Gears of War 2 Welcomes Casual Gamers

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Gears of War 2 (X360) director Cliff Bleszinski is unafraid of casual gamers--in fact, he welcomes them with open arms in what may be the most hardcore, violent game of 2008 outside Grand Theft Auto 4.

"Thankfully I'm in a position where I'm just trying to make the best game possible, but at the same time make sure that Casual [difficulty] is truly, truly easy, as well as having a little bit of heart in the story," Bleszinski told GamesIndustry. "Yes, it's about monsters, yes, it's about chainsaws and blood, but it's also about a guy who's looking for his wife," he added.

Continuing, the Epic designer known by fans as "CliffyB" elaborated on how else the game is to appeal to a more casual audience. "There's still a fair amount of jock, fratboy, macho bullshit in the game--I'm not going to lie. But at the same time, there's a little bit more personal elements in there, and some of the themes in the game with loss, retribution and the sadness of war, I think they're coming through a lot more in this game," he explained.

Microsoft is seen as walking a difficult line by courting the hardcore (Gears) and non-hardcore (Lips) audiences at the same time. Bleszinski, however, is unphased. "We say anybody playing videogames in our opinion is a very, very good thing."

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From The Chatty
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    September 29, 2008 10:15 AM

    really I know the story is going to be stupid, I've never really played a game where I really cared about the story all that much, or the story was just trying too hard and it ended up corny.

    What I'm excited about is the gameplay. I stil think Gears of War 1 is one of the better action games to ever be released, and 2 looks even better. The multiplayer with a good party / matchmaking system will be awesome and more players per team? Count me in. This is my most anticipated game of the fall.

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