Cliffy B: 'Games have become more linear and easier'

Expanding the gaming audience has come at the cost of making games simpler and easier, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has said. And it just so happens that a game of his, the prequel Gears of War: Judgement, is hoping to present a challenge for players.

18

Expanding the gaming audience has come at the cost of making games simpler and easier, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has said. And it just so happens that a game of his, the prequel Gears of War: Judgement, is hoping to present a challenge for players.

"It feels like in this current console generation that we've taken a lot of steps to grow the audience and what I think's happened is that the games have become more linear and easier, so it feels like a lot of quick-time-events," Bleszinski told Xbox360Achievements.

"The more I play games like that the more I turned off to them and just want to get back to systems interacting with systems, and get back to a game that, you know, when was the last time a game really challenged you and asked something of you, right? There's a reason why Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have taken off lately. It's because they really require you actually try."

Gears of War: Judgement, he says, will be difficult enough to allow those memorable moments of glorious deaths and miraculous recoveries, which we do all so enjoy.

"Casual mode will still be casual, whatever, if you just want to see graphics and you don't want to die," Bleszinski said. "But every other mode will be hard in this game and you will die."

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 21, 2012 8:15 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Cliffy B: 'Games have become more linear and easier'.

    Expanding the gaming audience has come at the cost of making games simpler and easier, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has said. And it just so happens that a game of his, the prequel Gears of War: Judgement, is hoping to present a challenge for players.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 8:25 AM

      IN OTHER NEWS: sky continues to be blue, sun is still hot

      • reply
        June 21, 2012 9:00 AM

        WATER IS STILL WET

        • reply
          June 21, 2012 9:00 AM

          holy shit, stop smashing reality there

        • reply
          June 21, 2012 11:50 AM

          Water's wet, the sky is blue and ol' Satan Clause, Jimmy, he's out there and he's just getting stronger.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 8:29 AM

      Love his comment about the Souls games... two of the best games ever made.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 8:39 AM

      Obvious.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 8:43 AM

      Gears of wars was very linear and pretty easy so long as you ducked every now and then

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 8:57 AM

      Why is HE stating this? Gears is about as simple as can be.

      • reply
        June 21, 2012 9:00 AM

        seriously, are we going to pretend this isn't his fucking fault partly that games got like this. is that what we're doing.

        • reply
          June 21, 2012 9:04 AM

          I don't understand when devs/publishers go "wah gaming is going this direction" when they refuse to go against the trend. No one is forcing you to make games simple and hand-holdy - make one that isn't.

          • reply
            June 21, 2012 9:13 AM

            Shareholders are forcing it. "Make your title more mass-market acceptable, or else we're not green-lighting your project." This is part of why I agree with Cliff's "death of the AA market" theory. Unfortunately, with Gears 3, Bulletstorm, and Fortnite, he's not leading by example.

            • reply
              June 21, 2012 9:14 AM

              cliff should just go back to making maps and shut his goddamn gob.

              • reply
                June 21, 2012 10:58 AM

                ^^^ Knows WTF

                • reply
                  June 21, 2012 11:10 AM

                  You guys are such jerks. He doesn't even talk that much these days... and why would you want him to stop? His words are like manna from heaven. He speaks the one true gamer gospel.

                  • reply
                    June 21, 2012 3:50 PM

                    Were you able to type that with a straight face? lol

                  • reply
                    June 21, 2012 5:28 PM

                    SLURP SLURP SLURP SLURP

            • reply
              June 21, 2012 9:33 AM

              The indie scene seems to be doing just fine. Maybe they should stop trying to make a billions on one title.

        • reply
          June 21, 2012 9:08 AM

          Yes, the Gears fanboys will continue to pretend that Clifford Bleszinski can do no wrong. At least Cliff himself seems to be waking up, but it's three years too late; the damage has already been done.

          I remember back when gamers were whining about Doom being a "linear key-door-exit-fest", but now, Cliff retweets the "FPS level design, then and now" image, which has Doom E1M6 on the left side. Developers need more humility than they've been showing in the past 5 years.

          • reply
            June 21, 2012 9:51 AM

            Actually, a great many hardcore Gears fan despises Cliffy B. "Our most polished game ever" "Fast and fair dedicated servers"

            Most of us. I was actually joking with my friends about something I heard. I heard they were removing stopping power on the rifles. I then voiced alarm at how retarded this game would be with the SO and rifles w/o stopping power. So, I jokingly stated that I might start a petition with a money goal of raising 100K+ to give to charity. If we hit 100Kusd then we'd fly out and egg/tp/set dogshit on fire at Cliffs house......I'm of the opinion that we'd hit the 100k mark.

          • reply
            June 21, 2012 10:28 AM

            sure, "the damage has already been done" in having created one of the best selling videogame franchises in history

            the dude's timing is fine, in fact probably better than most other developers right now, who are probably too chickenshit to continue in the ultra-competitive shooter space -- and most of those that are left are too tied to the linear shooter design to do anything else.

            CliffyB will be the one left standing, alone, with a revolutionary and great next-gen shooter. You'll see. Hell, he may even swing around to his old stomping grounds on the PC -- and I, for one, will welcome him with open arms.

      • reply
        June 21, 2012 10:22 AM

        cliffyb is a smart dude. he sees that the writing is on the wall and wants to make his games different. he wishes to stay relevant.

        The Gears trilogy was a masterpiece, but I believe the CliffyB magnum opus is still yet to come.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 9:20 AM

      I actually didn't realize he was involved with the new Gears.. I thought he would be focusing on their new game.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 9:45 AM

      So, what you're saying, is that you're going to remove the Sawed Offed Shotgun and Retro Lancer, right? No sense in putting easy mode weapons in a game we need to 'try' at.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 10:10 AM

      The reality is, the big publishers and devs now have to speak out and parade around reasons why they suck, reasons we all knew privately but now are really coming to light in the culture because of the explosion of games in the indie scene. Thanks to the internet and the ever decreasing cost of tools big publishers will finally be at the mercy of the people that made them their billions, WE THE PEOPLE.

      • reply
        June 21, 2012 10:45 AM

        Going "this is why we suck!" then turning around and contiuing the status quo is not helping. "Games hold your hand too much!" - develops a radar and oblivion quest log.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 10:30 AM

      Coming from him, this is pretty LOL worthy.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 10:44 AM

      epic games should make zzt3, although I guess that's what unreal engine is

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 10:57 AM

      oh yeah?!

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 11:01 AM

      /here's hoping he can pull it off and have other devs follow suit.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 11:10 AM

      Thanks to Tencent it'll feature challenging grinding and challenging item-shopization.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 3:57 PM

      Looks like Epic is simply rehashing what was successful for them instead of innovating like they used to.

      I just wish they had left People Can Fly alone when it came to Bulettstorm. If they did, we might have had something as seminal as Painkiller.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 5:23 PM

      I think that Witcher 2 presents a challenge to players

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 6:15 PM

      You cause the problem, and then you come back, point it out, and say you got just the thing.

    • reply
      June 21, 2012 6:38 PM

      haha get fucked.

    • reply
      June 22, 2012 6:57 AM

      Yes, Cliffy B, and you were well rewarded for your hand in that.

Hello, Meet Lola