Gears of War 2: Too violent for some?
Chainsaw kills raise eyebrows at San Fran press event
By Mike Smith
As the gaming press gathers on the West Coast for a week of preview events, the sequel to 2006 smash hit Gears of War was by far the biggest news to come out of Microsoft's Tuesday press conference. Gears 2 takes over the story six months after the close of the original Gears, as humanity faces a new and more deadly threat from its Locust enemies -- and features even more explicit violence than its notoriously bloody predecessor. Could Microsoft's newest action game have gone too far?
Gears of War was famously banned in Germany, after the country's ratings organization declined to issue the game an age certificate. Gears 2 covers much of the same ground, but adds in more realistic visuals, a deeper plot, and battles that concentrate more on mobility and dynamic combat than the original, which some decried as a prettier version of the old "whack-a-mole" parlor game.
Graphics and plot aren't just what raised eyebrows at the press event, though: instead, attendees caught a glimpse of one of the game's many melee kill moves. Whereas Gears 1 included an up-close attack that used a chainsaw blade on the lead character's main weapon to dismember a foe, Gears 2 adds a reverse attack that actually slices an enemy in half -- from the groin upwards. Elsewhere in the demo, presenter Cliff Bleszinski, the celebrated lead designer behind the Gears and Unreal series, showed off a new ability that let him use the corpse of a fallen enemy as a "meat shield", soaking up bullets while he returned fire around its head.
One thing's for sure, though: the Gears of War gameplay Xbox 360 owners know and love is alive and well, and although it's definitely kicked the violence up a notch, like its predecessor it's going to be a good fit for the "Mature" ESRB age category, which will bar its sale to youths under 16. Whether or not the German censors will take a different view on its violence this time round remains to be seen -- but we're not going to be betting on it.
Gears of War 2 is expected in November, just in time for the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but we're expecting to see more of the game at this year's E3 trade festival in July.
Gender: Male Location: +40° 36' 5.70", -73° 57' 49.46
I loved gears of war and think it might just be my favorite 3rd person shooter ever...i am so excited to get the second one when it comes out......november cant come fast enough
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
Here you go! The confirmations for the game.
OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED
-Battlefields will be much larger than in the previous installment.
-There will, in fact, be chainsaw dueling in single player as well as multiplayer.
-There is a new poison grenade, which will kill anybody it hits and slowly drain the health of anybody around it.
-The "meat shield" is usable in both single player as well as multiplayer.
-The cover system is no longer as clunky, and has been edited to further prevent people "sticking" to walls and such
-The story begins six months after the original ends.
-A new pistol called the "Gorgon Pistol" is available, firing a six-round burst much like the hammerburst from the original.
-The hammerburst is now a semi-automatic gun.
-There is now a larger difference in active-reloading from gun to gun.
-Drop-in/drop-out co-op.
-Blood trails will allow you to track your prey much more effectively in case they decide it's time to run away.
-A new war journal to keep track of your endeavors.
-A much more emotionally evocative story that will be much deeper and more interesting than in Gears.
-Difficulty settings modified. Casual is now much easier, while Insane is harder.
-Weapon-specific melees. New kinds of executions.
-At least two new species of Locust. At least one more chainsaw method. 5 vs. 5 online battles.
-New online mode called "Wingman," where it's essentially a 2v2v2v2v2 game.
-Gridlock is a multiplayer map.
-The ability to have each player use their own difficulty setting in co-op mode.
-Completely destructible environments.
-Enhanced physics.
-You can be damaged and killed whilst chainsawing.
-Longer campaign.
-More usage of vehicles in campaign.
-A new "dynamic-conversation camera" used during cutscenes to give them a cinematic feel.
-The addition of a flamethrower, dubbed "Scorcher."
-Assassination game-type renamed to "Guardian."
-Unlimited respawns until each team's respective leader dies, at which points player cease respawning.
-Matchmaking! New game-type dubbed "Meat Flag."
-Sort of like Capture-the-flag but the flag is a human player who stays in the center of the map.
-Each team must down this player to be able to drag him back to their base.
-Getting damaged slows you down. You can now choose which weapon to spawn with in multiplayer:
-Lancer or Hammerburst. Portable cover.
-These are big metal things that you can carry around and shove into the ground to act as make-shift cover.
-You can only use your pistol while carrying one, and they can be destroyed by enemies that get too close.
-Grenades can be manually stuck to anything, meaning you have to "tag" the object like you would a person in the original Gears.
- Smoke grenades now stun enemies as well.
- While waiting to respawn, you may fly around the map and take screenshots of the action which you can then share with your friends.
- One confirmed new map: River
- A symetrical map, each team gets a sniping building and some flat land, which is divided by a river.
- One confirmed new map: Security
- A long narrow map.
- Power weapons guarded by laser-turrets th cannot be destroyed and will kill you if you attempt to get to the weapons.
- These turrets can be turned off. New controls for downed enemies: X Button [Curb stomp] B Button [Melee] Y Button [Punch in a downed opponent's face] A Button [Use enemy as meat-shield
OFFICIALLY DENIED
- Campaign will be 10-15 hours long.
- Co-op specific cut-scenes.
- Various endings. The "Acheron" locust.
- Multiplayer mode called "Ordeal" in which teams compete to see who can get to a certain amount of kills first, a la Call of Duty 4's Deathmath.
- Chainsaws-only multiplayer mode.
- Stamina bars that affect movement.
KMC Community Forums
May 20th, 2008 05:32 AM
