Judge games on quality, not size - Epic's Capps

[ArronC07]

Epic Games president, Michael Capps, has bemoaned the "arms race" in videogames development, saying it makes creating sequels tougher.

During his keynote speech on the development of Gears of War 2 at GCDC in Leipzig, Capps said that games that are judged simply by comparing the amount of content compared to rival titles can fail to reflect the true value of a good game.

"Making a sequel to a game is always tougher - especially given the arms race we're seeing in videogames development," he said.

"Games do not compete in fun experiences, they compete in the number of weapons, and unfortunately it's easy for someone to compare this game to that game, 'this game has 10 multiplayer levels but this one has 29. So clearly this game must be better'."

Capps added: "If you can imagine if movies competed in this way, 'Well sure Schindler's List was good but I know this three and a half hour long movie - think of the value you're getting for your ten dollars'. It doesn't work that way and unfortunately we still find ourselves competing this way... we have to compete in quality not size."

He went on to explain that this was even more of a problem when creating a sequel to a popular title, saying he was worried Gears of War 2 would fail to win the critical success of the original.

"As much as we don't want to play the game 'Call of Duty has this many guns and this has this many guns and how many will you have?'. You can't escape that comparison when you do a sequel... everyone expects more from a sequel, you have to."

"We're not scared to death that we're not going to make a game that is really, really better than Gears of War 1. I know its prettier, I know it's faster, I know it's more fun, I know it's likely to be longer and still I'm worried that we're not going to get the review scores that we did for the first one because everyone has these increased expectations... at least we decided we weren't going to compete in size with ourselves, we'll compete with other really new experiences," he said.

However, Capps did admit that Epic had set itself up making claims that Gears of War 2 would be "bigger, better and far more badass".

"Unfortunately... this was the thing we were shouting from the rooftops - so we didn't listen to ourselves, saying we were taking our last game and going to make it bigger and better, we set ourselves up for quite a challenge - of course we succeeded," he added.

Gears of Wars 2 is due for release on Xbox 360 this November.

After reading this i'm worried that GOW:2 is not going to live up to expectations and is going to offer a comparatively inferior single player and multiplayer experience.

Maybe Epic shouldn't have gobbed off about MGS4?

[capnmonkey]

I'd guess he's mainly referring to complaints that the first game was too short as well as the high expectations placed upon a sequel.
But yeah MGS4 kicks ass either way.

[Menaceuk]

Originally Posted by ArronC07

After reading this i'm worried that GOW:2 is not going to live up to expectations and is going to offer a comparatively inferior single player and multiplayer experience.

Maybe Epic shouldn't have gobbed off about MGS4?

Not at all.

He has a point.

People complain about game length and amount of this and that which is worthless if the quality is crap.

I would take a well done 6 hour game over a poor 30 hour game or a quality 2 map multiplayer game over a 50 map poor multiplayer game.


I loved gears 1 and still play it and done single player 3 times and gears 2 is improving the multiplayer aspect alot and it sounds great IMO and single player seems to improved too all beit not much longer than the first.


Quality over quantity is how it should be

[kickingtotalass]

I somehow doubt you're really worried and more or less hoping.

I'm not worried:

at least we decided we weren't going to compete in size with ourselves, we'll compete with other really new experiences," he said.

However, Capps did admit that Epic had set itself up making claims that Gears of War 2 would be "bigger, better and far more badass".

"Unfortunately... this was the thing we were shouting from the rooftops - so we didn't listen to ourselves, saying we were taking our last game and going to make it bigger and better, we set ourselves up for quite a challenge - of course we succeeded," he added.

Gears of Wars 2 is due for release on Xbox 360 this November.

So they're making it better than the first and bringing in new experiences?

I smell Halo 3 matchmaking.

[AnimalMother]

Gears2 will score high no matter what. It's one of those franchises like Halo that are immune to bad reviews.

[Pyrochaos]

Originally Posted by AnimalMother

Gears2 will score high no matter what. It's one of those franchises like Halo that are immune to bad reviews.

Just like MGS and FF are on that list as well?

[Snadinator]

Originally Posted by AnimalMother

Gears2 will score high no matter what. It's one of those franchises like Halo that are immune to bad reviews.

There has only been one released in this franchise and you spew this crap out?

Gears of War was awesome. Chainsaws and all. I can admit MGS4 is great... why can't you admit GeOW was too.

[RockyZ24]

To me, the first GoW had too many awesome moments to even realize it was a short game. In fact I would rather play a short high quality game because you can replay it again and finish it in under a day and still enjoy it.
Let's be honest here, short games are not bad. How many times have you played NES Contra and finish it under 30 minutes and still loved every minute of it? What about Super Mario 64? if you want to talk about current gen games, what about Bioshock? I don't see anyone else complaining how short those games are...and these game that I listed don't even have a multiplayer option

[AnimalMother]

Originally Posted by Snadinator

Gears of War was awesome. Chainsaws and all. I can admit MGS4 is great... why can't you admit GeOW was too.

Because I don't think Gears was a great game?

[Snadinator]

Originally Posted by RockyZ24

To me, the first GoW had too many awesome moments to even realize it was a short game. In fact I would rather play a short high quality game because you can replay it again and finish it in under a day and still enjoy it.
Let's be honest here, short games are not bad. How many times have you played NES Contra and finish it under 30 minutes and still loved every minute of it? What about Super Mario 64? if you want to talk about current gen games, what about Bioshock? I don't see anyone else complaining how short those games are...and these game that I listed don't even have a multiplayer option

Woah there... Bioshock ain't short.

[RockyZ24]

Originally Posted by Snadinator

Woah there... Bioshock ain't short.

I admit on the first time I finished the game it took me awhile. That's because I got the RROD after a couple of days when I got Bioshock and by the time I got my 360 back Halo 3, Rock Band Mass Effect pretty much took over my Winter playing. Finally got back into Bioshock when I needed a change from Halo 3 and finished it.

Played it a second time (no interruptions) with a walkthrough guide and I got it fairly under 12 hours

[ivan872007]

Originally Posted by Snadinator

There has only been one released in this franchise and you spew this crap out?

Gears of War was awesome. Chainsaws and all. I can admit MGS4 is great... why can't you admit GeOW was too.

geow besides pretty graphics is okay. not a great shooter by any means.

[Snadinator]

Originally Posted by ivan872007

geow besides pretty graphics is okay. not a great shooter by any means.

Whatever. The SDF certainly like to try and discredit 360 games. I've yet to play a more intense shooter.

[ArronC07]

Originally Posted by kickingtotalass

I somehow doubt you're really worried and more or less hoping.

Get a grip, the PS3 may well be my preferred platform but GOW2 is one reason why I've kept my 360.

[Paging DR B]

Well im sure you guys know where i stand on this. I think Gears1 was fantastic. Sure it may have not of been innovative (honestly what games are these days) but it was one hell of a joy ride.

Back on subject, then only thing thats bothers me about the entire interview was this one sentence.
"I know it's likely to be longer"
LIKELY? WTF does that mean. I mean i personally didnt find the first one to be that short. But cmon...a little more action would be nicer...hmm i wonder if it has anything to do with DVD storage limitations????