The Gears of War are finally churning into the shops, and as part of our duo of launch interviews, we've managed to get a word in with Epic president Mike Capps, who shares his disbelief at finally finishing the seminal shooter - as well as spilling some interesting development anicdotes and juicy hints at a sequel.
We put the same questions to Gears' lead designer Cliff 'CliffyB' Bleszinski, and you can read his answers right here
So without further ado, it's over to Mr. Capps...
ZoomHow relieved are you to finally get Gears' out of the door? Has it been a challenging last few months?
Mike Capps: Really, the guys just can't believe it's finally over. Folks are a little shell shocked, dazed even. We started with a hard push for the behind-closed-doors demo at E3 last year. The next one was only a few months later, and then they just kept coming faster and faster. It's really been a constant blur since April, and the dev team really took the challenge head on. We were on seven day weeks, 12 hour days, catering dinners to keep guys working, you name it.
Luckily we have a lot of industry vets who knew how to pace themselves. We said it was a marathon, not a sprint - until the end, when it was just a free-for-all sprint to the finish line.
After the massive reception the game has received pre-release, are you worried that the excitement might just plateau rather than explode when Gears finally reaches gamers' hands?
Mike Capps: That's completely out of our hands now. We've done everything we can to create the most memorable, immersive, cinematic gaming experience we can... now it's up to the gamers to decide if we pulled it off.
Personally, what's your favourite feature in the game? What part of Gears' do you think gamers will enjoy the most?
Mike Capps: I love the way targeting interacts with cover. You get into cover, and then by holding the left trigger you partially pop out of cover and zoom in on your target. It feels just right, very intuitive, and I think it'll make the game very accessible. It means that you're not constantly doing two-stick move/aim, but rather you move to cover, then aim, then move, then aim.
I just spent the last two days watching contest winners behind the scenes at Epic playing multiplayer all day, and I'd have to say that the chainsaw and curb stomp are the features they were enjoying most.
How popular do you think Gears' will be over Xbox Live? What plans do you have to release content after it's shipped?
ZoomMike Capps: We've been quite surprised by the great critical reception for Gears multiplayer - including best multiplayer of the show at E3 - and I'm hoping that will translate to a lot of playtime online. Plus I do think the co-op single player over Live will be quite popular; a bunch of folks at Epic took our development kits home for that and had a blast.
We're not announcing any plans right now about downloadable content, but I'd like to think that Epic has earned a very strong reputation in supporting its products post-ship.
You've worked long and hard on the control scheme can you tell us something about that process and how you've refined it down?
Mike Capps: This is where Epic is at its best, because everyone here takes control scheme so seriously. It's generally understood to be what separates games like Unreal Tournament from the competition, so we always focus on controls. We have daily playtests where players of all different skills and playstyles would give their input. The design and gameplay guys would tweak a few values and we'd do it again, day after week after month after year. We'll never be 100% happy, because we're perfectionists here, but the fact that we shipped it means we are absolutely satisfied and think players will love the controls.
