Aliens: Colonial Marines

[blesscheese]

Originally Posted by -SD-

I've been watching the first few unofficial reviews of the game on YouTube as the street date was broken in Australia..... and it's not looking good. It also looks like the magazine gamesTM here in the UK are giving it a mighty 4/10 The mainstream press embargo lifts tomorrow upon the game's release... rather suspiciously.

I'm a little disappointed, but I was sort of expecting this. After watching the videos on YouTube some parts look terrible. NPCs seem to sort of glide along whist walking, it's most noticable when they're going up stairs. There's complaints of shockingly low resolution textures, NPCs walking through each other, aliens disappearing into walls.... the list goes on.

Overall it's nowhere near the quality it should be considering the development time and the resources available. It may offer a huge amount of fan-service, but that doesn't mean it's a good game.

I'll just sit patiently and wait for Lego City: Undercover.....

Now I'm scared...of buying the game

I didn't see the Games TM review, but this blog had a summary:

blog post

This one comment had an interesting perspective on the strengths/weaknesses of the game (potential spoilers?):

"CurtJohn
February 11, 2013 at 3:49 pm Reply
I’ve played it for a week now, and I have to say I just about completely agree with these review points, sadly. I’ve been a massive fan of the franchise my whole life, and I was expecting a promised slab of Kobe beef here, but received a McDicks cheeseburger.
The points I will disagree with are these –
Firstly, the Pulse Rifle is a joy to fire. It sounds wonderful and has a good amount of umph to it. But this is moot, since connecting the Alien is very unsatisfying. They don’t crack and shatter apart, they just kind of fall over and vanish.
Also, wtf is with the weapon system its stupid. You unlock weapons by leveling up, and you can select from ANY weapon at any time. Which is unnecessary anyway since the Pulse Rifle gets the job done well enough and all the other guns are lacking feeling.
Second point – the story is actually excellent. It’s set after Alien3, not between Aliens and 3, and it makes 3 a better movie by existing. That was cool. It’s populated by very bad voice acting and direction though.
Overall it’s a very bland point A-to-B shooter on rails. The game never stops holding your hand, like the devs just had no trust that you can figure it out for yourself. Objectives flash constantly, such as “Get on elevator. Turn elevator on, find switch. Cut elevator switch free. Pull elevator switch. Get on elevator.” Plus you’re always with AI that you have to follow, besides one cool sewer level. (What does it tell you that the sewer level might be the best in the game!?)
Very disappointing. Play it on the hardest difficulty and you might get a little fun and challenge out of it."

I guess I too will pass this buy and wait for Lego City: Undercover. This is really really sad

[MacRumorUser]

http://youtu.be/wQBa8w8n8g8


Gamespot, 4.5 / 10


I'd like to say I'm shocked, but like the game generally it fails to shock me..

From all the previews along the way I knew this wasn't going to be thr great game we hoped it could be and I fully expected 6 out of 10 reviews as you can see in my earlier post in this thread.... But 4's?? Wowcha...




OMG read eurogamers review. 3/10
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...marines-review

Basic review synopsis = you can't polish a turd...

[blesscheese]

Yep, the consensus is, steer clear of this.

The only positive review I found was on the Guardian and the reviewer noted that he expected to be taken to task in the comments section. Which he was.

Even in his review, he notes critical imperfections. What he liked isn't compelling for me.

Another review that points out critical negatives is Express Elevator to Hell. Going Down. by IGN UK.

[roadbloc]

Oh wow. I was really looking forward to a well made Alien game since pretty much all of the previous ones sucked terribly. Looks like it has still yet to happen.

[-SD-]

For those that have never had the chance, go play Capcom's Alien vs Predator arcade game. It's fantastic 3 player side-scrolling beat 'em up (like Final Fight or Double Dragon) and probably the best Aliens game out there.

Unfortunately, it never got a true home conversion, so you've either got the option of the actual CPS2 boards if you're feeling rich, or a bit of emulation. However it's well worth the effort.

Alien 3 on the Master System is very good too. It might be a little too old skool for some, but it's certainly worth a go, even after all these years.

[skottichan]

So, I picked it up, mostly because I wanted the physical stuff that came with the collector's edition.

I beat the game rather quickly. The story was actually really good, yet the voice acting was TERRIBLE. Also, I believe the AI took some head shots or something, the xenos were completely harmless on the normal setting and not much of a threat on hard. They just wander in, stand around for a minute, then attack. I'll admit, I'm disappointed, but less in the game, and more in Gearbox. Where was the company that gave us Borderlands?

I'd give it a 4/10, I'd have given it a 3, but I liked the story enough to bump it one.

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by skottichan

. Where was the company that gave us Borderlands?
.

Hiding behind the team that gave us Duke Nukem Forever....

[skottichan]

Originally Posted by MacRumorUser

Hiding behind the team that gave us Duke Nukem Forever....

Ugh, i forgot Gearbox was involved with that POS, and my hatred for DNF knows no bounds.

I have to admit, with Colonial Marines, I did squeal in happiness when I heard Lance Henrickson as Bishop again, and the bit of Michael Biehn as Hicks.

[Devil's Refugee]

http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/12/al...r-for-gearbox/

Save your cash guys....

[-SD-]

If you want to know why it turned out so bad....

[gkarris]

Originally Posted by blesscheese

Now I'm scared...of buying the game

I didn't see the Games TM review, but this blog had a summary:

blog post

This one comment had an interesting perspective on the strengths/weaknesses of the game (potential spoilers?):

"CurtJohn
February 11, 2013 at 3:49 pm Reply
I’ve played it for a week now, and I have to say I just about completely agree with these review points, sadly. I’ve been a massive fan of the franchise my whole life, and I was expecting a promised slab of Kobe beef here, but received a McDicks cheeseburger.
The points I will disagree with are these –
Firstly, the Pulse Rifle is a joy to fire. It sounds wonderful and has a good amount of umph to it. But this is moot, since connecting the Alien is very unsatisfying. They don’t crack and shatter apart, they just kind of fall over and vanish.
Also, wtf is with the weapon system its stupid. You unlock weapons by leveling up, and you can select from ANY weapon at any time. Which is unnecessary anyway since the Pulse Rifle gets the job done well enough and all the other guns are lacking feeling.
Second point – the story is actually excellent. It’s set after Alien3, not between Aliens and 3, and it makes 3 a better movie by existing. That was cool. It’s populated by very bad voice acting and direction though.
Overall it’s a very bland point A-to-B shooter on rails. The game never stops holding your hand, like the devs just had no trust that you can figure it out for yourself. Objectives flash constantly, such as “Get on elevator. Turn elevator on, find switch. Cut elevator switch free. Pull elevator switch. Get on elevator.” Plus you’re always with AI that you have to follow, besides one cool sewer level. (What does it tell you that the sewer level might be the best in the game!?)
Very disappointing. Play it on the hardest difficulty and you might get a little fun and challenge out of it."

I guess I too will pass this buy and wait for Lego City: Undercover. This is really really sad

So is this an FPS or a rails game (like a lot of the iPad or Sega CD games?)

[TedM]

I found this posted on reddit. Explains why their own developers think this game is bad : http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/commen..._at_the_final/

Edit: oops looks like someone already posted this :/

[Kurri]

well it got a 9/10 at EGM...then again EGM gave Halo 4 a 7/10....hmmmmm

[-SD-]

Apparently there's rumours of an upcoming 8GB patch to sort things out. Interestingly, the game itself is only about 7GB....

I still have no hope whatsoever for the WiiU version.

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by -SD-

Apparently there's rumours of an upcoming 8GB patch to sort things out. Interestingly, the game itself is only about 7GB....

I still have no hope whatsoever for the WiiU version.

Yeah, about 6.5 on steam... I'm not re-downloading 8gb to sort this mess out. It's *****. Thank god I got the game as a freebie redeemable version otherwise I'd have cried.

[blesscheese]

Is the game really "on rails?" As in, no true freedom of movement?

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by blesscheese

Is the game really "on rails?" As in, no true freedom of movement?

No it's not... It's standard FPS stuff. Actually dead space extraction on wii which was on-rails was vastly superior and even had better graphics despite it being on wii!!!


The Alien movement in this game is shocking. I mean genuinely the original doom sprites had more movement. They are like ice skirting statues, truly bloody awful.

I'm struggling to get past chapter 2 simply because the game is so horrendous.

Frame-rate chugs at sections for no reason even though the engine is hardly stressing, it just badly programmed.

I loaded up AvP2010 just to compare and its night and day. AvP2010 was not a great game, but compared to colonial marines its a master piece.

[gkarris]

^^^ wow - too bad.

Maybe since the Wii U version isn't out yet, they'll be able to sort out all the shortcomings before its release?

[blesscheese]

Originally Posted by MacRumorUser

The Alien movement in this game is shocking. I mean genuinely the original doom sprites had more movement. They are like ice skirting statues, truly bloody awful.

Wow! That is shocking...

I was thinking just the other day how Nintendo always takes flack for delaying releases of games to make them better. Here we have a perfect example of a game that never should have been released until vast improvements had been made.

[gkarris]

Originally Posted by blesscheese

Wow! That is shocking...

I was thinking just the other day how Nintendo always takes flack for delaying releases of games to make them better. Here we have a perfect example of a game that never should have been released until vast improvements had been made.

This...

I've looked online at the reviews and it seems that those that gave it low scores have a REALLY HIGH standard, like consider Deadspace 3 or Halo 4 the new standards that publishers MUST match. That seems a little out there.

People are generally saying that if you like the old AvP games, and you are willing to wait for the game to go down to $30, then it's great to play...

[spoon man]

Whats the CO-OP mode like? is it online only or can you play split screen?.

[gkarris]

Wow, just wow...

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Ali...ter-52659.html

“Oh wow. Yes okay. I was hoping someone would ask this. I have played the WiiU version. The one that is supposedly the best of all of them? It is not. It is the worst. It is a bit of a joke. The WiiU is basically the same game as the console version but with framerate issues, worse texture loading, and horrendously misguided minigames thrown in. You get a ‘scanner’ to scan enemies and get bonus points that aid your harming them. When you cut open doors (which happens a lot in the game) you have a game where you have to keep the heat ‘optimal’. They just add frustration, and take away even more from the fun. We don’t know if it will come out, Sega are conisdering canceling it, but right now its still going.”

The tester also claimed that the money Sega paid to Gearbox working on Aliens: Colonial Marines was used for Borderlands 2 instead.

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by gkarris

Wow, just wow...

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Ali...ter-52659.html

A turd with motion controls and mini games is still a turd!!! . Sega should cancel it.

[gkarris]

Was at GameStop last night and it looks like the price has already dropped to $40 - that was quick.

Most are saying, though, it's more a $20 game...

This, IMHO, means maybe no Wii U version...

[Antares]

I was really looking forward to this on the Wii U. It would have been great with that 2nd screen. Shame the game turned out so poor.