Games
Locust Horde Takes Over Toronto Subway Station
By Eli Green November 7, 2008 - 03:00
Down
a dimly lit stairway, guided by the sounds of voices, gunfire and
chainsaws, I made my way into the depths of Lower Bay Station, a
rarely viewed portion of the Toronto subway system commonly only used
for filming movies and television commercials. The platform was lit
only by two subway cars and a collection of high definition screens,
all surrounded by a mass of gamers waiting to get their hands on Epic
Games and Microsoft Game Studios' latest shooter,
Gears of War 2,
which has now begun selling at most retailers across North America
or, for retailers which did not have midnight launches, will begin
doing so in the morning.
This
was the scene at tonight's Gears of War 2 launch
party, where various members of the mainstream and video game media,
as well as VIP Xbox Live Toronto community members gathered until
midnight to ring in the launch of what Microsoft expects to be the
biggest blockbuster of the 2008 holiday season. Some attendees took
the time to play through parts of the solo campaign, while others
went straight for the multiplayer matches or, in the case of the
mainstream television media, tried to collect as many interviews as
possible for the 11 o'clock news.
The
launch of Gears of War 2 was
a long time coming for many, especially the game's creators. Cliff
Bleszinski, Design Director at Epic Games, has already said quite a
bit about how the team has furthered the players involvement with the
game's story for the gameand
tonight Lee Perry, SeniorGameplay
Designer for Gears of War 2,
who was on hand at the event to answer any questions about the game,
explained the painstaking process of designing the game's core
gameplay elements, before those elements even get approved for the
game.
Things finally started to clear out near midnight.
Taking
an example of a specific type of creature in Gears
of War 2
Perry said, “What I do is come up with the idea for a monster. What
if we made a monster that's got this big explosive flail, and a
shield that you can pick up and play? How do we make that control for
the player? How do we make it fun? How do we balance it? And then
kind of go into a prototyping stage, where I'll make a rough version
and try to prove that it's fun and it's something we should try and
do before we kick it over to artists and programmers to spend a lot
more time polishing it up”. However,
this was just an example of the process his team would go through to
produce the elements that may make it into the final product. As he
put it, “there's a boatload of work”, between the approval of any
specific game element and its final product.
Now
that the final product is out, Bleszinski, Perry and the rest of the
team from Epic Games have a bit of time to relax and play their game
before their next big project. Gears of War 2 is
available exclusively for Xbox 360 for $59.99 USD/CAD or in a special
Limited Edition, with a SteelBook case and 48 page hardbound book
called Beneath the Surface: An Inside Look at Gears of War
2, for $69.99 USD/CAD and is
rated M for Mature. We'll have the complete interview with Lee Perry
online later today.