Gears of War Designer Reveals His Favorite Game in the Series

Cliff Bleszinski, who was instrumental in designing all of the main Gears of War games before leaving Epic in 2012, has revealed his favorite entry in the shooter franchise.

Speaking to IGN, Bleszinski said 2011's Xbox 360 game Gears of War 3 takes the cake.

"People are like, 'Gears 1 was the best!' I personally think Gears 3 was," he said. "That's when we really honed things and had dedicated serves and everything. We had multiple game types, different characters, women in battle ...it was cool."

Also in the interview, Bleszinski talked about the unique challenges of making Gears of War 2.

"It was classic innovator's syndrome with Gears of War 2 where if you change too much, you've ruined the game; if you don't change anything, they say it's just Gears 1.5," he said. "So you're damned if you do and damned if you don't."

Bleszinski now heads up independent studio Boss Key, which is making the PC shooter LawBreakers.

Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic in 2014. The next game in the series is Gears of War 4, which comes out in October for Xbox One. It's being made by Microsoft-owned studio The Coalition, under the director of Rod Fergusson; he worked on the franchise when it belonged to Epic.

Earlier this month, Epic boss Tim Sweeney talked about how Gears of War's development budget ballooned with every subsequent installment. Epic's version of Gears of War 4 could have cost $100 million or more, Sweeney said.

"The profit was shrinking and shrinking," he said at the time about the Gears of War franchise over the years. "We calculated that, if we built Gears of War 4, the budget would have been well over $100 million, and if it was a huge success, we could break even. Anything less could put us out of business."

What is your favorite Gears of War game? Let us know in the comments below.