CliffyB Says: E3 2011 Edition (On Gear's Story, Mobile Development and Hackers)

Our favorite dudebro of the industry had some interesting things to say during the conference in LA this week.

First, in regards to the Gears 3 storyline: speaking to Jim Sterling of Destructoid, Cliff revealed that he was puzzled that people dismiss the narrative in the Gears of War franchise.

“People say, ‘yeah, I tried the campaign, but whatever.’ Gears of War 3‘s campaign is very important to us, and we’re going to have the longest damn campaign of the series in Gears 3. With these Pulp Fiction elements we’re adding, you get a better perspective of characters like Cole and Baird.

“But yeah, I dont get why people write it off either. (Laughs) The amount of work we put into it …”

As some of you might recall, Epic Games called upon the expertise of novelist Karen Traviss for Gears of War 3, and before that, author Joshua Ortega was brought in to add a touch of ‘personal drama’ to the story. Interestingly, the counter-argument to my questioning whether or not Anya is being changed to fit gender stereotypes is that player feedback must have taken the narrative into consideration, and didn’t find beta Anya to accurately reflect ‘real’ Anya. But, if even CliffyB says that people don’t care about the narrative..

Bleszinkski also commented on the possibility of Gears on mobile platforms when speaking to CVG.

“What I would like to do eventually down the line is get to the point where we not only have a Windows phone but an iPhone [game]… basically to have those devices [and Gears Of War on console] talk to each other – like if I have a mini-game on mobile and, say, polish my lancer while I’m at the pub, then I come back and it’s stronger [in the main game]. That’s where it’s all got to go. All the developers recognise this, but what needs to happen is the platform holders need to have their platforms open to this idea.”

Here’s hoping that the Gears mobile debut isn’t ‘Polish My Lancer’, though.

And, lastly, Cliff comments on hackers to Develop.

Generally speaking when it comes to hackers, you want to embrace a lot of what they are doing instead of fighting it. I think the industry is slowly learning that.