“You ever feel like you’re dead, but no one told you?”
An uncommonly up-to-date show this week as we cast eight compound eyes over Epic’s Locust-infested trilogy-completer, Gears of War 3. Leon and Tony are joined by Darren Forman and Karl Moon to discuss all aspects of the title, from the dramatic campaign through to the competitive multiplayer via Horde and Beast modes.
Music used in this issue:
1: Into Dust by Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See
Cane and Rinse 5 was edited by Jay Taylor (@JaySevenZero).
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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:35:36 — 65.9MB)
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Good choice of outro, I’ve been listening to that song religously throughout work for the last week, so it’s a pleasant surprise, especially given that it’s not exactly new.
Great work Jay.
Cheers Karl, unfortunately I couldn’t really find a piece of music from the actual games themselves that stood out as either recognisable, or worked for the outro of the poddy. So I opted instead for the track used on the trailer (which is a great track anyway!).
** SPOILER WARNING** (Tried to be tactful but I’m commenting on content that some may wish to avoid)
OK, this is going to be a little delicate as I love all you guys however I hope you take this just an my take on the Gears franchise and nothing personal. That said…
I found the flippancy with which the back story of Gears was treated to actually be a little upsetting. Now maybe I was just looking for the emotion in the games whilst other just wanted to play a game but I’ve found the story arc of Doms character to be quite a touching one. Now I will accept that most of the characters are indeed two dimensional, although I would argue that there are quite a few moments in G3 that go to round out the characters.
Going back to G2 I found the scene with Dom and his wife actually quite heart wrenching. Mainly because the reactions of Marcus made it pretty clear that Maria was a lost cause, and I felt you could tell that Dom knew this, but whilst her warm body was still out there he felt obligated to go and find her. He’s basically in denial for most of G2. In that context his realisation of what has happened to her, once his initial euphoria has passed and he can see the truth hits home quite hard. I will admit that any storyline of this type will always have me seeing myself and Linda in those roles, perhaps that is why I see it as a far more harrowing scene that others. It’s something I do a lot with movies also, to the point where I tend to no longer watch horror/gore fests any more as I can’t stand the thought of such things taking place to my own wife. Also Dom is clearly intended as the representation of the player in the game. He’s not as gung ho and as in your face as the other characters and to me is very much the human face of the COGs.
Moving to G3 and the events leading up to ‘Brothers to the End’ all play to show that what is coming is inevitable. The end of that chapter doesn’t happen because it’s the only way out, as stated they’ve gotten out of worse messes (although on insane that end of chapter actually is very overwhelming) but the actions take place because the character has decided that is the time. There are various pointers to this, the hanging up of COG tags and the handing off of a knife to Marcus. It’s all very subtle, and I will freely admit that there were tears in my eyes at those points.
Also the mood of the game shifts so much after the event. Especially once Baird and Cole rejoin and understand what has happened. The jokes stop, it’s all quite sombre and there’s far less of the ‘fuck yeah’ and more ‘lets do this’ which is not a big step I’ll grant you but for a game like Gears is actually quite a shift of tone.
Anyway, that’s my take on things. Clearly far removed from the podcasts, so I felt quite alienated by the show. But that’s kind of what CAR is about, strong well thought out points of view that I should either be able to get behind, or want to shoot down. 🙂
Oh another point. Sound track, I bought it from Amazon based on one moment in the game. The music when you are on the corridor on the way to Marcus’ fathers lab.. totally epic!