IGN has an excellent interview with Epic game designer Cliffy B where they talk about new content, game design and story.

On adding more players to multiplayer.

Honestly, we have received some notes on that, but honestly, when you have a medium to small player count, you have a better chance of getting to take out the guy that you’re fighting on a regular basis. There is a sense of an intimate relationship that happens there. I think that in some instance, bigger is better. But not all the time. And getting to know the guys you’re killing on the server is a good thing in my book.

Gears is still the #1 game on XBox Live so they must have done something right. Right? More game modes just fragment the community of people playing, and adds to the development time.

On the use of the “A” button to do most every action.

I think we did a 90% perfect job on that one. There is that 10% of the time that the button doesn’t do what you want it to do. It’s one of those things where anticipating what players want, at any given time with a contact sensitive button like that, is an art form in itself. We consolidate everything on A because it’s prime real estate on your Xbox 360 controller. I’ve played so many other shooters where the controls feel so clunky. The bottom line is the A button in Gears was designed for the impatient gamer to have something to do…it’s kind of taking that Mario element of him running across the landscape when he goes “woo-hoo-hooo-hoooooh!” like he would always do and allow you to find cover in the gamespace in Gears. So honestly, there were a couple instances where we could have ironed that out better, but A was definitely a success.

This is their greatest achievement if you ask me. The “A” button brings so much focus to the game and breaks the gameplay down to exactly what it was meant to be, duck, cover and flank. There is no jumping over shit, no falling off ledges, just simple, challenging gameplay.

On the minimal story.

With regard to the story leaving a lot of questions unanswered, I think that’s a very valid point. That’s something that could be potentially set up for future products in regards to sequels or ancillary materials. But honestly, we did not want to have 10-minute cut-scenes. We did not want to sit there and force the player to endure some sort of expedition of lengthy wanna-be Spielberg stuff. We wanted the player to feel like he could be entertained in the first few minutes, break to the chase, and enjoy an action movie with some secondary themes in the background. That was our primary goal.

I think it’s perfectly OK. I think it’s the same as the movie Children of Men; the game is about getting from point A to point B. No one asks about the movie’s story. Just like in that movie, the story is about the moment to moment feeling, it’s a set-up for what’s going to happen in alleged future products.

You know what your goal is, you know why the goal is there and you get to know and care about the other characters. Thats way more than can be said about most games with so called “stories.”