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."