Bleszinski explains "bald space marines"

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 July, 2009

The tech is good at armour, not hair.

Gears of War's dad, Cliff Bleszinski, has thrown some light onto one of the most intriguing questions of this generation: why are all our modern videogame heroes bald space marines running around in rubble-strewn post-apocalyptic cities?

"I just think that the technology of this generation just happens to be very good at rendering metals and stones and dramatic lighting, which is why you see a lot of pillars and girders and destroyed blown-out areas because that's what the bump-mapping happens to do very well," Bleszinski told Develop.

"At the same time, in this generation the translucent effects are very hard to pull off. That's why everybody sees a lot of these bald characters and wonder why games feature so many f***ing space marines. Well, the tech is good at showing off armour and it's not that good at doing hair. That's why we have bald space marines. There's your answer people."

Bleszinski also drew attention to Unreal Engine 3 games like Wolverine and Borderlands as examples of something besides grungy shooters. "If you look at Borderlands, okay it is a shooter, but it has a beautiful cel-shaded look to it," he pointed out.

Sadly though he didn't drop too many hints about future instalments in the Gears series or what Marcus's dad is really up to or anything like that - the most he would say was, "Stylistically though, I'd love to play in a different field in the near future in regards to what your typical expectation of a Gears of War game actually is."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • the_dudefather #1 3 years ago

    Unreal engine 4.0: all characters must now have final fantasy style hairstyles

  • bad09 #2 3 years ago

    Well it's still boring Cliffy. While the game is great, the characters of Gears are pretty dull. KZ2 was a snorefest to, Red Faction etc. At least Halo has colour. But then shooters are dull full stop thanks to overkill and dumbing down this gen.

    ENOUGH SPACE/REAL MARINE SHOOTERS ALREADY! Give 'em a break devs!

    Now stick it in a craft, slap a G-Police sticker on the side. Thank you.


    oh, and Cliffy. Multiplayer needs to...you know...work. just a tip like...

  • altitude2k #3 3 years ago

    So, Cliffy, what you're saying is that Gears 2 multiplayer is broken because of Baird's hair?

  • CaptainScarlet #4 3 years ago

    I guess Cliffy means "their" tech isn't good at hair. I've seen reasonable hair in a lot of games even in last gen.

    Rather than spouting random crap (although I doubt he'll be able to change the habits of a lifetime) couldn't he just have said they are bald because we designed them that way. That at least would have made a little more sense and showen a design sensibility rather than because they were forced into it because of their lack of ability to make it look cool in "their" tech.

    Isn't APB Unreal 3 tech? they seem to have all sorts of player customization including what seems like nice looking hair!
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/09 @ 08:39

  • Zomoniac #5 3 years ago

    Well at least he's honest. It does intruigue me that hair seems so impossible to do. Even Heavenly Sword, still (IMO) the all-time benchmark for human face detail and facial expression, with completely lifelike faces, has laughably bad hair. That said, Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain seem to be doing quite a good job of it.

  • PlugMonkey #6 3 years ago

    What a load of crap. There really aren't that many games with space marines in, and the ones that do have space marines have bald space marines because marines aren't generally known for their bouffant hairdos.

    Mystery solved. With science!

  • hiddenranbir #7 3 years ago

    I WANT BEARDS FFS!

    Proper beards, not flattened fuzz which looks like someone went to town with a pencil.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #8 3 years ago

    Isn't APB Unreal 3 tech? they seem to have all sorts of player customization including what seems like nice looking hair!

    Yeah, but they've been working for about 5 years on getting UE3 to do that hair.

  • aldo_14 #9 3 years ago

    Why not just give them helmets?

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #10 3 years ago

    Why not just give them helmets?

    I think that's been done already.

  • Bitkari #11 3 years ago

    Nothing to do with certain developers having no imagination whatsoever, then?

  • Meho #12 3 years ago

    Well, thank Allah (and Platinum Games) for Bayonetta then. That game is seriously about motherfucking hair. In a good way. I knew that Kamiya would not only push the limits of gameplay with his next instalment but also of technology!!!

  • kangarootoo #13 3 years ago

    I didn't think the two were choices on the same tier.

    Choice 1 is whether to put marines in your game. Assuming you decide that marines are in, the hair issue sort of takes care of itself doesn't it? Its not like Cliffy B invented the concept of space marines.

  • Daryoon #14 3 years ago

    pffft. Mario had hair in 1986. Pathetic excuse.

    I was thinking, as I read that, that it reminded me of Mario and how his design came about because of the limited technology - a hat to avoid animating hair, gloves to show arm movement, moustache to make up for lack of mouth...

    Only this sounds really lame and pathetic in comparisson >_>

    There's no way the intended Gears audience would have accepted flowing multicoloured locks and gravity-defying hairstyles!

  • BobsUncle #15 3 years ago

    "lot of pillars and girders and destroyed blown-out areas because that's what the bump-mapping happens to do very well"

    Stick to design Bleszinski, because you obviously know fuck all about coding.

  • dingo75 #16 3 years ago


    What a load of crap. There really aren't that many games with space marines in, and the ones that do have space marines have bald space marines because marines aren't generally known for their bouffant hairdos.

    Mystery solved. With science!

    http://ww w.gossipgamers.com/wp-content/u... wants to have a word

  • peterfll #17 3 years ago

    ""Stylistically though, I'd love to play in a different field in the near future"

    Oooo, I well excited - "Gears of flOwer"?

  • AphoticCosmos #18 3 years ago

    Baird? Marcus? Dom? Dizzy? They all have hair, and I'd say that the first three are fairly damn important.

  • SomaticSense #19 3 years ago

    ""What a load of crap. There really aren't that many games with space marines in, and the ones that do have space marines have bald space marines because marines aren't generally known for their bouffant hairdos.

    Mystery solved. With science!"

    http://ww w.gossipgamers.com/wp-content/u... wants to have a word     "

    While the Mario one is just fantastic, the Ass Creed and Prototype ones are extremely tenuous.

    It definitely proves that all the 'bald space marine' complaints are tangible though. The lack of design imagination shown in the rest is just ridiculous.

  • man.the.king #20 3 years ago

    @Zomoniac

    "That said, Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain seem to be doing quite a good job of it."

    Actually, MGS4 did a superlative job of showing hair in-game as well IMO.

  • Phishfood #21 3 years ago

    Hair has ever been rendered very well, its just that this generation the technology has advanced more in rendering inorganic materials and subtle things like hair got left behind.

  • smelly #22 3 years ago

    >Baird? Marcus? Dom? Dizzy? They all have hair,

    dizzy was an egg.. he didnt have hair.. unless you left him in the back of your fridge for a few years.

  • Bander #23 3 years ago

    Lost Odyssey and a bunch of Square Enix RPGs use Unreal Engine 3 don't they?

    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=g6AbtpGLZYU