Gilligan’s Island ”was the funniest show” on TV when Fergusson was a kid, but watch it now and ”it’s just plain terrible.” Nostalgia ‘takes a lot for granted’.
Epic wanted Gears of War, powered by Unreal Engine 3, to be a heart thumping showcase for high definition gaming. ”You spent money on buying a console and you wanted to show it off to your girlfriend or your wife: “Look, this is why I bought it. I spent all this money because, look how good these games look on my 60 inch TV,” said Rod Fergusson.
”We wanted to be the showcase for what HD meant at the time, and we continue to try to push that.” Unfortunately our minds tend to colour how things were and are. Fergusson agrees that Gears of War 3’s visual are taken for granted by fans.
”They do. They take it for granted. That was one of our biggest problems with Gears 1 to Gears 2. Your memory is far better than reality. When I was a kid, Gilligan’s Island was the funniest show on television. When you watch Gilligan’s Island now, it’s just plain terrible.”
”With Gears 2 we were competing with the memory of Gears 1 and what people remembered it was like,” he continued. ”We got to the point where, at the review event in San Francisco, I suggested we put up a single station of Gears 1 so the press could play it and realise it wasn’t as good as they remember. They were saying, “Oh, it kinda looks like Gears 1.”
”I’m like, “Really? No it doesn’t at all. You just remember it looking better than it actually does.” Not only were we competing with the state of the industry, we were competing with our own memory.” Has nostalgia ruined a videogame or two for you?
Gears of War ”…at the time it defined what HD was. It defined what your HD TV could do. People remember that.” Gears of War 3 releases exclusively on Xbox 360 September 20th. The multiplayer beta begins today for owners of Bulletstorm Epic Edition.
