

The storyline and dialogue were dreadful though - im still none the wiser as to what the hell was going on.?

Locust = fairly intelligent race(s) banded together have attacked the oblivious surface dwellers (humans) who covered the planet. Gruesome losses.

Government takes desperate "nuke the planet clean" planet with orbital satelite lasers, plan obviously failed (Locust still live)

Game takes place some time after this.

Act 1.
Marcus gets busted out, was unfairly trialled for disobeying orders and trying to save his dad while fighting at Aspho fields. Gets into Delta squad with old friend Dominic. Delta is briefed, attacked during. Marcus called traitor by General.
Delta squad sent to retrieve Resonator from presumed dead Alpha, device that will map Locust tunnels for use with a Lightmass bomb (suppedly all powerful and can destroy entire Locust species for good).

Delta finds rest of Alpha, loses leader, cut off from Helo's, Delta seeks transport from civvy survivors. Gets truck, rescues civvie hideout, leaves for Act 2.

Act 2.
Delta gets to a mining complex, has drills which will lead them to place in undergrounds which seems suitable for the Resonator to map underground Locust network. Delta succeeds, but the Resonator sucked. Old mining bots - run by Marcus' dad - deemed valuable for info. Delta leaves for Dad's place in Act 3.

Act 3.
Delta splits up, Marcus and Dom fights their way to Dad's place, others go to fetch/fix Truck. Marcus/Dom fights into his lab, finds and uploads data. Picked up by others in Truck, narrowly escapes attacking Brumak. Is informed of Lightmass bomb on a train ready to run to dead end track leading to very deep hole. Hole presumably good enough for maximum effect of Lightmass bomb. Heads to trainstation.

Act 5.
PC-Only act, takes place between Act 3 and 4. Delta stopped on way to trainstation by drawbridge that won't go down. Is informed powergrid is down, so fixes powergrid. Is attacked by Brumack. Is informed powerstation is offline. Heads to powerstation, fights Brumack, Delta uses Brumack as tool in getting station online, kills Brumack. Heads back to Truck, then drives over lowered drawbridge.

Act 4.
Delta gets to trainstation and is instantly attacked. Only Marcus/Dom gets on train. Train's hijacked by Locust. Marcus/Dom makes sure train is not stopped/train is secure. Finds big boss at end by bomb, kills him, inserts data into bomb, activates it, escapes narrowly thanks to airsupport by General. Regains General's "respect".. somewhat.

Lightmass bomb goes off, kills tons of Locusts, but not all. Locust leaderess announces Locust will continue the fight, instigating sequel.


Just about everything but the very beginning of what I just wrote, I got from playing the game... And the beginning stuff is hinted at.
Listening to what the characters in the game say tends to HELP some times, you know?

[ambershee]

You mean they ever said anything other than 'dude', 'nice' or 'sweet'??

[-Jes-]

You mean they ever said anything other than 'dude', 'nice' or 'sweet'??"WE NOW HAVE A LIGHTMASS BOMB. I'LL TAKE OUT ALL THOSE SONS OF BITCHES IN ONE SHOT. BUT IT CAN'T WORK IF WE DON'T HAVE THE TARGETTING DATA! THAT'S WHY WE NEED THE RESONATOR!"

"Sir, his trial was a sham!"

Buy New Ears. :o
+Note, these are "as remembered".. not necessarily correct.

[ambershee]

That first quoted line pretty much sums up my statement. :rolleyes:

[-Jes-]

That first quoted line pretty much sums up my statement. :rolleyes:

That you are incapable of understanding english?
Or that you are ignorant/deaf?

[ambershee]

That the script writing has a very limited use of language? Apart from the 'named objectives', it's all the same **** over and over again.

I picked 'nice' and 'sweet' because those were the two lines that had me putting down the controller after less than an hour. I heard those two words uttered every time I picked something up and in almost every triggered sentence.

Out here in the real world, our dictionary has more than ten nouns /verbs / adverbs.

[Sir_Brizz]

Oh come on. You are complaining about the story and dialogue as contained within the game? Have you ever played HL2/Ep1? Those games are insanely popular and have virtually ZERO story in the game itself.

[-Jes-]

Not to mention have much less vocal activity.

[ambershee]

If it makes you feel any better, I despised Halo (especially 2), and wasn't a fan of Half-Life either.

[Sir_Brizz]

If it makes you feel any better, I despised Halo (especially 2), and wasn't a fan of Half-Life either.
All I'm saying is that the basics of voice overs don't make a game fun or not fun. Yeah, some of the phrases got old and boring, but I still enjoyed the game. It's not like Gears is the first game to do that or even the worst. Ever play Max Payne? :p

[ambershee]

I didn't say anything about whether the game was good or not. I said the script writing was ****. Don't pull me into an argument I didn't argue.

[-Jes-]

Max Payne was just hilarious. And the cartoonized strips that carried the storyline were Epic.
You just couldn't seriously - it was just that awesome.

"You're in a computer game Max."

And as for the story, I found it to be refreshing. It's not another 1-man army tank of justice and vigilante vengeance.

[Sir_Brizz]

I didn't say anything about whether the game was good or not. I said the script writing was ****. Don't pull me into an argument I didn't argue.
You're basing your opinion of just the script writing on what the characters say when they pick up items? :con:

[ambershee]

Apart from the 'named objectives', it's all the same **** over and over again.... ......in almost every triggered sentence.

[-Jes-]

Well ****, same can't be said for the taunts in UT-- oh wait..
You honestly want the npc's to run around at random spewing great big stories of "everything up untill now"? WHILE IN COMBAT??


Seriously, if you want to pick up logdiscs at every turn, or overhear npc's talking about the "current status-quo" about 5 times within every mile of pacing ingame, you should probably head back to SS2, Deus Ex or BioShock.

GoW isn't like these, it's an action fps. Don't recollect much, if any, storytelling from characters in any of the Medal of Honor/CoD(anything but 4) games.

[ambershee]

I wasn't aware multiplayer death matches had epic plots and character development.

"Hey, are you the Marcus Fenix? The one who fought at Asphyo Fields?"

"Yep."

"Wow! Cool!"

"Not really."

Yeah. Masterpieces of dialogue.

[-Jes-]

I wasn't aware multiplayer death matches had epic plots and character development.

You can't convince me that most fps games out there HAVE those things! :rolleyes:

[Sir_Brizz]

I wasn't aware multiplayer death matches had epic plots and character development.

Yeah. Masterpieces of dialogue.
I realize if you had REALLY been there there probably would have been a 20 minute conversation on the topic, but in the real world in the middle of a combat situation, I doubt that a conversation would go differently than that. ;)

[Haarg]

I think compared to similar game it had a decent plot. This isn't exactly the kind of game you play for the character development. Not every game needs to have an epic story-line to be good.

[-Jes-]

SS2 had an epic storyline, voicings and excellent feel. Those two things compensated for it's, quite honestly, mediocre gameplay.

This game compensates for it's "less than groundbreaking" storyline with, quite honestly, excellent gameplay and feel, not to mention actually memorable characters (HOLY ****, I remember Cole Train, Baird and Hoffman better than Dr. Kleiner, Paul Denton and even Xerxes. WTF).

[ambershee]

Gears of War clearly attempted an 'epic' storyline, so I'm going to pick at it.

How many people over the age of 12, come out with "Wow, Cool!"?

In the real world, in the middle of a combat situation, I'd hazard a guess such a conversation would never have even occurred, let alone gone the same way.

[-Jes-]

Gears of War clearly attempted an 'epic' storyline, so I'm going to pick at it.No, Half Life 2 attempted an 'epic' storyline, and utterly failed at making it noteworthy. Halo tried for kicks (storyline in Halo 1 was written in less than 3 months), and quite frankly resulted in a series of BOOKS that are way better than the games themselves (game 2 being sort of a meh situation). CoD4 tried, and succeeded somewhat.

GoW attempted the same as many other casual shooters. Decent plot, but gameplay overall.

How many people over the age of 12, come out with "Wow, Cool!"?More people than the kids under the age of 13 do. Go to a con. Open your ears. :o

In the real world, in the middle of a combat situation, I'd hazard a guess such a conversation would never have even occurred, let alone gone the same way.Hum, odd. I DO believe I've heard similar things said repeatedly in youtube vids uploaded by soldiers who have fought in Iraq. :rolleyes:

[ambershee]

No, HalfLife 2 attempted an 'epic' storyline, and utterly failed at making it noteworthy.

Whether HL2 did or didn't is irrelevant. I fail to see how the Gears of War plot attempted to remain under-stated.

More people than the kids under the age of 13 do. Go to a con. Open your ears. :o

A convention? You *might* hear it then, but then it's hardly in a vaguely similar context.

Hum, odd. I DO believe I've heard similar things said repeatedly in youtube vids uploaded by soldiers who have fought in Iraq. :rolleyes:

I doubt it. How many videos are there of people wandering around Iraq, and bumping into people "are you suchandsuch?" "Wow! Cool!"? Very few indeed.

[-Jes-]

Whether HL2 did or didn't is irrelevant. I fail to see how the Gears of War plot attempted to remain under-stated.I fail to see how it's supposedly overstated, and I say that having completed it MORE than a couple of times.

Just making sure we're on the same level here as for the meaning of the words overstating and understating:

Overstating: John Romero marketing for Daikatana.
Understating: Saying SS2 is an ok game.

Let's look at some over/understatements:
Countless previews, commercials and more for HL2 claimed that it would have an EPIC storyline. It didn't.
Some reviewers and players said that they expected DooM3's storyline to be Epic and were downright disappointed that it wasn't, despite the fact that ID explicitly stated that they were trying to make a "modernized version of DooM1", and not an EPIC plotline.

I've yet to read a review of GoW, nor any press release from Epic, that tells me that GoW's storyline is going to frakking blow me away - or make me it's b!tch, as in the case of John Romero.

A convention? You *might* hear it then, but then it's hardly in a vaguely similar context.I chose a convention as it was a massing of people.

You know, more than 5 people in one place. I've personally said that myself to a few people I consider "renowned" in real life. Is it any different that a soldier meets another soldier who became very (un)popular and going in court and such? Do note, Marcus had a history that went beyond "mere fighting."

I doubt it. How many videos are there of people wandering around Iraq, and bumping into people "are you suchandsuch?" "Wow! Cool!"? Very few indeed.Ah, I thought that was a ref to the random "sh#tf#ckbuggery" comments during battle, which I even saw in a NEWS broadcast on my country's national news-channel, that featured my countrymen shouting a couple insults and cusswords like that out loud during a live action vid recorded on location in Afghanistan!

But I've heard people use that "wow, cool" sentence to just about anyone who's "popular".. EVEN the that US soldier who got treated decently in an Iraqi hospital, then bawwed about her "death-defying adventure in the face of evil", and THEN proceeded to be fudging publicly awarded for bravery.


Seriously, take the Subjective Opinion glasses off, and look at the merits the game Intended to entail.. Not what you Wanted it to.

[ambershee]

I fail to see how it's supposedly overstated, and I say that having completed it MORE than a couple of times.

Just making sure we're on the same level here as for the meaning of the words overstating and understating:

Overstating: John Romero marketing for Daikatana.
Understating: Saying SS2 is an ok game.

Did you completely miss the marketing campaign for Gears of War? The CGI adverts were billed as deep, possibly even emotional. It smacked of a superb, heavy plot, when all we really got was a moderately refined action game with little plot to speak of. The amount of money they poured into it probably rivals the ad campaign for Halo 3.

Try finding the 'Mad World' trailer (the main one that hit TV all over the place), and tell me how indicative of GoWs content it is.

The hype machine behind it is incredible, just like Halo's. Both far, far from masterpieces, but the following won't hear otherwise.

[-Jes-]

Try finding the 'Mad World' trailer (the main one that hit TV all over the place), and tell me how indicative of GoWs content it is.. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8

Seriously.. If you claim this vid screams of "PLOT", then you need to get out more.
It featured Marcus looking into water, backed by the song, then him running through town, and finally fighting a huge baddie in darkness. THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT.

NOT EVEN A SINGLE WORD WAS SPOKEN BY THE SINGLE HUMAN ACTOR.

You expecting this to equal a plot of gigantic proportion is your own imagination reading far too much into it. As said, take the Subjective Glasses off for once.


And GoW's marketing campaign being expensive to the point of Halo 3? Give me a friggin' break. You obviously have no scope of the immensity that is the Halo3 PR show.

GoW had... Some CGI and mostly in-engine video.

Halo 3 had COUNTLESS LIVE ACTION ADVERTS, 2 fullly detailed mockup miniature landscapes, countless CGI and In-Engine shots, REAL ACTORS DESCRIBING A WAR THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST... A full 2-section combat video with actual actors playing human ODST's, hell they even had a REAL WORKING WARTHOG MADE for that.

[ambershee]

It suggest a lot more than loud gunfights and heavy guitar-led music (every other shooter trailer out there, save Halo).

Google search 'Gears of War Marketing', and the first few articles gave me these quotes. But hey, obviously I'm the minority, and you're right :rolleyes:

Even though the advertisement was undeniably just a well-crafted machinima video, it worked on so many levels. Beautiful cinematography (by Joseph Kosinski who also worked on the Halo 3 ad), touching storyline and the perfect song.

For the Gears trailer he said, "We wanted it to be a strong emotional piece. A real juxtaposition between images and music. Something people would see and wonder: is this a movie? A video-game trailer? What is it?"

Granted the Gears commercials were memorable, but really if you just watched the commercial, you wouldn't have much of an idea as to what the game was about.

The song Mad World along with the video really made the game look great. Unfortunately, the actual game never really captured the same feel the commercial provided. It is still a great game, but the commercial led me to believe that it would have a much more fleshed out and stylized story.

[-Jes-]

Quote 3 just proves my point. So yeah, you're obviously in the minority that is Quote 4.

It's an emotional trailer, thanks to the quite well-known song. It shows some fighting in a dark/white environment. It impacts the viewer. JOB DONE!
However, does it describe ANYTHING directly about the game itself, except that it's good looking? No??

Ergo, it's not promising you ANYTHING besides good graphics, much less a storyline. This is called "clever marketing".

[ambershee]

I'm going to be blunt, because I'm getting pissed off. If you can't see that having a very different, emotionally suggestive trailer as opposed to to an all-guns-blazing, loud action poster advert is going to suggest that the game is different, you're an outright idiot.

Good marketing, perhaps, but that's not the argument.

Quote 3 was backing up my point that the advert proved completely non-indicative of the final game content. Quotes 1,2 and 4 demonstrated the argument of the content in the trailer suggesting emotion and story.

[-Jes-]

I'm going to be blunt, because I'm getting pissed off. If you can't see that having a very different, emotionally suggestive trailer as opposed to to an all-guns-blazing, loud action poster advert is going to suggest that the game is different, you're an outright idiot.

Good marketing, perhaps, but that's not the argument.

Quote 3 was backing up my point that the advert proved completely non-indicative of the final game content. Quotes 1,2 and 4 demonstrated the argument of the content in the trailer suggesting emotion and story.Quote 3 understood the trailer. That it got the name, Gears of War, out there without telling anything. It tacked on because the trailer had a FEEL. What it did not have was INFORMATION.
The former combined with the lack of latter is a natural spice to what we humans call "interest."


Quote 1, 2 and 4 all READ INTO IT that the game would involve a deep storyline. They based their expectations of the game solely upon the feel of the trailer, not the information (not) given in it. So sure they feel disappointed. But nowhere was there explicitly stated that what they READ INTO IT was actually there.

This is equal to seeing a car with a hugeass muffler and then buying the car expecting it to sound awesome.



A trailer's looks or feel is by no means indicative of what the game itself does entail.

As such, if you expect an emotional trailer, that doesn't actually provide any clear-cut detail (verbally, written, hell even picturesque) on whether the game contains same emotional level to prove that the game indeed HAS that same level of emotion, then quite frankly you're too stupid to read between the ****ing lines. :o

So yeah, idiot right back at you for being a sheep who'll blindly buy into clever marketing.


There's a difference between promoting an emotion on the merits of actual purpose, and promoting an emotion on the merits of catching your attention.

[Renegade Retard]

/me passes the popcorn to Brizz.

[ambershee]

The whole reason for the argument, is that the script writing and story is, well and truly abysmal, and right up there with some of the really bad 80s action movies of the day...

That whole section of my argument, is that the game was marketed to imply that there was some level of depth to the plot / characterisation, and that some people feel let down, by what could very much potentially have been a lot better. Hence the references to possible future graphics novel and movie adaptations. You can't explore bad writing and lack of plot in other media, unless you're willing to try and sell a graphic novel that doesn't have anything other than artwork.

[Kantham]

/me passes the popcorn to Brizz.

Think the others...

[Haarg]

It seems what you are arguing about isn't so much the plot, but your expectations of it.

I'm not pretending it has a perfect story, but it is good enough to hold the game together, and no worse than most other Sci-Fi action games.

[B4NE]

Wooooo! Gears 2.. I guess.

Does anyone else feel like Epic has totally given up on trying to make good games? There's really nothing on their resume besides the Unreal games and Gears anyway, but at least their efforts from 1998 to 2004 paid off in great games.

Gears of War amounted to little more than a tech demo. I thought it was extremely impressive at first but in retrospect? I finished the singleplayer in a dozen hours and haven't played the game since.

And now that the half-assed effort they put into UT3 has not paid off like they thought, their going to go back to what put cash in their pocket and make Gears 2. It's like a typical hollywood attitude. Go with a sequel that's guaranteed to make a few bucks rather than come up with something original.

Sometimes I wonder if they should stick to making game engines and leave it at that. Have Unreal Tournament be your running tech demo and do graphical updates to it every year.

:mad:


I actually totally agree with you. Maybe it has something to do with the joining of Midway with Epic but something just isn't right anymore.

[Haarg]

You do realize that Midway has nothing to do with Gears of War, right?

[B4NE]

yeah I know I'm going to get flamed for this, I know this is the Gears forum but the title just sparked my interest so I came in here. I really didn't like Gears of War. I was more so speaking from an Unreal-minded point of view.

[N1ghtmare]

In my experience with GOw the only time I heard "cool" was I the helicopter. To me it does sound like something an inexperienced new soldier would say to a old veteran when the new guy had only heard the glorious stories of war and not been there to witness it. Thats also why Marcus cad such a "meh" response.

And I fail to see anything wrong with the commander guy talking about finding the resonator.

[chappell360]

Its a good game, That is all.

[Sijik]

I didn't say anything about whether the game was good or not. I said the script writing was ****. Don't pull me into an argument I didn't argue.

Also keep in mind that A: Cliffy intentionally did not want to bog down players by forcing story down their throats; a mindset that I can identify with, as I think there is too much of a focus on story being the driving factor in shooters these days. Intricate, complex and creative level design trumps story any day, and the introduction of story has partially led to increasingly linear level design. Not that Gears managed to have levels like Spawning Vats or Unholy Cathedral, but it does use the gameplay conventions well.
Also, there is a lot of backstory available if you search for it, on the official website and various trailers and videos.

B: Epic has hired a renown sci-fi writer to make the story and dialog for Gears 2.

C: You should maintain a little bit of a sense of humor about Epic's titles. They rarely take themselves overly seriously.

You can explore anything that has a good backstory and universe around it, and Gears definitely has it. If the people making the comics and books get in touch with what Epic has planned for the origin, motives, and nature of the Locust (really the only thing we don't know about yet,) there would be miles available to explore.

The emotions in the trailer are there throughout the game; they're just subtle. Look around you every now and then. The feeling of loss and desperation is everywhere, especially if you keep all the backstory n mind while you're playing. Just because you're running around guns blazing doesn't mean there's nothing just under the surface. Remember, what you get out of gaming is directly related to what you put in.