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Deconstruction of the demo video in comparison to final product.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6832-A-LIE-ns-Colonial-Marines?utm_source=latest&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all

 Soladrin wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
Review embargoes until day of release are common, and even happen to good games.

Actually, name a single triple A title that didn't have an embargo.

Yep, they pretty much all had it.

Yes but by the very concept of a 'triple A' game you know you're not going to get a stinker. Something like a Zelda or Metal Gear Solid will almost certainly be a good investment for fans of that genre. The embargoes there are more about maximising impact on something that is sure to sell massively regardless of any prior review.

On the other hand, movie-tie ins (even ones which have apparently been in development for about 20 years) suffer from the opposite effect - anyone trying to read a review of the game, but finding there is an embargo until day of release, would be fully justified in smelling a turd.

http://kotaku.com/5984068/how-aliens-colonial-marines-fell-apart?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

What actually happened to the game: in 2010 Gerabox sent A:CM to other development house called TimeGate to finish A:CM singleplayer for them while they work on Borderlands 2. The version that they sent them was the one they released in 2011 demo.
In the middle of 2012 TimeGate returned the almost finished product to them and this is what they have seen: game done from scratch, most of their rendering and graphics gone and they didn't like it at all. SEGA refused to gave another delay and they did what they could in this 6 months, rebuilding the game from scratch.

What is the point here: never give another developer house to do your work, especially if they are going to alter it.
Instead of one epic kick-ass game we got Frankenstein game that was built to be started from scratch, to be started from the scratch again and rushed in 6 months.

What have we good games did to God Emperor to deserve this? Maybe we didn't venerate him enough?

 Pacific wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
Review embargoes until day of release are common, and even happen to good games.

Actually, name a single triple A title that didn't have an embargo.

Yep, they pretty much all had it.

Yes but by the very concept of a 'triple A' game you know you're not going to get a stinker. Something like a Zelda or Metal Gear Solid will almost certainly be a good investment for fans of that genre. The embargoes there are more about maximising impact on something that is sure to sell massively regardless of any prior review.

On the other hand, movie-tie ins (even ones which have apparently been in development for about 20 years) suffer from the opposite effect - anyone trying to read a review of the game, but finding there is an embargo until day of release, would be fully justified in smelling a turd.

Actually one of the main reasons for embargo's is to give reviewers equal opportunity to have a review ready when it gets lifted.

I wish I could play this game (the escapist video, sans narration):




Difficulty: don't make a face while he narrates a 12 minute long string of lies.

I hope some ambulance chaser files a class action over this. If anyone deserves it, they do, after reading that Reddit thread.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, it looks like someone liked the game.

EGM saw fit to rate it a 9(!) in a review that only has the promotional bullshots and on the whole reads like a dressed up press release. Note also the Colonial Marines site skin, Kane & Lynch style.

 Ouze wrote:
I wish I could play this game (the escapist video, sans narration):




Difficulty: don't make a face while he narrates a 12 minute long string of lies.

I hope some ambulance chaser files a class action over this. If anyone deserves it, they do, after reading that Reddit thread.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, it looks like someone liked the game.

EGM saw fit to rate it a 9(!) in a review that only has the promotional bullshots and on the whole reads like a dressed up press release. Note also the Colonial Marines site skin, Kane & Lynch style.

See this is what bugs me. The idea was there. The concept was friggin solid. That would have been a KICKASS game.

So where is it?

This is why I got mad when people were ragging on guys who had only seen this trailer for wanting to get the game. It made the game look awesome. There were really cool ideas there. It looked like a truly great game in the making. Yes, it was clearly not a finished product, but tons of other preview builds for games that have looked amazing were just like that. Remember the Halo 2 demo? Looked NOTHING like the game that eventually came out.

Proof for what I'm talking about. This trailer is probably just as much of an outright lie as the Aliens Colonial Marines Trailer.


Only difference is that apparently Halo 2's changes were for the better, where as in Alien's case they either never existed to begin with or went for the worse.

Shame. Maybe some PC modders will fix the game up the way it was meant to be. I've heard of crazier mods. Knowing how diehard most Aliens fans are, I know it wouldn't surprise me in the least

EDIT: Also, read that review on EGM. It's hilarious and sad at the same time. A little tidbit for you.

The visuals are subpar in places, but the overall aesthetic makes creeping through the shadowy, blood-soaked wreckage with a group of Marines a real nail-biter. While the core Soldier Xenos should probably figure out that ramming bullets with their face isn’t the best strategy, Gearbox’s other baddies offer up a great deal of variety. This sets up some dreadful moments of anticipation, fearsome firefights, and even a few harrowing escapes, making Colonial Marines’ campaign an intense experience that’s sure to appeal to franchise buffs and shooter fans alike. Sure, you’ve got some definite dents in the hull here—such as the occasionally oblivious squadmate AI, the training-wheel cover system, and the woefully heinous cinematics—but the hits far outweigh the misfires.

It's like you can hear the writer going "Oh my god this game sucks, but if I say it does they'll fire me. I have to hint as much as possible that this game is bad without getting canned. Hope people can read between the lines."

Well, at least I still have my AvP2 cd.....

Im still playing it and kinda enjoying it tbh.
I'll echo what I said earlier if you play it as a space shooter aliens game and not a space shooter Aliens game and take a deep breath relating to gak AI and some glitches its worth a go.

I would not however spend money on it.

Downloaded it, installed and played last night, finished in 8 hours on Ultimate Badass, alone. The game was not actually that bad but most of the reviews were right about certain things.

My impressions:

-While graphic was not that bad it is not 2013 game graphics - it's more 2008 game graphics ( witch is in my opinion when the game should have been released ) with some 2011 light elements.

-There was a lot unfinished elements in the game like black holes from where xenomorphs come out to low resolution textures.

-Motion tracker was good only for finding audio logs and dog tags to collect, it was totally no needed for the rest of the game.

-Acting in this game was TERRIBLE, the script was TERRIBLE and everything seemed rushed. There is no epic or dramatic moments at all in the game because acting was terrible. I am a man who loves military and their talks, but this game.... an ordinary Guardsmen has more personality then all characters in the game combined.

-The most disappointing fact in the game is because you were fighting HUMANS WITH GUNS about half of the game if not more. And while I understand need to kick WY's a** - this is ALIENS game and in Aliens game I want to fight manly ALIENS. This kind of move killed not only Alien experiences but fear factor of the game, truly disappointing... they should asked people who made original AvP 2 to gave them some advice on when to actually put WY in the game to make it epic. God Emperor...

-Enemy A.I, is truly disappointing even for Ultimate Badass. I had aliens just go past me and stand still, same goes with Human enemies. And Humans here were actually STRONGER and HARDER TO KILL THEN ALIENS. While alien need to hit me like several times just to drop down my armor WY mercenaries did that in 2 shots. And with no cover system or the ability to lean over the cover I was sitting duck for them even behind cover because even if their A.I is terrible their shots miraculously hit me - even when they have no los!!! Same was with aliens, the difference being that some of them were magically teleporting to position and kill me in one hit. Some of them were coming from solid walls etc... truly disappointing...Ultimate Badass fell more like Solder then Ultimate Badass.
I should also add that your ally A.I was also terrible, they were barely able to kill single ordinary xenomoprh. The only thing they were good for was facehugger.

The game's good qualities:

-You visit Sulaco, Hadley's Hope and Derelict ship, and all of those places were transferred into the game quite accurately.

-Weapon customization is awesome. Lot of good options for upgrading.

-You are able to pick up legendary weapons from movie marines like Hick's shotgun or Hadson's pulse rifle.

-There were some moments where the game felt like true Alien game like the level in sewers or in Hadley's Hope last stand part ( not going to spoil any more ).

As for the game story... Aliens Colonial Marines fells like this: while scenarists were writing the script they had to make a break, the moment they left the room Matt Ward teleported in it, read it and said: "This is all wrong, let me show you how to do it." It's just like with the Necron codex - everything you know is WRONG. This is why:



And the ending was terrible, no emotions, no big fight, no challenge... you just push several buttons and that's it. Look like someone was taking Mass Effect 3 lessons.

Final Verdict: 5/10. And that's deserved grade.
Note that if the game actually came out in 2008 it would get maybe 7 or 8.

Big disappointing...I wonder when will someone take Aliens universe seriously and make a serious game?

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/games/untitled-aliens-game/

Well there is another one on the horizen!

Imho, I like this new game. It is the best we have right now.

I do agree the original trailers were better, sigh. Also counter on both sides of gun? Straps missing on armor? I noticed several other missing details....

 krazynadechukr wrote:
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/games/untitled-aliens-game/

Well there is another one on the horizen!

Imho, I like this new game. It is the best we have right now.

I do agree the original trailers were better, sigh. Also counter on both sides of gun? Straps missing on armor? I noticed several other missing details....

The last AVP was better then this.

The best Alien game we have is still AvP2 anyway.

 Soladrin wrote:

The best Alien game we have is still AvP2 anyway.

This, so far nobody can top this classic from 2002

You can mod the gak out of it too, actualyl doesn't look half bad.

http://aliensvspredator2.filefront.com/file/AvP2_2007_Complete_texture_overhaul;83836

I have my hopes for the new Alien game that will start in production soon.
I hope it will be much better then this one.

I have no hope or expectations. I've pretty much given up on them ever doing something worthwhile with the franchise. I mean, we just got fed a gak movie and 2 gak games. Brand loyalty my arse.

If something good comes out I'll be pleasantly surprised, otherwise. Feth it.

I finished the campaign a few days ago after a couple hours and I have to admit, it's pretty terrible.

I'm a huge fan of the alien franchise besides avp and Prometheus, but oh man was this game bad. To be fair it's not the worst I've ever played but I went back to playing game of thrones and never looked back.

Multiplayer is very laggy and feels incomplete, a few times as host I couldn't hit aliens point blank with a shotgun, but sometimes while lagging horribly I can hit a marine with spit from a mile away while he's sprinting. Hit detection seems off.

Campaign was okay, but half way through I was over it. Finished it and took the game back, some of the marine unlocks are through challenges but since they are one at a time through a list you can spend awhile on one and then minutes later get the next one that could be something you have done 100 times already.

Coop campaign was okay, but playing with random people was not very fun.

Finished the campaign - no matter how bad this game was, I was going to finish it after pre-ordering it.

Not the worst I've ever played, but very poor. I said earlier the sound was excellent, and that remained so, but I also said the voice acting seemed OK. That was less so as the game went on. I imagine I heard the phrase "No marine left behind" about 400 times by the end of the game.

The commanding officer of the Colonial Marines refers to a fellow Marine as a "fellow soldier". FFS, guys.

Well, at least it's still fun in co-op.

You know I just finished the campaign and I actually enjoyed it.

I had low standards going in because of the reviews so that helps.

I really enjoyed it, I would rate it 4-6 out of 10 depending on what you care about.

 Brother Captain Alexander wrote:
Just one terrible note: this game is awful according to lot of people now, and we are talking abotu the same guys ( SEGA )who have licence for Dawn of War games.
You can start crying now.

Yet another example of someone not understanding the difference between a developer and a publisher. SEGA published this. They did not make it. Gearbox (and about 50 other studios, it seems) made this game.

Publishers have a lot of control over how a game is developed. From this, it really seems like SEGA didn't have a problem with pushing the game through production quickly and getting it gone and done with (much like Duke Nukem Forever) and not caring at all about its quality. It's not lacking understanding to be wary of such an attitude.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Yet another example of someone not understanding the difference between a developer and a publisher. SEGA published this. They did not make it. Gearbox (and about 50 other studios, it seems) made this game.

Yet another example of someone not getting the joke.
I know Gearbox and 2 other companies made it and that SEGA published it. I just wanted to make a joke on 40k tab...

Rented it through redbox today.

Campaign is as much crap as they say it is.

Multiplayer is a lot of fun. Feels like aliens should.

Some of these aliens players are scary good at this game.

I still like the jaguar game the best.

I'll be honest. I'm liking the game, simple shooter and so far nothing has screwed up for me.

The legend weapons are a nice touch, and playing it through co-op with brother in law is great fun as he catches up to my progress solo.

My only wish was you got the smartgun more as it is such an awesome fun gun, and also maybe a sniper type gun as trying to scope shoot with the pulse rifle for example is not the best in prolonged combats.

overall though i'm loving the game for this hop in play a level or two and hop out approach. That and maybe my tolerance for bad games is huge when it's something related to things I like.

 LordofHats wrote:
Publishers have a lot of control over how a game is developed. From this, it really seems like SEGA didn't have a problem with pushing the game through production quickly and getting it gone and done with (much like Duke Nukem Forever) and not caring at all about its quality. It's not lacking understanding to be wary of such an attitude.

It was in development for a long time (7 years?) so I imagine that Sega simply cut their losses and released it in its current state. Its a horrible mess and it doesn't reflect well on Sega for allowing this to run (and run) through multiple developers but this was never going to end well.

My two biggest problems with the game are the lack of time with the Smart gun (Im not even a huge fan of it but lets face it, you should have used it 2-3 more times)

and the way Co-op is designed. For some WEIRD reason I pictured Co-op to be like you are actually in a squad with one guy with the motion tracker, one with the smartgun, etc...


Me and my friends were really intersted in a roleplaying opportunity for co-op. (Especially would have been nice if the game reflected your co-op missions refering to your squad instead of you individually)

I might pick the game up, partly as a bit of solace to poor Gearbox for having their game ruined by TimeGate. They put a lot of work into it, and I feel they deserve my support. Also, whilst the final game is nowhere near as good as the demo, it's still a pretty good game.

Also the multiplayer looks awesome. I would buy the game for the multiplayer alone.

 Galdos wrote:
My two biggest problems with the game are the lack of time with the Smart gun (Im not even a huge fan of it but lets face it, you should have used it 2-3 more times)

and the way Co-op is designed. For some WEIRD reason I pictured Co-op to be like you are actually in a squad with one guy with the motion tracker, one with the smartgun, etc...


Me and my friends were really intersted in a roleplaying opportunity for co-op. (Especially would have been nice if the game reflected your co-op missions refering to your squad instead of you individually)

Yeah closest you actually get to that is the competitive multiplayer modes for Escape and Survival (Whatever the last stand one is) Both of those are a ton of fun, especially if you have really good xenos players. I would kill to get to play this game with everyone using a mic, but nobody wants to turn theirs on If I could find any friends who owned the game I think that would be the main gamemodes I would play.

The other two modes, Deathmatch and Extermination, aren't quite on the level as Escape and Survival, but being able to be killed in only one or 2 hits by a skilled player definitely adds a bit of tension there as well. Some of the most tense moments I've had in multiplayer were on those two modes, holding out in a corner with a couple other guys and just trying to hold out till the rest of the players met back up with us. Also, getting good enough with the pulse rifle and motion tracker to actually hunt the aliens as a marine is probably the most badass I've felt in a game in a long time (granted, the alien players weren't very good, but when you see aliens running from you that is pretty awesome )

The game is growing on me, but only the multiplayer. The singleplayer is still a mess sadly. I'll probably end up buying this when it drops in price after a little while.

I meant to try the multiplayer, I couldnt get it to start.

I feel like my game is set to only create a party out of my friends on steam which would prevent me from find a room obviously lol.