Speaking at the Montreal Games Summit, EA Montreal's Alain Tascan had some fighting words for Gears of War,"What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero."
He further laid on the smack sauce (smack sauce?) with this comment,
"I'm not talking about my tastes, I'm just saying, when you go to metacritic and you see a 96 for Gears of War, then you read the critics saying, 'Okay, storyline - there's none, gameplay is not innovative...' Then I say, why did they give this 96? They were blown away by the high quality of the graphics... Myself, I prefer something more creative,"
It's time for a rant. Read on for more.
Okay, without digging into the irony of an EA executive chiding a game for lack of innovation (hey guys, Burnout 5 is coming next year!), let's just look at his statement in a general way. Gears of War is, no doubt, a blast to play. Sure, the graphics are gorgeous -- the best out there -- the sound design is through the roof, and the game is filled with "oohs" and "ahs," but the gameplay is solid. The question is: is it innovative? I will chime in and say yes, with some caveats. There are many things that are not innovative about Gears of War. Cover is nothing new, nor is squad based gameplay. The weapons, with the exception of the chainsaw bayonet, are pretty standard -- yes, even the Hammer of Dawn isn't new. Those are the caveats, so what makes GOW innovative? The answer is simple, it makes a tactical shooter feel like it's not a tactical shooter. The game uses cover, but it never feels stale or slow like, say, Ghost Recon. I'm decidedly not a tactical shooter guy, and yet Gears snagged me. You could say that Gears is a tactical shooter for the action crowd. There are other innovative elements, too, such as the camera. Yes, it may be a graphical effect, but the "wartime reporter" camera is something that hasn't really been done before. It adds greatly to the immersive nature of Gears and it's actually something that makes the game "feel" next gen. In the end, Gears of War is a beautiful game, but claiming presentation as the only reason it has been well reviewed is asinine.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
11-10-2006 @ 11:51AM
nick said...
pot. kettle. black.
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11-10-2006 @ 11:56AM
KCAndersen said...
The First thing I noticed and truely loved about Gears was the gameplay. Its Next Gen in every sense of the word. The graphics are awesome as we all know too.
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11-10-2006 @ 11:56AM
Bluestone said...
EA talking about innovation... oh the irony.
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11-10-2006 @ 11:58AM
NotOfThisEarth said...
Has no innovation. Uhhh yeah. Why is that, because their not ass raping us all with cheat codes for sale? Your games suck ass EA.
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11-10-2006 @ 12:04PM
Jason said...
Come one guys... we all know that Next Gen innovation is charging people for a preview of a tired old never innovative game like Madden... This guy has obviously never played Gears...
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11-10-2006 @ 12:05PM
Dizz said...
I know EA isn't talking about someone else's game when all they do is update their games and re release them. madden, live, NFS, the sims? sound familiar EA?
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11-10-2006 @ 12:09PM
Pyronite said...
Gameplay doesn't have to be "truly innovative" to be great. Sometimes, the best innovation is doing everything right, and crafting a game that meshes together so well that it just feels - FUN -
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11-10-2006 @ 12:12PM
HEY said...
it's better than all the half-ass non-inovative s**t EA puts out and will ever put out...screw EA
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11-10-2006 @ 12:15PM
beardsly43 said...
amen Richard.
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11-10-2006 @ 12:31PM
Zach said...
Actually, he hasn't played it, if you read the full interview, he states that.
Personally, I was not going to buy GOW. It's not really my type of game, everyone is blasting it as the next Halo, well, I can't stand Halo, so I was going to just skip it. Then they started really hyping the game up the past few weeks. I was watching it, as I do everything video games. So I was going in to pick up THP8, and decided, what the hell, with these crazy reviews and everything, might as well. I came home, grabbed some old 360 games, and took them back, traded them in, only paid 8 dollars for the Collectors edition, and played the game, for 4 hours last night, completely hooked.
GOW is awesome. Flat out awesome. The single player is great, and online is even better.
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11-10-2006 @ 12:31PM
Tim said...
This guy is just living in the future, when Army of Two and Two Worlds come out. Two games that look alright. Run this story again when they release those two games, and maybe this wont be two ridiculous.
Two.
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11-10-2006 @ 12:31PM
Mep said...
EA is becoming a sad sad company. Bashing other products to make their own look better, instead of actually making good products themselves. You should be ashamed of yourself EA, you constantly grind out tired, old and mediocre, at best, games. And then you dare start a monkey shitfight with the companies that actually delivers some quality games. The true irony in all of this is that EA has destroyed all the big franchies it has bought in my mind. Command & Conquer anyone?
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11-10-2006 @ 1:10PM
DA360 said...
This just shows how low EA is, by insulting another developers work. I wouldn't call making small changes to their sports games and releasing them for another game "innovative" either, or most of the work EA has done at that.
Gears of War is an extremely good game, and EA can't deny that, no matter how much crap they thrown around.
Then again, EA's been known to bias towards Sony at times so this might be part of that...
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11-10-2006 @ 1:24PM
polkbkk said...
Please tell me someone has the email address for this guy. I'd love to send him a note.
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11-10-2006 @ 1:27PM
klic said...
WOW, such a fuss... maybe I'll try it....
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11-10-2006 @ 1:28PM
Jamey T said...
Wow, did this guy just come over from Sony?
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11-10-2006 @ 1:35PM
Will said...
I like the whole weapon reload system
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11-10-2006 @ 1:41PM
King Keepo said...
Do you know how hard it is to innovate in a genre like this that's been done to death in the last 5 years? Everyone wants the moon on a stick with every new game and it clearly isn't possible. How many times has Tom Clancy basically told the same story in his books? Stephen King? Despite being formulaic they're still bestsellers.
I really don't mind a re-hash of a genre as long as the graphics are great and the gameplay is tight.
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11-10-2006 @ 1:46PM
Me said...
This was very unprofessional- I don't think developers should promote their games by bashing others. However I do kind of agree with a couple of his points. A lot of reviews mention many problems with the game, IGN's review comes to mind, but still give the game exceptional scores. I will admit I haven't played it yet, and it looks great, but considering the content of the reviews, I just wonder if the game isn't being overrated due to it's tremendous hype. I'm not trying to flame anyone, just don't assume that this guy is completely wrong.
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11-10-2006 @ 1:47PM
scotius said...
#7 - Hell yes. Also note, a new gun is not an innovation.
I would argue that Halo was not innovative. It was extremely solid and a landmark for the genre, creating a new standard for future FPS's.
Frankly, disliking an entire genre of games is tasteless. May he grow fat on EA crap-burgers (though, FIFA '07 does look pretty and innovative...).
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