Gears of War 2. Relevant?

[fulano]

Today GoW2 was announced at GDC. Now, I know this is a game, and I know it may come as exaggerated the use of the word relevance but bear with me. It made tons and tons of money, afterwards.

I know many people "wub"(love) the thing, but really; a good while after the first game, isn't it too out of line to say too early? What significant amount of gameplay can be crammed in this particular piece of software besides "dueling" with your lancer--brought to you by the guy(Cliffy B.) who literally asked during an interview "How strategic can you get with a chainsaw? when people started whining about one-hit kills and whatnot during online play. What kind of stuff can be implemented on old GoW to make it compete with the games that are out now or coming in shortly after we are done with campaign? I mean, look at friggin halo 3 and its 4 player online co-op, screenshot and theater options. The massive appeal of CoD4(after an even MASSIVE-er...yeah...publicity campaign), Resistance Fall of Man and its flabbergasting amount players on a single map(and its sequel 8 player online co-op), Bioshock and its, well, bioshockness(it just did everything riiiight). Killzone 2 and its, well, prettyness, etc. What can Epic give our cold jaded gamer hearts that we haven't seen before, or even that we will bother ourselves with long enough for them to make a buck? Besides making the game speedier.

What are your thoughts? Yes, I know, some people will come and say GoW was an over bloated, over rated piece of crap, but besides that; what can relevantly be added to the thing that'll make it stand out.

I know, I know GoW2 will be a third person shooter and I compared it with First person shooters, but really, what else can be compared with, and why should we care? All follow the ye adage "thou shalt set yourself to shoot-kill-multiplay-finish-campaign-multiplay some more and then whine about lag"

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

[laikenf]

I don't think a lot is going to change. They are probably going to stick to the same formula that made the original so popular so I wouldn't expect a lot of new stuff on this installment.

 

[Hengst2404]

I don't think much will change either, but then again does it need to? Does it have to? They managed to sell, assuming vgchartz is accurate over 5 million copies. Do we really need every sequel to be a new evolution of the wheel? For all that people rave about Ratchet and Clank Future, its just the same game, better graphics and sound with less functionality included (online multiplayer) and Gow gets targeted?

Look if there were a 4 year development cycle for the sequel, then I think we could have this discussion be a bit more relevant. A sequel pretty much 2 years from the first one just needs to have more of what the first offered. Just give me more story, new weapons and a few extras and I am happy. Not sure where everybody got spoiled into expecting a quantum leap every time a sequel to a big game is released. Madden has certainly been given a pass.

 

[acfs4]

I was discussing this with a friend last night

personally i don't think that GoW was too bad or good a game it was interesting enough to play but i never bought it, when i heard it was gonna be a trilogy i laughed. i didn't really get into what i felt was probably the big draw for most people: the world rating system, but i have some friends who did. however i also see very little they can add at this point if they are going to add in chainsaw duels it would make the game more newbie friendly but thats truly a direct copy of halo 3's sword cancel.

So in closing i don't know what they are gonna do that is new and exciting and based on the trailer i don't think they do either

 

[GloatingSwine]

Chainsaws.

 

[xMacx]

The interview on the site suggests that there may be destructible environments and a soft-tissue damage system.

 

[sammyfreak]

GoW2 will probably sell from sequel value, i dident like the first one and i doubt i will like the second one. So no, they dont need to add anything new except more chainsaw.

 

[Widell]

"Rocket propelled chainsaws."

 

[fulano]

Yes. My idea is that, coming so soon, off the heels of the first one, my question was "what would make it relevant?" or "stand out", because let's face it. If GoW came out just like it is, right now, with a barebones campaign feel and the barebones multiplayer that it has, it would tank. People's expectations are fickle and change way too fast; ergo, what would it offer besides just stepping up for sequel value, which would be wrong. In the shape the games industry is right now, companies protect their Intellectual Properties so bad that if they don't pull a game right, they lose money just on production costs, it's just not feasible, and EA seems to be the only one who does it these days(with its sports series). So, with GoW2 coming out they must have something up their sleeve, but is it worth it? what can you build from? The first one seemed pretty complete, but at the same time way too complete, and any small changes would tamper with the gameplay or the balance. Somehow it just doesn't seem like something you cant build on and get something better that feels the same.

Any thoughts?

 

[Logan Westbrook]

It's an interesting question.

I'm not sure that it will really bring anything new to the series. Maybe a couple of weapons, or new enemy types. I'm more interesting in where the story goes to be honest, hopefully, now that they've got some of the cliches out of they way, we can get something fresh.

(I did like GoW, even though it doesn't sound like it from that last sentence)

 

[shadow skill]

They just need to do two things...Fix the fucking controls, just copy what the UT3 team did with their control options and it will be fine. Secondly put an option for a reticle just like UT3 has. As for relevance I do not believe it will be relevant at all; think about when the game came out, and think about what exists now. UT3 on PS3 has made just about every other shooter on consoles look old, with full controller mapping, keyboard/mouse support, and most importantly mod support. Far Cry 2 is going to make alot of other shooters look like a joke off of the environments alone. Then there are games like Haze, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, and even COD4 to an extent. I don't really think anyone save the die hard fans will care about this game by the time it comes out in November.

 

[stubbmann]

I don't know about you, but I've got a fever... and the only cure is more chainsaw.

(Ya gotta have more chainsaw!)

 

[WingedFortress]

Why should GoW have to bring anything new? Like, I agree it would be nice if they revolutionized(another over used word) things, but I wouldnt be pissed off if they didnt. What I expect out of my sequels is bigger maps, new guns, smarter AI and sharper graphics. I want the challenge of the original put into high gear, because chances are that if I'm buying a sequel, its because I liked the first one.

I'm looking forward to seeing more enemies onscreen, some reworked graphics, and a bigger online multiplayer. As long as I dont feel like I'm playing an expansion pack to the first Gears, Epic will have done its job. Not changed gaming, but just filling up a peice of my holiday season.

 

[Katana314]

It'll be the Halo 2 of GoW. Nothing amazing new, but everyone will love it and it will have a boring cliffhanger for the trilogy conclusion.

 

[John Galt]

I doubt much will be really new or groundbreaking with this. They've got pretty much the same sequel value as halo and pretty much the same fanbase, toss the avid shooter fans a few new gimmicks and slap on some more photorealism and you've got a game able to sell a million copies.

"Rocket propelled chainsaws."

No, chainsaw propelled rockets.

 

[fulano]

Why should GoW have to bring anything new? Like, I agree it would be nice if they revolutionized(another over used word) things, but I wouldnt be pissed off if they didnt. What I expect out of my sequels is bigger maps, new guns, smarter AI and sharper graphics. I want the challenge of the original put into high gear, because chances are that if I'm buying a sequel, its because I liked the first one.

I'm looking forward to seeing more enemies onscreen, some reworked graphics, and a bigger online multiplayer. As long as I dont feel like I'm playing an expansion pack to the first Gears, Epic will have done its job. Not changed gaming, but just filling up a peice of my holiday season.

Well, yeah. Gears "shouldn't do" anything new; and yes, considering history, when halo2 came out, we had much, much more of the same and - gasp!- dual wielding!, and Arby, but other than that it was a bigger, fatter halo1, an I dug it. It's relevance came in multiplayer; it pretty much invented the wheel for how to carry online multiplayer on consoles. But back then, console shooters were pretty much Halo and anything else(puts flame suit on with worried look on face), no matter how capable they were, they were no halo and thus the term halo-killer was born. Now, we havo Halo-killers abound running rampant and Halo is forced to compete for space in the not-so lonely top, now. Now(two nows in a row!), with the maddening production designs out there and the exhorbitant prices($60 USD), I'd say Epic does reserve the right to not "having to do anything" after having such solid foundation with the first one, but they better 'cuz let's face it, there's some mad competition out there, and for 60 clams I rather buy something that'll keep me glued to my controller and not something I can breeze through and forget about later.