Aliens: Colonial Marines

[ThePhantasm]

As I've found out, the Aliens franchise is super huge in the UK.

Yeah, it is. The theatre in my hometown was packed for Prometheus.

 

[TheVileOne]

Dumb nerd thought: I wonder what would happen if a facehugger impregnated a xenomorph.

Well would a facehugger even do that?

 

[Team Andino]

Dumb nerd thought: I wonder what would happen if a facehugger impregnated a xenomorph.

Well would a facehugger even do that?

Yea I never considered the idea because it never seemed like a likely possibility.

 

[Nathan]

Torture yourself with Obsidian's Aliens: Crucible footage
Video of the game SEGA canned so we could have Colonial Marines

Aliens Crucible: Animations
​

If ever a video was more perfectly timed to scorch a fanbase's soul, it's this one. In the fallout of the Aliens: Colonial Marines debacle, demo footage of Obsidian's cancelled Aliens role-playing game, Aliens: Crucible, has risen from obscurity.

The video contains animations by Danny Garnett, now with Sony, created in 2008 and 2009. Various Xenomorph types, including a Queen, are showcased, along with some environments and human characters.

With Gearbox's "effort" falling way short of the mark, all hope for a great mainstream Aliens game rests on the shoulders of Creative Assembly, and its as-yet unrevealed project. Early buzz sounds promising, but we won't know if it has promise until we see more -- and if A:CM taught us anything, it's that we'll have to be damn wary even if it does have promise.

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[ProjectPat2280]

Whatever chance this game had of being even remotely fun was shot to s**t with the inclusion of human enemies. Even going back to the Derelict was ruined by that garbage. Its as if GBX or TimeGate or whoever the hell made this thought to themselves, ya know this game doesnt suck enough, lets throw in some human v human combat. I tired, i tried to finish this game but couldnt.

My final thoughts, stay away from this one. If you are a huge Aliens fan, still stay away from it. You might get 30 min of fun out of a 6 hour campaign. Its just yucky.

 

[Grievous]

I never thought I would do it since I'm a huge fan of the movies. I even got every achievement in AVP. But after hearing some of the negatives being said about this game and the low score reviews I decided to wait until it goes on sale.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I never thought I would do it since I'm a huge fan of the movies. I even got every achievement in AVP. But after hearing some of the negatives being said about this game and the low score reviews I decided to wait until it goes on sale.

Yea thats a good move man, or go rent the thing if you really feel like playing it, but honestly it really doesnt do anything better than what you saw in AvP. Outside of like the weapon models, AvP is pretty much tops in every way. The xenos in AvP are FAR more cinema like than the things in this game, i mean heaps and heaps better.

 

[jacobed]

I actually really enjoyed AVP

 

[KevanG]

I miss AvP2 gold Why is a 12 year old game so much better at the Aliens vs Marines when they could have just copied the entire Marine storyline, changed some names, places and it'd be an amazing game. Hell, keep the graphics and physics and it'd still be better.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Dumb nerd thought: I wonder what would happen if a facehugger impregnated a xenomorph.

 

[Solidus]

I miss AvP2 gold Why is a 12 year old game so much better at the Aliens vs Marines when they could have just copied the entire Marine storyline, changed some names, places and it'd be an amazing game. Hell, keep the graphics and physics and it'd still be better.

Monolith made the ultimate game with that. It was raved. Rebelions' original AvP in 99 was good, and the 2010 one or 2011 whatever...lol..was mediocre. But man AvP2 was just the best hands down. Monolith use to be one of the best devs out there. That was my most played game in 2001, the MP was just perfect.

 

[KevanG]

I never played the MP but the stories for all the characters + the expansions (predalien!!!) was flat out amazing. The way they all split up, merged, and ended forming one massive cohesive storyline is what every game aspires to be. You'd play as a marine, see chunks of the alien storyline not making much sense, the predator running around and when you played as the other characters you'd show up in the same areas with more info combining EVERYTHING!

The only issue I had was playing as the alien was a bit of motion sickness due to being able to tear around the walls 360 degrees and if you hit a corner you could spin forever.

HOW HARD IS IT TO JUST COPY A 12 YEAR OLD GAME WHEN YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO USE 2/3RDS OF THE CHARACTERS????

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

That was my most played game in 2001, the MP was just perfect.

That they managed to really recreate a lot of the moments of the films through MP modes is pretty impressive considering how nobody has been able to do it right since.

 

[Nathan]

Gearbox boss responds to Colonial Marines critics: "I will lose a huge amount of money"
Pitchford denies fraud allegations, is "looking into" criticism about demo


In a series of impassioned Tweets, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford has finally commented on the reception and sales of Aliens: Colonial Marines, and spoken out against allegations that the studio defrauded publisher Sega and misled buyers as to the game's quality.

It's very much an on-going thing, so you might want to skip direct to Pitchford's Twitter feed rather than reading the below, abbreviated version. "As a glass-half-full kind of guy, so I only want positive feelings with my personal twitter," he began around an hour ago. "Thanks for understanding!"

Colonial Marines has been widely lambasted, with OXM's 6/10 one of the better verdicts, but the controversy goes deeper even that rock-bottom Metascore. A source describing himself as a former Gearbox employee termed the project a "train wreck" last year, claiming that "primary development" had been out-sourced to Section 8 developer TimeGate.

It's a version of events that's seemingly corroborated by Reddit sources, who allege that Gearbox rerouted funds provided by Sega into the development of Borderlands 2. Some players also maintain that one of the game's demos is a partial misrepresentation, showcasing content and a level of graphical finish not found in the retail release.

Pitchford acknowledged that Colonial Marines had disappointed many. "I feel like we exist to make people happy and it's painful when for some we do not succeed," he said. "We learn and grow. I have always profited from criticism and, thankfully, I have never been in short supply."

But he insisted that the new shooter had its strengths - and fans. "There is genuine love for the game - it turns out opinions vary," Pitchford told one follower. "I love the setting, story and pacing of campaign," he said later. "I love versus. I always see the flaws in all of our work. An Artist's Dilemma."

The fraud allegation is apparently "False by a LONG SHOT. Borderlands success actually helped to finance all other projects..." As for complaints about the accuracy of the demo, "that is understood and fair and we are looking at that. Lots of info to parse, lots of stake holders to respect."

Aliens: Colonial Marines has turned in impressive week one sales despite the backlash, placing first in the UK all formats despite competition from EA's comparable, better-received Dead Space 3. Despite this, Pitchford expects tough times ahead. "I'm afraid it looks like I will lose a huge amount of money. We pay for our education..."

The conversation continues. You might want to keep an eye on that Twitter feed as the evening wears on...

Source

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Well ya deff can't say the stuff surrounding this game hasn't been interesting

 

[Nathan]

Developer: Gearbox lied to SEGA, 2K over Colonial Marines
Anonymous Aliens whistle blower blows whistle anonymously

It's fair to say the Aliens: Colonial Marines story has been a fascinating one. From the years of hype, to the negative reviews, to the later confusion over who actually developed the game, there's a lot of mystery and controversy afoot. Here's Destructoid to add a little more.

We've recently been chatting with a developer who -- as you might have guessed -- wishes to remain anonymous. Under this condition, he agreed to let us publish the things he's witnessed personally and learned from fellow project members in the time he spent working on Colonial Marines.

Our man was involved with the game only briefly, between 2007 and 2008, but in just that short time he had some interesting reading for us. If his words are indeed to be believed, they further fuel the suggestion that Colonial Marines was increasingly sidelined for more "important" projects.

"Gearbox was taking people off the project to put them on Borderlands 1," he says of his time on the job. "This was before the big art style change happened on Borderlands. Our team was getting smaller by the month, making it very difficult to get the game made. Ironically several of the team members were ex-3D Realms people who were saying [paraphrasing] 'Finally, we're going to Gearbox to make Aliens, and we're going to ship a ****ing game!' Hah."

According to our man with the inside track, it was later learned that SEGA actually canceled Colonial Marines, deciding to cut its losses after such a long development cycle.

"At some point in 2008, SEGA temporarily pulled the plug on the game," he said. "They caught wind of Gearbox shifting resources (despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size) and lying to SEGA AND 2K about the number of people working on each project. This led to the round of layoffs at Gearbox in late 2008."

The developer confirms he later spoke with people attached to the project at the beginning of 2012, and learned they actually didn't expect the game to ship in February, given its current state. It would appear staff on the game knew the thing was a bust, and were prepared for a fresh delay. Obviously, that never happened, and now we're here.

Naturally, and like so much about this situation, information was provided on the hush-hush and cannot be taken as factual evidence of any wrongdoing on anybody's part. It is, however, yet another perplexing piece of the puzzle, one reflective of other things we've been hearing over the past week. Meanwhile, as SEGA and Gearbox both maintain a poker face, these whispered words are really all we have to go on.

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[Nathan]

Why is it so hard to make a good Aliens game?

This week Aliens: Colonial Marines was finally released and, unfortunately, the reviews of it don’t seem to rate it very highly. Worse still: some review sites have gone so far as to post videos of glitches, which I think is the first time I’ve seen that happen. People on forums are saying pretty much the same things, and with all the disappointment questions get asked. Specifically: why is it so hard to make a good Aliens game?

It could be argued that I don’t know the answer to that, having being involved with Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem on PSP (49% average on metatcritic) and the lead designer of AVP2010 (64% on xbox360, 68% on PC). The first of those games was tied into the launch of the film, whereas the second was the flagship title for Rebellion that year, and we had a good sized team working on it for a decent amount of time. We knew Colonial Marines was in development – Gearbox had announced as such in December 2006, and it had been on the cover of Game Informer in February 2008. And we had a very broad overview of what the story would be, because we had been told not to go anywhere near LV-426, Space Jockeys or the Sulaco. The latter was a bit of a blow for me personally, as early story concepts had revolved around Predators using the Sulaco as bait to lure Marines in.

Instead, we set AvP about 30 years after the story events of the Aliens film. By this point it seemed reasonable to assume that word of the Xenomorphs had spread, and that Marines would have a rough idea how to go up against them.



This is the first difficulty faced with making an Aliens game: the audience knows what to expect, and it’s reached the point now where it’s pretty much impossible to create a storyline that would surprise players. We all know that Aliens burst out of chests, hide in shadows, crawl on walls and are devastating at close range.

This leads to the second problem: Aliens themselves are the complete opposite of the kind of enemy you need if you’re making a shooting game. They’re fast, they’re hard to hit, if you don’t kill it before it’s within 10 metres of you then you’re going to get doused in acid and die anyway, and if it does get close you’re instantly dead. A player would put up with them as an occasional boss fight, but as the main enemy it just gets annoying.

This wouldn’t be too bad, if not for the third problem: audiences expect a game with a lot of shooting. You’re playing a bad ass Marine and are have access to some of the most iconic weapons from cinema: you want the excuse let rock and use them.



Are there alternatives?

Yes, I think there are a few options available to whoever gets the next go at developing an Aliens game.

The first is to make it much more horror based – akin to the Alien title on Spectrum that Eurogamer did a retrospective on a few days ago. Having the player character be more fragile – more Ripley like – and only having a few enemies to, effectively, avoid, could make for an interesting game.

The second potential is to just make it plain hard. In 2010 I don’t think we could have gotten away with this, but since then the Indie scene has exploded and gamers have shown that they’re eager for games that present a big challenge (FTL springs to mind). Taking a cue from a game like Infinity Blade on iOS, the player could play a continual stream of Marines that are sent into a situation. The environment would be the same each time, but the Alien AI allows for random encounters, different spawn places and so on. The ultimate aim is to get through to the Queen, and the first few times you do that you’d die horribly. Each Marine is plugged in to the other’s feeds, either via a video comm system or a dream machine like the one seen in Prometheus. When it’s their turn, they’ve got a good idea of what to expect.

Sending 4 people at a time in could tie nicely into the Left4Dead style multiplayer game, which we started to make a good version of in AVP2010 with Survival mode but could have benefited from larger environments to make your way through.

Either way, I think the world is ready for a game where the Xenomorphs aren’t dumbed down to make the game fairer, but instead are as lethal as they are in the films. It’s got to be worth a go, right?

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[Piper Maru]

Just make a scary Aliens survival horror game. And no boulder punching either.

 

[Doc Ock]

I'd love a more horror based Alien game, Alien is much better than Aliens anyways IMO.

 

[Iceman]

It can't be that hard if Dead Space already did it. I take the point about the aliens being too powerful to be a main grunt enemy so maybe you have some weaker variant thrown in there.

 

[Nathan]

There shouldn't be a weaker variant. It should be standard Xenomorph, and the continue to go up from there. I guess we could say Facehuggers are the weaker variants. And even then it should be instant death once they get you.

 

[The Navigator]

It should go from "standard" to "ungodly quick."

 

[Iceman]

But that's the guy's point in why this game might be hard to make:

Aliens themselves are the complete opposite of the kind of enemy you need if you’re making a shooting game. They’re fast, they’re hard to hit, if you don’t kill it before it’s within 10 metres of you then you’re going to get doused in acid and die anyway, and if it does get close you’re instantly dead.

A casual gameplayer will have a rough time with that.

 

[ThePhantasm]

A casual gameplayer will have a rough time with that.

Then for them it will be game over man, game over!

 

[Piper Maru]

There will most likely be difficult modes.

Casual: Xenomorphs rush up to you and snuggle you.
Normal: Xenomorphs are a little bit rough.
Hard: Bite the pillow...