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Royal Armouries Firearms Expert Reacts to Aliens: Fireteam Elite Weapons

Gamespot have shared a video in which Jonathan Ferguson, a firearms expert and Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England, reacts to some of the new Colonial Marine weaponry from Cold Iron Studio’s Aliens: Fireteam Elite.

Jonathan Ferguson, a weapons expert and Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries, breaks down the sci-fi arsenal of Aliens: Fireteam Elite, including the legendary Smartgun, the OCAP-91 Volcan flamethrower and, of course, the iconic M4A1 Pulse Rifle. In the latest video in the Firearm Expert Reacts series, Jonathan Ferguson–a weapons expert and Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries–breaks down the guns of Aliens: Fireteam Elite and compares them to their real-life inspirations.

Jonathan has worked with Gamespot to produce a series of these videos where he examines the weaponry of many shooter games that are worth checking out! Again, working with Gamespot, Jonathan was also featured in a mini-documentary taking a look at how the Pulse Rifle was made. And if you fancy seeing one for yourself in person, the Royal Armouries is also home to one of Aliens’ screen-used stunt Pulse Rifles!

Make sure to keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest intel on Aliens: Fireteam! You can follow us on FacebookTwitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!



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Comments: 14
  1. Biggles
    Thank you Xenomorphine - big fan of your work on the podcasts in particular. To be clear, it's commercial for Gamespot but not for the Armouries - we're happy just with the audience it reaches and the feedback from fans has been fantastic; everything I hoped for over a decade ago when I first nervously got in front of a camera to talk museum objects.

    The more I think about the PR UGL, the more convinced I am that there would be no gameplay implications around having that in lieu of the as you rightly put it, WW2 hand-throwing. I can believe that hand-thrown grenades would still be a thing (the PR grenades were supposed to be both, of course) but if you had to pick one way of delivering relatively low-power 'nades for this game, surely it would be the PR launcher. Anyway, looking forward to what they add (back?) in. I'm less bothered about the torrent of non-movie weapons, especially the weird PR derivatives, but hey, I don't have to use them :)
  2. Xenomorphine
    Quote from: 426Buddy on Sep 14, 2021, 09:34:10 PM
    Pretty sure a flamethrower has done xeno damage in every Alien game with a flamethrower (except Alien Isolation).

    Not in the films. :) The video games were always far more superficial and tended to take their cues more from the shallowness of 'Starship Troopers' than 'Aliens'.

    Quote from: Xhan on Sep 15, 2021, 07:10:46 PM
    There are files for the PiG in the game and so is a partial template for the Lacrima. Whether they're going to be finished or not is another matter.

    A time-jump to 'Resurrection'? That might actually be a good choice. The tone of the game would actually be a better fit for the USM vibe.

    Quote from: Biggles on Sep 16, 2021, 08:44:07 AM
    As a long-standing mostly-lurker here, I'm really glad you liked it guys. I had forgotten about the IGN preview of the weapons that showed a PR with two bolts and two barrels, which I think must have been a PR with a semi-auto grenade launcher. Really sad they took that out because the 'A2' has no additional functionality over the 'A' (I didn't want to bash them for their nomenclature but going from A to A2, A3 etc misunderstands the system established by 'M41A'), so making the GL semi would have been a nice upgrade. Removing it entirely I just don't get, beyond a last-minute rebalancing effort and a desire to retain the standalone grenade launcher. But then we have multiple different near-identical rifles, so where's the harm in another GL? They could have treated it as an entirely separate weapon that you switch to and takes up the second slot.

    https://assets-prd.ignimgs.com/2021/03/16/aliensfireteam-weapons-watermarked-1615936781426.jpg

    Any chance that version is in the game somewhere, given that the modelling and texturing got finished?

    -Jonathan

    Very enjoyable, yes! It's always good to see these commercial opportunities used to helpfully educate people.

    I think a lot of the quirks come from console gamer mentality, as well as copy-and-paste from other ventures some of the development team might have already been involved in. For the life of me, I don't have a clue why the PR couldn't have just had the GL option completely replace a WW2-like manual 'grenade hurling' mechanic.

    Maybe someone decided it wouldn't give anyone a reason to get the dedicated grenade launcher, but they could have simply replicated the automatic-firing grenade launcher concept of today with, say, guided ordnance (to give a futuristic sense), to make that weapon desirable. With the obvious drawback that being forced to use it in close quarters is a big no-no.

    There are apparently hints a flamethrower more in line with the one from the film will be added for the future. So, I'm guessing the more authentic PR with a GL will make an appearance, too. But it's still weird it isn't included from the start, instead of this version.
  3. Biggles
    As a long-standing mostly-lurker here, I'm really glad you liked it guys. I had forgotten about the IGN preview of the weapons that showed a PR with two bolts and two barrels, which I think must have been a PR with a semi-auto grenade launcher. Really sad they took that out because the 'A2' has no additional functionality over the 'A' (I didn't want to bash them for their nomenclature but going from A to A2, A3 etc misunderstands the system established by 'M41A'), so making the GL semi would have been a nice upgrade. Removing it entirely I just don't get, beyond a last-minute rebalancing effort and a desire to retain the standalone grenade launcher. But then we have multiple different near-identical rifles, so where's the harm in another GL? They could have treated it as an entirely separate weapon that you switch to and takes up the second slot.

    https://assets-prd.ignimgs.com/2021/03/16/aliensfireteam-weapons-watermarked-1615936781426.jpg

    Any chance that version is in the game somewhere, given that the modelling and texturing got finished?

    -Jonathan
  4. Xhan
    Quote from: Xenomorphine on Sep 14, 2021, 09:16:18 PM
    Very refreshing analysis and valid informed criticisms! Certainly agree they should have been trying to optimise fewer weapons for a greater array of diverse purposes, not increasing the number for fewer specialisations (which, in turn, seem very copy/paste from one another). It definitely felt as though they were just trying to fill out pure numbers for the sake of it, yet completely missed opportunities for including things like direct energy weapons (especially area-of-effect riot control, like an evolved form of today's 'pain ray' microwave system). The heavy class's grenade launcher seems underwhelming, too.

    Would also argue that flamethrowers shouldn't actually have any effect on the adult creatures (who we know survive high temperature shuttle exhaust and prolonged submergence in molten lead). But, eh, that's the nature of a game as superficial as this.

    There are files for the PiG in the game and so is a partial template for the Lacrima. Whether they're going to be finished or not is another matter.
  5. Xenomorphine
    Very refreshing analysis and valid informed criticisms! Certainly agree they should have been trying to optimise fewer weapons for a greater array of diverse purposes, not increasing the number for fewer specialisations (which, in turn, seem very copy/paste from one another). It definitely felt as though they were just trying to fill out pure numbers for the sake of it, yet completely missed opportunities for including things like direct energy weapons (especially area-of-effect riot control, like an evolved form of today's 'pain ray' microwave system). The heavy class's grenade launcher seems underwhelming, too.

    Would also argue that flamethrowers shouldn't actually have any effect on the adult creatures (who we know survive high temperature shuttle exhaust and prolonged submergence in molten lead). But, eh, that's the nature of a game as superficial as this.
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