I don't want to alarm anyone, but....

[Stark]

Yeah, its probably a bad game and they may well have done dishonest things, but I don't think the idea that it's a stand-out in that way is very compelling. The whole industry is about this crap, and even 15 years ago boxes used to say 'actual screenshots' on them because the default assumption is that what you see are NOT ACTUAL SCREENSHOTS.

To be honest, the homogeneity of the 'harsh' 'criticism' makes me think maybe none of it is honest and its just the designated whipping game of 2013. I mean, it's an Aliens game so I'm not going to play it, but cut and paste flames for game declared bad by gaming press is not compelling.

EDIT - Hawks, absolutely. Some people are using Timegate as a deflection from Gearbox being a studio of idiots (must protect the hive after all) but they contracted them. If they didn't monitor, check, measure, validate and QA the work of their contractors, its their fucking fault.

[CaptHawkeye]

Exactly. Gearbox is 100% responsible for this trash. If Timegate couldn't be trusted to develop the game properly, why was it left with them in the first place? (They're cheap.) If Timegate was found to be mishandling the game's development, why weren't they relieved? (Because they weren't being watched.) The reality was Gearbox gave up on development of this game years ago and outsourced it to the cheapest studio they could find. The Alien IP is big though, so I bet the hope was to cash in on name-brand and fluff. They put more effort into the marketing than any other aspect of this game.

The best thing is this is totally standard practice for the industry. They got unlucky with the journalists this time, that's all.

[Stark]

Thats the sense I get - lots of games get MAD SLAMMED by HARD JOURNOS making the TOUGH CALLS once ign or joystiq or whoever declares open season, but they don't all deserve it. AvP 2010 apparently sold ok and it was horrid, so they may have thought anything was ok.

In my opinion, I just don't think Gearbox is big/professional enough to run their own projects AND keep an eye on other developers. Remember the first trailer they released that was so terrible everyone I know said 'holy shit this game will suck'? That should have been their signal to actually look at the product they were paying someone to make, and not just keep lying about shit like FLEXIBLE OPEN FORTIFICATION STEALTH GAMEPLAY buzzword lists.

[Edi]

The thread over at Quarter to Three was pretty hilarious reading toward the end and Tom Chick's review of it is telling.

Gearbox may have actually used money given to them by Sega to fund other stuff while pushing A:CM back (it has been delayed so many times it's not funny). All the bad press it's getting is probably deserved.

[Justice]

...clown closet alien attacks...

And there are thousands of aliens.

Great, now I'm imagining clown car chestbursters, with twenty of the suckers exploding out of each colonist.

Actually, I seem to remember that being something from one of the failed Aliens 3 scripts. I think it was the William Gibson one where Hicks became the main protagonist.

[dragon]

Having played the first mission gotta say it's better than Duke Nukem Forever. At least the flashlight is mounted to the weapon unlike some games. Second mission is a bitch as you're not fighting aliens but weyland yutani mercs and trying to duck the bullets suck as they go through a lot of the cover of you have available.

The fire fight between the Sulaco and your ship is a bit one sided

[Stark]

Do you play many shooters?

[dragon]

Do you play many shooters?

I've played my fair share of them not my favorite cup of tea though.

[Stark]

When you say 'at least the flashlight is mounted on the gun' it makes me wonder what kind of exposure you have to current shooters or Alien shooters in particular.

[dragon]

When you say 'at least the flashlight is mounted on the gun' it makes me wonder what kind of exposure you have to current shooters or Alien shooters in particular.

Sorry was picking fun of doom 3 where you could hold the flashlight or the gun. Guess I need to leave the sarcasm to the experts.

[Flagg]

Wow, a game based on a 30 year old movie sucks. Shocked!

[CaptHawkeye]

It didn't have to. That's the thing. They could have easily crafted better mechanics and paid more attention to the atmosphere of the movies. The problem was the interest wasn't there. Gearbox is not a big AAA developer and according to Sega already had its hands full with Blands 2. Their resources were limited, and they chose to put full effort into developing one of their original IPs with a reliable fan following. Colonial Marines got hind tit.

The Alien IP is strong though, so they still gave it a big marketing campaign in the hope impulse buys and delusional fantards would just eat up anything with a Xenomorph on it. For all we know, that could still happen. I've heard rumors going around of Sega contemplating a lawsuit though, I wouldn't blame them for a moment. They got scammed.

[dragon]

Wow, a game based on a 30 year old movie sucks. Shocked!

30 year old movie? The movie came out in 2005.

[Stark]

It didn't have to. That's the thing. They could have easily crafted better mechanics and paid more attention to the atmosphere of the movies. The problem was the interest wasn't there. Gearbox is not a big AAA developer and according to Sega already had its hands full with Blands 2. Their resources were limited, and they chose to put full effort into developing one of their original IPs with a reliable fan following. Colonial Marines got hind tit.

The Alien IP is strong though, so they still gave it a big marketing campaign in the hope impulse buys and delusional fantards would just eat up anything with a Xenomorph on it. For all we know, that could still happen. I've heard rumors going around of Sega contemplating a lawsuit though, I wouldn't blame them for a moment. They got scammed.

Reskin RE6 = better Alien game. Shit, the features they talked about in 2008 are now indy game staples, thanks to the zombie genre. In no way did this game reach out into risky territory.

[Flagg]

Wow, a game based on a 30 year old movie sucks. Shocked!

30 year old movie? The movie came out in 2005.

Try 1986, fucktard.

[dragon]

Wow, a game based on a 30 year old movie sucks. Shocked!

30 year old movie? The movie came out in 2005.

Try 1986, fucktard.

There was land of doom in 1985 which had nothing to do with the series.

Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war, and a feminist warrior is forced to join up with a soldier of fortune in her journey to find a rumored "paradise" as they battle gangs of rampaging bandits.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190520/
The doom based off the game was 2005. So which doom movie from 1986 are you talking about?

Doom is a 2005 action and horror film written by David Callaham and Wesley Strick and directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak.[2] It is loosely based on the video game series of the same name created by id Software. The film follows a group of Rapid Response Tactical Squad Marines called on an emergency to Mars on a rescue and retrieval mission after communications with The Olduvai Research Facility on Mars ceased hours earlier. The Marines soon battle some demonic monsters plaguing the facility.

[The Vortex Empire]

He's talking about Aliens, dude.

[Flagg]

Wow. What a moron.

[Vendetta]

When you say 'at least the flashlight is mounted on the gun' it makes me wonder what kind of exposure you have to current shooters or Alien shooters in particular.

Sorry was picking fun of doom 3 where you could hold the flashlight or the gun. Guess I need to leave the sarcasm to the experts.

Ironically, I have heard people who are aware of the current state of shoot the mans games saying that ACM compares poorly to doom 3. Doom 3 is 9 years old, by the way.

[Vendetta]

Wow, a game based on a 30 year old movie sucks. Shocked!

I dunno. A game based on a really old movie probably has a better chance of being not shit than a game that's squeezed out to meet the launch window of a current movie because you have time to figure out what people like about the movie and how to replicate that in an interactive product.

Right, Gearbox?


Right?


Oh.


Oh well.

Maybe in another 25 years.

[Stark]

Speaking of that sort of thing, its quite common now. Whatever the reason, developers seem to have forgotten what 'works'. Dead Space 3 has an incredibly contrived story poorly communicated in bald statements, but thats not unusual - what is unusual is that the focus on (bad) gunplay and the lack of the traditional trappings of atmosphere mean people might actually notice how retarded the story is or become bored with the endless sequence of 'push this button' and 'collect these three things' cycled half a dozen times.

[Covenant]

I think we've seen so many new developers enter the market that people don't actually know what they're doing anymore. I remember at one application they told me that as an employee I would have to work on games other than the First Person Shooter genre, and they said it in dead seriousness, as if that is something they want to mention up-front the same way they would mention that the work is hazardous or that they would require me to give them a kidney. The fact that they would ask this (the company was not known for shooters anyway) means that either the developer ethos in a lot of places is broken or that their usual hires are idiots. Probably both.

This game, which I have not played, is hilariously bad. I was a little interested because I saw the Demo, and while I felt that the Demo was a bit annoying in some places (weaponry did not feel like it blew the aliens to fucking pieces like it should, they also carried no physical weight despite being huge fucking monsters) it was a promising demonstration of a sensible design ethos. Dark environments, lots of procedural lighting effects to make the Aliens moments even better, and while it had too much action it did showcase the chaos of an alien attack in a decent way. The floaty "theme park" feel to it always bothered me, it didn't seem... again, no weight. No terror and no weight. But it may have been okay.

But this game is just awful.

How is it you can fuck up an alien game, really? Haven't the first and second movies, both considered excellent films, been picked apart by people to such a degree that you could hand your developers over 1000 pages of insightful commentary on how they created a feeling of dread and vulnerability in the audience? The franchise has literally two fucking monsters--one is an alien, the second is a bigger alien that shits eggs. Facehuggers are props, don't even say otherwise, and a chestburster is a practical effect. Two goddamn monsters, both of which have such a huge volume of art dedicated to them that you literally cannot get them wrong without trying, and they fuck it up.

Those monsters, by the way, have only like three characteristics that are really important. First, they like to skitter around surfaces and stick to stuff. Easy. Second, they bleed acid. This is not a small point referenced a mere once or twice, it is in fact a major plot point several times, and used as an explanation for why you can't stand next to the fucks when you shoot them. They're not durable, they just bleed acid. Third, they jump out of the shadows to fuck people up when they get within fucking distance. That's it. That's literally all you need. Make your monsters wear the proper rubber suit, have them run on walls, bleed acid, and fuck shit up from the shadows.

Nowhere does it say you need thousands of them pouring out of the walls, or one hundred variants, or ranged versions, or anything else.

Someone might say, "But how does that make for a fun game?" It makes for an incredibly fun game so long as you let the monsters and the setting dictate the action, but if set out to make a modern-style First Person Shooter and then just shove it full of Aliens references, it's no fucking surprise the game comes out looking like assballs. They had no idea what they were doing with this and didn't care, shoving it off on third party developers just because hey why the fuck not.

I am absolutely certain that were I given a AAA budget and a development house, I could helm a decent Aliens game if the freedom to follow the tone of the movies was given, and possibly a great one if you're allowed to make a game that isn't forced to lap at the teat of fanboyism. Lots of people loved a chance to return to the settings of the original, but I don't think any game that let you do that wouldn't feel like a hollow imitation of the source material. You need to move it to a new place or else everything will just feel dead. The horror won't be there because you already know how it goes. Its not new.

Making it a FPS is strike one, but it absolutely must be a first person shooter, you gotta make it less about shooting the fuck out of the aliens and more about the environment. Steam vents, computer consoles, windows, floorboards, etc. You just can't successfully keep the tension if you're shredding these things, but failing to accomplish anything takes away a sense of accomplishment and removes the weight. I say you let them chew the environment up, play around a lot more with the idea of getting through areas than trying to kill them all (using your guns primarily as a method for forcing attackers to flee, only secondarily as a method to achieve their death) and keep the focus there. You need to make the world feel oppressive. Alien and Aliens both took a human world and made it the alien world until places that were familiar and safe were now suddenly, horribly malign. I never feel that from, for example, Aliens Ressurection, and nearly none of the games do that either. I remember in AvP one of the things I did as an alien was fuck with the lights to make areas safer for me.

I dunno, just a tangent. I think that the Aliens franchise is basically a gift-wrapped ball of good design choices that any competent hand can make into an enjoyable experience. It only falls apart when you entirely miss why it was fun. And they do that every single time.

[bilateralrope]

What next? People demoing console games using PC hardware?!

Haven't we already gone past that ?
With Aliens: Colonial Marines, the graphics shown in the demo video are unavailable to everyone. With demo videos made on PC hardware those graphics will be available to PC users.

We do have one answer to what's next: 11 Bit Studios is taking preorders for a game they haven't announced. I'm hoping that there are enough people who cancel their credit card transaction after the games announcement that 11 Bit Studios have to admit that this was a bad idea. But I doubt that will happen.

[Stark]

I think you misunderstand the fans. If they'd asked several nerds what they liked about aliens or wanted from a colonial marine game, they would have been told GUNS and SLAYING SWARMS OF ALIENS and maybe COOL SHIPS AND GADGETS. There's a whole horrible corpus of novels and comics that hit these buttons. I think this is why e licence always fails (and AvP by extension) because its not seen on its own strengths, but seen as a property that is valuable for how easily it lends itself to 'traditional shooter play'.

If you modded penumbra to have aliens instead of wolves, you'd have a better Aliens game. But nobody would buy it, because they want power fantasies (aliens strong but aliens weak lol) not drama or tension or whatever.

[Covenant]

I think you misunderstand the fans. If they'd asked several nerds what they liked about aliens or wanted from a colonial marine game, they would have been told GUNS and SLAYING SWARMS OF ALIENS and maybe COOL SHIPS AND GADGETS. There's a whole horrible corpus of novels and comics that hit these buttons. I think this is why e licence always fails (and AvP by extension) because its not seen on its own strengths, but seen as a property that is valuable for how easily it lends itself to 'traditional shooter play'.

If you modded penumbra to have aliens instead of wolves, you'd have a better Aliens game. But nobody would buy it, because they want power fantasies (aliens strong but aliens weak lol) not drama or tension or whatever.

Yeah, that's precisely the problem.

Now, I think players who want an aliens game want the power fantasy, but I think what developers fail to do is make the power fantasy worth it. Most games are about a power fantasy. Slaying the dragon, smashing the dark lord, all that kind of stuff. Some games are, I suppose, simply ABOUT being scared. Let's look at Amnesia for a second--

--Amnesia is, of course, the game that is rated as the scariest and the big fancy improvement to Penumbra. I admit, the game is really good and its my go-to for a scary game. I haven't even finished it. But surprisingly very rarely is the game anywhere near dangerous and 99/100 times in the game the monsters aren't around and you are entirely safe. If the game had a little light in the corner, Red for nothing besides adventure game puzzles and Green for scary monsters, you would spend so long in Red that you would feel less terrified than if you're in a Resident Evil game.

My point is that while people want those GREEN FOR GO moments of payoff, they're going to be heightened by the moments where it isn't. Even in a game where being scared or dying is the goal, very rarely should you be scared. People will be flush with the thrill of badassitude after killing some monsters long after that fight, and it'll be more satisfying if they have to wait between them while soaking up atmosphere. I wouldn't advocate going so far as Shadow of the Colossus but any game that isn't a DOOM-style Corridor Shooter benefits greatly from establishing tone.

Action movies, for example, use that methodology. You build up the tensions, then you release them. In an action movie you're going to get like 75% talking and 25% fighting, with those fights spread out so only 5% of those fights are no-holds brawls and the rest are showing off the main character's badassitude or whatever. So in general, you've got a formula for 75% atmosphere/setting/story, 20% buildup, and 5% payoff.

So in an aliens game that is, let us say, 10 hours long from beginning of campaign to the end, you could expect 2 hours of that to be combat, nearly 8 hours of that to be messing around feeling scared, and a half hour of that, probably divided into three parts, of end-of-game swarm-slaying and boss conquering.

The normal shooter game is more like 50-50 than 95-5, but I think that you really could make a super-satisfying game that would appease the greatest of "Let me kill them by the billions!" fans because you're certainly free to throw billions of xenos at the player, but you make them have to do it while escaping a time-delay bomb, or while their team is being torn apart, or so forth. They're going to want the guns and the swarms and ships and gadgets and I say include absolutely all of that, and go further than they expect, make it cooler, and really just amp it up. But you're going to make those people appreciate things a lot more by making them have to wait for it.

Constantly cock-blocking them and taking away their feeling of empowerment until they finally get a GOOD SOLID CHANCE to show off will make it so much more satisfying. The Aliens movie used that same mix anyway. They didn't go around shooting all the time, at least not shooting any hitting anything. You want to give people plenty of chance to be scared, confused, and weak before you give them the moments of payoff. The guys who want a pulse-rifle gungasm will still remember "That epic fight at the end" but everyone else will also appreciate the good game the rest of it was, and all players will appreciate how much more powerful they feel killing 100 xenos if they remember how hard it is to kill just one when you're fighting by their terms.

Obviously, nobody would ever give me that chance, but every time someone comes out and makes some "amazing" game that gets all the press drooling it's just using the same stupid kinds of idiot-brain design schemes. It's not hard to design a good game. It just takes patience and publishers don't do that well.