Meet the modder who's spent years trying to fix the "unfixable" Aliens CM

[Corporal Hicks]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-24-meet-the-modder-whos-spent-years-trying-to-fix-the-unfixable-aliens-colonial-marines

2013'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.

[The Old One]

"Aliens CM" Will do.

[Corporal Hicks]

Yes boss!

[The Old One]

Thank you. 

[JokersWarPig]

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.

[Xenomrph]

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.

[Samhain13]

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.

[Xenomrph]

Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can really contact him through any of those channels.

[Hemi]

He's always listening though... :-)

[Xenomrph]

But I like direct communication...

[Still Collating...]

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.

[JokersWarPig]

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 

[PsyKore]

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!

[P-Rock]

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.

[Samhain13]

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.