Cliff Bleszinski's illegitimate child of an IP should be both proud and embarrassed to have sent such a ripple through the industry. It's difficult to overstate the influence that Gears of War's 3rd-person, cover-shooter gameplay has had on nearly every 3rd-person game we see today. Even Assassin's Creed is getting its own stealth cover mechanic in Unity, but Dom and Marcus' more direct admirers can be found at the top of the charts. Uncharted. GTA. Rainbow Six. Ghost Recon. Max Payne 3. Red Dead. Splinter Cell. Kane and Lynch. Mafia. Every other game.The sadder side of Gears of War as a symbol for gaming is its shameless adherence to the most cliche of machismo tropes and glorified violence. When your two protagonists look like The Incredible Hulk and Mickey Rourke's illegitimate muscle-baby, ripping ugly bug-people to shreds with ultimate bro-violence and chainsaw guns becomes a bit of an unintentional parody. Inches of armor and no sleeves? That makes sense. Helmets are obviously for people who have never heard of bandannas. We wish we could say Gears of War was intelligent enough to be a knowing deconstruction of the gravel-voiced face-shooters we're used to, but no one really cares when the gunplay arguably remains the best in the industry.
Real Science Magazine called James' addiction to video games "sexually attractive." He also worked really hard and got really lucky in college and earned some awards for acting, improv and stand-up, but nobody cares about that out here in LA. So... He's starting over fresh, performing when He can. His profile picture features James as Serbian, vampire comic Dorde Mehailo with His anonymous Brother and Uncle at the Nerdmelt Showroom in West Hollywood. In James' spare time, he engages in acting, writing, athletics, hydration, hours of great pondering and generally wishing you'd like him.
