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Alain Tascan - the guy who said Gears needed innovation |
Listed in: Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: EA Montreal, Gamasutra, Paris, Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal
Gamasutra has an in-depth feature on Alain Tascan, the EA Montreal General Manager who is most famous for having said that Gears of War brought "nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero,"Yes, comments about innovation from an executive of EA, a huge company known for annual sports titles. It's very much an understatement to say that some people got a bit miffed about what Tascan said. Judging from the Gamasutra feature, it's probably safe to say that he knows it. Here's Tascan's words:
We are around 300 people now including EA mobile upstairs, and there is space to grow. We are working right now on three things: Army of Two, the new IP which better be good, otherwise people are going to kill me after my comments about Gears of War; SSX on the Wii, which is due in March; and another new IP which IÂ’m not able to talk about.
The feature goes on to emphasize that EA has heard the complaints, and that it has realized that in order to say on top they really have to start betting on original IP. The feature also goes on to explain why the EA original IP move is set in Montreal. Tascan says that there's just this energy about Montreal. There's this air of creativity in the area. Here's how Tascan explains it:
It couldnÂ’t be done in Portland or somewhere like that. But at the same time it couldn't have been done in Dusseldorf or Paris; itÂ’s this understanding of the North American culture, and at the same time this little twist that makes it special. And thatÂ’s why weÂ’re here. ThatÂ’s why Ubisoft are here, A2M are here, all of the animation companies are here; this energy that is understandable at a worldwide level but at the same time with a little twist.
Oh, and speaking of Ubisoft, crazy rabid, acrobatic prince, killer assassin Ubisoft, here's Tascan's take on Ubisoft Montreal vs. EA Montreal:
We're both big companies for different reasons, I guess. You have a family based French company, started by five brothers, against an American company who belongs to nobody. Ubisoft was until recently completely owned by the people who started it, and I think they still own about 90% of it. Compare that to a company that is about 95% public. So while in EA everyone has to report to somebody, at Ubisoft, there is a level where if they want to do it they could do it, and nobody can tell them different, so sometimes theyÂ’ve reacted differently to the market than EA would.
The interesting thing that I notice is that now Ubisoft sounds like itÂ’s trying to be more like EA, to be more aware of the market, while EA is trying to do more original things, like Ubisoft.
For more on the feature, feel free to use our read-link below.
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The only thing thats offering something new to shooter games is the Wii and its control system.
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The multiplayer gameplay works perfectly, condensing rushing and flanking tactics to provide a completely different perspective to the Halo and Quake circle-strafing and bunny hopping tactics.
The points GoW isn't innovative on are:
A. Plot, it's very lacking in any real substance, but strings the game along OK.
B. Weapons, apart from the chainsaw bayonet, the weapons are pretty standard.
If EA can top GoW, I will be suitably impressed.
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But it puts it together in a way which does offer gamers a new gaming experience. So in that respect, it IS offering something new.
Are you going to criticise Resistance in the same way btw, or is it immune just because it's on the PS3?
Besides, given the history of EA's games, not only was Alain a hypocrite for saying such things about GOW, but he hadn't even played the game at the time he made that statement!
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rainbow six has been havin a similar thing
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Gears of war looks nice because of who designed it and was also released a year after its launch. Give the ps3 a year and then youll see ps3 games that will blow you away as much if not more than gears of war. And since most ps3 games look like most gen 2 360 games time would be against microsoft now.
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I've played both. GoW is superior.
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As for EA. Everyone for that company always talks trash. EA has always been known to do that since the 16 bit days where they dominated everyone else in alot of games. Ever since the 32bit days however, they've been on a downfall like no other. Everyone always 1 ups them in some way, shape of form. 2K literally pisses on them now with there Sports games. EA buying the NFL license was saw by many as admiting that the NFL 2K series was superior in every way. I still play EA games, but since the genesis days, I have lost much respect for them & don't see them as a qulaity software company like I once did.
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Games like Perfect Dark Zero only ran on one core (on 360) where all launch PS3 titles are using multiple cores
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