Aliens: Court Marines - "I say we take Sega's money and Nuke the entire IP from orbit..."

[Barry the Nomad]

While it sucks that the game is being panned, I'm glad the game wasn't made by an internally developed SEGA studio. A majority of the hate I've read is being directed at Gearbox rather than SEGA. Not to say that SEGA (specifically SEGA West) doesn't deserve some of the blame, but in the end it's Gearbox's game and I'm glad this isn't turning into a "wtf SEGA suxx" situation. 

 

For example, this review:

 

http://www.gamesradar.com/aliens-colonial-marines-review/

 

I did a search for "SEGA" and got 0 results. The reviewer didn't even mention them. Meanwhile "Grarbox" yielded 9 mentions. 

[Yong]

While it sucks that the game is being panned, I'm glad the game wasn't made by an internally developed SEGA studio. A majority of the hate I've read is being directed at Gearbox rather than SEGA. Not to say that SEGA (specifically SEGA West) doesn't deserve some of the blame, but in the end it's Gearbox's game and I'm glad this isn't turning into a "wtf SEGA suxx" situation. 

 

For example, this review:

 

http://www.gamesradar.com/aliens-colonial-marines-review/

 

I did a search for "SEGA" and got 0 results. The reviewer didn't even mention them. Meanwhile "Grarbox" yielded 9 mentions. 

 

Any blame towards Sega would only be as a result of them trying to get this game pushed to release. And honestly, and realistically, you can't blame them for trying push this game out the door when it was taking 6 YEARS to develop, and all Gearbox managed to accomplish in those 6 years was a mediocre linear FPS.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Well.... this is interesting.

 

Theres a rather long post on reddit from someone who claims to be an insider at Gearbox who has said that the money Sega paid Gearbox to make Aliens was diverted to Borderlands 2 instead. /Conspiracy.

 

However, now that the comparison video is out, it's generating a lot of interest. Gearbox and they're certainly getting the vast majority of the blame... only now people are looking into their previous projects and... slowly Gearbox is becoming more dishonest and misleading than the people behind The War Z.

 

Take a look at this old Gearbox game Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway.

 

 

Whats wrong with it? Everything in that video is fake, it's not gameplay as they're making out, nor is the final game anything like that. Even when they cut to the 'toy shop' thats fake

 

Also have a look at these...

 

 

Now heres the final version.

 

 

It's known that devs tend to fake stuff and reduce quality from demos to some degree, but what Gearbox is doing appears to bee off the scale.

 

P.S. I have added an appropriate and related image to the first page.

[Autosaver]

more dishonest and misleading than the people behind The War Z.

Eh, I disagree here. Sure Gearbox faked (?) some visuals, but at least it sort of came out as a (un)finished product?

 

War Z is 1000x worse!

 

Edit: Where does it say they used money from Aliens to make Borderlands 2? All it says is that Gearbox outsourced development to another dev while they worked on Borderlands 2.

 

Edit 2: Can SEGA sue Gearbox for this? 6 years of dev time and they barely worked on it? What? -.-

Edited February 13, 2013 by Autosaver

[Badnik Mechanic]

Eh, I disagree here. Sure Gearbox faked (?) some visuals, but at least it sort of came out as a (un)finished product?

 

War Z is 1000x worse!

 

Faked some visuals? They've faked the game!

 

Edit: Where does it say they used money from Aliens to make Borderlands 2? All it says is that Gearbox outsourced development to another dev while they worked on Borderlands 2.

 

Thats pretty much it. Instead of using that money to work on the game, they used it on someone else to work on it so they could work on borderlands 2.

 

 

Edit 2: Can SEGA sue Gearbox for this? 6 years of dev time and they barely worked on it? What? -.-

 

Almost certainly yes.

 

However... there will be one key area of interest. Sega in this case wouldn't have given them all the money up front. They would have most likely comissioned them to 'pitch' their take on the game, if it met Segas approval, it then goes to the next stage. At this point, Sega would either give them the rest of the money and keep close eye on it's progress, or set another target for them to inspect at a later date.

 

The question here is 'what did Gearbox show' if they showed the game in it's 'retail state' then Sega's case isn't that great... if however Gearbox showed the fake trailers... then there maybe trouble ahead... but so long as theres music and moonlight and love and romance...

 

LETS FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE!

[Yong]

Just read this piece from Kotaku on supposedly what happened to development when it got handed over to Timegate. http://kotaku.com/5984068/how-aliens-colonial-marines-fell-apart

 

Regardless of how much of that is actually true, the question I keep asking myself is why Gearbox even outsourced the game to begin with instead of developing it themselves? From the geeking out Randy Pitchford did in various early footage I figured they were genuinely excited to work on the game, yet 4 years into development they go "Okay, I don't want to make an Aliens game anymore but I want to keep Sega's money. Let's have someone else do it for us."

[Swiss]

Sounds like Gearbox is just trying to shift the blame to TimeGate (who admittedly did a shit job), but if they just made the damn game themselves like they were contracted to do instead of focusing on their own IPs, this could have been a solid product. I really can't blame SEGA for not giving them any more time, 6 years is fucking plenty.

[Phos]

Well.... this is interesting.

 

Theres a rather long post on reddit from someone who claims to be an insider at Gearbox who has said that the money Sega paid Gearbox to make Aliens was diverted to Borderlands 2 instead. /Conspiracy.

 

However, now that the comparison video is out, it's generating a lot of interest. Gearbox and they're certainly getting the vast majority of the blame... only now people are looking into their previous projects and... slowly Gearbox is becoming more dishonest and misleading than the people behind The War Z.

 

Take a look at this old Gearbox game Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway.

 

 

Whats wrong with it? Everything in that video is fake, it's not gameplay as they're making out, nor is the final game anything like that. Even when they cut to the 'toy shop' thats fake

 

Also have a look at these...

 

 

Now heres the final version.

 

 

It's known that devs tend to fake stuff and reduce quality from demos to some degree, but what Gearbox is doing appears to bee off the scale.

 

P.S. I have added an appropriate and related image to the first page.

The generic bird chirping folly in the background cracked me up.  

 

You guys realize this situation all makes much more sense under the assumption that Gearbox isn't a very good developer, which I've thought ever since they made a game where a knee high wall is an impassable barrier and then they make a level out of a maze of them.  

 

BTW Randy Pitchford has a silver tongue.  He's like this with every game they make no matter how nauseating it might be.  

 

By the way, Emergency Jimquisition.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Phos

[Detective Shadzter]

By the way, Emergency Jimquisition.

Wow...just wow... WTF happened?

[Gavvie]

What depresses me the most about all of this is that I love Borderlands, and I've really enjoyed Borderlands 2.

 

The major problem here, in my opinion, is the word "passion project". Randy Pitchford bought the rights to Duke Nukem Forever so that he could get the game out. It'd been in development too long, he said. It's a game I want to see, he said. Sure enough, DNF gets released, looks half-decent but certainly still plays like a game that's unaware Half-Life exists. (that's the first one), and is slated.

 

Aliens: Colonial Marines. Another of Randy's "passion projects", Seems to go round and round in circles, eventually ending up about a million miles away from where it should've been. Seems to be a game of the same ilk as DNF, despite starting development 9 years later, and gets similarly slated upon release. And that's before the whole TimeGate stuff came to light.

 

The odd bit here is: I enjoyed DNF. I understand the slack it got, and I can agree with most of it, and yet I still bought the Balls of Steel version like an idiot (nice art book though). I played it knowing it was a late 90s FPS though, knowing it was going to be standing alongside the likes of DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D, and what I got out of it was a quite enjoyable FPS of that style. Sure, if you're wanting a story, or smart AI, then you're going to be very disappointed, but if you just wanted to shoot things in the face, there were plenty of things you can shoot in the face.

 

I can see myself feeling the same way about Aliens: CM, because it seems to be pretty much the exact same game. Problematic AI, terrible story, and a game far removed from the era in which it should have come out. But, as long as I'm able to shoot xenos in the face, and have fun whilst doing it, that's enough for me. I was expecting it to be a better game than AvP, but I'm strange in that I can shift expectations and still find enjoyment in it.

[Stacy]

What depresses me the most about all of this is that I love Borderlands, and I've really enjoyed Borderlands 2.

 

The major problem here, in my opinion, is the word "passion project". Randy Pitchford bought the rights to Duke Nukem Forever so that he could get the game out. It'd been in development too long, he said. It's a game I want to see, he said. Sure enough, DNF gets released, looks half-decent but certainly still plays like a game that's unaware Half-Life exists. (that's the first one), and is slated.

 

Aliens: Colonial Marines. Another of Randy's "passion projects", Seems to go round and round in circles, eventually ending up about a million miles away from where it should've been. Seems to be a game of the same ilk as DNF, despite starting development 9 years later, and gets similarly slated upon release. And that's before the whole TimeGate stuff came to light.

 

The odd bit here is: I enjoyed DNF. I understand the slack it got, and I can agree with most of it, and yet I still bought the Balls of Steel version like an idiot (nice art book though). I played it knowing it was a late 90s FPS though, knowing it was going to be standing alongside the likes of DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D, and what I got out of it was a quite enjoyable FPS of that style. Sure, if you're wanting a story, or smart AI, then you're going to be very disappointed, but if you just wanted to shoot things in the face, there were plenty of things you can shoot in the face.

 

I can see myself feeling the same way about Aliens: CM, because it seems to be pretty much the exact same game. Problematic AI, terrible story, and a game far removed from the era in which it should have come out. But, as long as I'm able to shoot xenos in the face, and have fun whilst doing it, that's enough for me. I was expecting it to be a better game than AvP, but I'm strange in that I can shift expectations and still find enjoyment in it.

 

Only one thing DNF actually worked. What I seen in these video is quite shocking especially the lazy Xenomorphs who can't be arsed to try and kill you, instead they just glitch or walk off. I never saw that in Duke Nukem Forever yeah its dated but it at least it works. But from what I have seen Colonial Marines is both dated has terrible AI and buggy gameplay.

 

Its sad that people have seen the previews seen the awesome preview footage and paid £40 ($60) or more for the Special Editions. Not to mention the developers lied to magazines, lied to their customers and hell probably lied to their publishers.

[BlueTidalGamer]

and I thought this game was ok to begin with..

 

Seriously wow. This game is shit so far. The A.I is awful, the gameplay is buggy and even on maxed out PC settings the graphics are dated as hell. The draw distance... UGH it's awful!

Edited February 14, 2013 by BlueTidalGamer

[turbojet]

And Sega gets the shaft again. The same fucking thing happened with Alpha Protocol were Sega gave Obsidian money to make it and Obsidian devoted there time and resources to Fallout New Vegas and then suddenly rushed to finish the actual gameplay for Alpha Protocol. Seriously, just keep your shit in house or under developers that have an incentive to make it a good game(*cough* Platinum*cough*)

[Detective Shadzter]

Rumor: Aliens: Colonial Marines “postponed indefinitely” on Wii U
http://nintendoeverything.com/113128/rumor-aliens-colonial-marines-postponed-indefinitely-on-wii-u/

[Soniman]

This is one Wii-U postponement that I think I can live with.

[The Kid]

Is it bad I'm doubting it simply because it came from Kotaku?

[BlueTidalGamer]

It's not worth even considering the Wii U version at this point.

Edited February 14, 2013 by BlueTidalGamer

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'm doubting it too. But would I be suprised if thats the case? Nope.

 

Then again, look at this from another angle, Dice was last week and one of the big talking points was how so many developers were talking about their cancelled Wii-U games and not one was talking about ones they had in production... heres another game... though an epically bad one, to add to that list.

 

Now had it come out, even though it's terrible, what would be it's most direct competition on the Wii-U? Blops 2 and... what else?

[Conando]

Just BLOPS 2, yeah. No one would buy it, though.

[Scott]

You know what I've noticed? Surely everyone else has but...hey!

 

But throughout most or all levels in the campaign, there are holes/vents/crevices that look suitable for Aliens to pop out of the walls or make surprise attacks and yet, 90% aren't used in the final game, I imagine from all the good demo's we seen over time, perhaps the development was scrapped a few times? 

 

I'm not defending anyone of course, merely suggesting.

[Badnik Mechanic]

So urn... Try to pre-order the Wii-U version from Amazon.com... go on... Oh you can't... they're removed the listing. Maybe this is more than just a rumor?

[Patticus]

I'd like to hope that maybe Nintendo called Gearbox and Sega up and was all, "Are you fucking serious? Make this game what you lead us all to think it'd be like, or no dice," however given what we now know about the state of the game, cancellation seems more likely.

 

 

From GAF:

 

According to Jason Schreier's reply to his own article on Kotaku:

 

We heard from a tipster about a month ago that the Wii U version had been "postponed indefinitely." We reached out to Sega, and they denied it. I'll let you guys fill in the blanks there.

[Detective Shadzter]

Follow-up comment from Jason Schreier:

To clarify again, there's no confirmation of this. We heard it from a tipster, Sega denied it, and today Sega told me they're not commenting on anything.

Wii U version was also outsourced lol!
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/06/demiurge_studios_handling_aliens_colonial_marines_wii_u

[Phos]

I'm doubting it too. But would I be suprised if thats the case? Nope.

 

Then again, look at this from another angle, Dice was last week and one of the big talking points was how so many developers were talking about their cancelled Wii-U games and not one was talking about ones they had in production... heres another game... though an epically bad one, to add to that list.

 

Now had it come out, even though it's terrible, what would be it's most direct competition on the Wii-U? Blops 2 and... what else?

The sales of Blops 2 already showed, or at least gave the impression that there's not really many people looking for that sort of game on the Wii U.  

[Detective Shadzter]

Asked Sega if the Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines is still happening. "We are not commenting on anything right now."

https://mobile.twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/301845314543947776

They won't confirm the Wii U version is still coming