They say he is the last of the rock ’n’ roll game designers. We say he’s a very nice, very talented, and very accommodating fellow. Without further ado, we give you Mr Cliff Bleszinski… (and if you have no idea what Gears of War 2 is, be sure to read our recent and exclusive hands-on impressions of new missions from the game)
Gameplayer: Gears of War was considered by many to be the first game with truly ‘next-gen’ visuals, but did you always know you could do more?
Cliff Bleszinski: As creative types we love what we do, but we always hunger to bring it to the next level. We were chomping at the bit to see where we could push this title above and beyond anything else we had done, not only graphically, but with the gameplay and narrative.
Gameplayer: How confident were you with Gears of War? Did you have a feeling it would become the massive brand it is now?
Cliff Bleszinski: You can never really predict the level of success that we’ve had with Gears. One simply sets out to create the coolest product they can envision and crosses their fingers. It also helps to have a great partner like Microsoft, one that ‘gets’ the vision and helps out by marketing the title.
Gameplayer: How important do you think Gears was to the success of Unreal Engine 3? Do you think Gears of War 2 will have just as much of an impact?
Cliff Bleszinski: I would hope that even if we didn’t have the huge success of Gears, our technology would remain widely adopted in the industry. We offer a tremendous toolset and a great support system that enables our partners to make triple-A games in a reasonable time frame.
Gameplayer: With so many other companies using the technology, was it important to make significant improvements to the engine before committing to a sequel?
Cliff Bleszinski: The engine never stops evolving, really. Our staff of programmers continue to crank away on various iterations, adding things like fracturable environments and crowd systems, that enable us to make Gears 2 the all-out war that it is.
