SPOnG: Aaaanyways aside from Gears on PC, what are Cliffy B’s top three titles for this coming holiday season??
Cliffy B: BioShock. I beat it last week. It’s kinda weird, because a lot of the games that I’ve played over the last year they kinda felt like work, y’know? Then a game like BioShock comes along… I was just looking forward to just getting off work, so I could get home and get back to playing it. I’m a big art deco fan and I love the underwater setting. The whole big daddies, the dive suits, the little sisters, the whole thing just oozed character and style… I was always a big fan of System Shock 2 and Deus Ex and to see the spiritual successor to those come about was kind of exciting.
Of course it uses our (Unreal) engine, so take this with a pinch of salt, because I might have an agenda. (Holds up hands!) Oh my god! Heaven forbid I might like a fun game!
Mass Effect I think is gonna be really frikkin’ cool. And Call of Duty 4 too, running at sixty frames per second… smoooooth as butter! I’m looking forward to a modern tactical combat game making use of the controls that Infinity Ward can bring to the genre. Honestly, if I have to play another World War II game I’m going to stab myself in the neck with a pencil. I just killed my last Nazi… I’m done with that!
SPOnG: Back to Gears on PC, the Brumack is back, in a bigger playable role this time around. Was that decision prompted by the demands of fans?
Cliffy B: Pffft! Sometimes you know, it’s just a no-brainer. Like wearing chequered Vans, you know? (Glances at my footwear)
It’s one of those situations where he was featured in all the trailers and, you know, give people what they want man! They wanna fight the damn thing, then let ‘em fight it. He was essentially a cameo in the first game; and it seemed like a no brainer to make him a bigger in-game feature. It’s quite intimidating when you get to fight him. He’s four storeys of pain!
SPOnG: The story gap that you have filled in the PC version – what is that story gap?
Cliffy B: The problem was that we had this whole set-up, where the premise of the original game was that it was Operation Lethal Injection. What they were doing was that they needed mapping data to strike back and bomb the Hollow and the veins of Imulsion. But they didn’t really have the data to do it. Luckily, Marcus [Phoenix]’s dad had done a little bit of research that helped. But it was never really explained that the bomb got put on this train and then the train was going to be sent into the sinkhole, but then the train got highjacked by a bunch of locusts and then you actually have to take the train back…
But for some reason, as the script got cut down before we shipped (on 360) that data didn’t really come through that well in the 360 version, so now we explain it a lot better in the PC version, as far as what’s going on with the train. Everything is much clearer now.
SPOnG: Okay, will the 360 version see any of this new content next year?
Cliffy B: No, unfortunately it won’t. We want there to be a reason for people to have the PC version. They have all this new exclusive content, they have the editor and they have all this cool stuff.
SPOnG: So, we’ll have to wait for Gears 2 scheduled for Christmas 2008 then?
Cliffy B: I have no idea what you are talking about. Nice try though! (Grins)
SPOnG: Cheers Cliffy.
Cliffy B: Thanks, man.
Cliffy B: BioShock. I beat it last week. It’s kinda weird, because a lot of the games that I’ve played over the last year they kinda felt like work, y’know? Then a game like BioShock comes along… I was just looking forward to just getting off work, so I could get home and get back to playing it. I’m a big art deco fan and I love the underwater setting. The whole big daddies, the dive suits, the little sisters, the whole thing just oozed character and style… I was always a big fan of System Shock 2 and Deus Ex and to see the spiritual successor to those come about was kind of exciting.
Of course it uses our (Unreal) engine, so take this with a pinch of salt, because I might have an agenda. (Holds up hands!) Oh my god! Heaven forbid I might like a fun game!
Mass Effect I think is gonna be really frikkin’ cool. And Call of Duty 4 too, running at sixty frames per second… smoooooth as butter! I’m looking forward to a modern tactical combat game making use of the controls that Infinity Ward can bring to the genre. Honestly, if I have to play another World War II game I’m going to stab myself in the neck with a pencil. I just killed my last Nazi… I’m done with that!
Cliffy B: Pffft! Sometimes you know, it’s just a no-brainer. Like wearing chequered Vans, you know? (Glances at my footwear)
It’s one of those situations where he was featured in all the trailers and, you know, give people what they want man! They wanna fight the damn thing, then let ‘em fight it. He was essentially a cameo in the first game; and it seemed like a no brainer to make him a bigger in-game feature. It’s quite intimidating when you get to fight him. He’s four storeys of pain!
Cliffy B: The problem was that we had this whole set-up, where the premise of the original game was that it was Operation Lethal Injection. What they were doing was that they needed mapping data to strike back and bomb the Hollow and the veins of Imulsion. But they didn’t really have the data to do it. Luckily, Marcus [Phoenix]’s dad had done a little bit of research that helped. But it was never really explained that the bomb got put on this train and then the train was going to be sent into the sinkhole, but then the train got highjacked by a bunch of locusts and then you actually have to take the train back…
But for some reason, as the script got cut down before we shipped (on 360) that data didn’t really come through that well in the 360 version, so now we explain it a lot better in the PC version, as far as what’s going on with the train. Everything is much clearer now.
SPOnG: Okay, will the 360 version see any of this new content next year?
Cliffy B: No, unfortunately it won’t. We want there to be a reason for people to have the PC version. They have all this new exclusive content, they have the editor and they have all this cool stuff.
SPOnG: So, we’ll have to wait for Gears 2 scheduled for Christmas 2008 then?
Cliffy B: I have no idea what you are talking about. Nice try though! (Grins)
SPOnG: Cheers Cliffy.
Cliffy B: Thanks, man.
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Comments
www.absinthe-review.net 17 Nov 2007 02:20
1/2
"Cliffy B: There’s a kind of true skill-ranking system that essentially sees how long players have been playing the game, assesses their skill level and things like that."
If they can get a reliable system going this will beat the hell out of Halo 2's level-up by winning system (a little deeper than that regarding exact stats, but basically...), but at the same time, before they get the bugs out I can see some lopsided early matches...
If they can get a reliable system going this will beat the hell out of Halo 2's level-up by winning system (a little deeper than that regarding exact stats, but basically...), but at the same time, before they get the bugs out I can see some lopsided early matches...
hollywooda 20 Nov 2007 10:42
2/2
feel a little pissed that 360 owners wont see the extra content?, the campaign was short & this would really help fill out the massive holes in the story. I love Gears & would love to see the FULL game?, i think Epic owe it to the 360 community, we made this franchise a hit.