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Sacred Symbols+, Episode 369 | CliffyB: Renaissance Man

Please welcome legendary games designer, producer, and entrepreneur Cliff Bleszinski -- better-known as CliffyB -- to Sacred+. On the back of his new comic series Scrapper, Cliffy is imbibing a new energy, but that always seems to be the case for the busy creative that won't (or perhaps cannot) sit still. After all, a year before Scrapper, he released a raw and honest autobiography, and before that, he produced some Tony-winning theater productions, and before that, he invested in restaurants, and... well... you get the idea. But the CliffyB that worked at Epic for 20 years and helmed bringing the world the likes of Gears of War, Unreal, and Jazz Jackrabbit still has much to say about the industry that he helped define, and our brisk conversation covers a number of topics, from the hostility surrounding LawBreakers' demise to Microsoft's hesitance in bringing him back into the Gears fold. Please enjoy.

Sacred Symbols+, Episode 369 | CliffyB: Renaissance Man

Comments

Cliffy B is the man

fork

What if Batman was a dog?

Gabriel Baker

Time stamp?? I’m dying to hear that

Gabriel Baker

In a world of Cliffy Bs, be a Jonathan Blow

Gabriel Baker

This dude talked about like 5 different topics in a row lol

brody_low

Those incoherent thoughts about woke culture had me laughing 😂

Alec Davis

Howdy Boner Boys! Didn't know anything about Cliffy B, but love his candidness and analysis! It was a super fun listen. Would love to have him and Jaffe together for a chat although it would probably go down as the longest SS+ episode ever. Keep it up over in SS land!

FarmerJimmy

Holy cow Cliffy B seems like a total D bag. That was a painful listen.

WoodyBlock

Really rough listen. And naturally this audience whines that Cliffy complains about the "everything is woke" crowd. Ya'll are probably the people he's talking about. But no cant dare to do a little self reflection. But anyway yeah this was incredibly difficult to listen to.

Michael Welter

great guy, I'd highly recommend reading his book

Michal Dudic

I feel like that was a conversation about nothing…and it kept going nowhere

Andrew Long

Yeah I think having Jonathon Blow and Cliff B back to back was like night and day comparison of two world views. Cliff seems out of touch in a way that makes sense how he would blame the haters for his game failing. Cliff is definitely woke.

Dan P

While I understand the cesspool that is social media, and bad actors on both sides but the "everything's woke" take is way off base. Clearly it's not making money, it is not organic, the comics industry is dying, movies are tanking, games are failing....except those that are putting entertainment first instead of "quotas." Same energy as Chris sometimes with the "Well I don't see that, so clearly it's just the crazies on the other side"

Ryan Wargo

This is a rare LSM L, either this guy is tweaking or hasn’t grown at all since he released the first Gears

Chris King

Agreed. Had to shut it off after 30 mins. A little humility would go a long way.

Kojima’s Trouser Snake

I think this answers why he is not brought back into the Gears fold

Brandon V

Another great interview really love these. Keep them up please

Mattylongisland

Oh dear that was tough to listen too.

Jack Johnson

I didn't know much about either personally before these two eps. Blow seems pretty based and real. Cliffy is kind of got man child energy.

Dan P

Hey, it takes many of us to make the world go round. Loved the episode.

Josh Walker

I don't get all the dislike on this one. or the jonathan blow one for that matter. these guys are examples of creative intelligent people who succeeded.

Guybrush Threepwood

Haha he was interesting, was different I did enjoy it

Trent Piccicacco

This was exhausting, listening this guy yap and yap and yap was excruciating and nothing with meaning was said. I guess I haven't met many people with huge egos but if I'd imagine someone Cliffy will from now come to mind.

Fotis Lyto

This one and the one with Blow… like it’s no wonder games take forever with how incoherent the thoughts are.

Owen

YIKES

AJ Cap

I felt my teeth clenching when i listened to the first 20 minutes, stopped listening, didn't pay any mind to it, and noticed it i was doing it again after listening for another 5 minutes. I deleted the episode lol

Joey

NGL wasn't a fan of this one. Not that Colin didn't due diligence, I just thought Cliff B was different than he is. Oh Well live and learn.

Otacon_Ocelot

Holy shit

Devon McCarty

He is quite hard to listen to

Brian

Damn…this was definitely an episode

Mikey

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Adam Barnes

Cliffy could record that episode without Colin and it would be mostly the same, he rambled so much on his own. 😄

Danio

This guy is shot

Christian Longo

People totally should apologize to Jaffe after that episode. :D It can get THAT bad.

Danio

Yeah Cliff, cheaters were the reason Radical Heights wasn't a success. Not that it was thrown together in 5 min in a desperate attempt to cash in on the battle royale craze. 🙄🙄

Barry Cahill

I think a constellation episode with jaffe and cliff b. Would be interesting.

mattyboy316

I was really hoping for an actual conversation with this one. I think Col said all of 100 words.

lazer_josh

Very wealthy/Famous man with a trophy wife and no kids is bored.. Stand up and writing a book. He has done both

Jamie Anderson

Good luck to him, but why does it seem like every other American man thinks they should do standup? It’s really hard and 99% of stand up routines are not even slightly amusing imo. ‘I love to eat ass, isn’t that hilarious?!’

Rich Price

Lol haven’t pondered “the shitting man” for quite some time, a missed opportunity by Colon for sure

Daniel Bush

Not sure anyone has ever matched the mental image I had in my head of them for so long quite this well tbh.

Cole Kinghorn

Good luck to Cliffy B’s stand up career 😬

Napoleon in Rags

This ep was rough man. Props to Colin for trying to ask some good questions. But so much of this was weird and not in a good Jaffe way.

David Moran

Oh shit! He’s the xbox version of Jaffe.

Drew

This one was a hard listen, Cliffy is a very weird guy. Like a 12 year old trapped inside a man’s body

King Blob

I don’t dislike this episode as much as the others, but no way this dude is off the Claritin D.

Diddy’s Dong Quest

I don’t usually comment on threads of episodes but after seeing the episode is an hour long and 20 minutes in Cliff is talking about random topics with nothing for Colin to jump in for, I had to hop in and wonder if I was the only one feeling weird about this ep. One positive I can say is that he’s obviously a very enthusiastic person, especially about his wife (and himself), however aside from that it’s a little bit of a hard listen. It was like listening to a dude high on coke at a party. So many times I zoned out for 30 seconds and came back and thought what the hell is he talking about now hahaha Granted I don’t think there’s much that Colin could have done, but yeah a weird episode for sure.

Mark Burn

Right? Fuck anyone in this community for having a different opinion than you.

Adam Barnes

Confused about Cliffy calling out douchebags on Twitter when he blocked me for complimenting him on “Lawbreakers” looking awesome-when he revealed screenshots-and wishing Boss Key success. I’ve no ill will towards him over something so trivial but find it odd how he plays the victim card.

Rio_Yeti_

Imagine going to this dudes stand-up? I’d want to rip my ears off

The Rose Experience

Great episode, always happy to hear from people who have been in the industry for a long time. Cliff definitely had an impact on the games industry. I am glad the Cliff of today doesn’t have the same impact on the game industry. I respect his opinion but I do not agree with a lot of how he feels. I wish him luck in making the same impact on the stand up world, and hope he can let go of the animosity he feels towards Anime avatars.

Matthew Guilford

lol The things some people do trying hard to find things to do w/ their lives to make themselves feel better about not raising children.

Brent

Ya know Cliffy seems to still have that child like wonder. I appreciate that

Have you considered considering considerations considerately considerate

This comment section is exactly who needs to go outside and touch grass.

Shane Pryor

It’s not what CliffyB is saying that bothers me it’s the way he puts on voices all the time that really annoys me. It feels childish.

Moistescarjoe

What an absolute prick. 😂

heyVinno

I like Cliff, he seems like a nice guy overall, but I’m glad I’m not the only one who found this ep weird. 😅

NeO JD

Gears 5 came out in 2019. Come on fam.

NeO JD

Whacky episode haha but interesting to learn more about the man behind a classic franchise

Your Boi Nicky V

When Jaffe beats you, the Xbox podcast, to a Gears replay, it shouldn’t surprise that Duke Ultimate no longer exists.

CUMSoftware

There's more gears talk in this than in the so called xbox podcast

Jamie Anderson

This is rough man. If you care about spoilers when he finally talks around gears 35 mins in he spoils 5 games in record time.

AllTooEasy_

Damn, I was going to put this on and listen while I work out but after reading these comments I think I’ll just stick to music 😅 thanks for taking that bullet guys

Adam Barnes

Why is he so bitter? Lol maybe they should think of having kids.

Johnny Lamotte

If Reddit were a person

Brandon V

“So cliff, in Gears 1, there’s a map called Rooftops in multiplayer and on one side of the map, if you look through a certain window of a building and toss a smoke grenade in it, it will illuminate what is a 12 ft man sitting on a toilet taking a shit. What’s the story behind that?”

CUMSoftware

lol I forgot how much I dislike Cliffy B.

Brent

This was bad. I couldn't make it past 13 minutes. Maybe I forgot but Jesus Christ is "Cliffy" fucking obnoxious. Probably a good thing he doesn't want kids.

Cory Knudsen

Holy shit snacks. Could not stop listening quick enough.

Josh Couture

This guy was always a huge douche, but I guess he’s taken the time away to really double down. Insufferable to listen to and his own biggest fan.

Dante B

Appreciate what everyone does at LSM and you have to reach out and find new conversations. But like others have said, this was a very odd episode. Colin did his best to steer Cliffy B. towards topics the audience is interested in, but Cliffy B. would very quickly go off course and ramble. That was rough, but not all conversations can be equally engaging and/or enjoyable.

Evan

Yeah, I think Colin came into this wanting to talk about one thing really, and then… yeah. I know he usually likes to let his guests just speak, but there’s been a few pieces of content recently that makes me wish he’d step in to reign things in more.

Jared R

This was a fun convo but I'm confused why it ended so abruptly when it was flowing so well. Was there a hard time set or something?

Eric the human

daaaayummnn, thats a huge ego!

Liquid Metal Guts

Honestly, this hour long interview didn’t do anything. There wasn’t any discussion about video games. I don’t think this was a Colin problem but Cliff rambling about stuff that didn’t matter. Was looking forward to this, but this fell flat.

Tyler Kidder

I would agree it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. Though it was definitely insightful in regards to how a creator thinks. That said, I find it funny how you could listen to this then post something negative.

Vanzant

This might be the only person on Last Stand that has rubbed me the wrong way. What was the point of this convo except to learn how weird CliffyB is?

Cole Barker

Awesome episode, he seems like a great guy thanks for getting him on!

Ice Slice

I guess I’m in the minority, but I really enjoyed this episode. Good vibes.

Colin Moriarty

He definitely has a case of I’m the main character syndrome

Meatball

Be careful what you wish for lol

Dan Nolin

Omg. Legend or not, I couldn’t get past 30 minutes of this guy.

David

Mr Moriarty… showing us one week at a time how fucked up and weird all the guys who made our favorite games are…

Dan Nolin

This one was a huge miss for me. 60 mins of random rambling. Cliffy really drove the conversation off a "Cliff" and Colin tried to his best to get it back on the rails lol

StewDog

This is one of the best SS+ episodes yet, perfectly chaotic!

Craig Robertson

LSM always hits the perfect level of unhinged

Jordan

This one was really weird Colin. Not in a good way for me. Hope the next SS+ gets back on topic, this was just one guy ego tripping for 60 minutes.

Gonçalo Ferreira

Colin wasn’t kidding about this being a chaotic sort of conversation. That stream of consciousness style of conversing, if one could even really call this a two-way conversation, is pretty hard for me to listen to.

Jared R

Ironic how they talk about how social media breeding negativity and you just feed right into it.

Steve Forgione

Was cliffy b farting during the episode? lol

CastingCouch

15 minutes in and Cliffy B is an amazingly annoying person. Hey Cliff, do you have kids, oh you don’t want kids? Tell me again… Ya I’m out, nice get for Colin and appreciate the effort to get a personality but can’t stand this dude. Unsurprisingly he’s almost entirely like I thought he’d be.

The Rose Experience

Absolutely sick. One of my favourite video game peeps of all time. Gears is a top 3 series for me. Great get LSM fam!

Tdot’s Finest82

Palest I've ever seen Colin. RIP king

I'm glad John Lennon was murdered

Cliff has been one of my creative inspirations for almost 2 decades. He brought the world my favorite series in Gears of War, nothing on any box ever will come close to the love I have for that series. Thanks Colin and the team for whatchu guys do day in and day out. Hell, it beats giving Sorta Comedic a dime 🤷‍♂️ Who tf asking for those wrestling vids and the big goofy office? LOL

Full Metal Sween

Hopefully this guys got more pep in his step than Mr. Blow

Dan Nolin

Damn this is wild! Nice get LSM

Doombaby69

This is fucking awesome can’t wait to dive in.

A Hind D


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