Saturday, April 17, 2010

Gears Of Tears

Well, as most of the world has heard, Gears Of War 3 is under development and set to release in 2011. Like the millions of people who saw the trailer to Gears Of War 3, I wept like a little girl after watching it. Not because it was bad, but because it so goddamn touching! The main reason for the touchiness is the OST in the trailer, "Sun Kil Moon - Heron Blue". The trailer gave me the same feeling I got from the trailer to The Last Guardian, the 2nd sequel to Ico. And even in that trailer, it was the music that completely had me.



I've noticed in these few trailers that I saw recently, like Gears Of War 3, The Last Guardian, Crysis 2, inFAMOUS, Fallout 3. All these trailers have some amazing music which gave a very grim undertone to the entire trailer, no matter what was going on in the trailer. Whether its a story between a small boy and his giant chicken-cat animal, an insane battle between The Locust and The Gears, or a guy using his electrical powers to fight and run in a city, this melancholic music sort of gives it a strange clarity regardless of the choas on screen. Although, I'm sensing a pattern here and I'm afraid that this might turn into a tried-and-tested formula which will turn into a cliche. Oh well, I can only hope something like this doesnt happen. And you know what? These trailers just stand in testament how important music is to any visual medium to emotionally stir your senses and be able to send so many messages in a short span of 1 or 2 minutes.

Another update, I've been playing the Xbox 360 alot nowadays and have played quite a number of games in the past month. Hmmm... lemme see, Bioshock 2, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3, Bayonetta, Gears Of War, and Gears Of War 2 being the most recent I've played. I gotta tell you, after watching the GoW3 trailer and playing GoW2, Epic is focusing on Dominic's story more than Fenix's story. Which is ok by me. Coz Dominic has that whole emotional-thing going on with him. And lest I forget to mention, the bromance between Dom and Marcus. (Oh man, how gay!) Oh well, I'm glad they didnt give the mushiness to Fenix and gave to the next most important character in the game, Dom. Although, Dom's story and the whole "Max Payne"-thing he's got going is quite intruiging, I'm left wondering why they havent given alot of info on Fenix's story. All I know at the moment is that his Dad is part of something related to the Locust and the Gears. Adam Fenix (Marcus Fenix's dad), was some sort of a leader for the humans and has some strange thing to say at the end of GoW2... whatever, I'm completely confused with Marcus and his dad's story. Even though Epic tired to make GoW2 more epic (no pun intended) and longer they sort of stretched it for no reason. Even though GoW1 was very short, I thought it had some very memorable events for example when we met the Beserker, the gas station and the Kryll, when we meet Alpha Team for the first time, the fight with the Theron Guards at the imulsion rig, Carmine's death, RAMM. Even the handling seemed better in GoW1 to GoW2 even though GoW1's handling was very tight, but it had a whole different feel to than any other game. Now in GoW2, it just feels like any other game out in the market. That grey visual of GoW1 is what made it stand out in my opinion. It sort of gave it that dry and grim undertone that war has. GoW2 was too colorful and had lost the feel of war. So what if everything was exploding or burning? It still didnt feel like war. I hope they'll be able to bring that grim, uncolorful feel of war into the new one. 

Epic has got a good thing going here and I think this is the perfect time to say how much I freakin' love Cliff Blezinski! That dude has been like my icon since 1998. He's the only guy in the game industry who doesnt have to be a master of something, instead he does a better job being a Jack Of All Trades than any other game-designer. His vision of game-design is absolutely what any game-designer should have and is also the closest to my idea of design. I know I'm going all gay on CliffyB but you gotta admit, the dude's got talent!

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Music is something that can affect you in various ways, depending upon the kind of sounds you are listening to...
    here is something that is interesting to watch... ^_^
    Click Here Doc. ^_^
    PS: great post Doc. and appreciating someone's talent by making him your icon is NOT being gay at all... :)):)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Sanghi, you're right. That was pretty interesting. Cool presentation. That part when he plays the Intel and Nokia music was hilarious!

    ReplyDelete