Eraser wrote:I think you're being totally unfair to Epic.
Their games are good. They are really, really good. The quality of their work is among the best in the industry. These guys do push boundaries. Anyone here that says Epic only makes shit games probably still holds a grudge because of the whole UT vs Q3 argument.
Gears of War, like it or not, is a game that is properly executed, well polished and quite frankly, the first one was something different from what we had seen before. Sure, it's gameplay may not appeal to you, but damn, every single friggin' id Software game is a FPS with yet another rocket launcher, yet another shotgun and yet another machinegun. When is the last time they have actually done something revolutionary or even something different?
I mean, I don't particularly enjoy strategy games, but I am damn well aware that Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 are extremely well made games. Just because you don't like GoW's gameplay doesn't mean they are bad games. Yes, I agree that Quake 3's gameplay was far more intense than that of Unreal Tournament, but still, UT wasn't a bad game either.
When stacked against a random selection of games, Epic's games rate very high in quality. I think that Epic are definitely talented developers and they make pretty incredible games. Anyone claiming otherwise really needs a reality check.
p.s.
Doom 3 wasn't nearly as bad as the media wants you to believe.
I agree that Epic makes high quality games...for what it's worth. Their art department does a first rate job and their level designers create levels that fit their gameplay designs. However, as has been mentioned, my beef is simply with GoW's cover to cover based gameplay. It - to me - is quite monotonous and repetitive throughout both GoW versions. Like several people, I gave GoW all the chance it needed to blow me away (I played it to the last boss battle and gave up) and while it did tantalize my retinas with a really fucking cool atmosphere, the game itself was more than meh....but fucking meh. The only moments I truly enjoyed were slicing up some cunt with the chainsaw end of my weapon.
The core cover-to-cover mechanic was shown for the repetitive nature that it is - in a ridiculously obvious manner - in Mass Effect 2: every single time you came up to waist high objects you could bet the farm that there would be combat. Same thing in GoW. There is absolutely NO CHANCE of being surprised in those games as it relates to ambushes or other types of gameplay setups. The gameplay itself limits the level design to a huge extent which is the exact reason it becomes boring so quickly. Once you know the formula, you can set your watch to it.
IMHO the only game that got the cover mechanic correct was R6 Vegas...and only because you weren't always forced into it. Perhaps if GoW was a FPS utilizing R6's setup I'd have enjoyed it more...but Epic was too preoccupied with the 3rd person view of showing off the character models, the "jumping over obstacles" animations and the "handishake cam while sprinting" feature. They based the game on the visuals they wanted to show you, rather than how you wanted to play a shooter game.
