Most of the games we play today are created by massive teams of game developers, yet so many big games and game franchises are tied to a single name — the game’s director. Cliff Bleszinski (or CliffyB) was the first human name I remember being synonymous with a specific game franchise — Gears of War.

I kicked off 2024 with Cliff’s book Control Freak: My Epic Adventures Making Jazz Jackrabbit, Gears of War, Unreal and Fortnite. Many games that came before Gears of War were associated with their human directors, but I remember Cliff as the first real “rockstar” in video game development. He wasn’t only known to gaming nerds — like myself. He was also known all over. The man was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — not once, but twice.

Gears of War was a meaningful game franchise among my friend group. I haven’t kept up with the latest entries, but those first games hold a special place in my gaming heart. There were many amazing moments — both solo and co-op (in Horde mode). If Gears of War receives the “newly popular” remake treatment, I will definitely get back into it. Especially after reading this book.

Gaming Glossary

Control Freak is a book written by a video game legend. It focuses on Cliff’s love for games and making games. Still, this book is not only for fans of video games. In the opening pages, before the actual book begins, the reader is greeted with a multi-page glossary of well-known gaming terms.

As a life-long gamer and someone who was already familiar with most of these terms, I still found the glossary entertaining. It was presented in a way that says, Here are some common terms and definitions in case you aren’t familiar with them. If you are, there’s still some fun flavor text to keep you entertained, as well.

The glossary features a mix of proper gaming terms as well as common gamer slang, including:

AAA (triple A) – Shorthand for games that cost entirely too much money and time to create and market. By the time you read this, there will probably be six franchises in this space dominating the industry.

Butt stomp – A tried-and-tested move in video games, often in character action jumping games. The player leaps into the air, usually over a foe, and careens down, squashing the poor enemy like a pancake.

---

Overall, the gaming glossary served a dual purpose of getting the reader familiar with these commonly used phrases, and showcasing Cliff’s voice.

Early Years

Cliff’s story begins with his obsession with video games as a kid — a Nintendo kid. It’s an obsession many of us share, and still carry well into our adulthood. He also began making games at a very early age, and even found some success while still in school.

The first section (Level 1) recounts two tragic events from Cliff’s early life. First, the unexpected loss of his father. Although Cliff was only fifteen years old when his dad died, he painted such a beautiful picture of him. It felt as if he had him around much longer.

The second incident involves early online chat rooms — remember those. What a strange and dangerous time. Although I never went through anything like what happened to Cliff, it could have very well happened to me or any of my friends. The internet was, and still may be a weird, unfiltered, and unsafe place for kids.

Although the first section is not very long, I feel like there was so much in there. Other than the two tough moments, there were some great ones too. Like Cliff being a master gamer at a  young age, even competing and winning tournaments.

Gaming Firsts

Reading this book I was taken back to so many big gaming moments from over the years. It’s crazy to think that Cliff and his team were the pioneers of many “gaming firsts,” which have become commonplace in so many games since.

One instance mentioned was the reloading mini-game in Gears of War. In order to reload your weapon quickly you’d have to hit a button at the correct time, otherwise the gun would overheat and take much longer. I’ve now seen this in so many games (including the latest Star Wars: Battlefront games).

As we see these mechanics become implemented across different games, we forget where they came from. They become the norm. Any time I start a new game with haptics on my PlayStation 5 DualSense, it feels new and different at first. After a couple of hours, I don’t even notice how cool it feels —
it is now normal.

Sense Memories

I loved reading all about the development of Gears of War, and the marketing campaign. To this day, any time I hear the song Mad World, my brain begins to replay the original Gears of War trailer.

Even as Cliff described it in great detail in the book, I remembered it beat for beat. Today, almost every big AAA game trailer is epic and features licensed music. Still, none have come close to that first Gears of War trailer. The most hyped trailers today are usually sequels and already familiar properties.

Learning how the story of Marcus Fenix and the soldiers in Gears of War relates to Cliff’s life also makes me want to go back and replay the game. If I ever decide to try out the newer games that I missed, I would love to start from the original. I would like to see how the tone changed once Cliff left Epic Games.

We recently saw a big change in the already beloved game franchise God of War. The last two releases were a reboot of the franchise where we saw a change in genre, style, story, tone, and pretty much every aspect of the game. I was already a fan of the original God of War game I had already played through, but the changes really made this franchise go from a pretty fun game franchise to a life-changing experience.

Top to Bottom

Cliff’s story is also a humbling one, since he went from creating one of the top game franchises of all time to later trying something new that was not so successful. After first hearing about Lawbreakers, a new game from a new studio headed by Cliff, I couldn’t wait to play it.

The problems lied in the flooded multiplayer market, which is still around today. We’ve seen so many online multiplayer games come and go. It’s kind of insane anytime I think about how many different online games I can jump into at any moment and quickly get matched up with other players around the world. However, the list of failed online games is way longer than that of successful games.

Cliff mentioned the beginnings of Xbox Live, and how working exclusively with Xbox meant they were looking for some online experiences. This took me back to those early days of online gaming, where you had to [adjust your strategy] for lag. 

This was especially true for sports games (like Madden). Playing someone online vs playing someone using local split-screen were completely different experiences. I still sometimes feel weird about how smooth Rocket League runs with up to eight players in different households and varying internet speeds.

Hearing about the very early days of Epic Games, and seeing where they are today with Fortnite is quite the story. The book cover mentions Cliff as a “maker” of Fortnite, but from the pages it sounds like he was at Epic working on his own projects and he just helped come up with the name.

I can see the book’s publishers and marketing department come up with the strategy to include FORTNITE on the cover of the book, just to get young gamers to buy this book. He was still around during the early development of the game, so I guess it’s fair to include it.

Takeaways

Overall, Control Freak is an informative book into the life of one of the biggest game developers as well as an inspirational story about a kid who was passionate about his interests and made it into a lucrative career. Cliff has since left the game development scene, with the exception of some consulting.

I would love to see him get back into games one day. It was fascinating to learn how he has now invested in restaurants, broadway shows, and more. Making games is tough, and leading a team is a lot of work. I’m sure it’s nice to be behind the scenes for a change, while still exercising his creative muscles in different areas.

---

*myVGBC.com was sent a review copy by the publisher of Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Jazz Jackrabbit, Gears of War, Unreal, and Fortnite by Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski.

You can purchase Control Freak online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or find it at your local bookstore.