Epic was ready to scrap Gears multiplayer

Speaking to XLeague.TV back at Games Convention 2007, Mike Capps revealed that he was so unhappy with the multiplayer element of Gears of War that it was very close to being pulled from the game.

"I was going to cut multiplayer from Gears because I thought it wasn't coming together fast enough, right," said Capps. "The day before E3 I'm like 'no guys, it's not pulling together'. And they made it, they pulled it together, and then we won every award."

[BloodySinner]

Gears of War online is awesome. I can't believe they wanted to scrap it.

[goodganja]

If Gears wasnt online, Gamespot would still have scored the game 9/10, 10/10.

What a biased website.

P L A Y B 3 Y O N D

[iceice123]

Your ass is still sore over that? Oh and idiot, multiplayer doesn't make a game anyway. :)

[BloodySinner]

Yeah, because it's awesome. Bioshock didn't have online play, yet still got high scores. Why? Because it's awesome as well.

W A I T B 3 Y O N D

[Witty Comment]

but if you're complaining about something being biased, and your avatar is like yours, and you sign every post "P L A Y B 3 Y O N D", then it would seem you're only contributing toward the problem of something being biased.

[Sam Fisher]

the multiplayer was fun except 4 the hosting, crab walk, gernade hitting all the time, dive and shoot (automatic kill i might add), chainsaw detonation explosion kill glitch....(-_-) but other than than that its 1 hell of a game... o and its NOT the best game...*cough* Mass Effect is....

[wageslave]

The METACRITIC score of Gears of War is 9.4 / 10

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

That is higher than any other PS3 exclusive, not R&C (9.0), Resistence (8.6), Warhawk (8.4) or Motorstorm (8.2).

The *AVERAGE* score for Gears of War exceeds any PS3 exclusive. Who caers if your sore over one review? Wants some cheese with your whine?

[andy001]

I am so happy that you rely on Metacritic so much to determine your preferences. It would be really hard work for you if you had to make your own mind up.

Its a good job they had all those mountain dew Halo commercials, otherwise you might have died of thirst by now.

I like Gears BTW. Really cool game, and it surpasses any other similar game on the 360, especially co-op. In fact, it was the first game I have ever played within which I preferred co-op to the usual deathmatch stuff.

[cow moolester]

Oh but I'm sure if they gave all Ps3 games glowing reviews then they would be a brilliant site...grow up seriously...your sticking up for a 6kg piece of silicon, plastic and metal

[Regret]

Still best game on x360 :)

[TheMART]

Go away... If Gears didn't have the multiplayer, the most awesome gaming experience ever wouldn't have been given to me! This is the multiplayer game I play the most. It's so much fun, the 'new' maps (already 6 months old but for those that didn't buy them they're free since the beginning of september) are great!

I have to see a game that defeats this game in the multiplayer. In my opinion, I like this even better then Halo 3 multiplayer, but thats just what one prefers cover or not, jumping or not, megafast action or normal speed etc.!

[zonetrooper5]

Gears of War online was fun but for the most of it, it just didn't have enough features and every match did turn into a shottuy host crap which pissed me off alot.

I did like the game but for Gears of War 2, they must have more game modes, 4 player co-op, even better graphics, more storyline etc.

[wageslave]

I dont know what game you're talking about. But the topic of this game is Gears of War for Xbox 360.

If you'd like to contribute, I suggest you go and play it for the first time.

Clearly you have not.

[skagrerrrr]

the only problem i see is the lag time in online matches, but overall it's great!

[Meus Renaissance]

Shotgun FTW. I still remember how it felt to chainsaw someone from behind. No words can describe that feelings. Please don't tell my doctor I said this.

[Mr_Kuwabara]

Gears of War> Halo 3

[TheSadTruth]

the multiplayer sucks which is why virtually no one plays it at this point...

melees have no collision detection.. you cannot strafe and shoot at the same time.. host cannot lose games.. and it has the worst leaderboard system ever made..where your rank is determined by how many wins you have and your losses don't matter

Complete failure in my opinion.. how can the studio that produced unreal tournament which is professional in every regard let this pile of crap multiplayer get released is BEYOND me

[sgaap]

Do you only have one hand or something?

[BloodySinner]

The host can't lose? Where did you pull that from? Your disgusting ass?

[TheSadTruth]

"You cannot strafe and shoot at the same time"

Right, you can't because your shots start to land outside of your reticule and your accuracy is reduced to the point where you might as well just strafe and stop to shoot

Of course if you are going to argue with me on this it's probably because you have no clue what I'm talking about and probably stand still when you shoot or are so bad you don't notice the reduced accuracy in your shots because you normally miss most of your shots

"The host can't lose? Where did you pull that from? Your disgusting ass?"

In hundreds of games vs competent players I have not once lost an entire match with host, even when faced 1 on 4 or when my team is horrible.. the game's network code is terrible and the server side hit detection is why the game is such a joke... you cannot use server side hit detection in a console game without using some sort of aim assist or auto aim or magnetism because of the massive delay.. even if you try to lead shots they will still miss, while the host's shots will register 100% of the time

If you try to argue with me it's because you are not good at video games or are ignorant, because that's the reality of why Gears of War online multiplayer fails (LAN is a different story)

[Mwaan]

I agree. But you're overreacting again.

"You cannot strafe and shoot at the same time"

This is a design decision and not a true flaw. It makes the game unique. You may not like it, but millions of other people love it.

"host cannot lose games"

The host does have a significant advantage, but it doesn't stop the game from being fun. If you want to play competitively, play LAN.

Melee is still a little suspect and the only real problem I have with the game. Who gives a flying F**k about Leaderboards?

[Kleptic]

from a technical standpoint...he is dead on...the p2p only connection method of XBL...paired with a relatively clumsy multiplayer code...resulted in a very frustrating and laggy experience at times...the Co-op stuff worked great...but vs. battles were nearly always laggy for me...laggy to the point where it wasn't fun...ducking behind the wall and knowing you are safe, only to have your head popped by an explosive arrow despite that was enough to throw your controller at a bus...

Gears has never been touted a hugely awesome multiplayer game though...8 players?...no dedicated servers?...horrid lobbying?...it was pretty much expected...however, when there is no lag, it is still very fun to play online...I agree with TheSadTruth in that it was extremely bizarre to see Epic create such a cruddy online code...the truth came out soon after release with all the reports of how unhappy Epic is/was with XBL...Gears 2 should have all that perfected...but with Halo 3 not even having dedicated servers (can't believe you XBL subscribers put up with that), the laggy p2p nature will most likely still exist...

Everyone knows Epic does not prefer XBL...they are a PC company at heart...charging for maps and UGC is unheard of by them...UT3 has some pretty big hurdles for the 360 because of this...but hopefully that will be a game with Gears level of visual greatness with a much superior online setup for the 360...it most likely will, but the UGC stuff is still all up in the air...

[jcgamer]

I am anticipating two or three games in November to add to my list of favorites...or one of the three to become my favorite...big shoes to fill though...good times with Gears...countless hours...Mad World indeed...

[Fux4Bux]

The Gears multiplayer was technically pretty terrible. There was just sadly nothing better for 10 months so all the Xbox fanatics played it regardless.

[G_CodeMonkey]

I like it better than H3 multi (barely), but its really like comparing apples to oranges. Both are very good and keep the games alive. gCM

[kingfury]

Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shoote r,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shoot er,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shoo ter,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Sho oter,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Sh ooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,S hooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter, Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter ,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shoote r,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shoot er,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Shoo ter,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Sho oter,Shooter,Shooter,Shooter,Sh ooter,

That's all XBOX has. Shooters. Even with all of your coveted shooter games. PS3 still has the best one which is Warhawk which is also MULTIPLAYER

[jcgamer]

Isn't it funny that the best selling game on the 360 AND PS3 are both shooters? Both FPS? And what did both MS AND SONY end their E3 conferences with? And what exactly is Haze and UT3? This is the year of the shooter so get over it...

[ry-guy]

If Warhawk was the best shooter of this generation, why isn't it moving consoles like Gears and Halo did?

[zonetrooper5]

Kingfury, doesn't the PS3 have more shooters than the 360 in dev? and isn't one of the hyped games for the PS3 is a shooter called Killzone 2?

I also don't see whats so bad about having alot of shooters tbh, I know which games I think will be good and which will be crap.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Speaking about this article (leaving the fanboys to beat themselves up)...

Does anyone else find it funny that Mike Capps apparently was wrong about ...well everything he questioned? He didnt like the way multiplayer was coming along...huge success, He didn't like the Gears commercial...huge success. Seems like Epic has this guy on staff to tell them what he doesnt like...then they know for sure its a good idea and go forward ingoring him. LOL...

Just teasin... I know he certainly had more input, etc... Just funny the way the article read.

Looking forward to see what they do with Gears 2...and what Mike Capps feels are bad ideas. ;)

[ry-guy]

I had the same thought too while I read this article.

"Okay... Mike doesn't like X, Y, and Z. Let's implement them!"

[wageslave]

Maybe mike is just an honest person, who is willing to discuss his self-doubt and decision making.

I find it refreshing. Some firms are so arrogant with their confidence, that they dont have the character to say "I was worried about this, or I considerd X intstead of Y".

Its good to see how they think during the process.

[id dot entity]

Glad they didn't scrap the MP.

[nupes98]

Mad world was a sweet song

[poeo]

yeah mad world was great.. in the movie donnie darko

EDIT: lol so you people actually liked the song more in a f*cking COMMERCIAL? it was very cheap of MS or whoever to rip that great song off.. use it in a damn generic shooter commercial. Complete eww.

[PS360PCROCKS]

Fire that man! That music was amazing for the commercial and the MP is definitely tons of fun!

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

but then again I'm biased I prefer big team battles of 10-24 like Battlefield MC, Americas Army (PC), CounterStrike, Delta Force, Shadowrun, UT3, Quake 3 Arena, Rainbow or Halo.

[Wii60_FTW]

gears online is pretty much one of the greatest online games of all time. how the hell could this douche want to scrap it??? damn... it must have been really bad back then. maybe if they "didn't" try as hard with UT, it would be maybe half as fun as gears instead of what it is now.

[JPomper]

I can see how he wanted to scrap it. It's still pretty weak IMO.

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

Gears multiplayer gave me the most awesome experience ever.

That being said it's still pretty bare bones. No party system, network issues...

[computerjeff05]

Gears online sucks... here's why:

a) More glitches then any other game I've played
b) Host advantage
c) Can't play ranked with your friends
d) Ranking system is based on how many games you've played, not true-skill
e) EPIC NEVER CLEANED UP THE LEADERBOARDS WHEN PEOPLE CHEATED (15,000 POINTS FOR ONE MELEE ATTACK). I WAS TOP 100 UNTIL THIS HAPPENED, ASK SINISTER WHO WAS LEGIT #1)