Many have made the comparison of Gearbox’s Borderlands to Diablo. Cliffy B certifies it with this unsolicited Tweet: “Borderlands, I adore you. You’re Diablo for a generation raised on first person shooters. I want a Claptrap statue.”

That can be arranged, Cliff.

Cliff Bleszinski’s Twitter [via Hot Blooded Gaming]

Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine productions and the man behind Brutal Legend, and Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Games designer and the face of Gears of War, sent in a slew of shots from their offices.

Here’s a taste, the rest you’ll find in our epic gallery here.

Dude and Rod will be joined by Gears of War movie scriptwriter Chris Morgan, Gears of War comic book author and Gears of War 2 scriptwriter Joshua Ortega, and Gears of War movie director Len Wiseman. It’s gonna be busy!

Jump through to read the liveblog.

Gearsiverse

On Major Nelson’s podcast, the game designer explained, “If there’s any future Gears products [coughs elaborately], it’s not the kind of thing you tag onto a game like that, right?”

Well……..

“So what you have is the 360 which has captured a lot of the video viewing audience [with] movies and Netflix,” Bleszinski continued, “it’s captured a lot of the online gaming, it’s captured a lot of the hardcore games, and you know segue that in, so now you have your yoga program, now you have your dodgeball thing, you have the creepy kid Milo who wants to drown you in the pond — you can do all of it.”

But…………….

“Will it replace traditional gaming? No,” he said, “but it’s another amazing way that we can expand the gaming experience to a wider audience and enhance what’s already there.”

But, but, but, what about our Gears of War yoga dodgeball game with a creepy kid? Not making that game, dude, would be a huge mistake.

Show #326: Gaming in Germany, Gears of War and ‘Splosion Man [Major Nelson via Eurogamer via VG247]

Bleszinski’s comment stemmed from his praise of Ken Levine, the creative mind behind BioShock, in an interview with Develop. He was impressed, not just with BioShock as a game, but with how Levine managed to disguise an RPG as a first-person shooter in order to enable a strange, unconventional game to sell millions of copies.

The Epic man went on to highlight the work of designers Harvey Smith (Deus Ex, Invisible War) and Randy Pitchford (Borderlands, Brothers In Arms) and declare that the future of shooters is RPGs. Later in the interview, when quizzed on where the Gears of War series might go next, he returns to that statement… but without further elaboration.

What does Bleszinski mean? It’s not entirely clear, save to say he views BioShock as an exemplar of this genre hybridisation.

Muzyka’s comments do offer slightly more insight, as he told Wired:

“Genres are almost a vestige of the past,” said Muzyka. “In a way, a lot of the best shooters are RPGs as well, because they allow you to have progression, exploration, combat or conflict, and a story.”

OK, so things are now starting to take shape. I think what both developers mean is that various elements of role-playing games are bleeding deeper into other genres. They’re looking at what other developers are doing across various genres and appropriating the best bits for their own use.

The thing is, RPG elements have been infecting shooters for years. (Or is it the other way around?) At launch in 1994, System Shock was – hilariously, in hindsight – damned for being a clunky clone of Doom, with its complex interface and inventory system and its emphasis on cautious exploration over trigger-happy fragfest. In reality it was a prescient vision of a gaming utopia free from the burdens of genre demarcation.

Deus Ex perfected the crossover, marrying stats-based character progression, functional stealth mechanics, meaningful dialogue options and a multitude of possible mission paths. Yet you could still play it as a shooter, even if it wasn’t necessarily the best straight shooter you could play.

Muzyka told Wired he believes the defintion of an RPG to be “broad”. But if he thinks it means having a strong story or letting the playing explore or having them choose some ability upgrades, he’s wrong. An RPG is more than that; an RPG is focused on enabling players to decide the role they want to play. It’s about choices: where to go, what to do, who to be?

The success of Call of Duty as an online multiplayer game has much to do with its co-opting of an RPG-style experience system. It encourages continued play by offering a clear path to obvious rewards. It doesn’t make it an RPG though it does introduce elements of an RPG. Every new shooter needs a similar XP and class system to stand a chance of building an online community.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a shooter operating within the structure of an RPG. Fallout 3 has much in common with Deus Ex, aside from substituting the latter’s linear mission structure for an explorable open world. Even Far Cry 2, while not conferring any kind of character advancement, lets you explore its world and tackle encounters at your own pace – both elements more at home in an RPG than a typical shooter.

Upcoming games like Borderlands, Mass Effect 2, Brink, Rage, Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2, BioShock 2, to name a few of the more high profile ones, are no longer quite so readily compartmentalised as strictly a shooter or an RPG. Rather, they all exist at some unspecified point on a fluid spectrum between the two labels.

So, sure, the future of shooters may well be RPGs. But also, isn’t the future of RPGs looking like it’s going to be shooters?

What do you think about the cross-pollination of the shooter and RPG genres? What are these hybrid games gaining and losing? And what are your favourite examples?

Bleszinski believes that the future of shooters is RPGs. Does that mean Gears of War 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be an RPG-influenced shooters?

It depends on where things go. I mean, one could wean that from the comments I made earlier about the future of shooters is RPGs and see where things are going with us.

We really hope that Bleszinski brings back the classic Gears of War style for Gears 7. That’s our own selfish wish. Sorry.

The future of shooters is RPGs – Bleszinski [Develop]

But Gears designer Dude Huge (aka “DH” aka “Cliff Bleszinski”) is ready to move on.

“Stylistically though,” he says, “I’d love to play in a different field in the near future in regards to what your typical expectation of a Gears of War game actually is.” Lots of pastels, please!

Gears of War 2 is a slight departure visually from the first game — nothing radical, though.

Huge currently has “five projects going on right now” and says that he and his company Epic Games are going to take more risks in the future as well as make “a few safe bets that people won’t be surprised to see coming.” Gears of War 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, anyone?

Cliff Bleszinski: shifting gears [Develop]

Then we made a typo, and he became “Dude Huge” — well, Bleszinski wanted us to call him “Dude Huge”. Now? In an interview with OXM, the designer doesn’t seem to care what you call him:

Honestly, that was just a media experiment to me. It was Stephen Totilo [former MTV Multiplayer editor, current Kotaku Deputy Editor] who started it — I had an IM conversation with him and said, “I’m thinking of abandoning that.” And he broke it on MTV Multiplayer, and it got picked up everywhere, and then it turned into “Who does he think he is?” Dude, the fact that you’re getting upset just means you’re playing along with my joke here. You can call me whatever you like as long as you play the game.

That’s awfully generous of him. Those thinking of calling D.H. a douchebag, he’s one step ahead of you, calling himself a “giant douchebag” in the same interview.

Hello, My Name Is Cliff [OXM]

Two back-to-back Gears games.

“There are still plenty of opportunities for things you can do in a cover-based shooter and there are still a lot of stories to tell in the Gears universe,” says the designer. “I’m not burned out with the franchise at all.”

Dude’s got a huge point — there are only two Gears games. Wait until Bleszinski’s promoting the inevitable Gears of War 7 to ask him if he feels burnt out.

We really hope Gears 7 is better than Gears 6.

Cliff B ‘not burned out on Gears’ [CVG]