https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-24-meet-the-modder-whos-spent-years-trying-to-fix-the-unfixable-aliens-colonial-marines
Quote2013's Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of the most memorable gaming disappointments we've ever seen. After witnessing a gorgeous, atmospheric engine showcase back in 2011, fans of the series were hungrily awaiting a true sequel to the iconic 1986 film. But then, in February 2013, Aliens Colonial Marines came out and the horror of its truth became reality. Gearbox's first-person shooter was an infestation worthy of being nuked from orbit. The AI was broken, the gunplay was unreliable, and the "perfect organism" - the Aliens themselves - couldn't even run at the player properly.
Meanwhile, down under, Australian modder James 'TemplarGFX' Dickinson wasn't playing Colonial Marines. He bought it, downloaded it and installed it, but he wasn't playing it. In James' eyes, playing comes second to modding. As he tells me numerous times over the course of our conversations, he doesn't play games, he mods them.
"Aliens CM" Will do.
Yes boss!
Thank you. ;D
This guy is a real MVP. His dedication is definitely something to admire.
Edit: I wonder if his fixes will alter that "Last Stand" mission where you save the Marines and then hold out in the vehicle bay. I noticed in my play through's the rescued marines never join you and the amount of Xeno's on screen is...pathetic compared to the tone of the mission.
Does he have contact info (Twitter, Facebook, whatever)? I haven't gone through his full changelogs for every version he's released, I wonder if he's tackled any of the (theoretically) easy fixes for minor continuity errors that would really only require some texture swaps or minor corrections. Stuff like names and placements of Marine lockers on the Sulaco, Hicks' armor when you rescue him, etc.
Quote from: Xenomrph on Jan 24, 2019, 07:29:43 PM
Does he have contact info (Twitter, Facebook, whatever)? I haven't gone through his full changelogs for every version he's released, I wonder if he's tackled any of the (theoretically) easy fixes for minor continuity errors that would really only require some texture swaps or minor corrections. Stuff like names and placements of Marine lockers on the Sulaco, Hicks' armor when you rescue him, etc.
TemplarGFX got accounts on steam, moddb and youtube.
Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can really contact him through any of those channels.
He's always listening though... :-)
But I like direct communication... :(
I'll do the indirect approach then if he's listening.
First of, it's great to hear someone is working so hard to make the game more fun. I and a lot of fans thank him for that.
Second, I'd just like to add that the first V6 version that he made available, even though it has progression stopping bugs, the alien AI is great there. Fast, dodges the bullets and goes straight towards you. The latest V6 version that a few people are testing and from their streams I've seen so far, the aliens have become weak again. They jump around and use the walls and ceilings beautifully, but they at least seem a bit slower to me and they spend too much time retreating from the player. I really like their behavior in the first V6 version (too bad it breaks the game in many places, the later revisions are fixing the issues), so I just hope he makes a variety of difficulty choices for the aliens' behavior similar to how he had different stats for aliens in his V5.
Honestly if they had half the speed and aggression of the AVP2010 Aliens I'd be happy.
Once the final version is released I'm going to give it a run on Ultimate Badass and I hope its painful experience. In a good way of course :laugh:
I just tried this and it's awesome. He fixed one of the things that used to bother me the most: the inaccurate shooting. So now the guns actually shoot to where you point. Amazing! Such a simple thing to have but what a difference it makes. Thankyou TemplarGFX!
Why people keep polishing this turd..? Waste of time. It will never get good because it's rotten at the core.
I wish they'd give us a HD remaster of AVP2. That game was awesome.
Quote from: P-Rock on Feb 20, 2019, 03:45:04 PM
I wish they'd give us a HD remaster of AVP2. That game was awesome.
I liked the 2007 texture pack mod, not a big of change like the Redux from AVP Classic though. Still I liked the changes the guy did on the game, gave it a darker tone and on 1080p looks great.
There are some skin mods that can make the creatures look better too. But it would be nice for other improvements to come on the future. Either Templar or Mad Max could do a great job modding AVP2.
Quote from: P-Rock on Feb 20, 2019, 03:45:04 PM
Why people keep polishing this turd..? Waste of time. It will never get good because it's rotten at the core.
It's not a waste of time. This mod makes the mechanics and gameplay much much better. Bug Hunt especially is a lot of fun now with these fixes. The story will always remain rubbish, but who cares about that?
I agree. It's not a waste of time.
These efforts won't fix the game in its entirety - the mod author isn't out to do that - but any improvement is still welcome.
This game will be around of years to come. Now if a proper modding support had been a priority for SEGA, Fox and GBX, then this game would seriously be Rockin' some amazing custom content by now. Sadly, this is all we get.
I'll take whatever there is - even if the game itself is ultimately unfixable.
-Windebieste.
Honestly I'm glad someone want's to polish a game for a franchise they hold in their hearts. One important thing for most people to understand is to never give up on anything you do. There's a game out there called Orion on steam. A dinosaur shooting game, it's original version was utter garbage but instead of just leaving it as is as most people do, they decided to update it and improve it. If it were a Triple A title then I would've given them more crap as when it's a bigger title like maybe Gears of War I'd expect better as it's predecessors had proven is possible, but since it was pretty small and almost hardly anyone knew about it I gave it a chance. ACM though had years to become what it was supposed to with a huge promise to make it the greatest alien game ever with a DS game being better than what actually came out with ACM. So it's kind of funny one person wants to at least improve it instead of the company that you know made the game.
But we've already had great Alien games like AVP Classic 2000, AVP2 and Alien Isolation. Just play those instead of wasting your time on crap like A;CM. The problems with this game reach far deeper than just giving it a visual overhaul and some game tweaks.
But all those games fall short of being great. But we take what we can get. ACM is no different.
AvP '99 is a shell of a game.
AvP2 was disappointing on release and has always been overrated.
And Isolation is a bloated, over-long door simulator with no replayability after the initial play through.
I think replayability is a key factor in a great game.
Why: Any game at launch is usually around $60 dollars, and most games have the ability to replay it because they know some will probably try to get a refund if they feel that it wasn't worth it. Isolation does have a few extra dlc but none of them IMO are worth noting besides the nostromo stuff. Challenge mode is a joke as I never did it in the elaborate time that they wanted. Another problem is that the collectibles are also pointless. I would've thought the ID's held something interesting about the person it has but it's just the developers. The only one's worth nothing are the audio logs but I'm not risking death just to try and get an audio log that I'll listen to one time and never speak of again. This isn't really isolations fault though as horror is just never good about it's replayability. I think the only games in the genre with that ability is Resident Evil, but you also unlock interesting costumes the more you beat the game.
Quote from: The Old One on Mar 09, 2019, 10:40:00 AM
Aside from the ending of the Marine Campaign,
(Cliché as f**k garbage) the graphical fidelity and the lack of Controller support- what exactly is disappointing about Monolith's AVP?
Cartoony graphics with ugly colours and bad models, bad sounds, bad animations, the rigid lithtech engine, gameplay was more quake DM styled even right down to the maps, hugely unbalanced MP as a whole with emphasis on spamming the cheapest weapons, Single-player was overly scripted and too linear, terrible AI even for the time, stripped the Alien of its stealth mechanics and wasn't as fast or fluid, Predators also not very fluid..
AvP2 has a good story with how it intertwines, but gameplay, mechanics and aesthetically it's horrible. Its saving grace was the modding scene (specifically an SDK) which is what ACM desperately needs.
Quote from: PsyKore on Mar 09, 2019, 11:13:52 AM
Quote from: The Old One on Mar 09, 2019, 10:40:00 AM
Aside from the ending of the Marine Campaign,
(Cliché as f**k garbage) the graphical fidelity and the lack of Controller support- what exactly is disappointing about Monolith's AVP?
Cartoony graphics with ugly colours and bad models, bad sounds, bad animations, the rigid lithtech engine, gameplay was more quake DM styled even right down to the maps, hugely unbalanced MP as a whole with emphasis on spamming the cheapest weapons, Single-player was overly scripted and too linear, terrible AI even for the time, stripped the Alien of its stealth mechanics and wasn't as fast or fluid, Predators also not very fluid..
(https://media1.tenor.com/images/f69ec1ec93f6c622333cc57ba568445c/tenor.gif)
I never disagreed with someone here so much before. AVP2 is still the best thing that ever happened to the series and the fandom since the original movies, we wouldn't even be on this forum if it wasn't for it.
P-Rock has nothing to say. :laugh:
I had great fun with it, don't get me wrong, but after Rebellion's game it was many steps backwards. And that was the general reception at its release.
The world-building and atmosphere's excellent though.
Quote from: The Old One on Mar 11, 2019, 12:23:45 AM
The world-building and atmosphere's excellent though.
Agree! And it's the game's primary draw card.
Enough today though?
I request a modernisation!
I think AvP2's story should be redone today in a comic. The game itself just doesn't hold up.
And AvP2010 should have been a great modernisation of the formula. I believe Rebellion would have come through with that had they been given a lot more time.
I loved AVP2010, if it had mod support some great things could have come from that game.
I personally like AVP2010, just wish there was more. It didn't have to go crazy but personally it could've really improved with a few things. More missions would've helped even if it were sub sections in the missions like a facehugger or chestburster section. Maybe more customization would've been nice, with the ability to change more of the Marine and Predator appearences like Halo Reach level of customization, with Xeno's (This was the good part of ACM) I wished they really looked different from one another.
It was disappointing in the way that it introduced all these features that fans all wanted but unfortunately only scratched the very surface of them. Such as the Pred's vocal mimicry and the Alien's ability to blend into hive walls. Things like that were fantastic but they needed to be properly implemented.
The single player also repeated the problems with the original by being too linear and very uninspired. The Predator and Alien especially need more open levels to take advantage of their play styles. The Predator has to hunt and the Alien needs room to stalk and kill. It's very boring to play as the Alien, for instance, and only allowed to venture A-to-B through corridors and sewers for the majority of the game.
Regardless of all this, the mechanics were really solid. I loved the improvements to the Alien and Predator mobility. And it is an utterly beautiful looking game, even today. Just a shame it feels like only a taste of something better.
And as a side note, I had the most fun in this one on multiplayer.
And the controller layouts completely sucked, otherwise it's a thoroughly decent experience, but nothing more especially in comparison to Monolith's AVP.