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QA Tester Talks ACM, Gearbox & Creative Assembly

Continuing the saga that is the truth behind Aliens: Colonial Marines a tester for the game recently posted on Reddit:

“Gearbox didn’t care about the game. They spent the money from ACM on the Borderlands games…When they got the game back, Timegate had done a terrible job. When it came into Sega it was shit basically. Gearbox only cared about fixing “progression blockers” (thinks that stop a player from getting through a level) or crashes.”

The poster also mentioned the Wii U Version is even worse than what’s already been released on other formats.

Oh wow. Yes okay. I was hoping someone would ask this. I have played the WiiU version. The one that is supposedly the best of all of them? It is not. It is the worst. It is a bit of a joke. The WiiU is basically the same game as the console version but with framerate issues, worse texture loading, and horrendously misguided minigames thrown in. You get a ‘scanner’ to scan enemies and get bonus points that aid your harming them. When you cut open doors (which happens a lot in the game) you have a game where you have to keep the heat ‘optimal’. They just add frustration, and take away even more from the fun. We don’t know if it will come out, Sega are conisdering canceling it, but right now its still going.”

Reddit verified the poster’s identity, leading some credibility to the information posted by the tester. He also talked briefly about the upcoming title from Creative Assembly:

“That game looks amazing. Very dark, very slow (in a good way). The textures and lighting look really really good. I’ve seen it running on a PC. The PS4 devkit looks like a computer. It looks as good, if not better, running as any super high end pc. We did not have those controllers, but they look like what was promised.”

The tester has since deleted his account and posts but the conversation was saved and has been reported at other sites.



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Comments: 43
  1. Elicas
    Yes, 80's are only 'good'. Since when is good a bad thing?

    50-59 is barely above average, 60-69 is good but significant flaws, 70-79 is good but flawed, 80-89 is good, 90+ is great.

    I don't f**king understand why so many people seem to think getting a game that is 80+ means they're great or must buys. They're not, they're solid titles, good titles even, but that doesn't make them great. Even PCGamer follows the same system, where anything up to an 85% is labelled as "Good", with 85-89% as excellent and 90+ exceptional. Even following that logic Gearbox have only had one game, ever, rate above good. PCGamer are generally looked down on for being over kind to many games as well, like the DA2 debacle.

    Perhaps saying 5 good games and 5 bad games was over exaggerating. It should really read 5 bad games, 4 good games and 1 great game. That still makes them a hit and miss developer.
  2. Prime113
    Quote from: Elicas on Feb 19, 2013, 06:27:18 PM
    Quote from: Prime113 on Feb 19, 2013, 04:51:45 PM
    Quote from: Elicas on Feb 19, 2013, 01:04:42 AM
    Quote from: redxavier on Feb 19, 2013, 12:13:45 AM
    I too hope SEGA sues Gearbox, but I also hope that is a wakeup call for the gaming press. We've seen numerous articles now about the false advertising of the game, let's see this have consequence on the future dealings Gearbox and Pitchford have within the gaming industry. I want to see websites like IGN and Gamespot refuse to print previews for Gearbox games.

    Let this be an end of 'bullshots' and have the gaming press develop a backbone. No more embargos too.

    Not gonna happen. Those same websites will be sucking his dick over Borderlands 3 in a year or so, knowing that if they don't bend over they won't get any exclusive interviews, early previews etc. etc. So many Gearbox fanboys/Borederlands sheep will buy their next game no matter what because "yay Borderlands/BIA" that this will ultimately have little to no impact whatsoever on Gearbox or the industry as a whole.

    Just look at this time, when people were never going to trust them after DNF.

    Unless I completely missed understood what you wrote, people should be excited as hell for Borderlands 3, if they were fans of 1 and 2. Calling them sheep for buying a gearbox game, because of what happened to ACM, who a lot probably won't play, is kind of silly.

    I'm calling them sheep for following a bad developer that f**ks up 1 in every three games they release, and of those released only one could be called 'great', and that is debatable (Borderlands 2 is their only game with an average rating of 90+). Lets have a look at the FPS games they've developed (because comparing other games quality to a fps in useless in the discussion of A:CM) and disregard games they've only ported such as Halo PC (because they didn't actually make said games). (all scores taken from metacritic for PC, console shooters are a whole different kettle of fish)

    Opposing Force - Mid 80's
    Blue Shift - mid 60's
    007 Nightfire - mid to high 50's
    BIA - mid 80's
    BIA-EIB - low 80's
    BIA-HH - low 70's, with an accompanying pre-release preview demo that had close to 0 gameplay from the final version, around three months before release.

    Borderlands 1+2, notorious for their DLC skimming, highly rated for their MP coop, two of the worst single player shooters ever. Generally received favourably, personally I hate them, but enough people rate them highly for them to be seen as good. Borderlands sits in the low to mid 80's and Borderlands 2 sits on 90 exactly.

    DNF - low to mid 40's, with the excuse they did next to no work on the game despite having it for at least a year (some sites have reported two years) before release.
    A:CM - low to mid 40's, with an accompanying pre-release preview demo that had close to 0 gameplay from the final version, still being shown as of october 2012, around three months before release. Screenshots of which, are still on the Steam Store page!

    What we can see is four games in the 80's, good but not great. One game bang on 90, the borderline between good and great. Two games in the sixties/seventies which comes up as average but flawed. Three games in the 40's/50's (coincidently two being their last releases). That's an exact split of 5 good 5 bad games, two of them known as the f**king worst FPS games to have been released in the last decade at least, if not the worst since Daikatana.

    Pre-ordering on a 50% chance to get a good game, with a 10% chance of getting a great game? Yes, anyone who does that is a sheep.

    Also: Borderlands 1 and 2 were f**king shite.

    I...Are you seriously calling games with 80's only good? Come on, man. Come on. Nightfire and BlueShift are really the only games backing up your cause, except for DNF, which was f**ked from the start, and ACM, I'll give you that one.

    Also, I was only talking about Borderlands 3.
  3. Elicas
    Quote from: Prime113 on Feb 19, 2013, 04:51:45 PM
    Quote from: Elicas on Feb 19, 2013, 01:04:42 AM
    Quote from: redxavier on Feb 19, 2013, 12:13:45 AM
    I too hope SEGA sues Gearbox, but I also hope that is a wakeup call for the gaming press. We've seen numerous articles now about the false advertising of the game, let's see this have consequence on the future dealings Gearbox and Pitchford have within the gaming industry. I want to see websites like IGN and Gamespot refuse to print previews for Gearbox games.

    Let this be an end of 'bullshots' and have the gaming press develop a backbone. No more embargos too.

    Not gonna happen. Those same websites will be sucking his dick over Borderlands 3 in a year or so, knowing that if they don't bend over they won't get any exclusive interviews, early previews etc. etc. So many Gearbox fanboys/Borederlands sheep will buy their next game no matter what because "yay Borderlands/BIA" that this will ultimately have little to no impact whatsoever on Gearbox or the industry as a whole.

    Just look at this time, when people were never going to trust them after DNF.

    Unless I completely missed understood what you wrote, people should be excited as hell for Borderlands 3, if they were fans of 1 and 2. Calling them sheep for buying a gearbox game, because of what happened to ACM, who a lot probably won't play, is kind of silly.

    I'm calling them sheep for following a bad developer that f**ks up 1 in every three games they release, and of those released only one could be called 'great', and that is debatable (Borderlands 2 is their only game with an average rating of 90+). Lets have a look at the FPS games they've developed (because comparing other games quality to a fps in useless in the discussion of A:CM) and disregard games they've only ported such as Halo PC (because they didn't actually make said games). (all scores taken from metacritic for PC, console shooters are a whole different kettle of fish)

    Opposing Force - Mid 80's
    Blue Shift - mid 60's
    007 Nightfire - mid to high 50's
    BIA - mid 80's
    BIA-EIB - low 80's
    BIA-HH - low 70's, with an accompanying pre-release preview demo that had close to 0 gameplay from the final version, around three months before release.

    Borderlands 1+2, notorious for their DLC skimming, highly rated for their MP coop, two of the worst single player shooters ever. Generally received favourably, personally I hate them, but enough people rate them highly for them to be seen as good. Borderlands sits in the low to mid 80's and Borderlands 2 sits on 90 exactly.

    DNF - low to mid 40's, with the excuse they did next to no work on the game despite having it for at least a year (some sites have reported two years) before release.
    A:CM - low to mid 40's, with an accompanying pre-release preview demo that had close to 0 gameplay from the final version, still being shown as of october 2012, around three months before release. Screenshots of which, are still on the Steam Store page!

    What we can see is four games in the 80's, good but not great. One game bang on 90, the borderline between good and great. Two games in the sixties/seventies which comes up as average but flawed. Three games in the 40's/50's (coincidently two being their last releases). That's an exact split of 5 good 5 bad games, two of them known as the f**king worst FPS games to have been released in the last decade at least, if not the worst since Daikatana.

    Pre-ordering on a 50% chance to get a good game, with a 10% chance of getting a great game? Yes, anyone who does that is a sheep.

    Also: Borderlands 1 and 2 were f**king shite.
  4. Prime113
    Quote from: Elicas on Feb 19, 2013, 01:04:42 AM
    Quote from: redxavier on Feb 19, 2013, 12:13:45 AM
    I too hope SEGA sues Gearbox, but I also hope that is a wakeup call for the gaming press. We've seen numerous articles now about the false advertising of the game, let's see this have consequence on the future dealings Gearbox and Pitchford have within the gaming industry. I want to see websites like IGN and Gamespot refuse to print previews for Gearbox games.

    Let this be an end of 'bullshots' and have the gaming press develop a backbone. No more embargos too.

    Not gonna happen. Those same websites will be sucking his dick over Borderlands 3 in a year or so, knowing that if they don't bend over they won't get any exclusive interviews, early previews etc. etc. So many Gearbox fanboys/Borederlands sheep will buy their next game no matter what because "yay Borderlands/BIA" that this will ultimately have little to no impact whatsoever on Gearbox or the industry as a whole.

    Just look at this time, when people were never going to trust them after DNF.

    Unless I completely missed understood what you wrote, people should be excited as hell for Borderlands 3, if they were fans of 1 and 2. Calling them sheep for buying a gearbox game, because of what happened to ACM, who a lot probably won't play, is kind of silly.
  5. Paladinrja
    I think lotsa people just wanna see what the fuss is all about. Truth is alot of people don't give a rats ass whether the game is good or not once it gets this much attention.

    The majority of consumers play so many games in a year that they are literally quite happy with a familiar buzz for a few hours til a truelly great game comes along, they probably already have targetted.
    A:CM for them is - "Oh man, lets see how bad it really is? Meh, that was fun for a bit, next!"

    This is a lesson in true game design. Take what you have & make something out of it. If its a sensational masterpiece, great!; if not but you can make as much money outta it, thats just as good for the bottom line.
    At the end of the day few people can make something outta nothing, nevermind expecting something great outta nothing.

    Seen so many topics about Sega suing or class actions. Its like everyones an authority on something just coz they have a strong, biased, point of view.
    Truth is Sega's probably not complaining too much because the contract has made them money. Lots of it.
    Thats what it had to achieve. Now if it never made a dime, yah Sega would be in talks with devs about how to recoupe $60 million. No way that any publisher is going to take down a studio that generally does good work, no matter how angry I am about another Alien game that never did much on my ricter-scale.
  6. Elicas
    Quote from: redxavier on Feb 19, 2013, 10:09:52 AM
    Quote from: Elicas on Feb 19, 2013, 01:04:42 AM
    Not gonna happen. Those same websites will be sucking his dick over Borderlands 3 in a year or so, knowing that if they don't bend over they won't get any exclusive interviews, early previews etc. etc.

    Then we are lost, because those are the only people (except Sega's lawyers) who have any power to 'punish' Gearbox and make this whole affair more than just the controversy de jour.

    Of course, that's how the industry works. Give bad reviews to developer/publisher X too many times and you lose out on early preview/review code which means you lose out on many of your general casual readership who want to know about the latest shiney, thus you'll typically end up either A: going out of business or B: sacking the reviewer who gave the bad scores. For eg. the whole Kane and Lynch fiasco, think it was with Gamespot.

    It even happens with fansites you know, I've written MMO tanking for a few down the years such as TankTelara and Force Junkies, and we always see a big spike in our readership whenever we're given preview photos or exclusive interviews. React badly to a patch, criticise something on the forums or disagree with a patch cycle over class nerfs/buffs and you'll find your site getting less promotional material, sometimes even having the designers you were talking to about the Math in your guides refuse to answer emails part way through a discussion. Suddenly, your website is f**ked, and TankTelara died a death within weeks of the games release after we did a poll asking about the communities top ten issues that needed fixing. Preview material dried up, Trion stopped answering my mail, the site died.
  7. redxavier
    Quote from: Elicas on Feb 19, 2013, 01:04:42 AM
    Not gonna happen. Those same websites will be sucking his dick over Borderlands 3 in a year or so, knowing that if they don't bend over they won't get any exclusive interviews, early previews etc. etc.

    Then we are lost, because those are the only people (except Sega's lawyers) who have any power to 'punish' Gearbox and make this whole affair more than just the controversy de jour.
  8. Elicas
    Quote from: redxavier on Feb 19, 2013, 12:13:45 AM
    I too hope SEGA sues Gearbox, but I also hope that is a wakeup call for the gaming press. We've seen numerous articles now about the false advertising of the game, let's see this have consequence on the future dealings Gearbox and Pitchford have within the gaming industry. I want to see websites like IGN and Gamespot refuse to print previews for Gearbox games.

    Let this be an end of 'bullshots' and have the gaming press develop a backbone. No more embargos too.

    Not gonna happen. Those same websites will be sucking his dick over Borderlands 3 in a year or so, knowing that if they don't bend over they won't get any exclusive interviews, early previews etc. etc. So many Gearbox fanboys/Borederlands sheep will buy their next game no matter what because "yay Borderlands/BIA" that this will ultimately have little to no impact whatsoever on Gearbox or the industry as a whole.

    Just look at this time, when people were never going to trust them after DNF.
  9. redxavier
    I too hope SEGA sues Gearbox, but I also hope that is a wakeup call for the gaming press. We've seen numerous articles now about the false advertising of the game, let's see this have consequence on the future dealings Gearbox and Pitchford have within the gaming industry. I want to see websites like IGN and Gamespot refuse to print previews for Gearbox games.

    Let this be an end of 'bullshots' and have the gaming press develop a backbone. No more embargos too.
  10. Xenoscream
    I hope Gearbox gets sued.

    I remember all that time ago talk of a immersive co-op experience, no HUD, squad based game play... all too good to be true.

    I played borderlands 1, to be honest it was fun, but I really didn't think it lived up to the hype,. I was thinking about getting borderlands 2 but now, despite the fact I think I would enjoy it, I'll be damned before I buy another gearbox game.

    Lying scum.

    And as for Del Toro, cut the guy some slack, he basically had a couple of years of his life wasted waiting for the hobbit to start, I think it's understandable that he's taking a more cautious approach to projects after that. And as someone already said, the man makes good shit.
  11. Dusk
    The other 2 projects on his plate. The Hulk TV Show isn't up to him, until Marvel finally gives it the green light. Which I hope they don't. You can't create an awesome Hulk on a TV budget. And his Video game? THQ wouldn't back him because they were short on cash, and are now gone.
  12. CONKERSBADFURDAY
    Quote from: ShadowPred on Feb 17, 2013, 07:43:48 PM
    Quote from: Dusk on Feb 17, 2013, 07:40:02 PM
    Alright, I need more info.


    Del Toro pretty much takes up a movie, only to somehow drop it, and work on something else and one other thing. Take for instance his desire to make At The Mountains of Madness. He basically has stopped work on that and now he's working on Pacific Rim, producing a Hulk TV show, making a video game, developing a sequel to Pacific Rim, etc. He's sort-of-not-working on other projects, not sure where his Frankenstein movie is at nowadays, but I don't think any work has been done on that for a while now. Recently he was going to do Pinocchio, but I think that was dropped as well...there's a few more examples, but I think I've made my point.
    He stopped working on At the Mountains of Madness because publishing studios didn't like his budget plans and wanted him to produce a PG13 film, which he didn't want to do. And then Prometheus came out with similar themes, so Del Toro has stopped his work on the film completely.
  13. ShadowPred
    Quote from: SM on Feb 17, 2013, 10:41:46 PM
    QuoteAnderson: Fan-boy.

    Strause brothers: Fan-boys.

    Pitchford: Fan-boy.


    You forgot Whedon in that list.

    QuotePitchford had the passion, and the knowledge, but his priorities were apparently a bit off.

    Knowledge of what?  It certainly wasn't the universe he was working in.

    Quote from: ShadowPred on Feb 17, 2013, 07:38:43 PM
    Quote from: Dusk on Feb 17, 2013, 07:29:55 PM
    If you have passion for a project, you don't put it on hold 2-3 times, to work on other projects.


    http://comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/18926/guillermo-del-toro1.jpg

    Filmmakers are always putting shit on hold - often for years - until they're in the best position to do them.  The comparison is flawed.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG7MWiwctME#
  14. RagingDragon
    I think back to the comments about Gearbox having access to all of Fox's archives for Aliens, for sound files and film information and canon and blah blah. Meeting with Ridley, too. I mean, such a hype show, and for what?

    What in the story could they not have accomplished without all of that?
  15. SM
    QuoteAnderson: Fan-boy.

    Strause brothers: Fan-boys.

    Pitchford: Fan-boy.


    You forgot Whedon in that list.

    QuotePitchford had the passion, and the knowledge, but his priorities were apparently a bit off.

    Knowledge of what?  It certainly wasn't the universe he was working in.

    Quote from: ShadowPred on Feb 17, 2013, 07:38:43 PM
    Quote from: Dusk on Feb 17, 2013, 07:29:55 PM
    If you have passion for a project, you don't put it on hold 2-3 times, to work on other projects.


    http://comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/18926/guillermo-del-toro1.jpg

    Filmmakers are always putting shit on hold - often for years - until they're in the best position to do them.  The comparison is flawed.
  16. 9th_Stew
    i find it interesting that the moderators/admins here are commenting on these forums now about this mess :D

    - i like it. :)


    i think they spent their money on those shitty mini documentaries where the developers "try" to look cool with their names popping up all fancy n stuff...
  17. ikarop
    There are some opinion based comments on that SOE's tester AMA. I'm not trying to make any excuses for GBX but I know for a fact that they were creating content and adding it to the game after it came back from Timegate. It wasn't only progression blockers or crashes being fixed.
  18. Xhan
    Quote from: Xenomorphine on Feb 17, 2013, 05:32:56 PM
    Anderson: Fan-boy.

    Strause brothers: Fan-boys.

    Pitchford: Fan-boy.

    Being a fan is fine, so long as you don't lose sight of how to make the basic product good, regardless of the licence. Orgasming over whose face model you've scanned in or right to manufacture a specific type of rubber suit means nothing if you wind up putting said digital model or rubber suit into something hopelessly mediocre.

    Incidentally, this is why a TV series usually won't take new writers in unless they give examples of writing for other shows. They want to know if you're a decent writer, period, not whether you've got an encyclopaedic knowledge of what's taken place.

    Just take a look over the majority of fan-films (and, especially, fan-written scripts) and you'll see that the majority aren't in the league of what you would call decent.

    But as SM's said, in this particular case, it wouldn't have hurt Gearbox to have got a few respected consultants in to help with their oft-trumpeted authenticity claims - or just watched the films in an objective manner.

    The issue here is not being a fan-boy, but being a Colonial Marine fan boy, which is the same issue Rebellion had via Preds.
  19. Predaker
    Quote from: Darkness on Feb 17, 2013, 07:48:22 PM
    The situation just keeps on shocking me. Gearbox spent money for ACM on Borderlands? And the Wii U version is apparently worse than what's already been released?

    I *really* hope Sega sue Gearbox. I think they'd have a great case here.

    Nice to hear about the Creative Assembly game though.

    It really is baffling. How they could do this is beyond me. Hearing Randy Pitchford's voice in previews and interviews makes my stomach churn.
  20. Darkness
    The situation just keeps on shocking me. Gearbox spent money for ACM on Borderlands? And the Wii U version is apparently worse than what's already been released?

    I *really* hope Sega sue Gearbox. I think they'd have a great case here.

    Nice to hear about the Creative Assembly game though.
  21. ShadowPred
    Quote from: Dusk on Feb 17, 2013, 07:40:02 PM
    Alright, I need more info.


    Del Toro pretty much takes up a movie, only to somehow drop it, and work on something else and one other thing. Take for instance his desire to make At The Mountains of Madness. He basically has stopped work on that and now he's working on Pacific Rim, producing a Hulk TV show, making a video game, developing a sequel to Pacific Rim, etc. He's sort-of-not-working on other projects, not sure where his Frankenstein movie is at nowadays, but I don't think any work has been done on that for a while now. Recently he was going to do Pinocchio, but I think that was dropped as well...there's a few more examples, but I think I've made my point.
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