Did you know Marcus Fenix’s last name grew out of Cliff Bleszinksi’s complete loss in his failed first marriage, thus making Gears of War his rise from the ashes? What about the fact that the picture of Dom and Maria from the Gears 2 Special Edition being based on Cliff and his girlfriend at the time? You definitely didn’t know that before pitching Gears of War to Microsoft Cliff did pushups in his hotel room and listened to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem.

These are just a few of the awesome pieces of information Gears of War’s creator Cliff Bleszinski is dropping over on his Twitter, presumably to celebrate the release of Gears of War Ultimate Edition, which releases tonight at midnight. If you haven’t already, you can grab Gears of War Ultimate Edition on Amazon.

It’s an interesting look at the inside of Gears of War, where it came from, how it was born, and what goes on in the mind of the mad-genius behind it.

We’ve compiled all of Cliff’s #GearsFacts below, and we’ll update them as he does.

Marcus had bright blue eyes because my father did, so I pushed for that. #GearsFacts @papiblez http://t.co/horRDUwiwg — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

I never asked for buff characters. Kevin Lanning just made it that way with the AD Jerry. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Anya originally had huge boobs but I pushed back on Pete to make her less cartoony. Ironic, considering the guys. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

I wanted a chainsaw gun in a game I pitched in 97, called “OverFiend.” #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

We had a laser gun planned but we decided for Vietnam like tech so it was cut you can see it in an early image of Marcus. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Rod snuck in the SP fatigue meter when I was on a biz trip to fix streaming issues. I was furious. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Rod was assigned to us at MS at E3 years ago and wore the Marcus dorag and at that point I could tell he adored the franchise. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

The style of Gears’ architecture came from my exhaustion of concrete bunkers and Jerry’s hatred of hazard striping. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

A lot of Gears 1’s inspiration game out of my sadness from the failure of my first marriage and a visit to London. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

The idea to do cover came from @MrLeePerry showing me Killswitch one day I was like WANT. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

In hindsight, the Berserker being female and being chained down for breeding is really fucked up. I was in a dark place. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

No writer has ever written two Gears games…yet. The RodMower nearly kills em all with his persistence. ;) #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

I met Gary Jules when he came to Raleigh to play at the Pour House and introduced myself and we chilled. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Before I pitched it to Microsoft I did a bunch of pushups in the hotel and listened to Eminem’s Lose Yourself because dudebro. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Pitching Gears 1 was hard. New IP, new camera, new campaign, new MP, new console, etc…On paper it was set to fail. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Maria was my personal statement on Terri Schaivo and my belief in right to death…through a dudebro shooter with lizard men. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Maria was voiced by Courtney Ford who was a dear friend in high school who later married Brandon Routh and we’re still pals. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Maria (Courtney) was the Trinity Killer’s daughter on Dexter. Small world. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

We cast Carlos Ferro as Dom because I was tired of hearing Speedy Gonzales voices in Splinter Cell games, no offense, Ubi. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Tanya (jessen) Watson wrote the note on the back of the photo of Maria and Dom that shipped with Gears 2. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Picture of Dom and Maria from the SE of Gears 2 was drawn based on my ex girlfriend and I at the time. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Dave, our lead LD at the time, wanted Tai to just jump off a cliff or something, but I pushed for the shotgun suicide. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

The torture the Locust did in Gears was my thinly veiled statement about Gitmo…through a dudebro shooter with lizardmen. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Marcus was named Fenix because I lost everything from the failed marriage and was rising from my own ashes. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Dom’s original last name was “Glynn” until Rod saw a box of cigars on my desk that said “Santiago” and suggested that. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Post Epic, Gears 1’s art director Jerry was slated to direct the reboot of Thundercats until the CG TMNT failed. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Mad World was my anthem when I was going through the failure of my first marriage. Somehow marketing felt this and suggested it. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

The other song was “My Immortal” by Evanescence but that’s way less cool. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Baird was named after a childhood friend who was a bit of a dick, Mark Baird. #GearsFacts Baird just sounds like a dick. @papiblez rite? — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

We cast Lester as Cole because of his charisma in the Terry Tate ads. We were like “I’d go to war with that guy.” #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

That one was me, I like making non-interactive gameplay interactive, so during reloads how can we make it fun?! https://t.co/HfCiwI3nDu — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Before the game came out, Randy Pitchford came to town to play it and saw how tough the Locust were and said “it’s a grinder.” #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Years later I’d go to Dallas to test Borderlands early and then meet and fall for my wife. We met in a W hotel designed in UE. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

In SP the last bullet in each magazine is 25% stronger so the chances of “oh shit” fighting a bad guy are high in the game. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

Boomers were named after the robots from Bubblegum Crisis, which was inspired by Blade Runner. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

I said to the art department on Gears (post quake era) NO FUCKING SKULLS IN THIS WORLD. that clearly worked lol #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

No we had another guy at E3 one year I wanted an “everyman but it just didn’t work Rod called it out and cast John. https://t.co/PnZG7gsZpU — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

No, Gnasher won, we tried to fight it, but hey, gibs win. #GearsFacts https://t.co/wpOqL6qCF1 — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

No, but Anya is based off someone who broke my heart. #GearsFacts https://t.co/WHx4103Stt — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

I wanted players to not drop weapons upon death unless you execute them as incentive. @EpicRayD shot it down. ;) #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

I texted Rod at brunch at the Flying Biscuit in Raleigh “we gotta kill Dom.” https://t.co/mbZ2x9boHC — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

To this day, Epic, Rod, Microsoft and I always kept a good relationship. Biz is biz but friends are forever. I’m signing off. #GearsFacts — Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015

And that’s all, folks!

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