I think part of Gears’ decline, can be attributed to it’s aesthetic, frankly. Gears 5 made some really positive strides on this front, with more striking colour, but the chunky, huge, uber-masculine look of Gears looks and feels like something distinctly from the early 2000s.
If you’re invested in the characters and world already, this can be fine. If you’re not, it can come off looking dated. And that’s a problem when it comes to attracting newer, younger generations of people who didn’t grow up with these games.
I think after they finish the current story arc (presumably in Gears 6), it’s time to take 4-6 years and really tear the series down to the rivets and build something fresh on top, like God of War did last year.
I used niche as that’s what Dereck was implying Gears was. Gears 1-3 was a gaming powerhouse and you would of been hard pushed to find Xbox gamers that didn’t like them.
I think that is a pretty good assessment. I think societal changes and the way the world is now viewed means that kids can’t relate to meat heads chainsawing monsters in half, which for people of my generation is sad because for me gears still and always will have a ton of appeal.
Even if it is a niche product these days I still it doesn’t excuse the fact that TC have produced a sub standard product in gears 5. I agree with a lot of the comments in that they should have give the fans that are left the game that they wanted, but In the end they’ve kind of just made something that nobody wants.
I wasn’t implying YOU said it was niche, which is why I agreed with you that calling it “niche” would be understating it.
Gears 2-3 were largely the halcyon days of the Gears franchise, as far as popularity goes. But even then, as a series it was easily eclipsed by the popularity of Halo at the time.
Gears has been (and to some extent still is), a big franchise. It just isn’t and wasn’t a tippity top-tier franchise. If 360-era Halo could be considered a 1A franchise, then I’d say Gears was a 1B.
I think the tragedy with the multiplayer being a bit of a poorly-received mess, is that I actually think they knocked the campaign out of the park this time.
On the MP front, I don’t begrudge them forging ahead to try new things that wind up being unpopular, like weapon tunings, or stuff like the inverse omen. What I do find baffling, is some of the decisions they’ve made around things like monetization.
Likewise, I don’t mind, say, trying a new system where character/class are inextricably linked to one another, like Horde in Gears 5. But if you’re gonna do that, then you should foresee that people will be upset if you only give them a couple of options for every class at launch. If you like to play engineer, then I sure hope you like Del.
I get that time is a finite resource, but if you’re gonna make decisions like this, then you need to make sure you have the time to implement it with the breadth of options necessary to make it succeed.
Even now, they are releasing new characters… that can only be used in certain modes?
OG Borderlands sold around 2mill by the end of 09. So I doubt it sold 5 during its first week. And BL3 sold 4.5mill during its first week, not directly to consumers but rather sold through retailers + digital, meaning that number also takes into account the copies still sitting in store shelves and Amazon warehouses.
Alright, I f*cked up when I wrote “the original” last night, should have just left it at “Borderlands”. Oh well. I’m not going to waste any more time on salty fanboys, you lash out like petulant children whenever anyone challenges your bizarrely important views on gaming,
True, the “big 3” during last gen on console would more be like CoD, BF, and Halo. But Halo and BF has lost its footing this gen and CoD still remains at the top, if you omit the handful of battle royales currently sitting at the top of course.
It’s a real shame that nobody from TC or Microsoft cares about these forums and there’s a good chance that even if they do read them, they ignore them on purpose. I think the level of incompetence from TC shown in Gears 5’s release despite all the lessons and developments that were learnt in 4, one would think Gears 5 would be the ultimate culmination of over a decade’s worth of experience in the Gears of War franchise. Yet many argue that Gears 1 (UE) is a better game.
A common trend in the industry unfortunately. So much is going backwards.
Its indicative of their underlying philosophy of trying to “evolve” gears instead of refining the experience the game was made on. It’s no wonder year after year of leaving execution by the way side and all but forcing alternative modes down your throat that people are getting tired.
This isn’t even close to true, I’m still seeing commercials on tv for this abomination even now lol. Hell, even last night, Sportscenter had a ‘sponsored by Gears 5’ ad before a commercial break.
