Rod Fergusson reflects on Gears 3


Here's some snippets from an interview Rod Fergusson did with IGN post release on Gears of War 3 that covers the sucesses and merits of the game..

Was there anything you'd change if you had extra development time?


Generally speaking, anytime that we get additional time, we always find it's best to focus on polish.


It's about the little things; that last 10 percent. Would one feature make the game so much better that now Metacritic is 98? Probably not, but it's about that polish level, taking whatever time you have, and just make the experience that you have stronger.

How has fan feedback since Gears 3 launched influenced your team with Gears?


Probably the biggest piece of feedback is the double-barreled shotgun, or what we call the sawed-off shotgun. It's probably the most controversial weapon now in our arsenal because it allowed people who had less skill than the veteran players to have that successful shotgun kill.

It caused people to react to that.

We've definitely been playing with how we can tweak the sawed-off shotgun. That's one of the things we did with the Alpha playlist. We made it a pick-up in the map instead of being a starting weapon, so it turned it much more into a power weapon. That's had really positive response. The Alpha playlist has done really well.

Gears of War 3 was the first in the franchise to support stereo 3D gameplay. What are your thoughts on 3D gaming?


I think it's interesting. I think it's an emerging market. I'm part of that marketplace in the movie world that goes and sees the 3D IMAX version of a movie if I have a choice.

I feel like it heightens the experience.

When I saw Avatar in 3D, that was one of the great realizations of that. I think it's still coming into its own on the game side. I know playing it with Gears, that sense of depth in the word and being able to actually really feel like you're shooting into the world, is really compelling. I'd be interested to see whether that continues.

When I talk to my friends, there are definitely people out there who have that backlash, who purposefully avoid the 3D version of a film or feel like it's a trick or novelty and just another fad and will go away pretty quickly.

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