Devs nervous about casual - Bleszinski

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 October, 2008

"I think that's a dumb response."

Gears of War 2 lead designer Cliff Bleszinski has said that developers shouldn't be intimidated by the success of mainstream games and the audience they attract.

"Thanks to the success of Guitar Hero and Wii, we've seen a lot of new people play games, and we've seen a lot of ex-gamers get back into gaming," Bleszinski noted in an interview with Develop.

"Some developers are nervous about that, but I think that's a dumb response. I think it's great to have more people playing games, and maybe they'll evolve from playing Guitar Hero to playing Gears or Halo or GTA."

With this in mind, Gears of War 2's "Casual" difficulty level "couldn't be too easy", and Bleszinski jokes that it's "actually harder to die [than not]".

"We want casual gamers to get involved this time around," he explained. "Yes it's got blood, monsters and guns, but it is also a story about loss and redemption and a bit of heart."

Gears of War 2 is due out exclusively for Xbox 360 on 7th November, and you can read our most recent Gears of War 2 hands-on preview, taking in the whole of Act 1, for more on how it's shaping up.

For more from the developer, you might also want to check out Eurogamer TV's interview with Cliff Bleszinski, where he talks about how he hopes to get more points off us this time around. Well Cliff, we've finished the game now, but you'll have to wait and see...

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 (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Xerx3s #1 3 years ago

    /piccard

  • UncleLou #2 3 years ago

    "/piccard"

    Auguste or Bertrand?

  • rumrum4444 #3 3 years ago




    JUMP IN...


    ...because that is NOT living !


    .

  • Xerx3s #4 3 years ago

    Jean Luc

  • Zomoniac #5 3 years ago

    Why would you be nervous about spending £50 making a party game and selling it to 10 million retarded Wii owners?

    I was playing GoldenEye on agent difficulty t'other day. I set off an alarm, swarms of guards came and shot at me, took about 1% of my health off and proceeded to just stand there looking blankly, occassionally crouching down to fire shots that went nowhere near me. I left the controller for five minutes to make a cup of tea, got back and was still surrounded by about 15 guards and still had >80% health. Definitely harder to die than not.

  • UncleLou #6 3 years ago

    "Jean Luc "

    That's Picard, then.

    /pédant

  • the_dudefather #7 3 years ago

    @Zomoniac

    lol, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to die in perfect dark zero on the easiest difficulty for the first level or two, remember sitting in a corner with 2 guards shooting me, but they couldn't actually hit me enough to kill me before my health regenerated

  • Shakey_Jake33 #8 3 years ago

    "Yes it's got blood, monsters and guns, but it is also a story about loss and redemption and a bit of heart."
    C'mon. I'm no Gears hater, indeed I played through the original and enjoyed it a lot, and would be buying the sequel if my 360 still worked... but there's no point trying to claim the storyline is anything but throwaway, people play it for the action (and hey, it's a game, so why not?).

    That aside, I do think he's right. While I'm not expecting the casual mainstream to become gamers en masse, there will be people who don't follow gaming so much, realise they really enjoy it, and will be wondering what's so amazing about "that Gears of War game" or whatever that they've heard so much about before.
    Edited by 1 at 08/10/08 @ 10:14

  • sneetch #9 3 years ago

    "We want casual gamers to get involved this time around," he explained. "Yes it's got blood, monsters and guns, but it is also a story about loss and redemption and a bit of heart."

    Yeah and I heard Dom and Marcus finally kiss at the end while a city burns behind them. It's so romantic. ;)

    I don't think casual gamers will be turned off these games by the fact that the story has no loss, redemption and heart.

    With this in mind, Gears of War 2's "Casual" difficulty level "couldn't be too easy", and Bleszinski jokes that it's "actually harder to die [than not]".

    Now this, this is might get them playing all right. Not everyone wants a constant uphill slog, that said Casual sounds a little too easy for me even with my inability to use any controller that didn't work on the Gamecube.

  • Apostle #10 3 years ago

    Finished the game already? Wow, that's early, is it normal for a review code to be done almost a month before release?

  • rhubarbandcustard #11 3 years ago

    The Credit Crunch will kill big gaming.

    In times of finanical meltdown are you going to spend:
    59p on an Itunes puzzle game
    £3.49 on a PSN arcade game
    £3.99 on a XBLA title or
    £39.99 on a triple AAA title.

    Me? I'll buy the 59p game and have a great time playing it. (e.g Tanzen, iMangi,etc)

    Speaking of which:
    Eurogamer please start covering and reviewing the iTunes games market. The iPhone/iTouch kicks the PSP and DS to the curb.

  • sneetch #12 3 years ago

    These two:

    £3.99 on a XBLA title or
    £39.99 on a triple AAA title.

    Because I don't have an iphone or a PS3 (yet). I'll be paying in Euros and probably buying the triple AAA titles a month or two after launch when the stores try to unload their excess stock of them so probably paying €25-30 for them (happens all the time).

  • paulf #13 3 years ago

    @rhubarbandcustard - just because its cheap doesnt mean you'll get value for money from it - I'd buy the one that I'd think I'd get the most gameplay out of

    for example cod4 cost me 40 quid but i played it for over 240 hours so thats a pretty good returrn

    of course im not saying that you cant get this sort of value from a less expensive game though

  • Cadence #14 3 years ago

    I'm not sure about his underlying assumption that gamers will "evolve" into playing games such as Halo etc. As if these people need some sort of development in order to appreciate "real" games. I really this this bloke is a bit of a tool.

  • Triggerhappytel #15 3 years ago

    @ rhubarbandcustard

    I'll keep playing my old PS2 games, thanks. 'New' games (i.e. new to me) usually cost no more than about four quid, and I've still got about 30 games which need playing through. I can beat the gaming credit crunch!

  • Les #16 3 years ago

    "I think it's great to have more people playing games, and maybe they'll evolve from playing Guitar Hero to playing Gears or Halo or GTA."

    I really, really hate these kinds of statements. Why the fuck use the word 'evolved'?! I couldn't care less about Guitar Hero but it definitely isn't less 'evolved' than a Halo, Gears (which even supports some missing links) or GTA.

    People can like GH and hate Gears and continue to hate Gears forever and ever because they don't care about games with bad stories in which you have to kill aliens. Or they keep hating GTA because they don't want to play a criminal that murders other criminals and cops.

    It's a bit like saying that people that watch blockbusters eventually will appreciate art house or the other way around.

    edit: see Cadence beat me to it... ;)
    Edited by 1 at 08/10/08 @ 12:12

  • hiddenranbir #17 3 years ago

    lol story.

  • makeamazing #18 3 years ago

    I like the comment about EX-Gamers,.. i would have thought there cant be that many ex-gamers... thats like saying its even brought "ex-TV viewers" back to the television...

    Ah not the old recession comment again...I dont agree with rhubarbandcustard, sorry but dont want some cheapy puzzle game and it doesnt matter how cheap it is, it wont make me change my buying habbits. I love the big games... its like Hollywood, I prefer the big blockbusters to the foreign language offbeat movies.

    The major problem the games industry has right now is too many platforms and too many big games all being released at the same time, regardless of if the economy is doing good or bad, people generally wouldnt buy 4+ expensive games in one week, and thats what its like right now... in the good old PC days you might get 2 big games a month... so this is where the problem is right now.

  • Bulbatron #19 3 years ago

    I enjoyed the original Gears of War, but I wasn't all that good at it, so a 'proper' casual mode sounds good.

  • the_mtfr #20 3 years ago

    Not this too! What's gonna be next, MS Flight Simulator and Live for Speed turning casual?

    How come CliffyB tells devs shouldn't be intimidated of the mass of casual players, but in turn is making his games more casual? This has got to be the daily wtf.

  • bonker #21 3 years ago

    "Yes it's got blood, monsters and guns, but it is also a story about loss and redemption and a bit of heart."

    Seriously, I expected him to mention casting Julia Roberts in his next game after this!

    Geddit???

  • RedSparrows #22 3 years ago

    'The Credit Crunch will kill big gaming.

    In times of finanical meltdown are you going to spend:
    59p on an Itunes puzzle game
    £3.49 on a PSN arcade game
    £3.99 on a XBLA title or
    £39.99 on a triple AAA title.

    Me? I'll buy the 59p game and have a great time playing it. (e.g Tanzen, iMangi,etc)

    Speaking of which:
    Eurogamer please start covering and reviewing the iTunes games market. The iPhone/iTouch kicks the PSP and DS to the curb. '

    I doubt it. There are serious issues at hand, but I bet you consumer spending is still enormous this Christmas.