2008: A Year for Gears of War Fans
Friends of Marcus Fenix & Co. Gear Up for the Most Exciting Time Yet
Aug 24, 2008
At the end of 2006, Microsoft Games prepared apprehensively to release what would be the launch title for the new Xbox 360 console, and the company's final major sales endeavor before the release of the rival PlayStation 3. That game, which went on to supplant Halo 2 as the most-played game on Xbox Live, was Gears of War.
Developed by Epic Games, which is famous for its legendary Unreal series of shooters, Gears of War went on to win numerous awards and has become one the top-selling games of recent years. Now, the game's millions of dedicated players may rejoice in hearing the greatest peice of news they could hope to receive: the best for Gears fans is still ahead.
In addition to a novel called Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields (written by Novelist Karen Traviss, known for her Star Wars novels as well as an original series of books beginning with City of Pearl), planned for an October release, there are several other very interesting prospects ahead for enthusiasts of the Gears universe.
The Gears of War Comic
The first exciting new development on the horizon is the Gears of War comic, to be published by DC Comics this October. Joshua Ortega is confirmed as the writer of the series, which seems to be good news considering he has performed writing duties on the upcoming Gears of War 2 game as well as done work in Star Wars, Spider-Man, Star-Trek, and Batman titles.
Liam Sharp will be handling the artistic half of things on the comic, bringing his impressive amount of experience on titles such as X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, Superman, Batman, and Spawn: The Dark Ages to the mix.
Combining these two fairly well-established personalities to work on the Gears comic series should certainly make for a pleasing tie-in, especially considering Sharp has said his choice in getting involved had "nothing to do with it being a tie-in to a game that attracted me when Joshua first contacted me," and that "it was everything else - the characters, environments, monsters... It felt really familiar. The deeper I got into looking at everything... the more I felt I could be well-suited to it."
Gears of War 2
After the tie-ins being released in October, Gears fans have another monumental event to look forward to: that, of course, being the release of the highly-anticipated Gears of War 2. From the impressive gameplay footage introduced by Lead Designer Cliff "Cliffy B" Bleszinski circulating the internet for several months, to the chilling new E3 trailer graced by a voice-over narration quoting Alan Seeger's poem Rendezvous (both viewable at the series's official website), Gears of War 2 looks to be a bigger, deeper game.
With far greater insight into the game's characters as well as its world and history, on top of the manditory augmentations to extremely violent combat simulation, there is hardly any conceivable way in which Gears 2 could possibly disappoint its fans. Indeed, it is even likely the sequel will convert detractors of some of the original game's weaker points (little character development, short campaign length, thin plot), if what the developers are saying is to be believed.
Beyond 2008
With the comic series likely continuing into the new year and Gears 2 offering at least as much playability as its predecessor, fans of the Gears universe will surely find their passion satiated for quite some time. Of course, there's always the film adaptation to look forward to, because of (or despite) the involvement of writer Chris Morgan (Wanted, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Underworld: Evolution).
Should any fans fret or feel concerned about either of these two gentlemen's involvement, one may take into account the more comforting fact that the first drafts of the adaptation's script were penned by Stuart Beattie, writer of Collateral. With this and all the above facts in mind, it does seem to be a fantastic time to be a Gears of War fan.
