Rod Fergusson: There’s a bunch. Each game has its own thing. My fondest memory in general is the work I get to do with the voice over cast. I get to help direct the VO sessions so watching those characters come to life has always been something I’m happy with. I like to be able to see the script and then hear John (DiMaggio) do the Marcus voice.
The whole series has always been really exciting, but Gears 1 in particular was a kind of a ‘Hail Mary’ project - there were all kinds of risks and things against us, so seeing the team come together and shipping that product has been a huge thing for me. It’s a career highlight for me actually. I also look at Gears 2 and the Maria scene, and feel we were really successful in touching all the people there and having an emotional response to a video game, and that’s a proud moment.
Today, I’m proud of just playing Gears 3 all the time and seeing the level of polish that we’re able to apply to improve the game’s quality. I’m really excited to get it into gamers’ hands and to hear their reaction.
SPOnG: You said that you wanted to make Gears different from the modern shooter. Do you see a problem with first-person and third-person shooters on the market in general?
Rod Fergusson: I think everybody’s chasing after one ideal, really. One person’s success is causing a lot of other people to chase after that same sort of dream, and it seems that the thought process is that as long as you match the setting and the gameplay you’ll match that success.
I personally have started to tune out of modern shooters. When I fire up a random campaign and it goes ‘OK, switch on your night vision goggles and chase this guy in the alley’ I say ‘nope’ and eject the disc. I put another disc in, fire it up and that goes ‘OK, you’re in the woods in the snow, and you’ve got to track people whilst camouflages’ and I say ‘nope!’ (Laughs)
SPOnG: And for all the unique elements Gears has brought to the third-person shooter genre, do you think there’s a danger of your game unintentionally contributing to that? Every modern shooter now seems to come with a Horde mode of some sort, the same sort of camera angles and presentation style.
Rod Fergusson: (Laughs) I dunno. For me, it’s more about context than it is about mechanics. In a modern shooter, I still like scoping and doing sniper shots and things like that. It’s not the mechanics that make it feel less fresh, it’s the context. It’s the night vision goggles mission, or the winter-in-the-forest setting.
If we were always in the underground in every game and people started doing underground stuff all the time then I’d be like ‘OK, it’s more about the context.’ So if others are taking influence from Gears it’s not a major issue. For example, taking cover feels natural to me. If every game had the same cover system it wouldn’t bother me really.
I wouldn’t get bored because I’m taking cover in a similar way to this other game, I’d get bored based on what the situation is in the world around you and why you’re doing what you’re doing in the game.
Rod Fergusson: Well, the franchise is still alive and well even though the story is ending. There’s more comics coming out, another novel’s coming out just before the game releases.
The world and the franchise lives on, but what we’re going to do game-wise I don’t know. What I do know is that the story is definitely concluding here, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. Beyond that, there are definitely other areas to explore in the Gears universe.
SPOnG: Thank you very much for your time!
Rod Fergusson: Thank you!
Gears of War 3 is heading for the Xbox 360 on 20th September 2011.