Thread: Aliens Colonial Marines falls flat on its face.

Originally Posted by Adretheon

lol they aren't rushing the DLC so it will be much better

That will be like putting a nice stereo system in a Yugo.

As it was best put from the link I found, first dev to step out of the bomb shelter....

A lot of you are (rightfully) upset at the final product that is A:CM. Maybe I can shed some light as to how it got the way it is. : LV426

First off, due to me breaking NDA, I can't provide any proof that I'm not just talking out of my ass. But I figure you'd be interested in hearing what I have to say regardless. I've been on the project for around a year and a half, so some of the following are things I've heard from more senior guys.
Pecan (the internal codename for ACM) has a pretty long history. SEGA, GBX and 20th Century FOX came to an agreement to produce an Aliens game around 6 years ago, after which SEGA almost immediately announced it, long before Pecan had even started production. The game has been in active development in the past, only to be shelved in favor of another project (Borderlands, Duke, etc), and each time it was resumed it would undergo a major content overhaul.
SEGA, naturally, wasn't super pleased about the delays, but GBX got away with it for a long time and the contract between SEGA and GBX kept getting augmented to push the projected release further and further back. The last time it was resumed, GBX outsourced a good portion of the game to outside companies. Initially, the plan was for TimeGate to take the majority of campaign, GBX would take MP, Demiurge and Nerve would handle DLC and various other focused tasks. This decision was made mostly so that most of the developers at GBX could continue working on Borderlands 2, while a small group of LDs, coders and designers dealt with Pecan.
Somehow the schedules for Pecan and Borderlands 2 managed to line up and GBX realized that there was no fucking way they could cert and ship two titles at the same time. Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind, even as Pecan's Beta deadline got closer and closer. In April or May (can't remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension.
About 5 of those 9 months went to shipping BL2. In that time, TimeGate managed to scrap together 85% of the campaign, but once Borderlands 2 shipped and GBX turned its attention to Pecan, it became pretty apparent that what had been made was in a pretty horrid state. Campaign didn't make much sense, the boss fights weren't implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etcetcetc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch. There were some last minute feature requests, most notably female marines, and the general consensus among GBX devs was that there was no way this game was going to be good by ship. There just wasn't enough time.
Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn't cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn't risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get.
Beyond gameplay, the story has been raised as an issue several times. I can't really comment without feeling bad beyond saying that the script was approved by 20th Century FOX, and that the rush to throw a playable product together came at the cost of the story. Campaign does a pretty bad job of explaining a lot of the questions raised at the start of the game, and so hopefully there will be DLC to flesh that out a bit better.
I'll answer some questions, but I have to run soon, so it may take a while for responses.

Ranger, can you contacts account for any of this?


This one has really gotten to me aswell because I found myself re watching that video and the best way to desribe this guy and his point is like this.

Honestly, the game being bad doesn't even really bother me. Bad games happen, even from "good" devs. Happens all the time.
What really burns my bacon though is this shit:
http://youtu.be/pyebULYg_vc
That video is 100% pure fabrication. None of that shit even exists in the game. For him to sit there for 10 minutes with a straight face showing off this footage (that he has to know at this point is just a lie) means that Gearbox just joined those fucks who made The War Z way down at the bottom of shit mountain.

In that video the guy said it was from act 2 in the game...so none of that is even in there? that sucks

Originally Posted by Ranger10

I'l ask, but my friends are pretty low on the totem pole.

They are higher up then me.

Originally Posted by i8pptuakamonstercam

In that video the guy said it was from act 2 in the game...so none of that is even in there? that sucks

Yea I was really let down to not have that scene. You do go back the many sets from the movie and they did work really hard to tie in the films with the story of the game. And they made it work for about 80%. It just spirals out of control at the end. However, the fact that you can run through the entire solo campaign with 3 friends which is alot of fun. Upside is teamwork is key, you can really screw over your squad mates or make their life easy. You can also be a bitch and take all the armor and ammo. You can't do team damage so theres no need to worry about firing on an alien butt loving you bud. I wish the AI companion dropped out in co op mode because a robot in god mode with ulimited ammo can kill the fun. I would perfer the let down of L4D robots killing CI before they get the hunter off you, or not being in the right spot when you need it. Can always put them down and push forward.

If that info from a Dev is the truth then there a great deal of blame to go around Sega, Gearbox, and there 3rd party devs....

This almost as bad as allowing special effects artists direct a movie...

cause you end up with this.



AVP R, I hear something happening, but I'm not sure what.

10 hours game time, the multiplayer is actually fun. Better then AVP 3 even though it still looks like a beta.

Extermination has two "flags" marines need to stand by while a timer block fills. Your destroying eggs. Marines need to stay in the target zone while the block fills. Unless you are all working together it's pretty tough. And if you get a pack of xenos working together, its a killing floor.

Escape is the L4D like match. Marines need to move from on point to the next while xenos cut them down. The maps is small and xenos have pretty much one spot to spawn in, but it has vents to the entire map. Marines will encount elivators they need to wait for, doors they need to hack or cut open. So one man will work while the others watch is back. It easy to get knocked down but it easy to get back up. However, again when you work together marines can breeze through, unless Xenos work together as well. Xenos get to pick from 3 types, one like a hunter, one like a spitter who can spit all he wants, and a regualr warrior with balanced abilities. Spitter can cut down armor from a distance, while warriors work the health after. Or a team of luckers can wait for the right time and drop every all the marines at once.

Survivor is close to old school infestation. But dead marines don't change species, they just have to sit in kill cam until the game is over. A squad of marines gets a few moments to get there shit together, melt doors, plant a sentry gun, and hold up for a set period of time. The Aliens respawn the entire time wearing the marines down.


Certain maps and modes have sentry guns, smart guns, and other treats.

Again, you can tell they had there shit together on paper but failed to see it all the way through. With player skins, a number of weapons with upgrades, load outs, and alien abilities. They put alot of planning into this which makes it all the more bitter things got twisted.

If you thought about getting this game, watch some youtube clips of multiplayer matches and not review videos or troll videos. It actually been fun. Rough around the edges, but you'll still get some fun out of it for the right price.

Few months, it will go on sale. If you planned on getthing this before the release meltdown, $25, 30 if you a big alien fan. If it caught you eye but wasn't really sure, 15 to 5, depends on how much money is buring a hole in you pocket.

I'll clue you in on the DLC when it comes out. If they patch the game, and put effort into the DLC the multiplayer will keep this thing on life support.

Originally Posted by Cojiro

heres a good review, i wonder how much this guy got paid for this

EGM Review: Aliens: Colonial Marines | EGMNOW

check the comments, laughable

LOL

It was only a matter of time...


Science I want to punch Pitchford. A number of sources are starting to light up with the story that they passed the project to Timegate. They lead us on that they had this one, we're on top of it, we are all hella alien fans, this is all ours, and oh yea we kinda handed it off and then put that shit in a back when they handed us a steamer.

I poked adretheon with this, but I'm sure this morning at Gearbox HQ looked something close to this.

And the response the gamers get,

I've been waiting for his review. I remeber watching his rant back in '08 when they are talking about scratching the projects.

After watching the entire vid, it's actually a really good review without the trolling. If you still have any thoughts about this game, go to this for a final verdict.