Gears 2 In-Depth Interview

[_Zd_3s_]

A very sad day for me to read the stuff in this thread and the comments that have been made.
There was a time Epic and the game could do no wrong but that seems like a thousand years ago tbh.

Sure, they could do no wrong when they were releasing kick-ass games that changed the landscape of PC gaming. The epic Unreal1, the amazing UT99, which people are still playing online. Fans just expected Epic to continue producing masterpieces. But they didn't deliver. They were overtaken by the competition and lost their edge. Fans of the original PC titles were simply not impressed by the games Epic produced for the PC in the recent years. That's been the problem. It would be naive to still be backing up a company that hasn't delivered a mind-blowing experience in the past ~10 years.

And now, instead of trying to overcome these disappointments and think about innovative ways to regain the enthusiasm of the still huge potential fanbase, Epic tells us that it's all our fault. We, the PC gamers, we, the Unreal enthusiasts, we are the problem. We are thieves, stealing their products. We are the reason they are abandoning PC games.

It just feels like a knife in the back. Like they say, you can only be truly hurt by someone you love. The emotional responses in this thread are not because we hate Epic. It's because we are truly committed to them and we are passionate about everything the company is producing. It hurts to see them giving up on PC gaming. It hurts that in the end all that is left is just pointing fingers; we think Epic messed it up, while Epic blames us for the failures. Still, the bottom line is that Epic has not been succesful in PC gaming in a long time. It's over.

In the end it's a good thing that CliffyB is stating it so strongly. Because now that we know that they've given up completely and definitively on PC gaming, we don't have to wait and hope and beg for another good title. We can finally move on to developers that do blow our minds with beautiful and high-quality PC titles.

 

[shoptroll]

Fans of the original PC titles were simply not impressed by the games Epic produced for the PC in the recent years. That's been the problem.

When you have a title like Halo dominating the console landscape, it's not a stretch to say that console gamers have lower expectations

 

[Beelzebud (Satanas)]

Sure, they could do no wrong when they were releasing kick-ass games that changed the landscape of PC gaming. The epic Unreal1, the amazing UT99, which people are still playing online. Fans just expected Epic to continue producing masterpieces. But they didn't deliver. They were overtaken by the competition and lost their edge. Fans of the original PC titles were simply not impressed by the games Epic produced for the PC in the recent years. That's been the problem. It would be naive to still be backing up a company that hasn't delivered a mind-blowing experience in the past ~10 years.

And now, instead of trying to overcome these disappointments and think about innovative ways to regain the enthusiasm of the still huge potential fanbase, Epic tells us that it's all our fault. We, the PC gamers, we, the Unreal enthusiasts, we are the problem. We are thieves, stealing their products. We are the reason they are abandoning PC games.

It just feels like a knife in the back. Like they say, you can only be truly hurt by someone you love. The emotional responses in this thread are not because we hate Epic. It's because we are truly committed to them and we are passionate about everything the company is producing. It hurts to see them giving up on PC gaming. It hurts that in the end all that is left is just pointing fingers; we think Epic messed it up, while Epic blames us for the failures. Still, the bottom line is that Epic has not been succesful in PC gaming in a long time. It's over.

In the end it's a good thing that CliffyB is stating it so strongly. Because now that we know that they've given up completely and definitively on PC gaming, we don't have to wait and hope and beg for another good title. We can finally move on to developers that do blow our minds with beautiful and high-quality PC titles.

Well said. For me it's about extreme disappointment. Unreal is what fueled my passion for all things PC. That game is the reason I stopped buying consoles and became a die-hard PC gamer.

Seeing how badly UT3 bombed was honestly depressing for me, and to now have Epic pour salt on the woulds is the final straw. People like me that bought UT3 just got a major "**** you" from CliffyB.

 

[Plumb_Drumb]

When you have a title like Halo dominating the console landscape, it's not a stretch to say that console gamers have lower expectations

I don't think Halo is dominating the consoles right now, but it was a damn fun game, no doubt about it.
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[Wander]

...but I just bought UT3 a few weeks ago

 

[Lizard Of Oz]

CliffyB has finally reached the Lars Ulrich level of craziness.

 

[Syri]

There's not a lot to say right now for the PC industry. The PC market is in a very interesting situation right now, what with the availability of all these different video cards, piracy and things like that. At this current point for us, it just makes sense to focus on the 360 in regard to Gears and our development efforts.

As a side note to all of this, regardless of what's going on with Spore and all that, I've come to believe that the kind of person who's savvy enough to have a high-end PC - to upgrade it, to figure the ins and outs of it and to make sure he has a solid system - probably knows what BitTorrent is. That's all I'm saying.

yay, thanks for the big slap of the generalisation stick.
Go screw yourself cliffyB, epic will get no more money from me. I quite liked UT3, but I don't like uptight arseholes who think they can just blame their own lack of success on others and insult an entire community like that.

 

[Swatt]

I ran across this post over at firingsquad about the same comments Cliffy said.

"The person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card" is also savvy enough to smell an over-priced console port when he sees one.

This man speaks the truth. I played thru GoW on the 360 in ONE SITTING. There was NO reason to play the game over again for me. It was a fun play thru and all, but once was all it took. I didn't feel the need to play the the "new" sequence in the PC version.

Oh, and for the record, I BOUGHT original unreal (PC) UT99 (PC) ut2003 (PC) ut2004 (PC) and currently ut3 (PC)

BTW, UT3 was a HUGE dissappointment for me. They claimed PC first for the development on UT3, but it very clearly is a console port. It plays like one, it looks like one, its slow, and it sucks... just like most console shooters.

I still consider myself a pretty hardcore PC guy and freely admit that I did not buy Crysis, mostly because the free demo ran so ****ty on my intel core two duo 6750, 8800 GT 512, and 4GB ram that i almost cried myself to sleep.

For that matter, UT3 dosen't run that great on my system either. (I Partially blame dx10 and vista for these things too)

At the end of the day... I play more Team Fortress 2 than anything else out there. oh, and yeah. Bought it, play it online.

screw you epic.

 

[EXE-973]

on my intel core two duo 6750, 8800 GT 512, and 4GB ram that i almost cried myself to sleep.

For that matter, UT3 dosen't run that great on my system either. (I Partially blame dx10 and vista for these things too)

Ummm, you might consider optimizing your system a bit. I have the 6700, the 8800 GTX 768 and 4 gigs of ram with vista and frankly Crysis is playable on highest settings and UT 3 runs fine. Only unplayable slowdowns I get are on crysis in really heavily populated areas. Of course I'm not a framerate whore, but I don't play with slideshows either...

 

[GTD-Carthage]

In other news, he said "If you do a good enough job, your fans will come to your aid and defend you." and here, he says "I’ve come to believe that the kind of person who’s savvy enough to have a high-end PC – to upgrade it, to figure the ins and outs of it and to make sure he has a solid system – probably knows what BitTorrent is."

The first thing he said makes me feel like an idiot and the second makes me feel like a criminal. He totally certainly *lost* another of his potential "defenders" just now. This kick below the belt completely nullifies my support for Epic. After hearing all that, I don't think I'll be getting any UT4 at all especially after buying every single UT + GoW PC. (In other terms, my largest collection of games from the same company comes from Epic.)

Are they planning to follow EA's Madden scheme where a game is released per year or every two years with only minor improvements in between? Now I feel like I'm being stolen from in the context of getting my money squeezed out of me that way. So now I'm an idiot, a criminal, and a victim of crime all at once.

 

[Soggy_Popcorn]

Yeah. I know what BitTorrent is. I used it to download the UT3 demo.

After that I bought the game the first day it was available in Germany.


Now, please, Cliffy, don't open your mouth again.

By the power of this seed of truth, I hereby declare this thread closed.

P.S. If you really think that context-sensitivity is a replacement for multiple buttons, you've truly forgotten what it's like to PC-game. These people no longer have any business developing for the PC.

 

[AKWolf]

Oh the irony, first it was Rein blaming crappy Intel integrated graphics. Now it's the enthusiasts with high end rigs getting the finger pointed at them...."That's all I'm Saying"

 

[DorDuke82]

Funny how everything Epic has done after the "Bread and Butter" Shenanigans and joining the PC Gaming Alliance is whining about how bad everything is for them on the PC side of things and that it isnt worth it anymore and everybody and his grandma are a**es for not buying their pc games - not exactly the things the PCGA has written on their banners.

And like AkWolf said: first everybody with his integrated graphics card is the problem, now everybody with a enough money to buy HighEnd Hardware is the problem - what next? Everybody that plays demos? Everybody who has a console and doesnt buy the same game 1-2 years later full-price again on PC?

If Epic (and i mean everyone of them - especially Clifford and Mr. Rein) would just stop making dumb, illogical bull**** excuses and would have the guts to step out and say the truth, that they have long lost touch witch PC Gamers and that they cant for the live of them make Epic Pc Games anymore and just go for the money - atleast i wouldnt feel so pi**ed about them.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Bottom line is that PC piracy is bad for the industry. In the same way and for the same reasons, console game resales are bad for the industry.

While I have known Cliff felt this way since Gears 1 began development, frankly, I simply cannot agree with this sentiment. If piracy is damaging to the game industry in the same way as used game sales is damaging to the game industry, then it is not damaging at all.

Now, to qualify my statement.

1) GameStop reselling MAY BE damaging to the game industry because they are directly profiting from the game sales. This, to me, is an extremely shady business practice. I can see publishers being unappreciative and outright angry about GameStop doing this. They pay pennies on the dollar for used games, and then sell them for dollars on the penny back to people. Ridiculous.

2) Regular third party transactions are perfectly normal and fine. This is what we call a free market The excuse people make for why software is different than an appliance is ridiculous. Software depreciates as newer software comes out just like any other device does.

If I buy a washing machine today, use it for a week, and then sell it to my neighbor, the washer manufacturer "technically" lost a sale, too. But this is generally allowed and acceptable and appliance makers don't complain about the MASSIVE PROBLEM OF USED APPLIANCE SALES, do they?

Piracy is a problem, but it's not as big of a problem as people make it out to be. Cliff mentions this group of people who can BUILD top of the line computers, but he ignores the fact that these people also HAVE LOADS OF MONEY TO SPEND. If they determine a game is good, they will buy it.

Additionally, a large draw to many of these games is the multiplayer component, which you need a legit copy for anyway. I have yet to see a game crack that bypasses key validation server side.

 

[Plumb_Drumb]

By the power of this seed of truth, I hereby declare this thread closed.

P.S. If you really think that context-sensitivity is a replacement for multiple buttons, you've truly forgotten what it's like to PC-game. These people no longer have any business developing for the PC.

I found the whole "less buttons" thing to be pretty stupid too.
Nothing says you HAVE to use all the buttons Cliff, but other games may need them.

Maybe he should build his own Gears of War Console or something, then it would demolish the competition, Right Guys!?
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[keaukrine]

Piracy is a problem, but it's not as big of a problem as people make it out to be. Cliff mentions this group of people who can BUILD top of the line computers, but he ignores the fact that these people also HAVE LOADS OF MONEY TO SPEND. If they determine a game is good, they will buy it.

That's exactly my thoughts. If someone can afford to buy a high-end PC (which is way more expensive than 360), he/she can afford to buy games for it (AFAIK PC games cost even less than console ones).

 

[Aegeri]

Sorry Epic, I supported you for years and I bought all of your games once upon a time. I own Jazz Jackrabbit (and its sequel), Unreal, UT, UT2k3, UT2k4 and Gears of War. Now you turn around and take a gigantic **** on your main fanbase (EG PC "hardcore" gamers or whatever) with UT3 and then you fail miserably. Now you blame the "PC market" and other nonsense, without realising yo made a crappy dumbed down game that didn't appeal to the audience the UT games have always appealed to: namely the enthusiasts like me who have been upgrading their computers for years to keep playing the latest unreal engine and similar games.

That they turn around and take a second dump all over me, by implying I'm a pirate, despite my support of their games for numerous years is just beyond insulting.

**** you Epic.

 

[Frieza]

*Looks at big pile of Unreal games bought

Say what Clifford?

I can live with GoW2 not coming to the PC, but the moment they announce UT4 or (heaven forbid) Unreal 3 to be console exclusives I'm going to bawl my eyes out.

I just hate how two-faced Epic has become. "Ooh, PC games are our bread and butter", "Ooh, PC Gaming Alliance ftw!" While in the meantime GoW2 is never going to come to the PC (but hey, since they're lying about everything, who knows ), and Clif.. the guy formerly known as CliffyB goes around telling everyone how we, the people that supported Epic by actually buying their games, are all pirates.

Fact is, I'll probably keep buying Epic games if they come out on PC (yes, I actually liked UT3, though I hardly play it as there's no community to play it with), but I just can't help but feel royally ****ed by Epic despite my loyal support.

Oh and Cliff..
Gears of War wouldn't have ever got made if we hadn't all bought Unreal, UT or UT2k4, that's all I'm saying...

 

[Sys-X]

This is bs, epic fail again -.-

 

[badvermin]

"I’ve come to believe that the kind of person who’s savvy enough to have a high-end PC – to upgrade it, to figure the ins and outs of it and to make sure he has a solid system – probably knows what BitTorrent is."

I bet everybody in this forum knows what BitTorrent is since they are more savvy than the average person on the street... But if that statement makes somebody think he is calling them a criminal, that says more about them than Cliff.

I personally find it interesting that people tend to attack those who say piracy is bad, rather than the pirates. On one hand we have people trying to make entertaining games for a living, and on the other side we have people who think they should be able to benefit from those peoples hard work for free.

More and more companies are finding that making PC games just isn't profitable anymore, if somebody doesn't think piracy plays even a small part in that, they are being naive.

Bottom line is that PC piracy is bad for the industry. In the same way and for the same reasons, console game resales are bad for the industry. Ultimately, this is bad for us as gamers. Is it the death of PC games? No - but for better or worse it does have a direct influence on the current state of the industry, including the quality and number of products that make it to shelf.

WOW! Well reasoned, logical thoughts on this forum, who knew!