We definitely want it [Gears of War 2] to be longer. We won't specify a number of hours right now, but it will be longer — I can guarantee that. And it'll have a little bit more drama too... I think that, with campaigns like in Gears, Halo or Call of Duty, my personal preference is around the 10+ hours mark, with a co-op and a multiplier you can play in the longer term.But I find a lot of games are filled with padding to make them seem longer. They do stuff like, at the half way mark, demand that you play through all the levels again backwards, and you think "kiss my ass." We'll never do that. We'd always rather push forward and provide new experiences.

Added value! That's because The Cliffster cares. He really, really does.

Interview Cliff Bleszinski [CVG]

I'm a huge fan of Kojima... The kind of scenes they do in MGS4 are phenomenal. I think it has the best sound and real-time [cut scenes] I've seen in the industry and since they're the best at what they do, players love it... It's the hallmark of the series - the camera angles and dramatic scenes and it's really taking film-making to this new digital level...

And it's a damn shame that passive entertainment is on the way out. Bleszinski also better clarifies what it seems he was trying to say about the Gears 2 team using MGS as the model of what they're not doing: "In the kind of games we do, the cut scenes are around three to four minutes on average. It just says what needs to be said and moves on to letting you actually play the game." There's certainly room for both types of games. Dude hugs for everyone!

CliffyB loves MGS4: Best cut scenes in the industry [CVG]

We wanted a blockbuster pace [in Gears of War 1], and in doing so, we lost the story a bit. So that's one of the lessons we learned. This time round there's more repetition. Games aren't movies and aren't consumed in a single sitting. So secondary characters will remind you about stuff, which is re-established in plot cues. Metal Gear Solid is our example of the game we're not doing. Passive entertainment is on its way out — you need to hook up with this web 2.0 stuff.

The ironic thing? Kojima Productions was influenced by Gears of War's controls for MGS4.
Gears of War 2 Multiplayer Hands-On [IGN via ripten]

People loved it but they didn't like the host advantage [in Gears 1 multiplayer]. They got tired of the shotgun inconsistencies. We're fixing all of that. They didn't like the randomness of the chainsaw, so we put the chainsaw duel in — may the best man win! A lot of players wanted respawning, but we added in some modes for downloadable content on Gears 1 that added respawning, but even then it was a 15-second cue. So we have game modes now, like Guardian, where players cycle in and out a lot more often. And Wingman, which is kind of like our version of Last Man Standing Free-for-All, where you have five teams of two each. So it's you and a buddy versus the world, which feels really good. We've added a lot more depth to the multiplayer.

Thanks for that Mr. The Cliffster! Always keen for making stuff better.

Gears 2 Interview [GamePro via NeoGAF via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

I often feel that when a developer says ‘This is a trilogy’ right off the bat I think, ‘Shouldn’t they do the first game and see how it goes before you begin to think about a sequel? ...The market is incredibly tough. You never know how a game is going to fair, so we take it game by game...　If Gears of War 2 is a success then naturally we’ll look at a third. The same applies if number three sells well, then we’ll have to consider a fourth.

The Cliffster sure seems like a sensible dude.

Gears of War 2 Interview [Game Reactor via videogaming247] [Pic]

MR: We want all these people buying laptops and reasonably priced PCs, to at least be able to be exposed to gaming. They can go out later and upgrade to something better, but let's at least give them a baseline experience."

MTV: Cliff, you buy it? PC gaming is back?

The Cliffster: Abso-frigging-lutely. The thing is, I think everybody coming together in that kind of way will essentially kind of help re-glue things back together and kind of help fix the market. I have a big PC gaming heritage and I love playing games with a keyboard and a mouse, as well as a console, and I'd just love to see it.

I think people would rather make a game that sells 4.5 million copies than a million and "Gears" is at 4.5 million right now on the 360. I think the PC is just in disarray... what's driving the PC right now is 'Sims'-type games and 'WoW' and a lot of stuff that's in a web-based interface. You just click on it and play it. That's the direction PC is evolving into. So for me, the PC is kind of the secondary part of what we're doing. It's important for us, but right now making AAA games on consoles is where we're at.

A lot of promises were made about the Unreal 3 Engine, particularly on PS3. But as we see now, the time frames haven't been met and now a lot of games using it are being held up.

As long time partners of Epic Games, we have nothing but respect for what they've done with their engine and the huge success of Gears of War. We have many friends at Epic and still have a great relationship with them. The truth of the matter is that Unreal Engine 3 didn't exist when we started developing Dark Sector. We had some great ideas for the next-gen consoles coming out and these ideas quickly turned into a whole development environment that revolves around the Evolution Engine now powering Dark Sector.

Ultimately, it was the right decision for us to branch out with our own technology but we know that the Unreal Engine is a great engine and expect it will continue to power many great games in the future.

Unreal Engine Criticism [CVG]