Epic looks to Gears fans for input on the sequel

by Dustin Burg { Feb 26th 2008 at 4:15PM }

While making our daily internet rounds we stumbled across an intriguing little survey that's posted over on GearsofWar.com asking fans' opinions on a few Gears related questions. The survey (which can only be accessed using a Windows LIVE ID) is ever so interestingly titled "GOW 2 Survey" and asks various questions about a player's likes, dislikes and favorites regarding the Gears franchise. Questions including "What's the best OMG moment from Gears 1?", "Which multiplayer mode dominates your time online?" and "Which Delta Squad member would you want to have your back?" And it's quite obvious to us that Microsoft and Epic want your opinion on what makes Gears so special and will probably use the data gathered to make Gears of War 2 more of teh hawtness. Data that will hopefully tell them we want more Torque Bow, more Boomers (their "BOOM!" chant is hilarious) and more Seriously-style achievements. Go and give your input.

Tags: epic, epic-games, gears-of-war-2, gow2, microsoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 26th 2008 4:39PM

Interesting, I should check that out. I liked Gears 1 but the Online was messed up for my tastes, such as team based only having Annex contain respawns. Also on a side note, where's the fancast? Its usally on mondays and no one here has even posted about why its late yet.

Anticrawl @ Feb 26th 2008 9:26PM

They need to add...

- There were fucking bosses in that game????

Seriously Gears is the laughing stock of games when it comes to boss battles.

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 26th 2008 10:19PM

Um....you do realize that Halo1 never technicly had a boss battle and it was a great shooters. I tend to think you're just flame baiting. What Gears did was integrate the boss battles into the story line so it felt natural. I don't know what your definition of a boss battle is but I think to the rest of us Gears did a great job. Also how is fighting the enemy general not a boss battle. Or how about the Brumac(sp? i think that's the name of it) in the PC version? Seriously in a shooter a boss battle is usually a powerful enemy/enemy commander. By making the game flow into each boss battle in the way they did, it felt like a boss battle while not screaming it in a way that would break the level of immersion in the game world.

Xav de Matos @ Feb 27th 2008 12:08AM

Personally I loved the "Berserker" fight. Running from that thing and getting it outside to blow it up was fun.

I think in a day where we have boss battles that consist of shooting starbits (aka candy) at something to slow it down and butt-stomping it three times to win makes the Gears boss fights look and feel pretty awesome.

Isn't the point for it to be fun? That's why it works for Mario I guess.

Anticrawl @ Feb 27th 2008 12:26AM

Not flame bait, I'm genuinly upset at games for their complete and utter lack of boss battles. Halo was upsetting because of it and as was Gears. If you are going to have a Boss battle atleast make it challenging, interesting or have some sort of trick to beating it that requires more thought than "shoot more bullets at it". The "boss battles" in gears looked intense when they came up but were an utter disappointment and with all the leading up to the battles I walked away without any satisfaction.

Anticrawl @ Feb 27th 2008 12:28AM

I did love Gears of War but coming from Epic it felt like a casual horror 3rd person shooter and the overly-easy campaign didn't help much. Still a great game to chat with buddies while idly pumping muppets full of lead.

Anticrawl @ Feb 27th 2008 12:30AM

And yes the game was fun, just after the first play through you realize how lacking it was in challenge. It was much like bioshock in the sense that it was more atmosphere than depth or challenge. But Gears is certainly still the better game.

Boff @ Feb 27th 2008 5:51AM

@Anticrawl: There was a 'trick' to every boss battle, Beserkers had to be outside so you could use the Hammer (and the last one on the train you had to get it onto one particular carriage), The Corpser had to be driven back onto the platform and then the supports had to be shot, Raam had to have the Kryll driven off him first or get him in the light.

But that's just my 2 pennies worth!

Ryan @ Feb 27th 2008 12:04PM

Wait anticrawl, how did you beat the Berserkers and Corpser by just "shooting more bullets into them"?

I guess with Raam you could accidentally get the Kryll off if all you did was keep shooting, but I'm genuinely beffudled as to how you beat the Berserkers without making them smash down the doors to get outside or run off the end of the train, and how you beat the Corpser without blowing the supports. Is there some kind of built-in trick where if you shoot them eleventy billion times the game decides that you're never going to figure out the (supposedly non-existant) "trick" to beating them and just kills them off for you?

TORO @ Feb 26th 2008 4:41PM

On my want list (not sure if they've patched anything up, haven't played GOW since H3) :

-Fix host advantage
-Add more players on team (6v6 perhaps?)
-Easy way to play ranked matches with friends
-More achievements?

That's about it, short list huh? I'm not really into achievements, but I included the last request for Dustin's sake.

Amber @ Feb 27th 2008 1:37AM

Lol! "Easy to make ranked games with friends"? Don't you mean "Easy for clans to boost"?

Tucker @ Feb 26th 2008 4:48PM

Can't stop the TRAIN, bay-buh!!

Loban @ Feb 26th 2008 5:00PM

bay buh? If you actually sound that out, it doesn't really make any sense. I think you meant "bay bee" or "bay bay". ;)

chris @ Feb 26th 2008 8:00PM

Bay-beh sounds much better.

Tucker @ Feb 26th 2008 8:04PM

Funny so many people replied to this comment; I meant to put it in the other gears post about the "train gun" comic, and screwed up. I was going to re-post, maybe even work on my phonetic spelling, but then I realized just how much time I'd already wasted. And now, here I am, writing an even longer comment explaining everything.

Loban @ Feb 26th 2008 4:55PM

Well, I did the survey. I just sort of closed my eyes and picked randomly on the multiplayer and achievements questions because I don't play multiplayer (don't have a Gold account) and I couldn't care less about achievements.

Code601 @ Feb 26th 2008 4:55PM

SPOILERS????????!!!!

:D

Yuccadude @ Feb 26th 2008 5:08PM

Not for a year and a quarter old game!

Xav de Matos @ Feb 27th 2008 12:10AM

I don't know if you watched Titanic, but the ship sinks.

Boff @ Feb 27th 2008 5:42AM

:oO

Nooooooo!

Cian @ Feb 26th 2008 5:08PM

I'd like a clan system and some more matchmaking options. The clan system should be a no brainer for a game about a small team working together. But that's just me.

HalaMadrid!!! @ Feb 26th 2008 5:18PM

I want military ranks like call of duty and rainbow six

ZEBRA NINER @ Feb 26th 2008 5:54PM

I agree, something about that made it addictive. Halo, COD4, R6V all had them. It's kind of like a game within the game.

TUBATYE @ Feb 26th 2008 5:19PM

Seriously......hehe, where the heck is the fancast.....I mean, the bloggers breakfast and the Peter interview were great, but I need me some fancast lovin'.

ZEBRA NINER @ Feb 26th 2008 5:25PM

I've made a few (5) comments/questions about this today. Typically they will give a reason for it being late! I'll take my crack in MP3 form, thanks.

Dustin Burg @ Feb 26th 2008 5:30PM

It "should" be out tonight sometime.

ZEBRA NINER @ Feb 26th 2008 5:39PM

w00t! Thanks for the update!

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 26th 2008 5:50PM

Yeah thanks for the update Dustin. =)

ZenGaijin @ Feb 26th 2008 5:49PM

I hope to GOD there are no Junker sections in Gears2 because the driving section in the first Gears felt so tagged on.

Jcarpio @ Feb 26th 2008 5:50PM

I would like a GearsTV option like Gotham TV for PGR. or at least the ability to save game films like in Halo3.

spartan029 @ Feb 26th 2008 6:16PM

they should add another option in MP questions: I DO NOT PLAY MP CUZ IT'S DROP DEAD LAME. ITS TOOO REDUNDANT. Most battles happen at the same spot in every map. Most of the times everyone dies at the same spot and then you are left with 1 on 1 action with bunch of noobs running in circles around the map...

Only reason myself and bunch of my friends like GoW is the single player story.

Xav de Matos @ Feb 26th 2008 6:20PM

This whole things sounds like a great idea for a would you rather type of feature... I wonder, what website would be awesome enough to come up with that to ask their fans what they'd want in a GOW2.

Hrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

:)

George Arauz @ Feb 26th 2008 7:09PM

I agree with the picture.. General Raam was an ASSHOLE to beat

Gloqwi @ Feb 26th 2008 7:41PM

One of the questions asks you what was the hardest battle of GoW1...one of the answers was Th Corpser Battle....

Are you kidding me?

****************
http://gloqwi.blogspot.com

todd @ Feb 26th 2008 7:41PM

One thing, better MP and 4 player co-op.

todd @ Feb 26th 2008 7:42PM

ok that's two.

Xav de Matos @ Feb 27th 2008 12:09AM

You pretty much ruined tomorrow's 12pm post! :P

mccomber @ Feb 26th 2008 9:10PM

One simple thing I'd like to see is a quick way to vault obstacles. Not saying the Gears crew should be able to jump, but please, just make it easy to get to the other side of a low object without having to take cover behind it first.

SadisticHam @ Feb 27th 2008 4:46AM

If you didn't like the multiplayer i don't see the need to leap on here and let everyone know about it, I'm sure you've no doubt done it on EVERY gears of war topic you've seen so you can stop now. 8-)

Dunno why but it seems gears haters are the worst, they have a nasty habbit of popping on everything and mentioning how they hate it, get over it. It's a damn game.

I know this is a survey but theres no question asking "Is our multiplayer crap?" Probably something to do with being the #1 played game for a year odd.

Remove the driving and gears 2 will be fine for me, I'd like to see host gone as well and some form of party system put in ranked. Loved the multiplayer myself, fairly easy to pick up but it took a long time to get any good.

Boff @ Feb 27th 2008 5:44AM

Fuck off you twat

Pro-Truth League @ Feb 27th 2008 7:30AM

Take the gameplay mechanics of GoW, make a product that doesn't seem like it wasn't made for mentally inept people who can't comprehend anything past "HE MAKEM BIGGER BOOM BOOM SO I MAKEM BIGGER BOOM BOOM DAHHH!" (aka, give it a story, and characters that aren't big dumb one liner spouting swear pots) ... then, throw in some variety to the gameplay.

Seriously, the popularity of Gears baffles me. If it were a person, it'd wear a helmet, and drool all over itself.

It's the best example of an XBOX game for XBOX fans if there ever was one.
Pointless shooting and hardly anything else?
No story depth?
No Character depth?
Swearing?
Gore?
Multiplayer focus?
Check!

Ryan @ Feb 27th 2008 12:05PM

Gee, I *wonder* if the popularity of a game that is well known for a having a short and shallow single player campaign but was the most played multiplayer game for a year running and still sits in the top 5 a full year and a half later could have SOMETHING to do with how much fun the multiplayer is. Maybe, just maybe, that might be a pertinent issue.

In all seriousness though, if this twisted path of impossible to follow notions "baffles" you, maybe you should try wearing that helmet you were talking about yourself.

Personally, I still play Gears MP with buddies online 10-15 hours/week a year and a half after I bought the game. It recreates the old college dormroom experience better than any game out there. The single player was a fun romp-through the first couple weeks that I got it, but I have no delusions that the game was so popular because of that campaign (although the co-op was fairly revolutionary for its time on consoles, and it still does it better with its join anywhere at anytime functionality than most other games that were released a full year later do).

And when the core gameplay is as fun as it is (I don't care about your personal anecdote of you not thinking it is, because most people love it), you can get away with a shallow (or rather non-existant) story with little depth. A game like Bioshock was the opposite and it takes far less flack. The core FPS gameplay was rather weak by FPS standards, but it could get away with it because of its great, engaging story and depth. Gears takes the opposite approach and is still fun to run through, but the real winner is the multiplayer.