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Playable Females in Aliens: Colonial Marines Announced

Gearbox has just announced the inclusion of playable female marines in both the co-op and multiplayer aspects of the game. Three additional playable co-op characters have also been announced today. According to Gearbox:

“Female marines are playable in competitive multiplayer as well as co-op, complete with customization elements. This is something the team has been planning and working on for quite some time, and that work is finally at the point where we can confirm it will indeed ship with the game when it releases on February 12, 2013.”

Below you can see all three new characters:

 Playable Females in Aliens: Colonial Marines Announced

“Demarcus, Jennifer and Guillermo appear as playable characters in co-op. When playing through the campaign in co-op, the host controls Winter with the rest of the party able to choose between players Demarcus, Jennifer and Guillermo — complete with a variety of customization elements we’ll have more on later.”

“This is great news for all dynamic fans of Aliens. Especially the ladies!” Said Colette Hiller (Cpl. Ferro in Aliens) when she heard about the news.

For more news about Aliens: Colonial Marines at PAX Prime, including interviews and gameplay footage please visit the forums here.



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Comments: 50
  1. Queeny Pants
    Unfortunately I've seen that done before, but a lot of developers take the sensible option of at least trying to keep the hit-boxes roughly the same on both models.
    Keyword here is trying, sadly..
  2. WinterActual
    Quote from: Queeny Pants on Sep 12, 2012, 08:25:39 PM
    just seems a nice touch to have the option.

    This option will be abused to hell because the females have smaller frame, which means they are harder to hit. In 99% of the cases the females in the competitive mp games are considered as cheating because they give an unfair advantage to the players. Halo is fine example of the opposite - the elites have bigger frame which makes them easier to hit and this gives advantage to the enemy players. Its gonna be the same with ACM. The whole marine team will go females because they will be harder to grab, pounce and spit on.
  3. Queeny Pants
    I remember actually being in that live-chat and posting as 'Vasquez' to ask if female marines would be included, but even with all the drama that ensued from my innocent enough curiosity, I'm glad that they had female marines after-all.
    I don't mind and I'm actually pretty used to playing as dudes for my 'avatar' in various games, just seems a nice touch to have the option.
    Although I'm a bit more involved than just that one question now, as hopefully will be revealed on the facebook page soon.
  4. FightFinda
    Quote from: WinterActual on Sep 10, 2012, 10:27:29 AM
    I've said something similar in the gbx forums, about gbx using this whole fem marines shit as opportunity to add some credits on their acc for pleasing the "fans" and the feminist groups and I got banned  :laugh: What a nice devs aren't they?  ::)

    Really? that's shocking!  ::)

    Haha you know I'm kidding  :laugh:, but seriously that does sound a bit harsh considering you were only expressing your opinion and... well... saying what everyone else was thinking to be honest. It turns out we were wrong anyway, and as PsyKore quite rightly said, they opted to claim they had it in there all along and that we were ignorant to not get on to that fact!  >:(

    Put it this way, I was watching that 30 minute long interview with Brian a couple of days ago (which ikarop was kind enough to post up) and he blatently said (when asked if there would be playable female marines in the game by someone called Vasquez-something funnily enough) that there would absolutely be NO playable marines, and no Mr. Pitchford, he did not say there would be no playable females in the demo they were showing! nor do I give a flying f*ck if there was a female on the cover art - if a dev says there's no playable females; that is obviously what I am going to believe, perhaps you should check with the provider of that inaccurate information before you claim "I don't know where you got that from".

    Sorry for that little rant but after seeing that interview first-hand, I have to admit, I felt downright insulted after Randy's ingnorant comments on the matter, and Moosh likely took that worse than me but neverless it was him who looked the unaware.  ;)

    Has anyone seen the King of Queens episode where Doug invited his new neighbours over to his house and was given scotch that, after tasting it, he didn't like and decided to pour it down the sink (unknown to him) in plain view of the guest he recieved it from...then... even after he knew he had been caught in the act, he continued to deny that he poured it down the sink and protested that he had drank it! Yep, that's what Randy's reaction to this matter reminded be of, to be perfectly honest.
  5. WinterActual
    I've said something similar in the gbx forums, about gbx using this whole fem marines shit as opportunity to add some credits on their acc for pleasing the "fans" and the feminist groups and I got banned  :laugh: What a nice devs aren't they?  ::)
  6. PsyKore
    You'd think Pitchford would've taken this as an opportunity to exclaim how close Gearbox are with the fans and that they listen to our feedback rather than shrugging it off as something amusing. 
  7. Hudson
    Pretty cool stuff. I'm going to Indianapolis this weekend for the HorrorHound event and will be able to get a picture with Goldstein and Scott. I guess I can personally thank them for their campaigning.
  8. Hemi
    Quote from: acrediblesource on Sep 03, 2012, 06:35:47 PM
    Well Gearbox is dealing With FOX so.....
    and Unreal Ed can be downloaded for free. Its FOX intellectual property that they don't want  floating about in cyberspace which is totally understandable.

    Its not. Allot of us just want to prolong the legacy of the game with modding. And regarding the console debate :

    http://ignitegt.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IgniteGT-PC-gaming-vs-CONSOLE-gaming1.png

    So yeah...It would be very...very...wise to release an SDK.

    EDIT : and thats an old research. This year alone a million copies were sold by releasing a mod (DayZ) for a 3 year old game. So yeah..... I would release a SDK if I were them.
  9. Terx2
    Wooo Hoooo 8) Justice is done.

    Quote from: FightFinda on Sep 03, 2012, 09:55:39 PM
    Quote from: brokentusk420 on Sep 03, 2012, 06:23:25 PM
    BOOOOO!!! Great wasting more time and pushing the release date further. WAY TO GO....

    https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.qkme.me%2F35cjjt.jpg&hash=63eca9b77e99f3171d173ffc0e23f615ceba339b

    Huh? Your point is both invalid and obnoxious. Firstly, we can be certain that GBX will not push the release date back further as a result of this petition as they have already claimed that they have been working on including playable females for a while now. To push the date back now would confirm that this statement was an outright lie and they were basically a bunch of ingnorant assholes - not good for sales.

    Secondly, your point is obnoxious and completely ignorant as it appears to me that you are blatently trying to be negative with no foundations to support that opinion, AND Moosh here; who single-handedly managed to create a petition and recieve 3900 signatures beyond her initial target to support her goal, along with the support of myriad of cast members from the actual movie; clearly deserves more than this imbecilic outburst.

    I was originally against this petition as I had similar worries to you in that I believed, if they hadn't already begun development, it would do more harm than good; but I managed to push that opinion aside and become more empathetic rather than insulting.

    We all have our opinions, I agree, I'm just saying yours is stupid.

    Well said 8) :)
  10. Griffith
    Quote from: FightFinda on Sep 03, 2012, 09:55:39 PM
    Quote from: brokentusk420 on Sep 03, 2012, 06:23:25 PM
    BOOOOO!!! Great wasting more time and pushing the release date further. WAY TO GO....

    https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.qkme.me%2F35cjjt.jpg&hash=63eca9b77e99f3171d173ffc0e23f615ceba339b

    Huh? Your point is both invalid and obnoxious. Firstly, we can be certain that GBX will not push the release date back further as a result of this petition as they have already claimed that they have been working on including playable females for a while now. To push the date back now would confirm that this statement was an outright lie and they were basically a bunch of ingnorant assholes - not good for sales.

    Secondly, your point is obnoxious and completely ignorant as it appears to me that you are blatently trying to be negative with no foundations to support that opinion, AND Moosh here; who single-handedly managed to create a petition and recieve 3900 signatures beyond her initial target to support her goal, along with the support of myriad of cast members from the actual movie; clearly deserves more than this imbecilic outburst.

    I was originally against this petition as I had similar worries to you in that I believed, if they hadn't already begun development, it would do more harm than good; but I managed to push that opinion aside and become more empathetic rather than insulting.

    We all have our opinions, I agree, I'm just saying yours is stupid.

    Shit, I tip my hat to you sir
  11. ShadowPred
    Quote from: FightFinda on Sep 03, 2012, 09:55:39 PM
    Quote from: brokentusk420 on Sep 03, 2012, 06:23:25 PM
    BOOOOO!!! Great wasting more time and pushing the release date further. WAY TO GO....

    https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.qkme.me%2F35cjjt.jpg&hash=63eca9b77e99f3171d173ffc0e23f615ceba339b

    Huh? Your point is both invalid and obnoxious. Firstly, we can be certain that GBX will not push the release date back further as a result of this petition as they have already claimed that they have been working on including playable females for a while now. To push the date back now would confirm that this statement was an outright lie and were basically a bunch of ingnorant assholes - not good for sales.

    Secondly, your point is obnoxious and completely ignorant as it appears to me that your are blatently trying to be negative with know foundations to support that opinion, AND Moosh here; who single-handedly managed to create a petition and recieve 3900 signatures beyond her initial target to support her goal, along with the support of myriad of cast members from the actual movie; clearly deserves more than this imbecilic outburst.

    I was originally against this petition as I had similar worries to you in that I believed, if they hadn't already begun development, it would do more harm than good; but I managed to push that opinion aside and become more empathetic rather than insulting.

    We all have our opinions, I agree, I'm just saying yours is stupid.



    Well f**king said.
  12. FightFinda
    Quote from: brokentusk420 on Sep 03, 2012, 06:23:25 PM
    BOOOOO!!! Great wasting more time and pushing the release date further. WAY TO GO....

    https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.qkme.me%2F35cjjt.jpg&hash=63eca9b77e99f3171d173ffc0e23f615ceba339b

    Huh? Your point is both invalid and obnoxious. Firstly, we can be certain that GBX will not push the release date back further as a result of this petition as they have already claimed that they have been working on including playable females for a while now. To push the date back now would confirm that this statement was an outright lie and they were basically a bunch of ingnorant assholes - not good for sales.

    Secondly, your point is obnoxious and completely ignorant as it appears to me that you are blatently trying to be negative with no foundations to support that opinion, AND Moosh here; who single-handedly managed to create a petition and recieve 3900 signatures beyond her initial target to support her goal, along with the support of myriad of cast members from the actual movie; clearly deserves more than this imbecilic outburst.

    I was originally against this petition as I had similar worries to you in that I believed, if they hadn't already begun development, it would do more harm than good; but I managed to push that opinion aside and become more empathetic rather than insulting.

    We all have our opinions, I agree, I'm just saying yours is stupid.
  13. DaddyYautja
    It's great that this got pushed through but now i hope all the female marines arent super model-skinny like that concept art is showing.

    When the game comes out we should all just game women avatars as a celebration.
  14. Predaker
    They aren't even going to release a collector's edition for PC in NA, so I don't think they would spend the time to develop an SDK for the PC gaming community.

    ...and A:CM has not been pushed back to add playable females + black marines. According to gearbox, they planned this all along. :P
  15. chupacabras acheronsis
    SDKs are not that hard to make. sometimes they are just lite versions of the professional tools developers use, which means all they have to do is apply a couple scripts, other times they are just executables coded to decompress and unpack the game files into workable junk. both those things can be done by someone else with time and a little knowledge, and a lot of people can do that. and then they can share freely.

    whatever, if people managed to take the assets of AvP2010, then they sure ass hell are going to work just fine without an SDK. it's just a matter of tipping hat to the community and actually wanting it to grow and extend itself further. however, this means they can't release outrageously poor DLC or churm out a sequel that's barely any improvement, so that's why you don't see games with them nowadays.
  16. acrediblesource
    Well Gearbox is dealing With FOX so.....
    and Unreal Ed can be downloaded for free. Its FOX intellectual property that they don't want  floating about in cyberspace which is totally understandable.
    And i'm sure they haven't pushed it back considerably. They probably had a female marine in MP on their to-do list considering that there are females marines in the movie and a selection screen like this would be terribly lacking with out this alternative. It be like 1999 all over again.

    Quote from: WinterActual on Sep 03, 2012, 06:24:35 PM
    Quote from: acrediblesource on Sep 03, 2012, 06:21:57 PM
    I agree about the SDK. These aren't "magical blocks" in the game as they were in 1999, they are very complex art assets. And giving the public the means to crack open this game in which developers spent quiet alot of budget on is defeating the purpose of the effort. Besides to fully utilize an SDK of this scope requires the equivalent of a post- college diploma (yes there are game development certs out there) to get the most out of it. 


    Tripwire Interactive are using the same engine but they released SDK for Red Orchestra 2 soon after the release.
  17. WinterActual
    Quote from: acrediblesource on Sep 03, 2012, 06:21:57 PM
    I agree about the SDK. These aren't "magical blocks" in the game as they were in 1999, they are very complex art assets. And giving the public the means to crack open this game in which developers spent quiet alot of budget on is defeating the purpose of the effort. Besides to fully utilize an SDK of this scope requires the equivalent of a post- college diploma (yes there are game development certs out there) to get the most out of it. 


    Tripwire Interactive are using the same engine but they released SDK for Red Orchestra 2 soon after the release.
  18. acrediblesource
    I agree about the SDK. These aren't "magical blocks" in the game as they were in 1999, they are very complex art assets. And giving the public the means to crack open this game in which developers spent quiet alot of budget on is defeating the purpose of the effort. Besides to fully utilize an SDK of this scope requires the equivalent of a post- college diploma (yes there are game development certs out there) to get the most out of it. 

    To have the public slap on boobs and wigs into the game is a travesty.



    Quote from: Moosh89 on Sep 03, 2012, 04:37:21 PM
    Quote from: Hemi on Sep 03, 2012, 09:22:52 AM
    While I love the fact you made the devs consider and implement this Moosh...something rubs the wrong way.(just a little) If you had hold a petition for a SDK/modding tools were we could mod the game so it had female characters...that would make more sense to me imo. And would actually prolong the lifespan of game as we could implement all sorts of new content.

    None the less its quite the achievement to get something done on community demand within the realm of Sega. Congrats.


    Thanks for the kind words Hemi (I really enjoy your work by the way)

    However a large amount of the sales (including mine which might be for two consoles) is from console players. Consoles get left out of cool mods and many of us can't afford gaming PCs

    Thanks for the kind words everyone!
  19. Moosh89
    Thank you so much!

    ---------------------------------------------------

    A reply to the Thank you letter I sent Ms. Hiller!:

    Quote'this is great news for all dynamic  fans of Aliens.  Especially the ladies!

    Corp Ferro

  20. shadowedge
    Congratulations Moosh! You did it! You rallied the fans together, the Aliens cast, and other gamers. You showed the world that with enough dedication and perseverance that one person can make a difference.

    You really did something great here for fans of the film and women everywhere.

    Good job! You should be so proud.   :D
  21. WinterActual
    Quote from: Stringer2355 on Sep 03, 2012, 04:36:08 PM
    You'll be able to write on your gear,
    Lol! If its freely writing well... here comes the whining  :laugh: Some guys will draw a penis or a swastika or the SS logo or something, then someone will report them. The GBX will start to ban these people for 72 hours or something, but still this is not going to stop anybody for doing funny pictures on their gear. 3 months later they will disable the free writing system and we will have just pre-sets. I am ok with this. But why they bother including such feature if they already know what will happen?  :laugh: I mean it always happen like that with the "open" creation tools  ::) I can't to see what will happen with this feature ^^
  22. Moosh89
    Quote from: Hemi on Sep 03, 2012, 09:22:52 AM
    While I love the fact you made the devs consider and implement this Moosh...something rubs the wrong way.(just a little) If you had hold a petition for a SDK/modding tools were we could mod the game so it had female characters...that would make more sense to me imo. And would actually prolong the lifespan of game as we could implement all sorts of new content.

    None the less its quite the achievement to get something done on community demand within the realm of Sega. Congrats.


    Thanks for the kind words Hemi (I really enjoy your work by the way)

    However a large amount of the sales (including mine which might be for two consoles) is from console players. Consoles get left out of cool mods and many of us can't afford gaming PCs

    Thanks for the kind words everyone!
  23. Stringer2355
    http://kotaku.com/5939939/despite-accusations-aliens-colonial-marines-will-indeed-have-female-marines-gearbox-says?tag=aliens

    Aliens: Colonial Marines Will Indeed Have Female Characters, Gearbox Says
    Tina Amini
    You'll be able to play and customize lady marines in Aliens: Colonial Marines, developer Gearbox assured fans during a panel at PAX Prime today. You can hop in the clunky metal shoes of Jennifer Redding during co-op play and even customize an array of female avatars for competitive multiplayer.

    Gearbox didn't want to announce anything today, but they felt they had to, CEO Randy Pitchford told me in a recent meeting. The decision to reveal the remaining three cooperative characters (including Redding, who you can see in the above concept art) came as a reaction to a growing online petition that accused the first-person shooter of excluding both playable female characters and female character customization in competitive play.

    The petition, which currently holds over 3,800 signatures, appears to be supported by several of the 1986 Aliens film's actors and actresses that performed the roles of marines.
    The online controversy was first stirred by a post-E3 interview where senior producer Brian Burleson had claimed there were no playable female characters. What he meant, Pitchford told me, was that there were no playable characters in the E3 demo, which only featured team deathmatch.

    It was always the plan to include playable female characters, Pitchford told me. Working with female avatar builds, he explained, is beneficial for both visual diversity—animations and silhouettes that differ from male characters—as well as gameplay diversity. Females have a different skeleton and therefore move differently than the male marines. 

    Competitive multiplayer will feature a whole range of both male and female characters, all of which can be customized. You'll be able to write on your gear, customize your armor, and even attach a flamethrower to your pulse rifle if you felt so inclined.

    Because the announcement is earlier than the team expected, some details are still being ironed out. Subtleties ranging from mohawk hairstyles to the stance of the lead co-op hero are subject to change. But Gearbox felt the need to clarify that there will indeed be both a playable female marine in co-op, as well as customizable female avatars in the game's competitive multiplayer mode.
  24. Valaquen
    Quote from: SM on Sep 02, 2012, 11:58:54 PM
    QuoteThe online controversy was first stirred by a post-E3 interview where senior producer Brian Burleson had claimed there were no playable female characters. What he meant, Pitchford told me, was that there were no playable characters in the E3 demo, which only featured team deathmatch

    Backpedal much...
    Pitchford also denied they weren't including female Marines in the multiplayer (he skirted the question with his answer, pointing to the single player, when multiplayer was the issue). Talk about damage control. Well done everyone  :)
  25. Hemi
    While I love the fact you made the devs consider and implement this Moosh...something rubs the wrong way.(just a little) If you had hold a petition for a SDK/modding tools were we could mod the game so it had female characters...that would make more sense to me imo. And would actually prolong the lifespan of game as we could implement all sorts of new content.

    None the less its quite the achievement to get something done on community demand within the realm of Sega. Congrats.
  26. Moosh89
    Quote from: Sexy Poot on Sep 03, 2012, 12:57:08 AM
    Yeah, most people will inevitably look this over, but it really is a big deal that this started from a small fan-site from one person.

    That is hard to believe  ;D, but the truth actually is it was a combined effort!  ;D

    Special Thanks to ADC for making that awesome video appeal!!!

    Everyone should check out his site!, He has an interesting Aliens Documentary coming soon that I can't wait to see!

    What a whirlwind!

    I just finished emailing/facebooking/tweeting the cast some nice "Thank you"s!

    My fingers are gonna fall off!!!
  27. Predaker
    Their comments are damage control, I think. They claim they weren't ready to reveal this new info yet, but they did it anyway because of the growing petition.

    Why wasn't it ready to be shown? Maybe because they just started working on it... ;)

    Regardless, I am ecstatic. Thanks again to all supporters!
  28. Njm1983
    I guess congratulations are in order. Though gearbox won't admit it, I truly believe mooshs efforts are what turned the tide. Without her perseverance I really doubt that gearbox would have been making the announcements we've seen today.
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