How Gears Of War Almost Didn't Have Multiplayer | War Stories | Ars Technica

[@B_Ahmed1234]

Playing the original Gears was the first time I made friends on Xbox Live and I would play with these guys all the time. It was some of the most fun I've ever had gaming online.

[@casedistorted]

It sucks there’s no MCC but for gears of war on PC. Totally missed opportunity for Microsoft

[@JoonasSariola]

@@casedistorted If rumors are to believed that may happen during this console generation.

[@aimwell8813]

@@JoonasSariola Microsoft should do that. It'd get a lot of people to buy the Series X and S.

[@vanRules92]

Same here! Some of the best memories I have gaming

[@abswithflabsttv]

MFC Marcus Fenix Collection

[@ToughCanadian]

I always appreciate these stories when the person telling it is interested in telling the story.

[@SINfromPL]

Unlike Steven Seagal

[@justaguynamedryan]

Believe me "creative" directors love talking, especially gassing themselves up

[@leeperry7068]

Haha, I love talking about what goes into this stuff. Glad you dug it!

[@SINfromPL]

@@leeperry7068 you're cool guy

[@branberrycakes]

Gears of War while listening to Breaking Benjamin and finding clans to play against on MLG Game Battles were some of the most amazing memories growing up with the 360. This was also my first game getting all achievements and working for “Seriously”. Showing off that gamer pic was the biggest flex lol.

[@DeadlyScoots]

Any time I hear Diary of Jane, I think of Gears

[@BrendyNew]

One of my favourite gaming experiences ever was the first game. Split screen as well

[@dblundz]

Gears 1 pvp will always have a special place in my heart. Sound design, maps, art etc top tier. The feeling i got playing gears 1 has never happened again, lightning in a bottle

[@allunits360]

I really love this series, thank you to whoever at Ars is making it

[@libiroli]

They should show the names of the producers, editors, etc at the end.

[@Okshutit]

+1 This is super high-quality content and storytelling and as a gamer with memories of many of these games it's an absolute joy to watch

[@VV-wc4bg]

I had an absolute blast playing gears of war 1 online in high school with my buddies.

[@JohnnyBananaTV]

middle school thru high school for me

[@ninjadude183]

Even though the lancer is the iconic poster weapon of the series, the gnasher shotgun is truly the heart of Gears combat.

[@TLugs]

This was fascinating, and great to hear from the mouth of someone who was there. Thanks for the great video.

[@leeperry7068]

Thanks for watching it!

[@w-dad4040]

Memories of the 2-piece

[@juanjosedelpinorivas7099]

What they did at that time was absolutely revolutionary. The first game will always be very special for me. The first encounter with the Berserker was simply legendary.

[@leeperry7068]

Thanks! I scripted that sequence and really got into it. I had a thing in there where the zerker busts through a wall and you will almost certainly die, then when you respawn and start walking to that area and thinking you knew what was about to happen, it bursts out of an earlier different wall for an even bigger second scare. But, it caused some bugs at the last second before shipping and had to be commented out. But man I loved the idea of that secondary scare.

[@juanjosedelpinorivas7099]

@@leeperry7068 OMG. He's here responding to my comment...man, your job as well as the rest of the team was incredible. The first game clearly was very special. The rain in that factory...every detail polished to the very limit. I'm extremely thankful for the incredible gift you all gave to us players. Seriously, best of wishes to all of you for any future project and in life in general. Thank you so much for this incredible experience.

[@leeperry7068]

@@juanjosedelpinorivas7099 enjoyed it as much myself :) cheers, man!

[@juanjosedelpinorivas7099]

@@leeperry7068 Ohh and I just remembered something I've wondered for a long time. Why wasn't the Berserk present in Gears of War 2? I don't know if you worked in the second game but it was curious to me that this enemy appeared in 1,3 and 5 but not in 2 and 4. Most likely the Coalition changed lots of things regarding many different enemies in the newer games but I don't know what happened in the second game with this enemy in particular.

[@MLCMovies]

This guy is a great story teller! Keep up the great War Stories content.

[@hlauren2001]

Thanks for continuing to produce this series guys! It was great listening to Lee Perry talk. I get the hint of an 'enough rope' style interview, which is fantastic and really puts the creator in the spotlight. Always impressed by your work. Well done!

[@huljaxful]

Gears of war stole my heart. I was a huge epic and unreal fan but this game was even better. Played them all, had a couple of soundtracks and i have the coffee table book about the game...love it!

[@thespecialbru]

Love your war stories, have enjoyed every one. I still fondly remember being in a friend’s basement to try the first gears of war when it came out and being so impressed. Hope you continue the series!

[@geovannomozes7010]

please dont stop making this series. I love it so much

[@SzatanistaDzezowy]

Nice. Finally something I actually subscribed for.

[@garlico8]

Please keep this Series going, it’s Gold!

[@angrypotato_fz]

Oh, how nice to go back the memory lane to first Gears of War (and even better, to Unreal Tournament)! Thank you for this video, I appreciate these stories :) Especially with such developers as Lee Perry, who seem to be really engaged in the topic they speak about :)

[@SeniorCharry]

I'm glad they pushed forward with the multiplayer.

[@miketacos9034]

It's crazy how, once you hear these gameplay decisions, it all clicks. No wonder Gears 2 Horde always felt both fair and exhilarating despite being a buncha dudes huddled up in a tower.

[@ThunderingRoar]

I wish you guys would bring back these series

[@BakedKipling]

played this game on gamebattles mlg ladder for a clan called Ballistic, we dominated the top 3 leaderboard between 2006 and 2007 one of the best gaming moments of my life, this game was very tactical and took serious skill. I was one of the best longshot snipers in the eu and was well known for it, there was a rival netherlands clan that always beat us who went to win the ladders but all round we all knew each other in the community.

[@IJUSTENDEDU]

The first Gears was so groundbreaking for me, it introduced me to competitive multiplayer and online story co-op, still one of my favourite series of all time. I have played variations of the Gears 1 campaign probably 8 times and spent countless hours in multiplayer

[@xZachattack32x]

When he said the golden rule is when you die ideally you think of it as a thing you did, this has yet to be the case for my gaming buddies. Its always either the games fault, hacking, or the most common your teammate's fault. lol

[@Fortunes.Fool.]

0:34 The "Facing Worlds" map in Unreal Tournament. Oh. My. God. The memories!!!!!

[@leeperry7068]

That level still makes me wanna leap into a match. All time great, that one.

[@grizzly13579]

Man I love this war stories series

[@aimwell8813]

"The golden rule of multiplayer game design is making sure you're at fault for dying and you don't blame the game" I guess this guy wasn't involved in making Fortnite.

[@hannibalb8276]

I love that he mentioned BF1942. Gears and BF are two of my favourite game franchises ever. What a G.

[@Ginric99]

Gears multiplayer is my fav of all games, at its best it forces you to work as a unit, moving cover by cover, teammates protecting your flanks setting ambush etc.

[@kelownatechkid]

Awesome stuff Lee!!

[@leeperry7068]

Thanks man!

[@FearlessAngeI]

This needs more attention gears of war games are good but the original is a classic!

[@tonypajamas7773]

Funny how he mentions going from making a game full of any cool thing to a game that has a uniformity about it and now gaming has come full circle and the "a lot of really cool stuff stuck together" kind of game is at the top again.

[@Meadaa]

Gears was so cool remember when every game had multiplayer

[@Gylfi0]

Love the channel, love the discussion on game concept design. I was desperately scrolling down to see a video on Sierra adventures. I always loved the core ideas behind those games, I think to this day they're superior to every other videogame in regards of their complexity, cause they had "everything", i think each of them was a wonderful "circus" because of their shared design. Couid you, some day, consider making a video exploring one of those series, explained by a maker?

[@notatallheng]

Hi! Not sure if Ars has made one yet, but there are plenty of interviews out there with Roberta and Ken Williams, who led the development of a lot of the Sierra games. Here's one - it's not quite as slick and well-produced as the Ars stuff, but I think it covers some of the questions you had: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJqWgn2mqNCejqM

[@omgawesomeomg]

Awesome video series, Ars

[@doublebigMark]

I love these!

[@ebenezerspludge8369]

Gears 1, 2 and 3 were amazing. After that they steadily keep going down hill.

[@happyhavoc-]

Gears 1 multiplayer is hands down one of the best gaming experiences I ever had. I think because it was so simple and had a good skill gap, the gameplay was so rewarding and the headshots have not felt better in any other game I've played.

[@2beJT]

I miss this type of content.

[@brian_unx]

We need you back on Gears, Lee.

[@fidelrivera2887]

I bought a 360 just to play Gears of War

[@bretton_woods]

I'm in my 30's and never owned a 360 til a few years ago (I was a PlayStation guy...). The first games I played on it were Gears 1, 2 and 3 and was blown away by how much fun they were. Yet of course I could not play multiplayer online, as I don't think that works anymore? I never even connected by 360 to the internet. But I imagine how cool must have been in the 00s. *Got my 360 off eBay...and found all the Gears games in a goodwill store. I actually got Gears 3 collectors edition with the COG amulet about 5 years before I got the 360. I had no idea what the game even was. So....it's kind of strange when it seems like a lot of popular culture has passed you by...

[@Seth9809]

Bet you are glad like me that half the games or more have bots.

[@carsheaven]

Every once in awhile there will be just enough people searching for a game that you will connect and get a few solid matches out of it. I don’t even play on console anymore but I would pay just to give Gears 1 another shot.

[@deltasquad2558]

A lot of people still play gears of war 3 team death match, gears of war 2 guardian, and some host player matches in gears of war 1. There are enough people to play every day if you want, you get full lobbies too

[@wbbooth]

Me and my pals used to crack each other up making chainsaw noises into the microphone when chopping each other up in Gears.

[@ArtwithBen]

9:22 Gears has had 6 games now that do not follow this *golden* *rule* - Roll, roll, shotgun, win.

[@gonsanchez9174]

please more war stories, most interesting series on youtube

[@nozets]

I missed this series a lot.

[@andreasbohler7978]

Any chance we are getting some more War Stories? This is one of my favorite yt series

[@polymorphing9195]

Wow, so cool, love Gears so much

[@lydiahanke]

That chainsaw action, so much fun!

[@PinxPer17]

Lee Perry the real OG

[@marlonulloa11]

Imagine if they had Cliffy B talk about the series, that'd be neato

[@MrJoeRosa]

Whoa war stories is back? YES!

[@casedistorted]

I remember there being a bug on Xbox 360 where if someone had the Seriously.. achievement in multiplayer you could do some weird circumstance of steps and copy it onto another player and it would unlock LEGIT and give you the flaming phoenix marcus remix buddy icon. I got it that way and still have that icon equipped to this day in 2022.

[@Doddsy8288]

Gears 1 was special, especially MP. Whether intentional or not the balance of weapons and competitiveness in the maps were unrivaled by today's standard. I think I had around 50,000 kills online, i couldn't get enough of the game. It was great fun on a casual level and even better coming across competitive teams. Battling for power weapons and control of certain areas. Lee is right when he talks about the visual aspect and calling out of player locations. Back then party chat wasn't a thing it was all in game, hearing your buddies cutting out over chat as they die, last ditch call outs and that eerie silence of being the last guy standing. But if you pulled off the clutch you would enter back into the lobby to screams and cheers. Its a shame the franchise changed the mechanics so much, none of the games played like the original. Gears UE was a gift from the gods to all hardcore gears 1 players. Good times.

[@MC_1993]

So in other words…they made the best third person multiplayer shooter experience in a matter of a couple months. The levels were amazing. Gears 1 is a masterpiece. Laggy yes. But simple and intense. Perfect pacing

[@Mitch-M]

Gears is the game that got all my non gaming friends into gaming. What a masterpiece, thank god they made multiplayer happen

[@Horzydood]

Gears 1 days were the best. Probably the most fun i ever had on xbox live, even more fun than halo or peak mw2. Sad to see what happened to the franchise tho.

[@riddlemechris]

13:42 "happy accidents", so basically Bob Ross... with a chainsaw.

[@user-tg6vq1kn6v]

Surprised this wasn't presented by that Astrophysicist 😂. Great vid Ars 👍🏻

[@megadeth8229]

gow 1 multiplayer was so simple and yet still much better than what we got later on with the franchise

[@gnardawgyt]

I clicked so fast

[@leandro3710]

Hey it's Miller from The Expanse!

[@Kuzushi42]

Would it be possible to get a War Stories episode about the development of the creature AI for Black and White 1?

[@k.tjustaordinaryyoutuber709]

Gears of war in my opinion is a good game series. Btw tried to seen if anyone was on gears of war 1 multiplayer and no servers on multiplayer mode.

[@lganeshan86]

He looks like Mac from Gears of War 5 Hive busters. ☺️👍

[@HieiDaHellSpawn94]

If Gears never didn't have a multi-player the franchise would've been dead

[@dragonrabbit7410]

more war stories please

[@Balc0ra]

1:05 Face... still the best CTF UT map tho.

[@ViewtifulJae]

I miss good gears! I miss this world and lore

[@howiewrex]

Would do anything to play 2v2 canals sniper matches again lol

[@WantedFoShow]

I'm highly thankful they did not scrap mutiplayer best online game along side halo 3 :)

[@Richard-ik5vz]

For me the best multiplayer game ever created

[@Tweaked818]

All i remember was that the shotgun was the go to

[@Richard-ik5vz]

I played every single gears game a lot specially online, and for me the best gears games are in this order: Gears 1 Gears 5 Gears 2 Gears 4 Gears 3 Most people don’t like gears 5 but for me I had the most fun in this game of any game I have ever played. But the maps and the rank system is just really bad that’s why gears 1 comes first. Im happy gears 5 were going in the right direction with the maps because Tomb is finally a dark scary map. So I got good hopes for gears 6.

[@cyberangel82]

I still remember the reviews at the time commenting the multiplayer in Gears 1 was an afterthought, just that it was popular to wedge in MP in the games even if it had no real quality to it. And he himself confirms it 20 years later.

[@leeperry7068]

Kiiiiind of. It wasn't so much an afterthought as just something we totally assumed we would have with no real problems. But it almost just didn't make it.

[@noobguitar117]

I came here thinking they were gonna talk about the gears 1 netcode / hosting lol

[@emouzi4]

🍿

[@Zingaa]

Guy looks like Cillian Murphy/Tommy Shelby(the hair) XD

[@steel.oneill]

Crazy how that whole generation had such a brown aesthetic, I guess the idea was that more brown meant it was more realistic?

[@arseny_afanasyev]

More like CGI

[@steel.oneill]

@@arseny_afanasyev what?

[@kestrel4360]

I guess yeah. I like the the grittiness of it but a lot of people now a days have short attention spans and would get bored without constant flashy colors.

[@casedistorted]

Andddd of course there’s no modern remaster or even a decent port of Gears of War 1, 2, or 3 on the Pc. that drives me freaking insane in 2022. Imagine gears of war in 1440p or higher with 144+fps and Ultrawide support with an FOV slider. They’d make so much money, like MCC but for Gears of War. But Microsoft does not care :/ why watching this video is so bitter sweet because the only version I can play is a bad GoW1 on Microsoft store, Yuck. I really miss Gears of War 1 multiplayer and the coop was SO fun! And Gears of War 2 mode is still one of my favorite horde modes ever made. Epic back then was cool, now it’s just another company like EA or Activision. I do appreciate him coming to talk about this stuff, I’m sure Cliffy B is too much of a big shot anyway so I prefer guys like this with more knowledge.

[@C.Mustard]

Gears 2 was the best game in the series

[@ImCptnAwesome]

Warzone was so clutch

[@mrblack9791]

i wall bounced smoke tagged allot

[@retrovideogamejunkie]

....it became zig zag , wall to wall with shotgun ...

[@kidkool27]

How did this one get so few views???

[@notbadforanoob8725]

Gears 1 is the best Gears, BY FAR.

[@diygamer6057]

Bring back epic when they made did it right, gears is upsetting nowadays

[@MosesMatsepane]

This makes me miss CliffyB. He gave that game a soul. Hope he'll tone down and come back strong to the industry. Gears lost its soul since he left...

[@GearsofWar-Glitches]

Gears 1 is best ever.

[@danielguerra1880]

unfortunately they started to revert all that with the subsequent games to the point that the current one plays exactly like those shooters he was talking about.

[@abbasshussainh786]

Such a shame . Literally one of the biggest Games going from this to what it is now is an incredible loss . Just like halo infinite, anthem , cyberpunk ,these developers just lose touch with what fans want and what make games soo iconic . Instead they'd rather put all these stupid dancing and woke crap in the game , making the game some noob fesr , thinking it will bring in more people but all it does is alienate the hardcore audience who is still sticking around. Gears was absolutely goated and i played 1-3 to absolute death and made lost of friends but we're all in our 30s now and remenice on how good gaming was back then .

[@elusivelectron]

Gears of War is multiplayer.

[@dolphin7961]

This entire series has just been white dudes. Can we get some non white male voices in here? They have also been part of the game industry for a while. Would love to get their perspective

[@nintense5317]

Gears 1 Online.... It never got any better imo.