Cliffy needs to just become an editor on here. I think I hear about him more than any of you guys!

I mean, he helped create Stay Alive, and that movie was almost as amazing as his press releases!

At least have him as a guest editor?

He could guarantee more badass and longer in post count weekend posts!

Terance: All you have to First question.

@everybest: I'm for games that allow me to beat the story in 6 hours, but have optional gameplay, sidequests and/or battle arenas that extends the experience into the 20-30+ hour ballpark.

Sometimes I just want to beat a game to see how the story unfolds, other times I just want to keep going forever with a game. This would allow for both scenarios to be satisfied.

Lixie

@bighit006: While Halo certainly does do that, at least for Halo 3, I think you can allow them some slack as the enemy variety, A.I. and attacks differ from your previous play through (example, pre-Flood crash landing to post-Flood crash landing).

Anyways, glad to hear GoW2 will be longer. I felt Co-op went too quickly for my taste, specially when you barrel through with the Knasher (sp?).

GDW1017

That pic makes me feel like The Cliffster is trying to hit on me.

PreacherPain

Also, off-topic but am I the only one having trouble posting on the betting pool post? [kotaku.com]

everybest

@LucasKane: My thoughts exactly.

Lixie

I'm actually all for short 4-6 hour games with lots of replayability. Long games are hard to sit through and finish and I usually feel like I could have gotten the same experience had it been half the length. Especially RPG's where you're stuck running through screen after screen of deserts doing nothing but repetitively killing shit.

everybest

@Brian Ashcraft: That's fine and all, but can you deny Cliff's personal request? Well, can you?

Libo

"We definitely want it [Gears of War 2...?] to be longer"
Many men do, Cliffy, many men do.

10+ hours seems reasonable. I'm glad he knows how many don't like the "play through the levels again backwards" BS.

Murgatron

I like the short length, then I actually feel like playing through it more than once.

Wolfers

Only 10+.

Developers need to start putting more time into there campaign modes.
I'm sick of all these really short games.

NickyJ

@LucasKane:

Lol I think that was DMC4. Cause I thought the same thing, "kiss my ass, devil may cry, kiss my ass". Cutscenes were badass though :D

kumuasata

@jsf49:

I don't think that applies for Banjo Tooie

mastarifla

"They do stuff like, at the half way mark, demand that you play through all the levels again backwards"

*cough* halo series *cough*

bighit006

Epic is putting all of their eggs in this basket. After the lukewarm response towards UT3, Epic is desperately searching for another IP that will showcase the Unreal Engine in action to prospective clients.

Velops

Isn't that one of the rules of sequels, per Scream 2: more everything? (And, of course, sequels still end up worse anyway.)

jsf49

I suspect they will Assist in making it "longer by upping the level of difficulty

Ahsayuni

Was that a dig at Devil May Cry 4 or Halo: CE that he just made?

LucasKane

@dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased: No dudehuges in this thread, please!

Brian Ashcraft

Cliff Bleszinski is a man of concerns.

He's concerned that Gears of War 2 won't be able to speak for itself, for it will be too busy being bigger, better, and more badasser. To remedy the situation, he has decided to chip in and blow hot air about the game for every day between now and its release. Are you ready for Kotaku's patented CliffWatch service, which has reporters waiting on him night and day for a new hyperbolic quote?

Seriously, this man is going to give Molyneux a run for his money. I'm waiting for confirmation of chainsaw trees that you can watch grow over the course of the game.

Miksho

Bash, I'm really sorry, but I mean, it wasn't that long ago and it's kind of related since it's another Cliffy post... dudehuges...

Okay, so, yeah, while I agree that a lot of filler gets put into a game just to pad the hour count (because you so rabidly demand the hour count be 40+), there was also a few moments in GoW where I thought, "kiss my ass." Like, you know, "Four multiplayer maps!" "Kiss my ass."

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

this is one of the few xbox 360 games that appeal to me.

Kcgig1 (NY FTW)

10+ hours sounds pretty good.

Bigfoot

Even if he isn't directly talking about Devil May Cry 4, that game is a fine example to use for the point he's trying to make. Seriously, whose bright idea was it to make Dante go through the second half of the game backwards and still expect it to be considered fun? Granted it's always a pleasure to play as the badass devil hunter himself, but not if he's going to be just relegated to backtracking.

Honestly, if I want to know how the game would be if you played as Dante, then just make him playable in bloody palace or use him as an alternate secret character for Nero, not as a cheap way to make him playable in story-mode when he didn't really need to be. They should've just had Dante as a non-playable character who you could unlock upon beating the game or gave him his own unique missions and enemies. The laziness was obvious and really turned the game from progressive to tedious in the span of a minute.

Cliff Bleszinski is right. Artificial extension of a games length through continuous backtracking is beyond boring and unnecessary. Metal Gear games had backtracking, but it was always brief and usually led to access of a new area. If Gears of War 2 can have a good advancing story, great gameplay, and smart level design; Epic will have an instant classic in my book. I always like seeing developers acknowledge their mistakes, along with their competitions, to create a better game for more people to enjoy.

KeroseneClimax

Meh, the multiplayer is where I really plan to dump my time into, the campaign is more of an appetizer =P... I think I played Gears online for 6 months, until my friends and I switched to something else.. Though, we still go back to it every now and then.. =D

Katorok

So the campaign will be longer... does that mean that Marcus will stop to talk to HQ every two minutes instead of five? That feature (probably used to enhance the "compelling" story) was pretty annoying; especially in Co-Op where you kill the enemies faster.

I am just hoping for better level design with more random enemy spawn points.

herfy

Kotaku officially has a chubby for the Cliffster

SteveIsRad

uh, its not like 10 hours would be a long game.. jeez, I would beat such a game in one siting >.>

at this time I would say that a game should be at last 15(or 20) even if I feel a little odd asking for 20h long games because many people seem to be happy with those >10 h games :/

Shad0X

@GDW1017:

I was mainly referring to halo ce where you repeat entire levels. Doesnt matter if there a few new enemies or not, they are still the same levels.

bighit006

Kotaku stop submitting to Cliffy B's wishes. You've said his name like 4 times, just say Cliffy B! Fuck his request. He made his grave, now he can sleep as Cliffy B!

LittleBigPlaneteer

I think I beat GOW around 5 hours in length. Did someone really take around 9 hours to beat it? And multiple difficulties don't add to the game length, if that's what Cliffy is thinking.

Sammo21

Actually, this is pretty funny. From Wikipedia's entry for Scream 2:

"The Rules

A signature device, started in Scream and continued in Scream 2 and Scream 3, was the typical 'rules' for that type of horror movie being stated by the characters. In Scream 2, the rules for a sequel (as described by Randy) are:

1. The body count is always bigger.

2. The death scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore.

3. Randy starts to describe the third rule: 'If you want your films to become a successful franchise, never, ever...' before being interrupted by Dewey. (The joke - a variation upon which appears in Ocean's Eleven - is that the filmmakers are admitting there is no surefire way to ensure a film franchise is successful.) However, the film's original teaser trailer featured an extended version of the rules scene which reveals that originally the third rule was supposed to be 'Never, ever, under any circumstances assume the killer is dead.' This referenced Randy's last line in the first Scream which stated that a killer always comes back to life for one last scare."

jsf49

Lol, you think he played Devil May Cry 4? :P

MetalGearMax

You guys really kiss his ass too much.

tyrannosaurus.drew

God he looks like such an a-hole. He totally represents the 360 playerbase and why I left it.

NESv1

@Brian Ashcraft: Crap, that's exactly what I came here to do! Greatest Kotaku joke (Joketaku?) since Coors Light :D

On-topic: Replayability > length. I love long games, but I don't want them to collect dust once I'm done, either.

ShaggE

haha this dude totally reminds me of JP from grandmas boy..wouldnt it be awesome if he talked like a robot!

Jad35

@Lixie:
I totally agree. Mass Effect could probably be beaten in 10 - 14 hours, but with side quests it definitely surpasses 30. I think Dead Rising was, in some ways, a good example. It only took maybe 7 or 8 hours to plow through the (complete) storyline, but there was so much extraneous stuff to do, I played it for much, much longer.
Oblivion's another one. If you just want to do the storyline (or just 1 of the guilds, for instance) it's about a 8 hour affair. But of course, multiply that by 5 (1 for each storyline) and then the story-unaffiliated dungeons (say four-hundred-million) and you've got more game than you could ever want.

Personally, what I'M sick of is games with a great, but short storyline and no replay value except a competitive multiplayer mode. Sorry, but some of us don't like comparing E-Wangs with strangers online. I just want to have fun, and having my arse handed to me is not that. More co-op, more side-missions, more replayability... that's what I like.

mistersneak

GoW was a good game but i was dissapointed that it didnt have more story,especially back story,i am hoping number 2 will have it all

metallicorphan

yes cliffy, the story will be longer, but will it make sense this time?

gooberbaby

you know i loved gears of war but if gears 1 and 2 combines to a total of 20 hours of gameplay i will scream.

Xtreme_Hindu_Cow

@NESv1: He really does look like someone I want to shotgun in the face...I hate his whole demeanor and manner of speaking...I just hate him so much! Anyway, GoW never appealed to me...Although I did play about an hours worth of it and it just didn't do a thing for me. So, needless to say, I probably won't be playing this.

nautnaut

If it has a proper ending I'll be happy

axiom

@Shockeh: If by grunts you mean all those different ranks and enemies with different weapon configurations and tactics associated with them.

There's a hell of a difference between a grunt and a theron guard and it involves a lot of jooce

Burguois

@NESv1: You left it for what? The idea that PS3 online is any better when it comes to assholes is bullsh** and with the Wii there isn't any interaction at all.

ifalldownstairs

Sounds good, can't wait for this one.

Gambly

Yeah Cliffy, because there was a lot of variety in how you placed the cover points to duck against the what.... 3 real 'proper' enemies (Grunts, Wretches & Boomers).

Wake up. The game was brilliant, and fun. Don't get me wrong. But the only difference between your later levels and the early ones was the number of directions emergence holes appeared in. You effectively did the same thing, with different layouts of blocks of cover.

Reskinning it and making it explode when you shoot it does not a new enemy make.

(Oh, and before you ask 'how do I make it different'? We want to be challenged. We want inventive enemies that need to be surprised that are substantially different to the ones that came before, both physically and tactically. We want weapons that allow us to get creative. We want tactical situations beyond 'Baird & Cole go do something, whilst Dom & I shoot some Wretches, Jack rip some doors'.)

Want to bash games that do exacting replicated content to pad? Fine. But at least have the modicum of sense to realise you've done it too, just with some flash to hide it.

Shockeh

@Xtreme_Hindu_Cow: Not possible on DVD9...multiple disc swapping perhaps?? I think Gears of War 2 will be like Gears of War 1...with better lighting. I have doubt about the drama though. COD4 kick ass in drama.

ahmeng

@ifalldownstairs: Honest to GOD I've yet to witness online bullying on the PS3. I have had one since launch. But I know things will change in time as the annoying 14yr halo player will get one some day.

Hellion86

We cant go an F'n day without the Cliffy saying something. Can we try?

Cliffy, can we just F'n try? Dont you have a game to make? Or is fame too tempting?

DwindleFlip

lol, I can't believe how much everyone hates on Cliffy...

Bless him, he's only trying to drum up a bit of interest for his game.

Not that he needs it as this is the only (potentially) good shooter out this year.

slayazzz

CliffyB must be a mindreader.

"Kiss my ass!" is exactly what I thought when I reached the Great Fucking Maze in Brawl. I've heard that DMC4 suffers this too.

It's goddamn lazy design and I hope no developer EVER does it again.

JAcK0R

@Burguois: There is? I found it was just down to how much ammo I have to pour into them, and how much of the time I have to spend behind cover.

Otherwise, I've quite happily played it treating them all the same way. (Quite successfully, thank you, pre-empting the obvious bear baiting to follow)

Perhaps we simply just don't agree on what defines a 'different' enemy.

Think of it this way. In Doom, rifles, chaingunners, shotgunners, they were all basically the same, much like the Grunt variants. But Imps were different, in that I had to learn to fight them in a different way. Cacodaemons were different. Tormented Souls who make me unload my Rocket Launcher into my own face from a 2 inch space because they charged me were different.

Honestly, there's a point in there, I promise. :)

Shockeh

This is certainly good news. The first one was a tad short for my tastes. It was alright but just when I was getting into it, they wrapped it all up.

Good thing the Cliffster isn't going through the "re-tread" road. I really find it annoying more than anything to backtrack to get a key or something that should've been available in the first place.

excaliburps

I honestly can not imagine Gears of anything having drama outside of something crashing, you wandering around with shell-shock, and someone in your squad being killed with the background being all blurry. That isn't drama, it is a dramatic situation, especially with veering camera angles and fun lens filters.

Talleh

Lots of haters coming out of the woodwork. Personally I could see myself drinking a beer with the guy, then crashing his Lamborghini.

Nexus6

@Talleh: That's what I thought, too, until I noticed that Gears wasn't about the war against the Locusts, but really about the secret love affair between Dom and Marcus.

Believe me, it changes EVERYTHING!

(Sometimes I really think that all the sublime tension has been added on purpose, but maybe that's just my twisted lesbian mind thinking.)

FranUnFine

@Talleh: Santiago was deep man.. Deep!

He's all like "Woah" and "Man" and stuff.

Scuba Steve

So Kotaku-editors, does the breeze from swinging on cliff's nuts feel great or what?

shadow300z2

@FranUnFine: It's not your imagination. The truth is, many women are unaware that there is always an underlying tension between males in their interactions. Guys are always on guard not to cross the unmarked line between being a man and being a sissy.

Wartime scenarios tend to heighten this tension by forcing males into forging close emotional ties. This is problematic since many guys are hardwired to equate emotions with sexuality.

Velops

At least he said there wont be back tracking in the game. I can't stand that stuff.

Quicksilver4648

He's got the best point about having a short game, actively cut out or shorten the filler. I'm close to forgetting about playing Tales of Legendia since I hit the halfway mark and basically am going through the same levels over again. I could stand it in Mana Khemia (in fact, I almost didn't even care) because Gust put in mechanisms where I can go through levels without even 1 enemy encounter.

Shin-san

I think the first one was great and not too short either, seeing as I played through on my own and then again CO-OP and then played multi-player for months...Well pretty much until COD4.

If games are too long they become very tedious, it becomes a endurance event. I'd much rather have a short in yer face, fast paced, enjoyable game. Rather than a long tedious one, any day.

The point about treading the same path has to be THE most annoying concept ever in a game. It's just cheap, same with driving games that say 40 different tracks. Only it turns out there's only 10 they just backwards and mirroed and both.

unleashbass

Gears of War 1 was one of my favorite games of all time, however, I HATED the single player (obviously enjoy the multiplayer. It was almost like a job finishing Gears 1.

Hobb3z

At least Devil May Cry 4 had more color choices. I'm going to love Gears 2 when it comes out, but I'd rather go through colorful levels twice than deal with the same brown and gray environments I've seen way too many times now (aka Locust tunnels).

formina

viva la cliffy B

FLYBOY611

That's what she said.

Solertia

Yeah.. I finished GeoW1 in a single sitting my first time! It was very short but nice :D

I hope this is longer! And I Hope the ending is Good :|

Reetesh

70 Euros for a 7 hour game is 10 euros an hour

that is not good value, and no one should argue it is

7 hours is what i expect from episodic gaming, not full releases

MGS/Resident Evil titles have the right leangth

FenderMaster

@Shockeh: What you said, ditto!

SigmundTheSeaMonster

"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.'"
In general I agree with this statement, but in Halo 1, after two grueling levels filled with Flood and losing contact with both Cortana and the UNSC forces, returning to an area with some semblance of familiarity was, frankly, awesome.

Arteen

Backtracking sucks, but creatively reusing sets can be cool especially when it's limited and unexpected...

And I think Cliff's hit the "Master Chief tipping point" where he apexed in popularity and now every subsequent showing makes him less cool... not his fault, he's just... everywhere every day now.

That's still a kickass shirt though.

fuchikoma

Dude is so pretentious.

But. I kind of like his games. Kind of a lot.

So I guess it's okay. He can be a little pretentious.

sir_carrot

I dont know about you guys. But I feel that GoW2 will be too much story for the audience its catering to =S
When I think Gears Of War, I think "just shooting stuff to have fun, without worrying about what I'm shooting"

Hades

Wow, he's not going to force backtracking?

It's almost like he's not working on a game on a last gen console.

Seriously, CliffyB is way too cocky for his own good. He likens Gears to Halo and other completely solid shooters/games... but really, his games are littered with annoying bugs.

thezman

Hahah!

"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.""

Definitely a bit of a friendly stab at Halo, there. XD

Longer Gears of War= Better Gears of War

GhostWhoWalks

@Shockeh: You just summed up why I wasn't a big fan of Gears of War. The entire game was just "hide behind cover, pop out every so often, and shoot at enemies until they die." It rarely mattered what gun I was holding or which enemy I chose to take out next.

The DOOM analogy is apt too, since it shows what it's like to have enemy types with significantly different attack patterns and defenses that make you at least think about what you're doing first.

imikedaman

I actually hate long games for the most part, often I find they overstay their visit and it becomes a chore just to finish. Of course there is some exceptions to this.

Numero10

Why do people get hung up on game length? As long as the quality of the game is awesome, length kind of falls to the wayside. Look at Portal. It's only four hours, but it's still awesome. Did anyone think it's awesome BECAUSE of it's length?

banana_ridah

@banana_ridah:
Well, actually LESS awesome than what it could have been if it were longer, non-filler-content-longery that is.

McKack