By now I imagine most of you will have seen the debacle surrounding Sega’s recent release Aliens: Colonial Marines. There has been numerous comments from alleged ex-Gearbox developers and Timegate staff. The following is a quote from the first comment to be made regarding A: CM’s development:
“Hate to say it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines. I used to work at Gearbox, and the development of that game has been a total train wreck, going on what, 6 years now? Gearbox isn’t even making the game, except for the multiplayer. Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past.”
Further quotes and information regarding the, dare I call it a controversy, can be found in this Destructoid article. You can also find further information in our thread regarding the matter and some of Randy Pitchford’s responses to the criticism.
Even with games, the developers focus on what resonates strongest from Aliens to them, and in this case, that's both incredibly troubling and way off the mark from the majority of other viewers. Those "cool" elements are "cool" because they're in a well constructed tale, exactly where elements like that are supposed to be.
Strip them out of the larger narrative, and they lose all context and meaning. Focusing on these elements too much, or at best letting them distract you from creating a powerful story, seem common to the hardcore fans that create their own things. It results in an immature product, but that's not a judgment call on someone's personality, only on their ability to understand, dissect, and reconstruct stories and narrative plotlines well.
It's like saying a lawyer won't make a good doctor. There are people who can understand the core elements of stories and how they're used better than others, though anyone can probably learn.. but there are also people that obviously don't do this as well, or fans that can be distracted by the coolness that they get to wield. "Like a kid who's gotten ahold of his dad's gun!"
Spoiler
Pitchford had the passion, and the knowledge, but his priorities were apparently a bit off. His idea of what 'Aliens' is to fans must have been quite underdeveloped, given how shallow our final product (the story, I mean) ended up being. We've also entered territory where he's just become an open and pathological liar.
At least the Bros. could come out and acknowledge mistakes post-mortem.
Maybe Timegate did that bit
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.
Fully agree with you, Elicas... But this is no AVP! This is an Aliens sequel in game form! I think all Alien fans converge on what they would want to see and the quality of treatment this Sci-fi saga deserves!
Aliens is not AVP! And Gearbox treated the Aliens sequel like it was an AVP game, only far worse! Gearbox showed, with this game, that all they care about is money and being in a creative process, this kind of mercenary behavior is proof that they direly need of new guidance! Otherwise, they deserve to fall into oblivion!
The Alien saga is not a crossover cashcow! It goes beyond that and I am sure as an Alien fan, and I have been here and read most of my fellow ALien fans remarks, we mostly are in tune with the respect we demand from Fox, the programmers, the editors, etc, even if we personally favor this character over that one or this set over that one...!
You really believe that? Fans on this forum can't even agree over what would make a good Aliens game, let alone saying that "Fans would KNOW what we would like to see in an Aliens game". Know? f**k we can't even all agree whether we want a solo campaign focussed game or a MP/CO-OP focussed game.
Then every time an AVP is announced we have the Pred fans who don't want Aliens in their Predator franchise, and Aliens fans who don't want Preds in their Alien franchise! We're a fanbase naturally divided by those who enjoyed Alien/Alien 3's horror and those who prefer Aliens action-horror. We're a fanbase who cannot truly come to any sort of consensus because there are as many opinions as there are fans to voice them.
Just being a fan doesn't make you infallible at making something relating to whatever you a fan of.
They should have thought of that, before craping all over this game! All they had to do was to fulfill their contract with the dedication and professionalism any contract implies! I think Gearbox treated us fans like cattle, easily manipulated and underestimating us into believing that any piece of crap with Aliens in it would be enough, or thinkjing that hype alone would give them the sales they wanted! I think we all got duped big time! And for that, Randy and the other members of Gearbox should be out of the job! Unethical as they were, and pursuing their own agenda and even using time and money given to them By Sega to invest on Borderlands, clearly breaching their contract, I think Sega can and should give them nine circles of hell! So that this could send the signals to other companies what they should expect when they violate their contract to pursue their own private agendas! Randy, you will never have credibility again! You should step down! Gearbox, because of all this ethical and professional debacle, will never have my money again! I don't and will never trust them again!
Yeah but fans got a wife and child too.
If you have no money to feed them, you won't work.
I hardly think so, Xenomorphine... Fans would not do what they did! Fans would give this game their fullest attention, they did not! Fans would KNOW what we would like to se in an Aliens game AND have the technical and storytelling expertise to build up on that amazing world and go beyond it! And certainly Fans would have NOT have BSed other fans!
I think Gearbox deserves all the fallout imaginable after this total lack of respect for their contract, for being derelict of duty, and certainly for lying so shamelessly for months and months!
I hope they get the punishment they deserve, like no other publishing houses ordering any games to them! I think this has to stop! This is not just a fan thing, this is an ethical issue! An issue I hope Sega takes to the last consequences... I bet they never knew Gearbox actually outsourced ALL of the SP campaign to TimeGate... I bet Sega would never allow a company that has no relevant experience, especially in Alien games, to be in charge of such an important game for, for us and for the industry! ESPECIALLY after saying that this excuse of a story is now CANON! OMG
Cheers!
That's effectively what Gearbox were...
Entering the territory of hardcore fan-boy/girl-ism is when you step over the line into pure enthusiasm at the expense of reason and common sense.
Mods can delete or keep it going what ever they want to do
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=47114.165
http://i1.minus.com/iTeTRho14DHI6.png
Reddit admin proving the poster was infact an employee
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee137/aranathos/verified_zps7637dd5a.png
Now read it somewhere -only the translation not the original- that sega denies the fact he outsorced the game rather timegate and other devs only helped gbx because they were too busy with borderlands and etc. But its a90% gbx work
sounds bullshit to me...or the lets pointing our fingers begins
As they apparently verified him/her, what's said is interesting. Especially with verification of the supposed demonstration build never having been sent for testing. Not that I was ever impressed with it as in any way fresh or innovative, but if this is true, it would back up the view of that version never ultimately being intended for the public.
Squad control was the one thing I was surprised, however, to see go down the pan. Should've been incredibly easy. Flight simulators were doing it for wingmen, way back in the 1990s. Oh, how I miss the likes of 'EF-2000'... They're either dumbed down arcade shooters or way too complicated, these days. Nothing realistic and relatively accessible.
Would've liked to seen confirmation over what type of game Creative Assembly are doing development for, but you can't have everything.
We'll have an idea about how accurate this is if the Nintendo version either has those mini-games or is cancelled.
"Yes, there will be legal ramifications."
Ominous...
This.
I wonder what kind of game it's going to be like. What genre?
The positive words about Creative Assembly's Alien game... good to hear
Depends on how you look at it.
If this is true, I would fully support Sega suing their asses.
Just sayin'
this guy is just repeating what was all over the news and possibly making shit up.
What do you guys think, is it a god idea for a petiton for a adequate compensation?
It was, at one point. The current mess belongs to Mikey Neuman, no one knows what Brad and David originally wrote.
we didn't have gameplay back in 2008 and it was still a tactical squad shooter.
I disagree.
It looks "well" but not great.
Far better graphic existed already and since a few years.