It looks like if Cliff Bleszinski had gotten his way then we’d in all probability be playing as Master Chief in the Gears of War 3 beta. That is of course if Microsoft had let the character swap happen.
Sadly due to the fact that Halo is aimed at the less squeamish gamers Microsoft wouldn’t allow the ‘wrapped in cotton wool’ Master Chief to appear in the gory Gears of War game much to Cliffs disappointment. He commented on the proposed idea, saying, “I’ll let you in on a secret,” he told Complex. “I actually approached Microsoft on getting Master Chief into the game, but those guys are kind of squeamish. One of Halo‘s successes is that it’s a soft M [rating]. Gears pushes it further.”
“I’m creatively comfortable with that, though it can limit what you do. If you had to break it down, I’d say that Gears is like Mortal Kombat and Halo is like Street Fighter.But if we were to get Master Chief, we’d get his model, put him in a COG suit, make it blow up, and do some test animation work.”
“We’d have to see what his head looks like being blown to smithereens or how his arm would look getting sawed off. Then we’d package up the test footage, put it on YouTube, and let the fans get a kick out of it because everything is meta these days.”
The Gears of War 3 beta is in full swing and despite a few niggles seems to be working pretty flawlessly, you can read our Gears of War 3 Hands-On and indulge in the Gears of War 3 media page. Both of which will keep you occupied until the games release, without Master Chief, on September the 20th, 2011.
Heres our vision of Master Chief in the new Gears of War:
