I picked up the Limited Edition copy for 99p recently. And I didn't have to search for long - Every second hand games outlet has at least 5 copies sitting on shelves.I ale=ready had a digital copy but didn't feel it warranted taking up so much room on my hard drive.
Aliens: Colonial Marines was a crushing disappointment. I remember when the cinematic trailer dropped:
I was completely blown away. The true-to-film visuals, the music from Moon which worked perfectly. I was thinking "Is this the game I've always dreamed of? Will it finally feel like being a Colonial Marine?" Of course, I knew not to judge it based on a pre-rendered animation. But my hopes were high.
Those hopes seemed not misplaced when they showcased in-game footage. I was extremely hyped. Although I didn't preorder. The only game I've ever preordered was Majora's Mask. I tend to go for "Hey, this game is great, you should give it a try!" from friends rather than the same message from promotional material.
The developers made such promises, reassured us that they were devout Aliens fans, going deep into the universe and tech, and would deliver as a sequel to Aliens. And then it came out, and I was really dismayed to see all the negative reviews. But I bought it anyway, thinking my love for the franchise would push past the negativity. It didn't.
People talk about No Man's Sky being such a deceptive bit of promotion but Colonial Marines was far worse. At least No Man's Sky was just stripped down. A:CM was stripped down, broken and very cheap looking. It was a disgusting middle finger to fans, promising so much just to run away with the cash. It's boring, repetitive, uninspired, glitchy, the dialogue and voice acting is woeful, the character models are sub-par, the animation clunky and the AI is outshone by a pocket calculator. I can't find anything remotely fun about firing in the general direction of a group of enemies and watching them take turns to walk into your line of fire. It feels like a mod for a game published 10 years ago.
I really think both the games and movie industry need to have some kind of governing body which regulates these things. Sure, a developer can display game footage with the disclaimer "Not final product" but you'd think that would mean 'It'll be better than this, this is just a beta build' rather than 'We haven't worked out how to properly implement this yet.' If you are having problems including a gameplay mechanic in the final version, say so while showing the prototype footage. In the case of No Man's Sky, I think it was because the lies were so definitive - Sean Murray would be asked 'Is this going to be in the game?' to which he replied with a flat-out 'yes.'
The movie industry is just as bad. Comic book movies are the worst for this. I can't think of any other genre of film where there are scenes promised in a trailer that don't appear in the final cut. The trailer for Fant4stic was a joke. Then again, so was the movie.
If you heard a song you liked, and it was advertised to be from a new album, so you buy the album and it wasn't on there, you'd ask for your money back and there would be lawsuits. I don't see why the movies and games industry should be any different.
Tl:dr - A:CM is a terrible, cheap, unfinished game and a perfect example of a cancer eating away at the video games industry. But I bought it twice and completed it twice, so I'm a hypocritical consumer whore.
