@Witzbold: They were all made by fisher price: [www.gamerevolution.com]
I didn't know that gears had enough of a story to turn into a book. "That's cool."
"Not Really."
Does anyone still play gears anymore? My friend and I beat it, and it hasn't left its case since.

TheCleaningGuy

cool. 360 pages of award winning dialogue such as "shit yeah!" "lobotomized!" and who can forget, "I think you're bat shit crazy."

where do I preorder?

ViolenceMan

@PhotoBoy: In the special edition it actually mentions those satellites. It explains that those satellites are the only space-faring technology they have...developed specifically to kill Locust (which is odd because the Locust live underground). And yeah I think everyone was killed...not evacuated.

From what I recall that planet was not colonised. People have just always been there...and Earth doesn't exist, as far as the story is concerned. Nobody knows how the Locust got there...or if they've just been there the whole time, etc. Also, before the Locust surfaced the planet was 100% peaceful apparently.

dowingba

@Mr Bentley:

I'll keep it short since someone's bound to have corrected you already.

Master Cheif isn't a name. It's a rank. Because of his ubiquity in the halo universe, it's sufficient for "The Chief" to be referred to by his rank.

You = Fail.

BlueRune

I have the Blaster Master novel.

Zenith

Ah, I was wondering where they left the story for Gears of War. I scoured the game and the manual for it, but to no avail. It must have gotten lost under a pile of money. Glad they finally found it though. Somebody let me know if it's any good.

Froggore

@dowingba: They must have some technology better than just helicopters so they could put the Hammer of Dawn satellites in space. And based the opening cut-scene they have quite a few of these satellites!!

I mainly inferred that people must have been taken off-planet because in the manual it describes Jacinta Plateau as their last refuge, which is on a hard granite strata. When the Locust finally broke through that, the humans had nowhere left to go.

So presumably either everyone was killed or evacuated off-planet. From re-reading the blurb in the manual I'm actually starting to think maybe they were all killed and the Gears and the Stranded are all that's left on Serra. Plus since they're humans on a planet that isn't Earth I was also assuming they colonised it at some point. Of course, all guess work by me that could be completely wrong! :)

@The Confessor: Yeah, the Locust are pretty interesting too, I'd certainly like to know more about them as well. Like I said above, I was always assuming mankind had colonised Serra, in which case I would guess that the Locust were always there underground and decided to pop up and kill the invaders who dare to live on their precious planet's surface. But I'm probably being influenced in my ideas by a favourite old Doctor Who story from the '80s called Frontios. :)

PhotoBoy

So, in the prequel novel, there's actually a story? Maybe they could update the GoW game with a cinematic or two that would actually explain something beyond the "Underground guys = bad" plot...

StrangeLove

@akwinters:

In the media blitz surrounding Gears release on the 360, the issue of story was discussed. Epic did hire a professional writer to create a Codex/backstory for the game. Most of it didn't get used due to time constraints and Epic isn't really known for their epic storytelling anyway....

akabitter

How about instead of a damn novel they announce GoW2. That would be a lot nicer. Either way I'll probably finish it in a day or two, but I think the game would have some lasting appeal afterwards.

MantisDragon

@The Confessor: If I can remember correctly, the Special Edition posed the same question. In terms of the characters in the game, they don't know anything about the Locust either.

jihadjoe343

I can't even say anything about how Master Chief John is a terrible character name because I am still full to the brink of the shame.
This is my payback for dismissing the Halo series as "virtual lasertag with dayglo squeaky aliens" and stating a preference for games with guns that go bang and make blood in virtual human baddies.

Somewhere in my brain a voice has told me that I was familiar with the Master Chief Petty Officer rank but never put two and two together in the Halo world.

I STILL FEEL THE SHAME. I am going to boil my head.
Thanks for educating me my fellow Kotaku-ites!

Mr Bentley

@PhotoBoy: I'm more interested in the other side of the coin, myself; the nature, origin, and behavior of the Locusts. I blogged the following just after I finished it for the first time:

My second and primary complaint is with the game's utter lack of intellectual depth. I realize that certain answers must inevitably wait for the sequel, but the most interesting questions about the origins and nature of the Locust horde aren't even posed by the protagonists. They may be grunts on a tight schedule to save the world, but even so their lack of basic curiosity strains credibility.

The game's silence on these questions would not be so deafening if they weren't so damnably interesting. For instance:

Are the Locusts comprised of different species, or are the wide variety of grubs the player encounters merely different phenotypes of the same genetic blueprint? If the latter, the presence of humanoid forms would suggest a form of phenotypic, and probably genetic, piracy is employed by Locusts, which would in turn illuminate a facet of their nature. It's not enough for them to merely defeat the humans; they must die from the phenotypic perfection of their own strengths.

The Confessor

@PhotoBoy: I remember reading somewhere that on the planet that Gears takes place on they have yet to invent space travel. So I doubt your "evacuation" theory is correct. Unless they evacuated people to some island or something. Actually, come to think of it, I seem to recall reading somewhere that's exactly what they did.

The idea is that this war with the Locust (who nobody knows where they came from...were they underground the whole time or are they from space or what) has been so fierce and so long that technology has pretty much halted in all but military stuff. The only flying machines the humans have are those helicopters in the game, for instance.

dowingba

@MeanMF: Thanks for pointing that out without patronising me too bad like lesser mortals would. I feel shame in my lack of military knowledge. That's what you get for being a pacifist in real life. (Although I am a gun crazed kill maniac in my virtual one).

I would like to take this opportunity to focus instead back on what a crappy name Fenix is? Oh it's too late to try to shy away from the SHAME now.

I am shame.

Mr Bentley

I've read this guy's clone novels (only 2 out of 3 are out) and they're not bad. They're not on the level of Richard Morgan in terms of the writing but the plot is somewhat similar to his Altered Carbon.

Judging solely by what I've already read by him I'd say these prequels should come out halfway decent. But I'm definetly not expecting any masterpieces.

Zenshai

I'm sure it'll be a riveting read! In fact, I just checked out the Amazon preview and it's awesome:

The world is grey and brown. Anry, alien burn victims are popping out of holes everywhere as the sounds of war echo as if in 7.1 Dolby digital surround.

Marcus enters the fray with a thunderous grunt. A bullet whines by his head as he exclaims, "Shit yeah!" Stereotype friend soldier number one yells, "Look out Marcus," and pushes Marcus out of the line of fire. A bullet rips through him, but it's cool. He takes cover for a few seconds and gets better.

"Thanks," Marcus mutters as they begin to walk down a long hallway as the next chapter loads.

doubtful

I read part of one of the Halo books once. After about the 50th time that it said "and then he cocked his gun" I gave up. A story about an invincible super soldier like the Master Chief is just boring. For a book, at least. Maybe a series of comics would have been more appropriate.

dowingba

A bit of background reading always add enjoyment to a game for me.
After reading the Warcraft manga a lot more things started to make sense in WoW for me, but maybe thats because I never read the background stories in the manual

Impul5se

@Witzbold: I'd like to know more about that too. I've actually come to like the vagueness of the story, after the initial disappointment of how little is explained I started to read between the lines and guess at some stuff.

I got the impression the Gears were conscripted and forced onto aggressive steroids in a desperate attempt to create warriors that were capable to standing toe-to-toe with the Locust. Obviously Anya suggests women are exempt from this procedure.

Presumably the rest of the population were evacuated (maybe off planet?) before the scorched earth policy was enacted. Then there were just a few holdouts who refused to leave, and these became the Stranded. Looking at the way the Stranded taunted the Gears, calling them "piggy" and laughing at their "fool ass faces" it's clear the Gears are resented for some reason. I don't think the Gears ever offer any protection their fellow man, they just try to kill as many Locust as they can.

Hmm, I might actually buy the book just to see if there is any interesting back story in there.

PhotoBoy

@Mr Bentley: Master Chief Petty Officer John-117.

So no...it's not a lame name, it's an appropriate reference to John's rank within the Navy.

jihadjoe343

How bout a new cover for this book? I'd really wish they stop using the same damn picture for everything. I've seen this picture on the shirts, the book, etc, etc. Use some different art made for the game and we're sold. But don't reuse the same content...again.

Aragashi

Bah, too late.

In regards to the novel I think it is a good idea. Gears had very little in the way of back story. I for one was curious why Marcus was in jail at the beginning. I mean, there ARE evil monster things trying to kill everyone, why did they lock up the super bad ass who was going to save the world single handed?

ElijahDProphet

God, I got halfway through GoW on the PC and loved it... turns out there's a major bug in the game that I kid yo not just deletes your saved gamed. Ever since mine got deleted, I got discouraged and didn't start again.

Loved the storyline though... and the multiplayer is fun as hell. Makes me bitter that I don't own a 360.

DigiMish

So this is why Gears of War's story sucked; they wanted to siphon it off into a franchised book.

What happened to videogames standing as a storytelling medium on their own?

akwinters

@Mr Bentley: In all fairness Master Chief is his rank.

ElijahDProphet

@Mr Bentley: "Master Chief" is a Navy rank.. It's short for Master Chief Petty Officer.

MeanMF

I'll definitely read through this. I actually thought Gears did a pretty good job of setting up an interesting universe with a good bit of depth to Marcus Fenix. Unfortunately, the game didn't flesh out anything at all, but the framework for a novel is certainly there.

shipwreck

@Black_Ops_19:
i only read flood and first strike, i thought they were both quite lame. and honestly, if i want background, its easier to wikipedia it.

superjap

@superjap: Depends on writer, I suppose. I find that "Prequels" are pretty decent introductions into the fiction of the VG. Halo: Fall of Reach, was a very nice touch (not great), and gave me a soft look into the history of the game. Hellgate: London, same deal. However, books that are retelling the game (Halo: the Flood) aren't enjoyable.

Black_Ops_19

Marcus Fenix is the most uninspired name for a game hero I ever did hear. I laughed for ages the first time I heard it. It sounds like a comic character a five year old would invent, thinking it sounds cool, until they reach the age of six and realise that they were being cringe-inducingly corny.
Than again I never liked the name "Master Chief":
"Hey guys, we need an original name for this game character. Something cool and original and maybe Anime sounding, a bit like Big Boss, but not"
"Hey, well another word for boss might be Chief so how about Big Chief?"
"No, I like it but people will see we are just ripping off other ideas again... really, we will need to replace the word BIG with something too"
"Errm, Giant Chief? Super Chief? Splendid Chief? Hero Chief?"
"It's not really working for me guys, keep thinking about it"
"OK, I'll nip off to the toilet and have a think about it while I masturbate"
"That's IT- MASTUR-CHIEF"
And so a legend was born from another thinly-veiled rip-off.

Mr Bentley

I will actually read this. It will be my first book based on a game since I read (part of) one of the Doom books when I was like fifteen.

CreepyP

Of course... why not? Halo has a boatload of books... why not the write stories for a game that has a really shitty one. Multi-player is fun though... wow, this is starting to sound familiar, Oh, Right, Halo.

@ Witzbold They did steroids. :)

LionheartAce

@Witzbold: IM sure its a mixture of steroids and eating all their vegetables....

Samaridino

But one thing Id always like to know with the gears universe is HOW THE FUCK DID THEY ALL GET SO BIG?! Its almost grotesque their body physique that is.

Witzbold

I liked the Halo books (except The Flood); they really helped fill in the world for me. I'll for sure buy this -- Steven Kent is a pretty awesome writer.

omnibot2000XL

Hmm...Im kinda tempted to buy this, since it seems like the adventures of big muscular grunting man fenix is far more interesting that what was given to us within the game itself. ;D

Witzbold

@htd:
but this is a prequel, not a sequel

btw, is it me, or do all these suck?
i read all the halo ones a long time ago, and i thought, hmm, i could be reading this, or i could actually be playing halo, and i made the decision never to buy a vg book again.

superjap

I really think that Gears Of War's plot would be bettered suited for a colouring book rather than a novel....

Samaridino

I am kinda wondering what happens to that planet in the ends.

htd