"Everyone expects sequels to be bigger and better," Dr. Michael Capps said in his
Gears of War panel at
Tokyo Game Show. While talking about visual prototyping, he showcased a new type of cover that was in development for
GoW2 called "perching" that was ultimately removed from the game. This system would allow for the player to take cover behind a wall as usual, but by pushing up, Marcus would be able to grab the top of the wall, and pull up. Hanging from the top of the wall, players would be able to fire their gun, with an improved vertical vantage of the battlefield.
It looked really cool, yes, but Capps talked about how they couldn't implement it in the game because it simply broke the game -- especially in multiplayer. It would be unfair if players could see the entire battlefield, while still being able to stay in cover. Too bad ... because it did look
really cool.
{ Sep 24th 2009 at 10:40PM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Halo IV 2012 @ Sep 24th 2009 11:49PM
No video? I wanna see this cover system aswell!
RedSonRising @ Sep 25th 2009 3:54AM
yea, any video would be great: its kinda hard to picture what theyre describing at first.. definitely woulda made gears2 more unique, less like an expansion of gears1
Rugged Savior @ Sep 25th 2009 12:07AM
You have to also consider the unrealism involving the perching cover. You think you'd be able to hang off an edge with all that HEAVY gear on while shooting? I figure that was probably one of the aspects towards the removal of this idea.
Filthy Assistant @ Sep 25th 2009 2:35AM
Since when has unrealism ever stopped Epic?
ThaGator2112 @ Sep 25th 2009 11:10AM
Are you honestly saying that the company that made UNreal Tournament and the UNreal Engine is worried about realism?
Rugged Savior @ Sep 25th 2009 2:06PM
Certain games have to follow a sense of realism from time to time. No matter how bizzare something seems, there is always some rule that companies mostly follow. I mean, if you were somewhat of a macine that can use the perching cover, then I can see how you can hang there with one arm, and shoot at the same time. But being a human in Gears of War...that luxery of perching doesn't work (unless you're the incredible hulk or something). Maybe "The Cole Train" can use perching, but not anyone else. You try to perch by hanging with one arm and firing at the same time--see how long you hold yourself up there (and looking forward).
Muckrak3r @ Sep 25th 2009 12:18AM
Thanks joystiq for letting us know what might have been in a game that was released nearly a year ago and has already had 4 MAJOR title updates and is still so far from enjoyable it's just not funny.
I want more stories about how the Gears2 that did release is so broken and filled with glitching and cheating, that people are leaving in droves.
I want at least one story that can somehow explain to me that Gears2 is in 4th place EVERY FREAKING WEEK. No up, no down, no matter if Gears has a DLC (dark corners) or COD WaW does, etc. Gears 2 is ALWAYS in 4th place.
This next week, if Gears2 is in 4th place after ODST dropped, I will never visit Major Nelson's blog again, and if he posts that Gears2 is in 4th place, and you guys don't post those stats without at the very least a giant question mark over the whole thing, I will take everything I ever read here with a grain of salt as well.
In short, less stories about how a broken game could have been more broken, more stories about how a currently broken game infuriates thousands daily, and houses a CRAP TON of cheaters. (I haven't seen a story on joystiq yet that references the cheating glitcher hackers that are getting 200,000 XP per game while they run around the map at 40 miles per hour. why not?)
mycbrad @ Sep 25th 2009 12:34AM
As a Gears-a-haulic who pledges that I don't glitch, I can tell you I really don't see that much of this going on. The few who do it are a fringe group at best.
The multi-player issues exist on other games and are a matter of how the hosting is distinguished. I do wish it were done differently, but the game is still fun.
That being said, a column or interview on X3F with the developers addressing these issues would be good.
Dr.House @ Sep 25th 2009 12:53AM
1 or 2 games a sitting has any remote cheating to glitching. Most of the time it's just host owning people and people BAWing.
Muckrak3r @ Sep 25th 2009 8:23AM
Mcbrad and Dr. House. I am a level 85 on Gears 2 right now. Don't get me wrong, I play the game all the time and it is a ton of fun. (when the host has halfway decent internet, and when you don't face a team of turbo controller fags).
My team and I see the cheating that you guys rarely see, every single day. Sometimes 3 matches in a row we know for a fact guys had turbo triggers for hammerburst. And 7 out of 10 times when the entire other team is a clan, they bridged the host and keep their firewall settings jacked up so only their team has open packet flow to the host as trusted sources, and our team will have a medium setting (or worse) and every single thing we do gets scrutinized by the computer or laptop their xbox is hooked up to.
It's that cheating that makes me sick, there are websites literally devoted to cheating on this game, and youtube is a 'how to cheat on gears' playground. The Unreal engine is a beautiful end product as far as looks go, but it is a completely broken engine as far as stability and bugginess goes. Getting out of maps, sticky walking after doing almost anything (including getting smoke stunned or picking up a weapon), getting shot through walls, ink and frag grenades blowing up and doing damage (or no damage) somewhere other than where you aimed them, headshots not registered, shots from any gun not registering, and so on. Those are all problems I see with the game regularly, as I play the game for hours every single day.
When the field is "level" the game is absolutely amazing. There is always host advantage and I have no problem with this as long as my team can actually kill people. When it's the 4th round and my team, which is very very good, only has 1 or 2 kills total...... That's not bad play, that's an unplayable connection.
Steven W. @ Sep 25th 2009 4:04AM
Wow, that sounds pretty sweet. But, I can see where they're coming from. It'd allow people to do some serious glitching, I'm sure.
Though, a Longshot shot could deal with 'em.
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 25th 2009 10:51AM
I'm kind of glad they didn't put that in the game. Having someone hanging from a wall all the time just shooting people from cover would suck. now if you could still shoot them it wouldn't be too bad but it would defeat the point of being in cover
ytilanigiroon @ Sep 25th 2009 11:36AM
If it's a scripted part of the game, and everyone can do it without needing to mod controllers or obsessively study player animations, then how does it "break" multiplayer?
Is taking cover and blind firing breaking multiplayer if the other team isn't taking cover?
What I think he's really saying is that they couldn't get it to work right, that it would be too easy to glitch with.
drdre74 @ Sep 25th 2009 2:24PM
maybe they need to go talk to Naughty Dog and see how they made it work perfect for Uncharted 2