Tricky little bastards Epic Games and the folks responsible for New York Comic Con decided it would be a good idea to hold a session called “Gears of War 2.” Featuring Epic Games President Mike Capps and Gears of War 2 writer, Josh Ortega, they were very clear about the session’s contents once you found a seat — there would be no new real details about Gears of War 2. Well then …
I had other work to take care of that morning, so I took a pass on that particular panel. In a blog, Destructoid community member power-glove makes note of “one good thing” that came out of the event — the role the game’s antagonists, the Locusts, would play in the story of Gears of War 2.
“[The] story of Gears of War 2 [will] flesh out the Locust character’s story and make them more than a group of grunting behemoths,” power-glove writes in his community blog. The softer side of the Locust hordes, eh?
I strongly encouraged Phist, one member of Destructoid’s talented art team (and designer of the Mr. Destructoid Bomberman Live character model), to attend the panel and report back to me. You can check his bitter ramblings on the session after the post.
Michael “Phist” Yi’s take on the panel:
We get there 10 minutes early. Panel was running late (ten minutes), technical difficulties. They finally get some video going from a laptop. Huge letdown as everyone realizes it’s the chainsaw battle teaser trailer. President(?) of Epic Games, a writer dude and a rep from NECA Toys run through intros. Epic Games guy warns that no new assets or vital points about Gears 2 would be released during the panel. I proceed to facepalm.
They talk a little about where the story would go in the sequel, very vague (more point-of-view on the Locusts side, mentions how Covenant storytelling is more prominent in Halo 2 and 3, blah blah). Writer guy (who writes for comics and games) talks about how he met Cliffy B and goes into early developmental stages of the writing for the game. A mention of “live cover” (organic, moving cover?) and also complaints about cover being too sticky in Gears 1 and new workings of that and other controls.
NECA guy goes into Gears 1 and 2 toy lines, mentions the headshot toy and how one of their sculptors came up with the idea. Between Xmas and New Years, he worked on a clay prototype. NECA people get excited, send a more polished rough draft to Epic Games and everyone is fapping together at this point, and decide to put it out as one of the pieces for the toy line. There will be some alternate color schemes for characters that differ from the game.
Panel now open to audience questions. Little kids and retards start asking very general and stupid questions. Epic Games guy said there would be no specific information about the game during the panel and yet everyone was asking about gameplay, bosses and story. He does mention that there would be some new info on multiplayer in May. The panel turned into a fanboy fapfest and then we decide to leave. I was so disappointed. Whoever decided to name the panel “Gears of War 2” needs to be fired.
