Aliens: Colonial Marines Trailer (SpoofyChop can't make titles)

The best part about this is that "Listen to Gorman" is one of the available actions for Apone in the first mission.

You get a bonus if you listen for 3 turns. =)

Though it doesn't look like the game is a campaign, so all you need to do is just pass the mission?

If you click "continue mission" at the end of a mission the KIAs/MIAs carry over to the next one.

Kenner Toys put out a lot of made-up alien hybrids back in the day (I still have a couple of them). I think maybe after this flops, they should think about making a game based on the old toy line. As much as I like the aliens franchise, the movies just don't have enough material for a game. The toy line though? Fucking goldmine of weird shit.

I still have the action figure of a "marine" who's shtick was to wear these fake alien pieces to pass himself off as another alien. It's as bad(ass) as you think it is.

I'd heard somewhere that it was planned to be a cartoon, but now I can't find any reference to it. (No weirder than robocop, which did get turned into a cartoon) The 80s was a weird time.

Two cartoons. This one:



And this one (with possibly the best theme song, ever):



Ro
bo
cop!

The use of "Badass" is what unites Borderlands with Aliens.

You are making that up.

I hope.

Reviews are starting to come in:

PA Report:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/aliens-colonial-marines-is-an-unfinished-ugly-mess

Polygon - 3/10.
http://www.polygon.com/game/aliens-colonial-marines/3159

Eurogamer - 3/10
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-12-aliens-colonial-marines-review

Seeing a pattern? Don't worry, EGM has the _real_ score - 9/10
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/reviews/egm-review-aliens-colonial-marines/

Ouch

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/aliens-colonial-marines/critic-reviews

Looks like this game is speedrun-friendly!

Yeah, I'm really disappointed to see this game getting savaged in reviews. The following is by far the most disconcerting part of the Eurogamer review I just read:

How could Gearbox have fucked this up so badly? Also, I'm debating on whether or not to tell my brother about all the bad reviews. He won't see them himself and we've both already paid for the game from Amazon, which is arriving today, so it's not going to change anything for us. Oh, did I mentioned I bought the $99 Collector's Edition? Ugh. Well, I dunno. Maybe the power loader statue thing will be worth it.

Speaking of toys, I had a TON of those Aliens toys. I remember calling around to Toys R Us constantly trying to track down the Alien Queen. I'm sure they're still hanging around in my parents' house somewhere.

They supposedly just did the multiplayer while Timegate did single player.

I don't understand how something as seemingly important as a direct sequel to one of the most beloved movies of all time gets entrusted to what's essentially a B team. Watching videos of Randy Pitchford gushing about being entrusted with the task made me think it was actually important to both Gearbox and Fox. Apparently that was all bullshit.

It was marketing. Whether that constitutes "bullshit" varies, but he was advertising a game, as the CEO of the company publishing it. Those things need to be taken with a few grains of salt.

That said, it looks like releasing this game in this condition with the Gearbox logo on the box will be a net loss for the company. If not financially, it will certainly further erode their credibility as a publisher after the Duke Nukem fiasco. It seems like GB is good at Borderlands and lousy at rescuing projects from development hell after they've passed through the hands of a half-dozen other studios. Which is understandable to some degree, but why keep putting yourself in such an unenviable position?

Advertising a game is one thing, but the videos of him I saw showed Pitchford as a big Aliens fan that was thrilled and excited to have had the opportunity to play around in the Aliens universe. He seemed to realize what a responsibility that was. I don't get how that translated into Gearbox shitting out a game that, by almost all accounts, is a complete mess. I say that with the caveat that I have not played the game myself yet, but I have no reason to doubt the reviews at this point.

I wasn't aware that Gearbox didn't have stewardship of this game all the way through development. Is it really they case that they "rescued" it from someone else, a la Duke Nukem Forever?

Speaking of reviews, from Jim Sterling's twitter feed

So... ouch.

That's fucking filthy. I'll be interested to see how Pitchford, et al. try to slime their way out of that.

I'd still take that with a grain of salt, whether it's deliberate advertising or not. Maybe he really is a huge Aliens fan - that's probably not entirely fabricated, and may even be one of the reasons he was so intent on releasing this game whether it was any good or not. I have no idea, really. I just generally don't take any interviews / commentary from studio personnel about their own products at face value.

Sorry, I must have been mistaken here - I just went to verify that and it sounds as if the early-aughts game of the same name is not related to this game. (Since we've been hearing about this for 6-7 years now, I assumed otherwise.) I did read something the other day where Pitchford listed all the studios involved and it sounded like a lot of cooks in the kitchen; that's probably what solidified the assumption that this project had a long history of starts and stops at various studios.

Yeah, the opening credits list Timegate Studios, Demiurge Studios, Nerve Software and Gearbox Software.

Well. Now that this is out of the way maybe Sega will bring back their original idea of an Aliens RPG from Obsidian!

Or not.

Probably not.

I didn't make this, but it's too good to not share!

Here's a fun one: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/12/someone-else-mostly-made-colonial-marines-mostly/

A Gearbox dev says the game's going to suck because TimeGate developed it. But then the update!

And you might recall this: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/171665/Gearboxs_Pitchford_on_Aliens_evolution.php#.URp85lp2Ekh

It's a race to deny responsibility!

It is kind of shitty that Gearbox would attempt to blame TimeGate, who has been an extremely solid studio over the years. The Kohan and Section 8 games were great, and I hope this doesn't hurt their chances of getting work from other publishers in the future.

fix that for you.

this is the actual quote from RPS

Sounds like a train wreck alright. Of course I'm bitter, seeing as how Sega chose this one to keep instead of the Aliens RPG. But then again, Obsidian burnt out their goodwill with Sega with Alpha Protocol, with it's lengthy and oft delayed development cycle.

Everyone should just play Aliens Infestation on the DS, which is the best Aliens game since basically ever.

I'm just thrilled to discover that a Gritty Space Marines franchise with a robust cast of diverse women among the characters is getting a game. At least now everyone can play interesting female space marines for once, right?

Oooh, man. The guy who has had this reserved since I started working won't be pleased. I had hoped beyond reason that this would be good. I mean, who wouldn't want an awesome atmospheric multiplayer action/horror game? Gearbox, apparently.

Well there is EA then to rely on, since you know, Deadspace? =)

I wish I could say you were wrong.

Pitchford is a great salesman - he talks a good spiel and game site writers love him because he's very personable.

But Gearbox have a really chequered history in releasing games. As stated, if this wasn't an Aliens title, no-one would be interested in it. Pitchford will come out with some further puffery, maybe an exclusive interview or two and the games writers will be sated.

Australia's Good Game did a review on this title and although I think they tend to rate too softly overall, they include a bit where one of the NPCs shouts, "They're coming out of the walls!" just as an Alien completely clips through a wall, with much laughter from the players who see it. It just looks so amateurish for what is allegedly a AAA title. As they say, Dead Space 3 is a better version of Aliens than this title is.

Haha, that bit was pretty good. It's at around 2:00, for those interested. The male host sounded far softer on the game than the female one.

Bajo (the male) goes on a bit about how much he loves Aliens, so you can recognise his bias there. Hex (the female) isn't as convinced.

But GG's issue is that despite what seems to be pretty ordinary commentary about the game still give A:CM 6 or 7 out of 10. Sounds like they had fun in the multiplayer, which probably drew the score back up.

Nope.

So my brother and I plunged into co-op for about an hour and a half or so last night. At its best the game is thoroughly mediocre so far.

I like the quips between the marines. I think they're in keeping with how those guys would talk to each other and fit with the marines shown in Aliens. I mention that only because some reviews crapped on the dialogue. It's fine as is the voice acting. Of course the authentic weapon sounds are fantastic. Shooting a pulse rifle and getting that signature report is thrilling if you're a fan of Aliens at all. The motion tracker pings are also spot on. Even the menu sounds are authentic, matching that muted pulse sound you hear as lines scroll down a computer screen.

The graphics in this game are putrid. Just awful. The textures range from passable to low res smudges, but never rise to anything I would call good. It looks like a launch 360 title that started life as an original Xbox game. It really is that bad.

The animation is also pretty awful. Aliens move in a stilted manner that doesn't look very threatening or cool. They can still get on you quickly and certainly pose a threat. Some reviews have mentioned that the Aliens go down too easily, but so far on the normal Soldier difficulty, it's felt just right to me. The game's health system has armor that is depleted and does not regenerate unless you pick up armor bits around the environment. Under that is the marine's health which has three sections. If a section is partially depleted, it will regenerate. Empty sections will not regenerate unless you pick up a health pack. In the time I played this system worked to make the game feel challenging enough for sure.

There is a light XP system where you get points for completing challenges and killing stuff. Those points earn tickets or commendations or whatever that can be spent on upgrades/attachments for weapons. So my pulse rile now has a scope and a cool red paint job. It's nice to have a little progression built in, but it's nothing huge.

So far I'd recommend holding off on this game until it gets a deep price cut and even then, only if you're already a big Aliens fan. The fan service contained in it has been worth seeing and hearing, but I'd never recommend anyone pay full price for this game.