http://vimeo.com/56606365 (http://vimeo.com/56606365)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxmb1s_ac_videogames#.USO0D2eFUdU (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxmb1s_ac_videogames#.USO0D2eFUdU)
Nice find ikarop. Ha, the guy is using XSI as well. Damn, I wish I had more time to get my stuff out and running. RUNNING :)
It's a shame SEGA doesn't just quickly finish what's done and release this as a downloadable title or something. The Alien animations look great.
Quote from: Former Obsidian Entertainment DevI've talked about this game before...
There is a lot of could-ofs, should-ofs, and all that.
The problem with making successful horror games with the Aliens franchise is that the Aliens have been revealed... a lot. There is no mystery with them anymore. After 4 movies, countless comics and novels, countless video games - where the Alien and Alien variants have been killed multiple times, you have to tread new ground if you want to do something original. The horror with the Aliens no longer lies in the unknown, so we were going for the environment.
For example, the second or third time you watch Alien, it is no longer scary. My second playthrough of Amnesia was easy and scare-free.
NOT COUNTING JUMP SCARES! Jump scares are not true horror, though they can be used to effectively alter the tension temporarily.
Josh did have some ideas though on how to add horror and tension, and we had several scenarios into the game. Most of us were or had played SS2, Amnesia, and Call of Cthulu, but horror was not the goal of the game, survival was.
This was a game of limited resources and perma-death. If a party member got face-hugged, your choices were to mercy kill them, put them in a sleeper and wake them sparingly if you need them, or let them pop - but the bottom line was that once they got impregnated they had an expiration date.
As for the Alien variations, there are things that are simply expected by publishers and the fan base. The xenomporph variations also have a history in the aliens universe anyway. The first thing Josh and the concept artists did was to create the lifeforms the xenos would impregnate first. We also used some insect themes for the various xeno roles, from drones and scouts, to soldiers and queens. As covered in countless comics, novels, and films, the xenos take traits from their host, the idea being it would better enable them to survive in a dangerous habitat. One of the big mysteries Josh and the writers were exploring was what the caldera and how were the engineers (space jockeys) doing with the xenos.
The goal was not to kill all the bugs, but to simply escape from the caldera where you were trapped. Don't get me wrong, there was still a lot of killing of both xenos and humans in the game. Combat was real time - but we had a companion wheel to context system so that you could issue commands to your squadmates. For example, you could highlight a door with your reticule, and then based on what your squard could do, it would show you your options, like weld door, open door, or if you had a bomb, plant bomb on door.
As far as tech goes, we were using an earlier version of Onyx - which would later be used to create DS3. Our tech was stable, but we had pipeline issues to resolve but by milestone 25 or so were in pretty good shape.
Anyway, it is what it is at this point.
Link
That sounds so amazing. :'(
It would be interesting for them to revisit it, now that Prometheus is out and a bit on the Engineers has been shown.
Locusta, you have a PM from me! :)
Interesting footage. The animations-only video seems more advanced than what's shown in the other - which is terribly, terribly basic and not nearly yet at a playable stage, but I'm interested in the hints of strategy commands.
It's so sad that project was stopped.
Frankly, this is the kind of game I want for the Aliens universe. I don't say that an excellent, so as to change FPS would not satisfy me, but frankly, if you have the rights of the Aliens movies + Prometheus, I'm quite sure you can do an excellent RPG where there is much more to do than just shooting xenos. Something with a true progression, a true story, true and complicated relationships with NPC and above all less, much less linearity. Of course, it would imply to let go the overused "I'm a colonial marine" approach, which would be lame. There would be times when you're alone, unarmed or poorly armed, stalked by just one or two aliens in a ship or a terrifying environment à la Nostromo : something that would truly make the player feel he's in a Ripley-situation, as in the first movie. The aliens would have several scenarios to follow, so as to make each play of that level quite unique, instead of the lame repetition of the alien that is spawned forever in the same place. That kind of things could add tension.
That would be a game where you can follow several paths, being gentle, neutral or evil (instead of the precedent games, where the character as a marine is always with the good guys). Where actions have consequences... etc.
Dreams... ::)
Doesn't look half bad for a game in very early development.
the menu is dope
It looks great. And yes, exactly, you can do an RPG - not just with this license, but with Prometheus as well, which was admittedly less combat-focused.
Really pissed that this can't happen.
Well that was interesting.
Didn't look amazingly great or anything but still makes me wonder what could've been.
I remember hearing somewhere that there was meant to be a plot twist in the middle of the game, you turned out to be a WY android and could follow your programming and kill your team or save them.
Would've been cool if true.
Quote from: Nightlord on Feb 20, 2013, 01:09:39 AM
Well that was interesting.
Didn't look amazingly great or anything but still makes me wonder what could've been.
I remember hearing somewhere that there was meant to be a plot twist in the middle of the game, you turned out to be a WY android and could follow your programming and kill your team or save them.
Would've been cool if true.
That would have been interesting. Sort of like the KOTOR twist.
Looking at those menus, it looked like there was a great deal of character customization, not only in appearance or voice but in background (a la Mass Effect). I got the impression you could play as a civilian or a Marine as your primary. The player kept running the build for Santos or whoever.
What's more important: the basic alien was HUGE in comparison to the player character. When it got Santos by the throat at the end, I inadvertently did my own take on Parker: "That thing is HUGE!"
Ehhh... I feel as if they would've fallen into the same trap as most modern alien games by making their aliens rather non-threatening. Granted, that was early development footage but the aliens didn't seem particularly deadly. I guess it would be harder to balance aliens up against a squad that was perishable (otherwise, if you go too far in the other direction, the squad just becomes a huge hindrance, even moreso than your invulnerable buddies that get in the way in A:CM). The action seemed a bit rigid but I suppose that could be down to it being alpha/beta/whatever footage.
On the plus side, the customization looked very diverse and even although it was just a little taster, the characters seemed to have more personality than most alien/predator games.
Looks alright to be honest even for Alpha footage or whatever. The clunkyness of Kotor II i could look past in favour of fun gameplay it had. Same story here, least the weapons sound like they have power behind them.
I thought it was Resident Evil 6 at first sight.
It doesn't look like anyone can make a good Aliens game these days. At least this one has the excuse of being unfinished though.
I agree that SEGA should release it anyway as downloadable title.
Even early, unfinished, and without the player character doing much in the action, I felt more tension in that than the entirety of A:CM. I wish I was joking.
Quote from: livin_target on Feb 20, 2013, 05:19:10 PM
Ehhh... I feel as if they would've fallen into the same trap as most modern alien games by making their aliens rather non-threatening. Granted, that was early development footage but the aliens didn't seem particularly deadly. I guess it would be harder to balance aliens up against a squad that was perishable (otherwise, if you go too far in the other direction, the squad just becomes a huge hindrance, even moreso than your invulnerable buddies that get in the way in A:CM). The action seemed a bit rigid but I suppose that could be down to it being alpha/beta/whatever footage.
On the plus side, the customization looked very diverse and even although it was just a little taster, the characters seemed to have more personality than most alien/predator games.
Weren't they going to have Facehuggers infect a bunch of wildlife, and we'd get some new aliens?
oh my god its like KOTOR with xenos....
Can someone please remind me exactly why this game was canned. I'm sad.
Quote from: Space Sweeper on Feb 27, 2013, 04:41:12 PM
Even early, unfinished, and without the player character doing much in the action, I felt more tension in that than the entirety of A:CM. I wish I was joking.
Not for me... it just felt like a basic RPG.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-27-obsidian-base-building-in-aliens-crucible-canned-games-and-publishers-now-open-to-kickstarter-sized-projects (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-27-obsidian-base-building-in-aliens-crucible-canned-games-and-publishers-now-open-to-kickstarter-sized-projects)