Exactly. I am always annoyed when people suggest Gears should change for changes sake. Nothing else on the market plays like Gears, it would suck for it to lose its identity just to be like every other game out because reasons. Not that they can’t add new innovations or gameplay mechanics to the mix along the way. Hivebusters did it near perfectly IMO. If they want to explore different genres of gameplay that’s what spin-offs and new IPs (which they’re supposedly working on ) are for. Let mainline Gears be Gears.
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Forza, Sea of Thieves, Grounded and other series seemed to do fine.
Yeah but what about the story, characters, appeal and multiplayer? Everything about TC Gears falls back to technical stuff and not enough about the actual substance of the game.
I’m hoping Gears 6 is as action packed as Act 1 was in Gears 5. I was blown away at some graphical stuff but the action at the end portion of that Act felt like Gears in it’s prime.
More of that in the next one tbh would be fine by me
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Just bring back the city eating worm
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The city was so tight and it actually felt like you were in the trenches so to speak.
I felt like Gears 5 lost me a little with that open world side stuff as it was just filler tbh.
In my opinion focus on the set pieces in the next game and pump the action up and end it with a bang
I don’t think anyone wants the core gameplay loop to diverge drastically, but they can’t keep doing just that forever. I think most of the Coalition-years experiments in adding new features have the potential – if brought together well and pushed further – to make the series fresh again without abandoning its cover-shooter roots.
Aside from Horde mode I’ve never been super into Gears MP. I know it has a very hard-core fanbase as far as that goes though and they expect a certain kind of gameplay going into Gears. I couldn’t care less about “mass appeal” for a game just if I enjoy playing it or not. As for story and characters, they’re good enough. I don’t really have an issue. But for me personally story just needs to be serviceable, gameplay is the more important factor. Gears right now is the best TPS out, it’s gunplay is still unmatched and I love the balls to the wall giant monster fighting set pieces.
Which is why I think Hivebusters is a good start. Maybe flesh out the stuff with Jack a lot more. They don’t really need the open world stuff from Gears 5 too much though.
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I dont think Gears as a series needs to die but it absolutely needs a shake up of some kind, I said it before but the series has barely changed since 06
Gears isnt most Nintendo franchises where they can pump out the same thing over and over for decades and people will keep eating it up
I understand being hesitant to change the multiplayer because of the hardcore fanbase but with the single player they should take big risks! Now that xbox has a billion games in development im hoping that they will push new stuff hard in Gears 6 and be willing to take more chances
I don’t think Gears needs open world sections, but if they are going to do them, do them properly with something to do while traversing and lots of quality side content to access.
I would also say that the elements of skill tree building with Jack and the Hive Busters stuff does fit better in a game with some element of exploration. If the game is linear and you have to be pretty stupid to miss the upgrades, then it does feel a bit tacked on.
If the world had a bit more exploration and optional content, that is where you would find those upgrades and build out your character – and I think those aspects really worked well and should be pursued.
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At least Gears and Fallout are on fucking topic…
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Don’t they have events that gather devs from all studios to present their work to each other and stuff?
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Yes, there are dozens of examples where one studio discusses how they got ideas, assistance, etc. from another XGS dev.
Yes, Xbox holds a regular dev heads meeting, and from what I recall (before COVID) a get-together for members from the studios. Bethesda also has always had all-hands on meetings (I think every quarter, but I have to dig through my notes) where they cheer on new employees, anniversaries, and discuss their ongoing projects.
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I’ve seen devs on interviews mentioning how easy it is to contact other studios for knowledge as well, Teams being the primary means for it.
I guess that on this front XGS is doing pretty great already.
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I imagine ID will be picking 343’s brain on how to make an enjoyable MP mode. There’s no reason for Doom’s MP to be dead on launch.
I dont even know what they did with Eternal. I quite enjoyed the first game’s online portion.
They are; it’s a stark contrast to the old Xbox days where devs were competing amongst themselves for survival (slight hyperbole, but the early days of OG/360 were reportedly brutal). I think Matt and Phil’s leadership, and the security that Game Pass provides, has been a paradigm shift for the studios.
Also, important to note that mobility amongst the studios now is much easier.
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I haven’t double checked these numbers, but I’ve heard many times that Xbox has “23 studios with 36 teams.” If that is correct there is no way they can stick to a schedule of 4 games per year for long - unless you think every team gets a 9-year development cycle.
In addition to the 36 internal teams we know or suspect that there are MANY Global Publishing deals in the works.
Any future acquisitions will simply add to the flood of games coming over the next few years.
I suspect we’ll get an update on the “1 per quarter” goal by the end of 2022.
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Yeah there will be more games. I realised I had missed id’s next project after posting this, expect that will fall somewhere around 2024.
That’s just me speculating on the games we know about, how ambitious developments are, how we know of how development is going, how long they’ve been around, and how much of a ‘jump up’ the studio is trying to achieve, plus adding a year to everyone for COVID.
For instance, Compulsion and Undead have largely made AA games and are now tipped to be pushing into full polished AAA. I don’t expect those games to then come about tidily in the usual 3-4 development AAA cycle, more likely on the long-end of 5-6 or more to get there.
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Gears needs an longer break the issue is that each title was 3 years and aren’t really that different from each other let the coalition take a longer dev cycle let them come up with new ideas with gears 6 end the story and move forward kinda give coalition the time Microsoft gave 343 and turn 10 let people actually miss gears I definitely think people missed halo after 6 years without a mainline title
They did say they are reworking the multiplayer mode in Eternal I believe
I wonder in the new horde mode they are making will it be purely single player or would coop be possible