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Gears of War 2

janu dilber

By janu dilber,
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SchizoidFreud Newbie

SchizoidFreud

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Gears of War 2 Hands-On

 

If for no other reason, you should have been at PAX this year simply to play the game that is sure to be a monster success. Gears of War 2 was unleashed on us as a fully playable demo on the show floor. After a long, long wait I finally got my turn at the “Gears”, and I was far from disappointed. A fan of the original GoW, I was more than happy to stand in line for my opportunity to take this game for a test drive.

 

The Microsoft booth was hosting 5 VS 5 death matches all weekend, and I had the pleasure of getting in on the action. Unfortunately, I had my a*s handed to me by trained vets. So I bowed out graciously to allow more seasoned players take the helm. I watched with intrigue as they strategically took out each other in fierce combat. After watching for a while, I figured it was time to get a little more info on the game and what we could expect from the next installment of the GOW franchise.

 

I had the pleasure to do a little Q&A with Joshua Ortega, the writer from Gears of War. He gave me a peek into the workings of the game, and why there's a good chance that many other games in the industry might have a shadow over them in the near future.

 

Joshua, who actually had nothing to do with the original Gears, was brought in for the second installment to bring new horizons to the game and still keep the original gameplay intact. Joshua wasn't a big player of the original game, and had only logged a few hours total on it. It's surprising how little the developers of games get to actually play, and before he got a chance to fully throw himself into the game he was asked to work on Gears 2. At first he didn't think it would happen, but as fate would have it his original plans for that time got canceled, and before he knew it he was immersed in the game, playing and learning all he could about it before he was thrown into making the sequel.

 

Joshua played the game from beginning to end two or three times. Joshua actually ended up beating Raam in Hardcore mode and in Insane mode. His secret? “Active reload is the key and when everyone asks me the secret to Gears I say active reload.”

 

So the time came to start work on Gears 2. The original's storyline had a lot of holes in it. In total it was actually a very good story, but was somewhat patchy. On a lesser game it probably would have been better, but on a game like Gears the storyline is just as much the game as the playing itself. So what do you do to improve the storyline? You bring in someone like Ortega.

 

So what can we look forward to in Gears 2? Chances are good that some new characters will be introduced, bigger badder bosses that are more than happy to rip you a new one. Carmine will be back in essence, with some of the characters toting his characteristics. And you can definitely look to learn more about the Locust Queen. But don't look forward to characters being around long. The calling card of Gears is characters dying. And according to Joshua, they plan to keep to tradition.

 

So there is plenty to watch out for in Gears Of War 2. There are more comics on the way to supplement those who go beyond the game. From beginning to end, expect a more fulfilling and richer gaming experience. The storyline is so good that the people at Epic were surprised at how beautiful it turned out. “The response has been really good, over at Epic people were like "holy sh*t!" I'm far enough away from it now where I can see that.” Like many others, I'm on the edge of my seat for the release. But I'm wondering what everyone else has on their mind. When's the movie?

 

Cue the chirping crickets...

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SchizoidFreud Newbie

SchizoidFreud

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Interview: Gears of War 2 artist Pete Hayes talks art, life

 

Shades of gray

 

The gaming industry is in the midst of a very interesting and turbulent time. With the advent of downloadable games on consoles, game makers are opening up new frontiers of technology and design. But technology shifts, and art is a strange constant in an otherwise ever-changing medium. No matter how far the industry has come or how much things change, art forever remains an integral part of gaming, and good art is still a rare and valuable commodity.

 

Pete Hayes, an artist working for Epic Games, knows this all too well. His work on Gears of War helped turn a brand new property into a gaming blockbuster. The first game in the series sold in huge numbers, for both the Xbox 360 and the PC, and Epic is poised to repeat the same success with Gears of War 2.

 

The work of Hayes and his colleagues is at the artistic vanguard of this entire console generation: the art style of Gears was largely the source of the "next-gen color scheme," a scheme exemplified in the gritty and dark design of Epic's original Xbox 360 killer app. But how has that often-imitated design changed going into the second game? And what of the art in the game industry in general? Ars sat down with Hayes to talk about his new game, his work in the industry, and what it takes to become a game artist.

 

The genesis of next-gen color

 

Ars Technica: Let me start with an easy question. Gears was the game that kicked off the so called "next-gen" color scheme, with browns and grays and that gritty look. Talk to me about that. Was that a conscious decision? Did you expect it to take off like it did? And how has that changed going into Gears of War 2?

 

Pete Hayes: Ah, yes. We get that a lot. As far as the comments regarding Gears and the color scheme, a lot of that is relevant for certain parts of the game, but we definitely thought there was diversity of the palette. As with everything in Gears 2, the theme is continuing with more of that. With the environments, we've continued to diversify the color palette, the types of environments, things along those lines. I definitely think it's a much more colorful game.

 

But it wasn't something that we set out as a conscious decision to counteract what some people thought about Gears 1: we made Gears 1 the way we wanted to make it, and with Gears 2 we continued to refine and polish and add to that formula. We've got these huge open vistas and beautiful sunsets and skies and different colors. There's tons of very vibrant fire and colors going on. There's definitely a much broader color range and we've tried to improve the visuals in order to make it even more beautiful.

 

Ars: And what of the notion that every Unreal game has a specific "Unreal" look? How do you feel about that?

 

PH: Frankly, I disagree [with that notion]. I don't think it's true. You look at Bioshock: there's a ton of UE3 games that have a distinct look. As far as some games looking "UT-ish" or "Gear-ish," there's definitely something within the industry and, well, everybody is inspired by everybody, artistically—especially if something is very successful. People look to that and try to capture that and bottle it and reproduce it. I think it's very flattering. But I don't think it doesn't have anything to do with UE3, it's just people's artistic styles of what they want to pursue. So that probably won't change, especially given the new enhancements for Gears 2.

 

Colors will play a more prominent role in Gears of War 2.

 

Ars: Those visual enhancements have really started to take form in the multiplayer levels shown.

 

PH: Yea, for sure.

 

Ars: One level that caught my eye in multiplayer was "Avalanche." There's a blizzard going on, and there's an avalanche that comes through the level; it's very unlike what we saw with the Gears maps until "Hidden Fronts." Are all the multiplayer maps like that, with a thematic overtone like "the snowy level," "the fire level," and so forth?

 

PH: Yea. Each level has its own look and feel, its own vibe, its own uniqueness. That's one of the key things that we wanted to focus on was to give each one a distinctive feel, both gameplay-wise and also the color palette and the theme. Whether it's the time of day or the season, we wanted them each to feel very unique and stand alone as very individual levels.

 

Ars: The scale also caught my eye. Avalanche is a modestly-sized, symmetrical level, but the bigger levels and some of the single player stuff that we've seen is significantly more massive than anything in the first game. How do you work with that increase in scale, artistically? How do you go somewhat of a more directed and linear experience and open that up?

 

PH: Well, it starts first and foremost with the environments. Much, much larger scale environments. In Gears 1, you feel like you were part of this small squad with these little insurgent kind of skirmishes. In Gears 2, you feel like you're in a full-scale war, this huge battle. The biggest thing is that you've gotta open it up: you've got to have bigger environments, you've got to have more characters. We've also implemented more weapons, including the mortar we're showing and the Mulcher, which is the Gatling gun that you can use to mow down swarms of enemies. Artistically, it started with the environments, then how we filled the environments with more enemies, and then introducing new weapons (including the heavy weapon class) to make it possible to deal with all those enemies.

 

Ars: Working with the Unreal Engine all the time must make art production easier. You have that framework that lets you do what you do best. But does working with UE3 make you ever feel confined? Have you ever had to scale back on exercising your artistic freedom to make it work?

 

PH: There's always a constant struggle between the realities of shipping a game—independent of which platform you're developing for or what tool you're using. Obviously, as an artist, you're always wanting to put in another thousand more polys, or you're wanting that texture to be the next size bigger so your art is as perfect as it can possibly be. It's a constant balance between that fidelity and a game that runs on a disc and does all those things.

 

The cutting room floor

 

Ars: So where do you stop in the quest for more polys or bigger textures? Where do you draw that line between what you want to achieve artistically and what's technically possible?

 

PH: It's basically a constant balance. Deciding what you want to do as a game, deciding what you want to achieve... what's going to be fun? That's the bottom line. It doesn't matter what we want as artists if the game's not fun. Nobody is going to buy a game that looks gorgeous but it's not fun to play. So, we're passionate as artists, but we're more passionate about being game makers and making a really cool, fun game to play.

 

Vast, open areas and a general increase in scale are also focal points of the visual design.

 

Everyone at Epic is a hardcore gamer, and we're truly passionate about the medium. I don't think it's ever a conscious decision, but rather a natural evolution of "we want to do this cool scene and how do we make it cool?" Then we take all the pieces, which is the programming, making it fit on a disc, making it run in memory, making it look good; taking those things and constantly working and polishing and fitting. It's an iterative process. And so, honestly, it comes together very naturally.

 

Ars: Did you have any regrets with designs from the first game that had to be carried over?

 

PH: I don't really dwell on anything in the past... but the original Lancer was the very first model I did for Gears. It was the oldest model in the entire game. But even six months of difference in modeling ability, when you're doing 12 to 16 hours of modeling a day, is a huge difference in your skill, much less a year or two years. At the end of Gears 1, I'm looking at the lancer—which became the iconic representation of Gears—and I'm looking at the quality of it as it's not my best work. With Gears 2, I've got to redo that. We didn't change any of the high-poly look and feel, but I tripled the amount of low polys so it looks that much better, that much crisper and cleaner. But that doesn't happen that often.

 

Ars: I bet you're digging the full-sized Lancer toy then, eh?

 

PH: [Laughs] I've already pre-ordered six of them :O . Of course, I modeled the gun. It was rapid-prototyped directly off of my 3D model. James Hawkins did the awesome concept and I'm a huge fan of his work. It was a huge collaborative team effort and seeing something like that was so surreal. All the toys are like that. I'm a skater so they've got Gears skate shoes that I'm wearing now. I'm a Gears fan.

 

Ars: Back on topic, was there anything on the project that you worked on that didn't work out right away when taking it from the conceptual stage into the actual game engine?

 

PH: Usually there are just minor tweaks. For example, with the Mortar, one of the heavy weapons, we had a certain barrel length and we thought it would work well this way. Once we started implementing it, we realized "okay, he's got to be able to mount it on the ground and not on cover, so the base needs to flip this way and functioning needs to work this way." And then once we got that working, the barrel wasn't that visible and we really wanted to have that "oomph" of having this big long barrel, and then when you fire it it has this big recoil so you have that visceral feel. So we tweaked it. But we didn't really cut anything.

 

Ars: One of those wild and crazy things has to be those new vehicle sections. We had a taste with Gears, but we know you guys put a new focus on that. Talk about the birth of the new vehicles, and working them into the core Gears formula. Did you look to Unreal Tournament 3 for cues?

 

PH: Um, well, I wouldn't say so. I can't really speak to those comments in the single player game; we've hinted at some stuff, but I don't want to spoil anything. But I think the vehicles in Gears 2 are completely unique from the vehicles in UT. We've approached it in a new way.

 

The new focus on vehicles and vehicular combat is going to lead to some big surprises.

 

Ars: What about changes related to the online community? Was there a specific example when the community brought something up in a criticism that you took to heart and changed?

 

PH: The headshot video. They [forum posters] were analyzing video of the headshot and they were like "there's something missing, the sniper's too loud, you don't hear the 'pop' of the skull exploding." And I'm like, "hmm, I think I'm going to look at that." So I went into the game and, sure enough, it seemed like something was off and we fixed it. We're always keeping an eye out and taking a look at stuff. We got to do some really wild and crazy things, and I think gamers are really going to enjoy it. :shock3: :sign_omg::D:dance::punk::dance::wOOtjumpy: :wOOtjumpy:

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

GOTY 2008 Confirmed :D

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Doobz Newbie

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Its a M$ release, so we will have to see if any retailer can offer a good discount since the official distributor wont.

glad to hear it y dont we incorporate gow 2 into da t shirt den eh vik sell with game :D

 

daymmit umang u makin me read so much in between my exams :D

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SchizoidFreud Newbie

SchizoidFreud

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Q&A: Gears 2 dev Pete Hayes

 

 

When curb-stomping Locusts in Gears of War or cutting a swath through their torsos with the chainsaw-equipped Lancer rifle, it's easy to overlook the fact that some talented developer had to craft every last gory giblet of the ensuing carnage in three dimensions. For Gears of War and its upcoming sequel, that developer is Epic Games senior artist Pete Hayes.

 

Hayes, who also models the franchise's vehicles and weapons, recently sat down with GameSpot to talk about his work on the series, what he wanted to change for Gears of War 2, and what he thought about seeing his work replicated in the real-world with the Amazon.com exclusive life-size Lancer promotion.

 

GameSpot: So how does one model gore?

 

Pete Hayes: Basically, I don't use reference because I don't like real-life violence. I'm actually kinda squeamish. I grew up on horror movies like the Evil Dead series, sci-fi action like Starship Troopers. So I'm more into the friendly violence, the fun violence, stuff like Bad Taste or Dead Alive. Campy kind of movies like that.

 

I basically create a little stockpile of chunks of meat and bones and things along those lines. Then I figure out where the character has to be chopped up or blown apart for gameplay purposes. Obviously, with a chainsaw, you have to have cuts in certain places. Then I just try to make it look cool. It's not anatomically correct by any means whatsoever. There's lots of "mystery meat" in there.

 

The goal is not to gross people out or have super-uber-realistic gore. It's more just for the type of action game that we are and [to have] that over-the-top exclamation point, much like profanity would add an exclamation point to certain comedy routines. It serves that purpose.

 

GS: Now in Bad Taste or Dead Alive, the audience reaction to the gore is laughter. In Gears of War, is that the same reaction you're going for?

 

PH: Oh, absolutely. It's not some kind of sinister, premeditated, creepy sawing your head off or whatever. It's just very action-packed. It's like the smack-talking you do with your friends, or serendipity when something happens like a headshot where the skull flies up and lands on somebody else's head. It's Three Stooges, ridiculous, over-the-top. At least that's the way I envision it; that's the response. It's not scary or done in a weird, malicious way. It's just fun and part of the action.

 

GS: Do you ever hear from people who missed the point or took it a little more seriously?

 

PH: I don't think so. I personally haven't. I've read forums where people are like, "More gore, more gore, more!" And I think we got enough and maybe they should seek counseling... But at least from my exposure, it's one small part of the equation; it doesn't define Gears.

 

GS: How do you explain to your family what you do?

 

PH: My family's actually fairly eclectic. They follow what I do and enjoy it. I've got a 17-year-old son who's a superhardcore gamer, and I think the only way he could be any more proud of me is if I worked for Blizzard because he's a huge fan of theirs. But he's a Gears fan as well.

 

GS: You also modeled weapons and vehicles for the second game. Haven't some of these already been modeled once, like the Lancer?

 

PH: Yeah, absolutely. The Lancer's a good example that's been revamped. It was actually the very first model I did for Gears 1... I got the concept art, and when we started Gears 1, we didn't know what kind of poly count we had to work with. And my skill level five years ago wasn't close to what it is today. So I went back and remodeled [it]. It's actually three times the amount of polygons that the Gears 1 Lancer was. We refined the scope slightly, but there was a very conscious decision that we didn't want to mess with the design too much because that's the iconic Gears gun.

 

Some of the other weapons are straight over from Gears 1. They work; they're good enough. We've improved the game in so many areas we didn't feel the need to go back and remodel every single asset. We focused on doing the new weapons, like the mortar, the mulcher Gatling gun that you can mow people in half with.

 

GS: How about the vehicles you can talk about?

 

PH: There's the centaur tank, which I modeled. The directive from [lead designer] Cliff [bleszinski] was "I want a cross between a monster truck and a tank." That's the kind of vibe we wanted. I did the Junker from Gears 1, and I was critical, as were some other people, about that vehicle sequence in Gears 1. So we [knew we had to] do something good because people were a bit grumbly about that.

 

GS: When it came time to do Gears of War 2, what was the most appealing part of doing the sequel?

 

PH: The biggest thing for me was knowing that we had the solid foundation and people out there liked it. Gears 2 was very liberating for me. I didn't feel any pressure, I was just like, "Sweet! We know we've got this part that works. Now let's do all the other stuff we want to do with more variety, even more over-the-top, cooler weapons, bigger weapons..." I was just chomping at the bit to get back on it.

 

Redoing the Lancer was a huge part [of the second game's appeal]. That was something that was a thorn in my side for the entire game because I thought my skills weren't near what they are. And it was probably the lowest-polygon [count] model in the game when probably it should be the highest-poly weapon in the game.

 

GS: How much did you work with NECA on the toys and life-size Lancer replica?

 

PH: I'm basically the biggest resident toy freak at Epic. I'm a huge comic fan, toy fan, genre fan... I collect it all. So I got to give feedback on what I thought was good build quality, what I liked about previous lines, what I thought would be good articulation. As far as their translations of the weapons, I thought all their stuff was dead-on. They had incredible attention to detail, not only with the toys but with the life-size Lancer. It's dead-on, down to the bolts. I haven't seen the finished product but I saw the prototypes, and they nailed it. I preordered six of them on the spot

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AtheK Grand Master

AtheK

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GOTY 2008 Confirmed :(

 

Umang just a great solid shooter does not make it the GOTY.

 

It def is a contender but my vote goes out to MGS4 because the game had everything a storyline solid game play and spectacular graphics and it was not a polished MGS3.

 

I know you love the game but i highly doubt this to be GOTY 2008.

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SchizoidFreud Newbie

SchizoidFreud

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I know....but I do disagree with you when you say gears is just a solid shooter. I agree that the story of Gears of War 1 was practically non-existent but its not going to be the same in the case of Gears of War 2. I've read a lot of previews and interviews and watched a lot of vids and Epic have stressted a lot in making the story of Gears of War 2 much much better than what you had in Gears of War 1. They've hired Josh Ortega and in one of the vids I saw, he said that the story might make people cry....its that good. They havent gone into details as of yet but according to me, its a good thing. The sound of Gears 1 was awesome. The voice acting and everything was superb and if you watch the developer commentary I posted above, you'll see that in Gears of War 2, there's all new voice acting, gun sounds, music etc etc. The audio producer said that Epic dumbed around 85% of the original games sound. For the GFX part....you cant really compare a game which released in 2006 with one which was released a few months back. The GFX of Gears of War 1 was awesome and Gears 2 is going to better.....I'm not the one who says that....read a couple of previews and you'll notice that yourself.

 

But I dont really want it to better than MGS4 or something....MGS4 got a rating of 10/10 from most of the reviewers....I know Gears of War 2 wont but it will still be an awesome game.

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AtheK Grand Master

AtheK

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But I dont really want it to better than MGS4 or something....MGS4 got a rating of 10/10 from most of the reviewers....I know Gears of War 2 wont but it will still be an awesome game.

I totally agree and its on my must buy list as well...

 

but all i am saying dont declare a game a God or GOTY before even getting your hands on it.

 

I hope that the game gets a 10/10

my bet is 9.8

 

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Ne0 Community Regular

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I know....but I do disagree with you when you say gears is just a solid shooter. I agree that the story of Gears of War 1 was practically non-existent but its not going to be the same in the case of Gears of War 2. I've read a lot of previews and interviews and watched a lot of vids and Epic have stressted a lot in making the story of Gears of War 2 much much better than what you had in Gears of War 1. They've hired Josh Ortega and in one of the vids I saw, he said that the story might make people cry....its that good. They havent gone into details as of yet but according to me, its a good thing. The sound of Gears 1 was awesome. The voice acting and everything was superb and if you watch the developer commentary I posted above, you'll see that in Gears of War 2, there's all new voice acting, gun sounds, music etc etc. The audio producer said that Epic dumbed around 85% of the original games sound. For the GFX part....you cant really compare a game which released in 2006 with one which was released a few months back. The GFX of Gears of War 1 was awesome and Gears 2 is going to better.....I'm not the one who says that....read a couple of previews and you'll notice that yourself.

 

But I dont really want it to better than MGS4 or something....MGS4 got a rating of 10/10 from most of the reviewers....I know Gears of War 2 wont but it will still be an awesome game.

 

Whoa ! Umang, I guess thats the longest post you've wrote on this forum :( !

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AtheK Grand Master

AtheK

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Yeah right... looks like someone's sucked into the eternal hype hole. Do you even know who Josh Ortega is? Obviously they won't go into the details of the story, it would be spoilertastic. And yes they'll say it'll make people cry, heck they'd say the game would wash your dishes, dry your clothes and help you get chicks if it meant selling more copies.

 

No offense man, but you're sounding like Cliffy's arsehole.

seriously Umang dont you know how M$ markets there game and you are just falling into it...Get a grip my friend...lets wait for 7th Nov and then once you played it wirte up a great review here.

No fanboyism or i unapprove it

 

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Doobz Newbie

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No offense man, but you're sounding like Cliffy's arsehole.

 

 

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLAAOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

OLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLLLOLLLLLOLOLLLlolololOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLO

 

 

*Catches his breath*

 

hu gives a shite abt goty if u love it consider it game that umang will leave girls for

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