Aliens: Colonial Marines

[ProjectPat2280]

Hah yea I would of just refused the package but he dropped the game off before I got home. I just ran it by the ups store on my way to class

[Balthus Dire]

Originally Posted by zenith16

well there's always Natural selection on steam. That should have your fix for Alien's(well their more likely mutated creatures) vs' marine's satiated.

That's still going??? Holy crap I absolutely loved that game, like, 10 years ago when it first came out. Amazing game.

[zenith16]

it's in the pc section I put up a thread there but yeah there was one that was released some time last year and it was done well from what I remember.

[Punisher_MAX]

does Gearbox have a twitter i can send a big **** you too? because ive been waiting for this game forever and as fan of the Aliens series and the AvP series i cant believe im seeing and reading all this.

[Soapy]

Quick Look: Aliens: Colonial Marines

[Whiskey Tango]

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

[Iceman]

Metascore is 50 at the moment from 27 reviews, below MoH: Warfighter.

[Nathan]

So, I'm spending some time on AvPGalaxy. Apparently you can now melee kill Aliens. There's even a challenge for getting 5 melee kills, with an XP boost as a reward.

[Nathan]

A lot of you are (rightfully) upset at the final product that is A:CM. Maybe I can shed some light as to how it got the way it is.

First off, due to me breaking NDA, I can't provide any proof that I'm not just talking out of my ass. But I figure you'd be interested in hearing what I have to say regardless. I've been on the project for around a year and a half, so some of the following are things I've heard from more senior guys.

Pecan (the internal codename for ACM) has a pretty long history. SEGA, GBX and 20th Century FOX came to an agreement to produce an Aliens game around 6 years ago, after which SEGA almost immediately announced it, long before Pecan had even started production. The game has been in active development in the past, only to be shelved in favor of another project (Borderlands, Duke, etc), and each time it was resumed it would undergo a major content overhaul.

SEGA, naturally, wasn't super pleased about the delays, but GBX got away with it for a long time and the contract between SEGA and GBX kept getting augmented to push the projected release further and further back. The last time it was resumed, GBX outsourced a good portion of the game to outside companies. Initially, the plan was for TimeGate to take the majority of campaign, GBX would take MP, Demiurge and Nerve would handle DLC and various other focused tasks. This decision was made mostly so that most of the developers at GBX could continue working on Borderlands 2, while a small group of LDs, coders and designers dealt with Pecan.

Somehow the schedules for Pecan and Borderlands 2 managed to line up and GBX realized that there was no ****ing way they could cert and ship two titles at the same time. Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind, even as Pecan's Beta deadline got closer and closer. In April or May (can't remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension.

About 5 of those 9 months went to shipping BL2. In that time, TimeGate managed to scrap together 85% of the campaign, but once Borderlands 2 shipped and GBX turned its attention to Pecan, it became pretty apparent that what had been made was in a pretty horrid state. Campaign didn't make much sense, the boss fights weren't implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etcetcetc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch. There were some last minute feature requests, most notably female marines, and the general consensus among GBX devs was that there was no way this game was going to be good by ship. There just wasn't enough time.

Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn't cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn't risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get.

Beyond gameplay, the story has been raised as an issue several times. I can't really comment without feeling bad beyond saying that the script was approved by 20th Century FOX, and that the rush to throw a playable product together came at the cost of the story. Campaign does a pretty bad job of explaining a lot of the questions raised at the start of the game, and so hopefully there will be DLC to flesh that out a bit better.

I'll answer some questions, but I have to run soon, so it may take a while for responses.

Source

[DarthSkywalker]

Originally Posted by Spideyfan93

Just wait one ****ing minute...

Didn't Gearbox supposedly develop the longly delayed failure known as Duke Nukem Forever too?!

THIS SUCKS. I've been looking forward to this highly for over half a decade...I was in middle school when this **** started revitalization. Sophomore in college and this ****ing ******** happens. Man...I can't.

The just dumped Duke Nukem Forever out. After they picked it up they didn't want to spend any money on it.

This however, is straight up false advertising and from what is a very solid company. The fact that they outsourced the single player is the most ridiculous and infuriating thing I have ever heard.

Originally Posted by Nathan

Source

Sadly this all makes sense. At least Borderlands 2 is awesome.

[Nathan]

I think the biggest mistake was that they overestimated their abilities. Obviously they don't have the manpower to work on multiple titles simultaneously. They should have worked on one game and put the other on the backburner.

[zenith16]

Oh wow. yeah they were pushing them selves like their a publisher and they aren't that yet. they only became noticeable recently in the years due to their main series borderlands. but they aren't in that position where Bioware was at. they are rowing but they aren't there. They did more then they can ever handle. but their not all to blame, but they shouldn't have pushed it like they did to the media. even if sega tried the law suit they should have said it's not ready. I'm sorry but this thing of dev studio be afraid to tell people like sega this is not ready. it's not good for your company in rep and everything else.

[Upset Spideyfan]

Originally Posted by Nathan

I'll answer some questions, but I have to run soon, so it may take a while for responses.

Gearbox is hunting him.

[DarthSkywalker]

Originally Posted by Nathan

I think the biggest mistake was that they overestimated their abilities. Obviously they don't have the manpower to work on multiple titles simultaneously. They should have worked on one game and put the other on the backburner.

The problem is that they couldn't put either on the back burner. If they were going to put something on the back burner it would of been ACM, but they couldn't at this point for fear of legal actions.

Originally Posted by zenith16

oh wow. yeah they were pushing them selves like their a publisher and they aren't that yet. they only became noticeable recently in the years due to their main series borderlands. but they aren't in that position where Bioware was at. they are rowing but they aren't there. They did more then they can ever handle. but their not all to blame, but they shouldn't have pushed it like they did to the media. even if sega tried the law suit they should have said it's not ready.

Their Brothers in Arms series has for the most part been quite good.

[DarthSkywalker]

Originally Posted by Upset Spideyfan

Apparently this is the best part of the game. It apparently works really well.

[Upset Spideyfan]

They shouldn't have taken on Duke Nukem. What did they gain on that? Besides wasting manpower that could have been used on Colonial Marines?

[DarthSkywalker]

Originally Posted by Upset Spideyfan

They shouldn't have taken on Duke Nukem. What did they gain on that? Besides wasting manpower that could have been used on Colonial Marines?

I would assume money.

[Nathan]

What do you think they could do to make it up to the fans? I'd say give them another chance, they'll probably have to get on their knees though, for FOX to give them the ok to work on another game. And drop everything. Everything they are working on, drop it now. Or finish their current games first and then work on another Colonial Marines. Just don't work on multiple titles and concentrate all your manpower on one game.

Or maybe Fox should ask Crytek to develop the next Aliens game. Heck, they could make AvP. Those Super Soldiers in Crisis are pretty much Predators anyway.

[Upset Spideyfan]

Well now they got to lose a whole bunch of money so that worked out for them really well.

[zenith16]

Originally Posted by DarthSkywalker

The problem is that they couldn't put either on the back burner. If they were going to put something on the back burner it would of been ACM, but they couldn't at this point for fear of legal actions.

yeah well dev studio's need to learn to say "this is not ready" the same that thin happened with the Spies and their info during the WMD controversy and they seperated them from military to make sure that can tell the details the futur prez's of USA and say no that not the case , do not take action.

The dev's studio's need to learn stand their ground with certain publishers that have contracted them and say "this is not ready damn it" and We aren't putting it out til it is.

Their Brothers in Arms series has for the most part been quite good.

yeah I know about that but to the rest of the world it's Borderland that putt hem in people living rooms and console and pc's in recent year's. Right now with this event it will be very hard to recover from.

[Upset Spideyfan]

At this point Gearbox should never mention the words Alien again and just move on. Put out another BiA damn it.

[DarthSkywalker]

Originally Posted by Nathan

What do you think they could do to make it up to the fans? I'd say give them another chance, they'll probably have to get on their knees though, for FOX to give them the ok to work on another game. And drop everything. Everything they are working on, drop it now. Or finish their current games first and then work on another Colonial Marines. Just don't work on multiple titles and concentrate all your manpower on one game.

They can't and won't do that. It wouldn't be fiscally sound.

Originally Posted by Upset Spideyfan

Well now they got to lose a whole bunch of money so that worked out for them really well.

The reason they released the game was so they wouldn't lose even more money. This was straight up damage limitations it seems.

[Upset Spideyfan]

No I mean they shouldn't have taken on Duke Nukem to get money on what was ultimately a terrible game just to go and make another terrible game because they had overtaxed themselves of which they will inevitably lose money on.

[DarthSkywalker]

Originally Posted by zenith16

yeah well dev studio's need to learn to say "this is not ready" the same that thin happened with the Spies and their info during the WMD controversy and they seperated them from military to make sure that can tell the details the futur prez's of USA and say no that not the case , do not take action.

The dev's studio's need to learn stand their ground with certain publishers that have contracted them and say "this is not ready damn it" and We aren't putting it out til it is.
yeah I know about that but to the rest of the world it's Borderland that putt hem in people living rooms and console and pc's in recent year's. Right now with this event it will be very hard to recover from.

I doubt it. They will simply put out more good Borderlands content and the fans will eat it up.

As to telling them "its not ready", you can't do that after 6 years of development. Legal action was clearly on the horizon.

[zenith16]

Originally Posted by Upset Spideyfan

At this point Gearbox should never mention the words Alien again and just move on. Put out another BiA damn it.

at this point also randy needs to find a replacement spokes person for him self and make sure he's doing the business side and this doesn't let this happen again and tell the publisher where his company stands when a product's not finished. this has happened with obsidan too. they need to tell them "no it's not done."