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Windows Colonial Marines reviews trickle in: Game over for Gearbox ?

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Devil's Refugee

macrumors 6502
Original poster
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/11/does-applying-a-review-embargo-automatically-kill-a-game/

4/10 from GamesTM
5/10 from the French PS3 site

So begs the question whether slapping an embargo on reviews till release day was a cheap ploy by Gearbox because they knew it was bad and took advantage of the pre-order rush ?

The Australian release code via Steam had a missing executable too.
 
Trailers and some other promo material of Colonial Marines never made me to look forward to its release and I am a die hard fan of AvP 1&2.

I do not understand why would anyone made a game that was not up to their expectations. They had so much material available to make Colonial Marines, but I guess they found out in the end that it's hardly enough to make a good game.

Still, it looks like someone invested heavily in Colonial Marines and they simply didn't want to watch their money go down the drain. 😀

But yeah, this is evil and totally ****ed up.
 
I haven't played Aliens:CM, but it seems like the game isn't that great.
However, reviews and meteoritic and such is hugely dependent on which developer.
It seems like everything from Bethesda and EA gets 80+ regardless of the quality of the game.
Like Oblivion, which has like 95 Metascore.. In my opinion that is one of the worse RPGs ever made. Of course many likes it. However, could this game warrant 95 of 100 in score? No, because the game has obvious flaws that no one can disagree with.
First of the game has very awkward UI on a PC. The 3rd person view is not usable at all. The game is also not really balanced properly at all, and the fact that mobs always levels with you doesn't actually help on that. It's also universally accepted that every NPC in Oblivion looks like crap.
95 of 100 should mean that the game is close to perfect.

You also have games like Dragon Age 2 that have gotten very good reviews, but among fans it is generally accepted as a bad game. The same can be said about Kingdoms of Amalur. But they are EA games, and EA owns the game industry..

If you look on another side, like german rpgs. Gothic 3 has like terrible review scores. However the game was a bit buggy at launch (but not really much worse than Skyrim or Oblivion), and it absolutely got slaughtered.
Still the game has many fans, and in my opinion it's one of the better RPGs ever made (talking about new RPGs now).


Anyways, Aliens:CM is probably not a great game. But I have no belief in reviews at all anymore. Is it the worse game of the year, probably not, although reviews claims it is. It's from gearbox, so it probably runs pretty well. The graphics is probably quite ok. Shooting mechanics are probably too.
Are people disappointed that it isn't perfect game, yes, but that doesn't mean it's among the top 5 worst game released the last year..

Just to make something clear, I have not played this game, I have never been planning to play this game, even if it got a perfect 100 metascore. It could be a game I could pick up for $10 on steam sale in a year or two tho, as I usually get like 1-3 hours of fun out of shooters before I stop playing them and get bored. 🙂
 
Every site that I know of is giving ACM horrible reviews for the same things. So I doubt its any good. I mean its scoring lower than Duke Nukem Forever, and that's saying something.
 
Oh, well. On a brighter note you can now buy Daikatana on gog.com but it is only a Windows version.

Jokes aside, this game looks like a fun diversion once it gets down to $5. or $10. on a Steam sale. I wouldn't touch it until then. And just for the record, I wouldn't touch Daikatana at all. I still have some standards left!
 
cluthz said:
I haven't played Aliens:CM, but it seems like the game isn't that great.


Anyways, Aliens:CM is probably not a great game. But I have no belief in reviews at all anymore. Is it the worse game of the year, probably not, although reviews claims it is. It's from gearbox, so it probably runs pretty well. The graphics is probably quite ok. Shooting mechanics are probably too.
Are people disappointed that it isn't perfect game, yes, but that doesn't mean it's among the top 5 worst game released the last year..

Just to make something clear, I have not played this game, I have never been planning to play this game, even if it got a perfect 100 metascore. It could be a game I could pick up for $10 on steam sale in a year or two tho, as I usually get like 1-3 hours of fun out of shooters before I stop playing them and get bored. 🙂
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sorry but whats the point of 'reviewing' a game you haven't even played. it probably runs well? the graphics probably ok? shooting mechanics probably good? wtf.
 
You do realise the same publisher brought us Duke Nukem Forever..... Enough said..... 😉

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cluthz said:
I haven't played Aliens:CM,
Anyways, Aliens:CM is probably not a great game. But I have no belief in reviews at all anymore. Is it the worse game of the year, probably not, although reviews claims it is. It's from gearbox, so it probably runs pretty well. The graphics is probably quite ok. Shooting mechanics are probably too.
Are people disappointed that it isn't perfect game, yes, but that doesn't mean it's among the top 5 worst game released the last year..
Click to expand...

The game is truly awful. I have played it, and I played & own the PC version. The console versions are meant to be even worse.


Now I'm one who thought Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 was banal generic over-rated crap, but seriously Aliens : Colonial Marines should have been scrapped. Its so out dated, even the previous AVP 2010 game is just leagues above it.

The alien and npc movement / ai are all reminiscent of a game from 2004-5.


The only benefit of the game looking so bland and only supporting DX9 is that you can at least run it at v.high res without penalty, but even then the game is isnt a looker.



Actually if you want to play an ok alien game I'd recommend AVP 2010 over this any day of the week. It's vastly superior in every regard.
 
I played Colonial Marines up until Hadley's Hope and it's truly terrible.😱

I think the main problem of this game is that almost nothing works when put together.

The sloppy level design, apart from rooms faithfully copied over from the films, doesn't make much sense as a whole, room after room. AI can't orientate properly and graphically it's not something you like to look at. And that one of the few legible textures on the display just above door keypad, oh dear.😀

The AI is just sporadic. Sometimes the enemies charge at you head on, sometimes they stay in cover. Aliens can surprise you from time to time, but mostly they just chaotically run around in circles as they are figuring out the best path to their potential meal. It's very Quake III bots intelligence.

One thing I truly hate about Colonial Marines is that they added a bolt handle on left side of the pulse rifle. Why?😱

Colonial Marines has it's moments, but as suddenly as they arrive, they quickly dissolve into the rest of the Gearbox made garbled mess.
 
SingularityG said:
I played Colonial Marines up until Hadley's Hope and it's truly terrible.😱
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When in the game does Hadley's Hope occur?

SingularityG said:
The sloppy level design, apart from rooms faithfully copied over from the films, doesn't make much sense as a whole, room after room. AI can't orientate properly and graphically it's not something you like to look at. And that one of the few legible textures on the display just above door keypad, oh dear.😀
Click to expand...

Didn't see sloppy level design. Is it possible that, apart from the rooms copied from the movie, the other levels are just unfamiliar to you (representing parts of the ships and facilities we've never seen before, and you got lost in that unfamiliarity?

SingularityG said:
The AI is just sporadic. Sometimes the enemies charge at you head on, sometimes they stay in cover. Aliens can surprise you from time to time, but mostly they just chaotically run around in circles as they are figuring out the best path to their potential meal. It's very Quake III bots intelligence.
Click to expand...

They're animals. I would find it disturbing if they used squad level organization and outflanked my soldier time after time!

SingularityG said:
One thing I truly hate about Colonial Marines is that they added a bolt handle on left side of the pulse rifle. Why?😱
Click to expand...

Wait. THAT's your make or break thing? When they got the environmental visuals right, the look and sounds of both the pulse rifle fire and the underbarrel grenade launcher spot on, as well as the alien sounds and animations.

SingularityG said:
Colonial Marines has it's moments, but as suddenly as they arrive, they quickly dissolve into the rest of the Gearbox made garbled mess.
Click to expand...

I haven't played the game myself, but two of the things I find endearing are the look of the game is VERY reminiscent of the film style of the movie "Aliens". The do some of the HUD pieces very digital readout-ish that look futuristic yet retro. The color tone of the walkthroughs I've seen nearly perfectly matches the movie, which I appreciate. (There's no way they could have done that accidentally!)
 
Irishman said:
I haven't played the game myself,...
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No offence, but I guess you should try it yourself.🙂

The multiplayer on the other hand is not that bad. Avatars and weapons can be thoroughly customised and hopefully, Gearbox will be releasing DLCs in the future.
 
SingularityG said:
No offence, but I guess you should try it yourself.🙂

The multiplayer on the other hand is not that bad. Avatars and weapons can be thoroughly customised and hopefully, Gearbox will be releasing DLCs in the future.
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When it comes to Mac I will. 🙂

You seem convinced that if I do, I will come to share your opinion.
 
Irishman said:
Well, Wine isn't native. It's a wrapper.

If you've followed my posts here on MR, you'd know I am a big proponent of native Mac versions of games.
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I don't think any Mac porting company will waste their time with this. Then again, we did get duke nukem...
 
Cougarcat said:
I don't think any Mac porting company will waste their time with this. Then again, we did get duke nukem...
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It's times like this when I question whether or not we're describing the same game!!

Maybe you're not an "Aliens" fan?
 
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Irishman said:
Well, Wine isn't native. It's a wrapper.

If you've followed my posts here on MR, you'd know I am a big proponent of native Mac versions of games.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with you on this one. Ideally, there would have been a native Mac version for every game.

But as Cougarcat states, sometimes it just isn't worthwhile and Colonial Marines just may be the case.

I haven't tried the wrapper for Colonial Marines myself, but it seems to be bug free and could actually be worthwhile, if you are unwilling to bootcamp it, that is.🙂
 
Irishman said:
When it comes to Mac I will. 🙂

You seem convinced that if I do, I will come to share your opinion.
Click to expand...

Don't save your money.

Seriously Irishman, it's pants... It's hard to convey until you see it how truly awful it really is ..... Hadley's hope is about 25-30% in ....

It's the worse FPS i've played since Daikatana...
 
Irishman said:
It's times like this when I question whether or not we're describing the same game!!

Maybe you're not an "Aliens" fan?
Click to expand...

You cant say that Irishman because you haven't played the game.....
You can't make a definitive statement that says the game is.... When you have yet to spend hands on time with it.

That's the kind of logic Michael Healy-Rae would be proud of ;-)


Besides anyone who was a true Aliens fan would be ashamed of this game, and yes I count myself as a big Aliens fan. Go play AVP 2010 it at least is fun.....
 
GOG.com needs to bring us AvP2. Now there is a real Aliens game.

Having seen some reviews and a video review at Gamespot, I could see myself having some fun in the context of viewing this as a budget title and paying no more than 10 bucks for it, preferably 5. Judging by how well it has been received we probably won't have to wait too long for it to be cheap.

On a bright note, I understand there is one level in the game that is pretty good. I get the impression that on the whole the game is not awful, it is just mediocre and that is a problem for a hyped title to be sure. This was a bargain bin title out of the gate but they tried to sell it like it's AAA.

Gearbox needs to stick to developing their titles in-house. This is the second disaster that has tarnished their name and yet they didn't actually have a hell of a lot to do with its development.
 
Dirtyharry50 said:
On a bright note, I understand there is one level in the game that is pretty good.
Click to expand...

You mean the sewer level. Its not fun its just ridiculous. You have no gun and have to try and sneak past blind aliens. Yes its that stupid !!!
 
I have just finished Colonial Marines and I am having a hard time to come up with positive standouts this game has.

What Colonial Marines needs is a re-write of the story, more lurker-like aliens (which are actually a nice touch in the game) and more sophisticated squad based system. Even simplified SW: Republic Commando or something like Freedom Fighters would be better than a couple of invincible marines, constantly teleporting and rushing towards the objective.

One thing I appreciate is Gearbox trying to make the gameplay as sandboxed as possible. With only a few scripted scenes throughout the game, Aliens, marines and other enemies engage each other with a great sense of freedom, but sadly, in most cases this doesn't work out so well.

If you really, really like Aliens you can find some moments of solid experience in this game, especially in the colony.

As a game, Colonial Marines feels unfinished, not cared about and just makes you want to play AvP all over again.

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MacRumorUser said:
You mean the sewer level. Its not fun its just ridiculous. You have no gun and have to try and sneak past blind aliens. Yes its that stupid !!!
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Oh yeah, I wonder what it was like when Gearbox' finest sat in a room trying to decide on the new alien breed.

"What about blind, exploding, like alien-elderly with a very good hearing walking around their own graveyard, just waiting to die."

"Sounds good!"😀
 
MacRumorUser said:
You mean the sewer level. Its not fun its just ridiculous. You have no gun and have to try and sneak past blind aliens. Yes its that stupid !!!
Click to expand...

You know, I have been a huge Aliens fan since the original movie so this game was on my radar for a long time. I was pretty hopeful after seeing some of the movies of the game. I bought the game and have played it through. I actually am not as harsh on the game since I am a fan of the series, but the "Zombie Aliens" were the biggest..... well..... surprise I guess. And when I say surprise, I do not mean a good surprise. You are right. I was astonished by the 'sneak and turn on the generator' sequences as they seemed totally out of place.
 
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