I know I’m pretty late to the party but I just couldn’t bring myself to write this thing any earlier…As we all know Gearbox and Sega released the eagerly anticipated Aliens: Colonial Marines mid-last month and here’s what I’ve got to say:
“I’m not going to mercilessly slaughter this game because I’m not interested in coasting along with the craze that has become the mocking of this game. I’m just so disappointed in what we, as the consumer, were fed. I imagine this is what it feels like, as a parent, when you utter those words to your spawn: “ I’m not angry. I’m just disappointed.””
You can read the entirety of my thoughts here. Agree or disagree with anything I’ve said? We’d love to hear your comments in the forum.
Quit while you're ahead.
This here...THIS.
I'm actually enjoying it...yes! ok the graphics are no where near the quality of recent releases such as Halo 4 and is almost certainly not the same game we were shown a few months back which did have much better lighting and visuals, but it has not really bothered me too much to the point where its unbearable to play. I've started on Hardened difficulty after reading how easy the game apparently was, I did find it challenging to be honest... its either because i was tired this morning, im just crap at playing games or the game is actually more challenging now with the new patch updates its been having.
I'm still on the Sulaco so not gone far yet into the game, I've given the multiplayer a quick go and it seems fun enough...but then I have only given it a quick go and no idea when the novelty will where off yet...but yeah its ok.
I can't really rate the game yet, but it seems to be ok and I think ill prob end up agreeing with what OXM had to say about the game... its not as bad as people are making out, but then its no where near as good as Gearbox were letting on it was going be...so that's where the real disappointment is really.
Condors.
I think with Aliens: Colonial Marines it didn't require any discipline. They merely read what others (the previous movies) had done then they took the next step. They didn't earn the knowledge for themselves, so they don't take any responsibility for it. They stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as they could, and before they even knew what they had, they patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now *bangs on table* you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Well...
Ok, maybe this was done intentionally, still a stupid decision imo because in Aliens these pulse rifles weren't any different from the others. And 95 is not 99
It was intentional, not an oversight. Ripley's flamethrower and Hudson's pulse rifle both hold 95 rounds per mag.
Ha, that's really funny I don't own this game but I watched/read a lot of online reviews and it always bugged me when I saw the pulse rifle with 40/60 rounds... and while the game is mostly trashed by critics a lot of people were saying that they liked the "attention to detail" and I felt like nope, they even f**ked up the ammo for the pulse rifle...
Bug Hunt is a pretty good time too, if you can get over the waves of WY soldiers thrown in every once in awhile.
I didn't get to hear all the blatant false promises pre-release because I haven't been home since before September of last year, had pre-mob training before that, and was fresh out of BCT and AIT about two months before that. In the time spent before that I was doing all my last minute shit and was busy.
So I had NO IDEA about all what was promised and what wasn't and couldn't get my expectations up one way or the other. And haven't really with anything Alien or Predator related in a very long time. Since before the first AvP movie. I know you shouldn't have to temper your expectations with anything associated with your favorit franchise, but I do anyways.
I just had the fam send this game to me in Africa last week and just got around to playing it a couple of nights ago. So far, it does play like a beta release, but I don't really think it has been as godawful as everybody has said it was.
That being said, releasing a game with terrible hit detection (can't always shoot through open doors), an alternate fire that spams itself non stop (my most often death is nade spamming a wall with an alternate weapon fire I did not use), and dirt stupid AI is pretty inexcusable. That should've been worked out.
The game lacks intensity, nothing about it is scary, and it seems to favor itself as a Call of Aliens type of game.........but something about it has kept me coming back for more so far. Maybe the environs, seeing how combat in the Aliens universe would work between ships? Easter eggs and moving around in places only seen in the movies?
I don't know. Pretty early in the campaign, but right now its good enough that I intend to finish it.
No mp until I get back to my other duty station. Internet here is garbage. And I hear MP is where this game makes its money.
He copy and pasted onto the GBX forums as his first and only post. A sore bottom does indeed to sum it up.
Ah i read this the other day and it was very well done.(good blog BTW Valaquen)
People don't seem to realize that GBX kept shoving it in our faces how big an they were of the series and yet they made so many mistakes,so we have a right to be nitpicky.It seems people keep missing the point as to why we are pissed about hicks<I like many other people here don't have a problem with him being alive its just how it was was/was not explained at all.
I agree that concept art is pretty epic and would have been alot better then trying to shoehorn Hadley's hope in dispite a little thing like a 40 megaton explosion going off.
I haven't even entered that part of my brain where I'm seriously contemplating Hicks being alive, because the game shoved it in my face in such a blatantly idiotic way that the plot isn't even a plot.
It doesn't have any of the qualifications of a real plot, no research, no attempt to make any sense or fit in in the universe in any way, and barely any cohesion with its own mess of rushed and impossible events. I mean it's sub-AvP level for how little sense it makes and how hard it charges forward narratively, fueled by this absolutely contrived nonsense.
Why would you respect a story like that, when there are so many writers who work their ass off and bend over backwards to make their stories plausible, coherent, etc...
No thanks dude, it's okay to like the game.. but be honest. Bad is bad is bad is bad is bad, even though I love the mp. The story is the definition of how you insult fans. It's textbook.
Suspension of disbelief doesn't even begin to cover it. A:CM wants us to practice "suspension of intelligence" in order to enjoy this.
Great Review Valaquen, I wish to know what happened in this space station and futuristic colony.
The concept art were so promising back in the day, I don't know why they tried to focus on LV-426.
Derelict is okay but Sulaco and Hadley's Hope were obviously to be erased.
http://alienseries.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/aliens-colonial-marines/#comment-891
Butt... hurt...
Yeah I saw that. Cheers.
The piece is getting a lot of love over at the GBX forums.
Val, I can't even hardly watch any of the pre-release videos. Just the sound of Pitchford's voice has now been inseparably linked to a list of very negative emotions. That must have been rough.
Damn fine work.
Really well done, excellent read.
The only possible typo I saw was hear - "(you can probably expect to be asked to play for DLC to explain the whole debacle)".
I think you mean "pay for DLC"?
Otherwise, an excellent summation. I'm glad someone did it and that it wasn't me.
The honchos at Gearbox look unbelievably foolish.
At least Mikey was quite candid about what we would be getting...
http://alienseries.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/aliens-colonial-marines/
It's like the "Guile Theme Goes With Everything" videos. Sheer perfection.
Apparently Hitler doesn't like it either.
Nothing was 'game breaking' after I figured out how to re-equip your weapons to get rid of the empty hand glitch, but it was so consistently inconsistent and buggy that it upheld it's lofty title as buggiest game I've ever seen.
I can speak for myself, and I had nice Marine AI actually! Meaning that I even yelled at them for killing the Xenos off and not letting me kill them! I am serious! Other times, though, I would find myself killing the ones that sneaked up behind us and get attacked from behind, because my guys were doing God knows what! But I have to tell you, that I had minimal bugs as well! I played on the PC and I never had the troubles most of my fellow fans had! I know the consoles' version was troubled, but my PC one didn't have the Aliens dancing and doing weird stuff! Yes, they were always ignoring the other Marines to get to me, but I understood that, because otherwise, if my Marines were perfect, I would never even have time to get any! HAHAHAHA Actually, O'Neal and Bella were quite useful... Sometimes, WAY too much! In some parts of the Wey-Yu facility outside levels, they annoyed me because I would go ahead and they would take care of the recycling Xenos that would show up... So, unless I moved on, They would stick in there forever killing Xenos...! I kid you not! So, I didn't have the AI problems other had, but I never said anything, because I saw the console version and often times, the console version is crappy with regards to the PC versions and some other times, the other way around...
SO, yes, I agree with you, acrediblesource... Having said that though, the game still has an awful story, the AI is sometimes chaotic, but that adds to the chaos of the battle... You never know whereas a Xeno is going to charge you or going for your teammates, and when you're fighting a Xeno, another comes back from behind you... BUt yes, I never experienced the incredible bugs some have reported, to be honest...
The Xenos look crappy, though... And the death animations, bleargh!
PS - Having seen the Youtube videos, I am wondering if those AI problems weren't caused by Co-OP... I mean, there could be some AI tracking issues because of the programmers not factoring in your friends and the O'Neal AI, for instance... Just some random thoughts...
BUT
We all know that never came to pass in the movies! Wey-Yu, by Alien3 and 200 years later, in A:R, never got their hands on a Xeno specimen, whether a hugger, burster or full-grown Xeno! So, when confronted with the obvious question 'which is canon, the games or the movies', especially when they so blatantly contradict eachother, I woul bet all my money on the movies! So, ACM is not canon, and will never be, unless FOX is willing to explain what do they value more as canon, the games or the movies! HAHAHAHA
Pretty damn spot on I'd say, fella.
The Hicks thing was so irritating,
Spoiler
Don't set up a narrative around a mystery if you can't be bothered to explain it. At the very least include the location with the egg from the start of Alien 3! So disappointing.
Still quite enjoy playing it, though, so maybe I am the proverbial bigger fool.
Ah well.
I pretty much agree with the big majority of it.
My review is online now.