14 DAY TRIAL // The upcoming Gears of War 3 third person shooter might be able to take the online crown from the Halo franchise, at least according to the creator of the series, Cliff Bleszinski.
Gears of War 3 is set to appear this September, with a single-player campaign that promises to be the best its developer, Epic Games, has ever done, and a multiplayer that has seen a huge amount of polish, largely due to the multiplayer beta stage ran by the company a few months ago.
With this upgraded experience, the creator of the series and Epic Games creative director, Cliff Bleszinski, told CVG that Gears of War 3 could manage to rival another Xbox 360 exclusive series, Halo, but Activision's Call of Duty will be hard to match.
"I don't think we can hit CoD numbers, because that's such a phenomenon, but I'm hoping we can get close to Halo numbers. The thing about those franchises is that they're wonderful and they're established - but they're also two or three games ahead of us. We're only on the third game of the series. There's a few more Call Of Dutys and Halos under their belt."
While Bleszinski is confident that Gears of War has a pretty loyal audience, he says that many were disappointed by the online mode in the second game, so the studio needs to really drive the point home that the new title will overhaul the multiplayer experience.
"This is one thing where you have to train the audience and build them up with continually consistent products - and we're still fighting off that perception from Gears 2's online being broken, honestly. That's been a big pain for us, and rightfully so - because we screwed up. By doing the beta, we've ironed out a lot of those online issues, the dedicated servers are just a wonderful thing to actually have in the game - and I believe all games need them now. Shooters, in particular."
Gears of War 3 is set to end the trilogy of titles made by Epic Games, but this doesn't mean that there aren't more stories to be told in the universe.
The game is out exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 20, worldwide.