Mention Epic Games and you may make a Wii backer recall Mark Rein's fighting words from an IGN panel back in October. (Hopefully they also remember his later clarification rather than holding a grudge.)
These days, Epic has been busy working on Gears of War for Microsoft's Xbox 360, one of the more talked-about titles from the recent E3 show. Joystiq cornered Gears lead designer Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski and, among other things, asked him what he thought about Wii:
Did you have a chance to play the Wii while you were at E3?
I did not and I wanted to. I've been reserving judgment on it completely until I get hands on time with it and I just want to, just control it. My schedule was so jam-packed that there was no way I'd be able to hang out in line like that and I'm not that well connected with Nintendo to be able to skip through the line like Robin Williams is.
Epic's gotten a lot of flak for comments made about the Revolution for being graphically inferior. After E3, the consensus was that the first person control could be great. Although you haven't had a chance to play it, do you know if Epic's planning anything?
We're currently talking with Nintendo. It's not really my department to pontificate on other people's system and comments that the wonderful Mark Rein will make occasionally to upset the fans. Again, I reserve judgment of the Wii until I get hands on with it. I was very judgmental about the DS until I actually got to play hands-on with it and I love Trauma Center and stuff like that.
You know what, Nintendo is zigging while everyone else is zagging and they'll be just for it. I give them props for doing something different. My advice to anybody developing a first person shooter for the Revolution is: even though you have a new way to control and make a new FPS you still need a cool, compelling FPS underneath that. [Control] is only one of five things that you need. Give us a Half-Life 2 with those controls and I'll be first in line to buy it.