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'Black' designer says cover shooters are "f*cking boring"

February 23, 2010 in News comments 17

Senior Designer on the shooter 'Black' and now an upcoming, unnamed Codemasters shooter, Stuart Black (guess the name was borrowed) has some words for us on the shooters of today.

"There's a lot of cover-based shooters out at the moment," he told [OXM] in a recent interview. "But when a guy hunkers down behind something, you've just got to sit there and wait for him to pop his head up. Pops up, couple of bullets to his head, pops back down again.. and I'm waiting for him to pop back up again? F***ing boring. I can't be bothered hanging around like that."

Needless to say, he's got plenty of ideas about how to fix this at Codemasters - where he's heading a studio containing several members of the Black team as well as alumni of Sony and Black Rock. We aren't allowed to say what they're working on yet, but details will be coming soon.
chautemoc via oxm.co.uk »
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  • 4
    BANDITO ATTACK Feb 23, 10
    it's because they are.
  • 0
    sonyandnintendorule Feb 23, 10
    i think i kind of know where this designer is coming from
    e.g. when i play G.R.A.W i'm kind of annoyed at its slower pace compared to other games. Although there is an exception (to cover-based shooters) in the form of the gears of war you don't have to wait behind cover because as long as you have the skills you can whip out a shotgun and go crazy!
  • 0
    Fenrir Feb 24, 10
    Well, my intuition tells me that the reason Stuart Black says that modern shooter are fragging boring is for a reason: Black 2's underway, and he wants to make it one of the most epic shooters ever done. Just look at the original game, what with big explosions & bodies flying all over the place.
  • 1
    Gamesta100 Feb 24, 10
    That's funny because I though Black was a boring FPS.
  • 0
    Zero and X Feb 24, 10
    Lmao, I thought at first the article meant that the designer was black, and I was thinking "what the hell does the designer being black have to do with anything!?"
  • 0
    Dragoshi1 Feb 24, 10
    Cover shooters are boring as hell.


    Two people hiding behind pillars, waiting for the other guy to move out of cover.

    Hitch your tent men, this'll be a while.
  • 0
    RabidChinaGirl Feb 24, 10
    I enjoy them just fine, thank you. So long as they're done right.
  • 0
    Guugley Feb 24, 10
    The whole concept of Gears of War is based around a cover system and it's *bleep*ing brilliant and not in the slightest bit boring. I can't speak for any other games though.
    • 0
      Fatal Error Feb 24, 10
      That's because the enemies are dumbasses that charge at you if you sit behind cover. Ultimately, that makes the game a bit faster.
  • 0
    Fury Feb 24, 10
    I've never found them boring. It's not like you have to wait a long time for them to pop their heads out. Gears of War and Rainbow Six are both done brilliantly.
  • 0
    Ech0ez Feb 24, 10
    Last shooter I played that really grasped me was the new AvP and prior to that L4D2. Most general shooters these days are boring, but it's less about the content of the games themselves and more about the fact the market's so saturated with shooters that are incredibly similar it gets to the point where you just get sick of them. If we didn't get some new shooter that's practically identical to everything else on the market every other week things might seem a bit less dull.
  • 0
    Taker4ever Feb 24, 10
    BLACK was friggin' awesome, one of the best pure shooters of the last-gen. Pity it was let down by some awful design decisions, such as massive levels with no savepoints and very few checkpoints, and of course, complete lack of multiplayer.
  • 0
    Province Feb 24, 10
    I want this man in a position of power ASAP!

    Black was *bleep*ing INCREDIBLE and was hands down my fave PS2 shooter.
  • 0
    Fenrir Feb 24, 10
    True, true. And to top it all off, Black is unusually difficult. The final battle was epic, and you feel so badass after fending off waves of machine gunners, foot soldiers, shield guys & shotgunners ALONE that it's almost unreal (specially on Hard.)
  • 0
    Province Mar 1, 10
    Totally, walked away thinking "I AM THE F'ING MAN!"
  • 0
    legendary one Mar 2, 10
    I love the old school Goldeneye 007 1st person shooter.
    No cover and you have less health then than games do now.
    The only games I love that you use cover is Splinter Cell.
  • 0
    Province Mar 4, 10
    Only ones I think really pulled it off well was, Riddick (Until you actually got a gun and it became a shooter), Killzone 2 (Cause it worked nicely), Army Of Two (The cover was one ofthe very few really good things about it), Metal Gear Solid (Just cause it's in there and its Metal Gear), Splinter Cell, and inFamous (Using street lights for cover & etc)

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