Aliens: Colonial Marines Message Board

We sent Brendan to Creative Assembly to meet the star xenomorph of their new first-person survival horror, Alien: Isolation. While he was able to file yesterday’s extensive hands-on report from the field, he has not been seen since. But a crack team of RPS androids infiltrated the facility and recovered a sticky voice recorder with his name on it, containing an interview with Al Hope, Creative Lead on the project and Jon McKellan, Lead UI Art & Design. Here is a transcript of that interview, in which they discuss why this is true to Alien, who else players may encounter, how they think they can keep a single foe scary throughout, hiding in lockers for ten minutes and how and why Ripley’s daughter is the protagonist.(more…)

We have all been burned by past Alien games and I would like us to maintain a healthy scepticism about Creative Assembly’s recently unveiled Alien: Isolation, which I went to see and play just before the turn of the year. With this in mind, I believe it an obligation, before we begin discussing this new threat, to observe a moment of silence in which we can all remember the brave souls we lost to the Colonial Marines disaster.

*an eerie hush envelopes the world as billions of people solemnly mute Spotify*

Thank you.

The good news is that, despite keeping that scepticism intact, my recent hands-on with Isolation has given me cause for hope. With luck (and no small amount of effort from the development team) we are a little closer to having an Alien game that actually captures the feel of the original movie.(more…)

Actor Michael Biehn, who played Corporal Hicks in landmark 1986 sci-fi film "Aliens," recently described Gearbox Software's first-person shooter spinoff, Aliens: Colonial Marines, as a "passionless" project, and revealed that reprising his film role in the game "wasn't fun at all."

"It seemed kind of passionless," Biehn said in an interview with Game Informer. "I think in movies, television, and the gaming world, you get some people that are really, really passionate, and some people that are just going through the paces."

"They think that because they have a brand name they're going to get a hit game or hit movie out of it," Biehn continued. "That certainly was the situation on [Aliens: Colonial Marines]."

In contrast, Biehn praised his follow-up experience voicing Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, due largely to the hands-on involvement of creative director Dean Evans.

"Dean is such an interesting and creative presence," Biehn said. "He has such energy and such passion. One of the things that I really, really enjoy working still in this business is finding people that have that kind of passion." [screenshot courtesy Game Informer]

We play the latest campaign DLC for Aliens: Colonial Marines so you don't have to.

The final Aliens: Colonial Marines DLC, "Stasis Interrupted," is available on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam today. This single-player add-on, which is free for Season Pass holders and $10 for everyone else, follows three different characters through an interlocking story, ultimately shedding light on what went down with Corporal Dwayne Hicks between Aliens and Alien 3.

Despite being panned by critics, Aliens: Colonial Marines wasn't a total dud for publisher Sega: As of May, 1.31 million copies of the first-person shooter have been shipped out into the wild. A Wii U version was also in the works before being canned.

General
• Adjusted melee encounter animations
• Various AI Improvements
o Adjusted Xeno behavior to only allow for tail attacks when theyre on ceilings
o Fixed an issue that could cause Xenos to walk upright on ceilings
o Adjusted Lurker AI to retreat a bit after a close encounter
o Fixed a bug where AI marines would occasionally default pose if incapacitated from a melee encounter
o Fixed a bug where AI would still be targetable by Xenos while incapacitated
• Changed the close encounter lighting to fade out instead of abruptly turning off
• Addressed an issue where player weapons would possibly continue to fire during melee encounters
• Adjusted the dissolve effect for Xeno head pieces and particles in Bug Hunt and multiplayer
• Adjusted the attack angle for the Xeno tail stab to prevent stretching
• Addressed an issue where Xeno gore effects would occasionally play twice
• Addressed an issue with the Eat This! achievement from not being unlocked when using the double-barreled flush gun
• Addressed a rare crash bug when using interactive objects
• Addressed an issue where the motion tracker ping would play when you didnt have a motion tracker available
• Addressed an issue where some particles would not appear when the World Detail slider was set to the minimum. NOTE: This may require some users to re-configure the World Detail slider (under Settings -> Video ) to ensure the setting is applied properly.

Campaign
• Adjusted Recruit difficulty to be easier. (Other difficulty options have not changed)

Versus
• Adjusted a broken Extermination Point in Excavation
• Addressed an issue in Extermination where the last two Extermination Points used would sometimes immediately reactivate
• Addressed an issue that wouldnt let you select spectator cameras when joining games in progress

A new set of unlockable trophies has surfaced for the PlayStation 3 version of Gearbox Software's Aliens: Colonial Marines, hinting at the imminent release of a new batch of downloadable content.

Judging from its trophy descriptions, the "Stasis Interrupted" downloadable content offers a new single-player campaign, with trophies available for story progression and audio log collecting. Stasis Interrupted will likely premiere as the last of four add-on content packs promised by the Aliens: Colonial Marines Season Pass, following up on the previously released Reconnaissance Pack, Movie Map Pack, and Bug Hunt Pack.

Speaking with the Nerdist podcast recently, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford revealed that the company will cease development for current consoles once it has completed its DLC plans for Colonial Marines and Borderlands 2. Pitchford also hints that a new IP is in development at Gearbox, which the company will officially announce "sometime later."

• Compatibility updates for future DLC

And it's not even a video game! It's a stop motion video made out of LEGO! This video by Kooberz is a new series initiative—going by BrickTube—hosted on Machinima. You might remember Kooberz's work on the incredible Portal 2 LEGO stop motion video that makes me desperately want to go back home and replay the game all over again. It's that music, man, I just can't handle it. To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.

Welp, seems that time’s up for TimeGate. After the Section 8 and Aliens: Colonial Marines campaign dev filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, reports recently surfaced that the entire operation’s now kaput. I did a little digging of my own, and sources very close to the company confirmed the reports to RPS without hesitation. Details are still fairly scant at the moment, but you’ll find a few after the break.

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TimeGate, best known for developing Section 8 and Aliens: Colonial Marines, may be no more. Kotaku has learned from two sources that the troubled studio laid off its staff today. Everyone was sent home early, according to one source. TimeGate had been facing financial issues for quite some time now. The company filed for bankruptcy last week, but the publisher SouthPeak Interactive was looking to convert their Chapter 11 to a Chapter 7 liquidation. According to one source, SouthPeak won in arbitration, and the studio is no more. When we called TimeGate, we spoke to a receptionist, who would not comment and instead transferred us to a voicemail box.

Last night, as part of my review of the AverMedia Live Gamer Portable, I streamed random Steam games from my PC for nearly an hour and a half. I took requests. I chatted with readers in the Twitch.tv chat box. I hid in a tunnel and amused myself. Gearbox has gotten a lot of flak over Aliens: Colonial Marines, but I have to say the multiplayer does give the aliens a nice place to chill out while everyone else is running about shooting things. It's nice to have a little time to reflect. Maybe bone up on a hobby. Hit up Twitch.TV for an archive of the whole session in several parts. I'd love to setup more streaming play dates with your folks, and I promise next time I'll try Train Simulator. To contact the author of this post, write to fahey@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @bunnyspatial.

v1.2.0 Update (May 6, 2013)

• Added compatibility for Reconnaissance Pack multiplayer add-on.
• Various visual improvements, including new screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) functionality.

Will the Aliens: Colonial Marines fiasco be a lesson to other publishers?

Despite what its name might imply, bankruptcy doesn’t necessarily mean death. Not for businesses, anyway. But yeesh, Aliens: Colonial Marines co-developer and Section 8 mastermind TimeGate has some far more frightening numbers to deal with than the looming specter of Chapter 11. The short version? The developer’s total liabilities (i.e. the amount they owe various creditors) fall in the $10 to $50 million bracket, presumably including $7.35 million stemming from a fraud suit by Section 8 publisher Southpeak. Things are not looking pretty, to put it lightly.

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Timegate studios, the co-developers of the awful Aliens: Colonial Marines, are in serious financial trouble. Filing for bankruptcy protection in a Texas court, they owe a lot of people a lot of money. Some of the people on their list include Epic Games (for the Unreal Engine), online service Agora Games and a video game management agency. Awesomely, though, the list - obtained by Polygon - includes everybody the company owes money to. Including the local pizza joint, who Timegate owe $34.80. You know things are bad when you have to put your pizza on a tab. Section 8 developer TimeGate Studios files for bankruptcy protection [Polygon] To contact the author of this post, write to plunkett@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @lukeplunkett

A class action lawsuit claiming that Aliens: Colonial Marines used false advertising is happening. Today, SEGA—publisher behind the title—has responded to the situation. “SEGA cannot comment on specifics of ongoing litigation, but we are confident that the lawsuit is without merit and we will defend it vigorously,” SEGA told Kotaku. The plaintiff seeks damages for people who bought the game before the discrepancies between advertising and final product were publicly known. As we've noted before, there is a noticeable difference between the advertising and the actual game. Gearbox has not responded to our request for comment.

Gearbox Software and Sega have both been named in a class action lawsuit alleging that the two companies knowingly misrepresented Aliens: Colonial Marines in trade show demos.

After the game was released to negative reviews, some players and critics claimed the game's trailers and demonstrations didn't match up to the final product. The lawsuit's plaintiff, Damion Perrine, and the law firm of Edelson LLC have decided to take the matter to court for consumers.

The suit cites a tweet from Gearbox head Randy Pitchford, who called initial complaints over the delta between demo and final game "understood and fair." The legal action also suggests demos were misleadingly labeled as "actual gameplay," and that Sega embargoed press reviews until the early morning of Colonial Marines' release date, preventing early buyers from discovering the differences. Accordingly, the suit asks for class action damages for anyone who pre-ordered the game or bought it on release day.

The next step in a class action suit like this will be for the courts to certify the class. Unless Sega and Gearbox fight for a settlement right away, Edelson will next need to figure out how many players were mislead in the way described in the lawsuit. Once determined, the class will be notified of the suit, and the case can move forward.

Looking at the demos and previews for Aliens: Colonial Marines, it's difficult not to notice just how much better they look than the final product. Bullshots are one thing—in this case, arguably, Aliens had false advertising. Now there's a class action lawsuit claiming exactly that according to Polygon. The plaintiff, who cites California civil and business codes, is Damion Perrine. The lawsuit seeks damages for people who purchased the game before the discrepancies between the advertising of Aliens and the actual final product were publicly known. Those outside the press would have no way of knowing what they were purchasing at the time. Edekson LLC, the law firm representing Perrine, issued the following statement to Polygon: "The gaming community had a strong reaction to the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines," Edelson LLC's Ben Thomassen told Polygon. "We think the video game industry is no different than any other that deals with consumers: if companies like Sega and Gearbox promise their customers one thing but deliver something else, then they should be held accountable for that decision." Kotaku reached out to both Gearbox and Sega on the matter, and we will update this post as soon as we receive comment. Gearbox and Sega falsely advertised Aliens: Colonial Marines with press demos, lawsuit claims [Polygon]

Oh, TimeGate. Still-unconfirmed (or denied) rumblings have linked you to a rather sizable portion of Aliens: Colonial Marines’ acid-puking awfulness, so there’s your legacy for now. I’d be remiss, however, if I didn’t point out that the recently reviled studio’s proven reliably inoffensive in the past, producing middle-of-the-road manshoots like Section 8 and a few FEAR expansions. So it’s with a slightly less mountainous mound of trepidation than expected that I bring you word of Minimum, TimeGate’s new free-to-play shooter/slasher/watch two Greek-mythology-inspired titans go all Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots on each other-er. Promisingly, its inspirations seem to run the gamut from Quake’s speed to Unreal’s arcadiness to Minecraft’s adaptability, but obviously, snapping all those puzzle pieces into a coherent whole is another matter entirely. I must say, though, the achy, breaky, blocky trailer after the break has me sort of intrigued.

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4/9/2013 Update

• Added toggle for film grain filter.
• Increased security to address cheats and exploits.

Sega Europe will alter its deceptive trailers of Aliens: Colonial Marines in the UK to acknowledge the difference between promotion and final product. GI.biz reports a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK by a Reddit user triggered Sega to make amends in order to avoid a formal investigation.

"Sega Europe acknowledged your objection that the trailers did not accurately reflect the final content of the game," Niall McVeigh, complaints executive at the Advertising Standards Authority wrote. "[Sega] agreed to add a disclaimer, both on their website and in all relevant YouTube videos, which explains that the trailers depict footage of the demo versions of the game. The disclaimer will be visible when each online trailer is played."

According to the ASA website, the organization received four complaints. It's widely known now that Sega and developer Gearbox Software misled the press and public with inaccurate demonstrations of Aliens: Colonial Marines for years. The game currently stands as one of the worst reviewed titles of 2013.

The team at Gearbox talks a bit about the critical reception of Aliens: Colonial Marines and what they're doing to improve the game.

#aliens Gearbox recognizes that there are some...flaws with Aliens: Colonial Marines. That's why they're continuing to work on patching the game. More »

Seeing that Gearbox have put out a 3.8GB patch for their rather woeful Aliens: Colonial Marines makes me feel like a nurse in a hospital drama, the one who sadly, calmly puts an hand on the shoulder of a crying, screaming doctor who’s desperately trying to resucitate an expired patient he thought he could save. “It’s no good,” I would say. “It’s over.” Then we’d have a hug and a cry, and maybe a slice of cake. Only I don’t think it’s possible to hug an entire game development studio, and I don’t know whether Randy Pitchford likes cake or not.(more…)

Twenty-five people were laid off at TimeGate Studios, one of the developers behind the recent bomb Aliens: Colonial Marines, Polygon reports. TimeGate President Adel Chaveleh says the layoffs are spurred, in part, by the transition to next-gen consoles, and Polygon cites a publishing deal that fell through.

"Today, we had to make the difficult decision to let go of some great game developers," Chaveleh says. "This is never easy, and we're doing all we can to assist those developers affected. TimeGate is preparing, as is the entire industry, for the transition to next-generation consoles and new business models. As part of this reinvention, all projects and strategic initiatives continue to move forward at the studio."

#aliens The consensus seems to be that Aliens: Colonial Marines isn't a very good game. But that doesn't mean Aliens can't make for entertaining playthrough videos. Ah, the wonders of YouTube. More »

OK, everyone’s probably bored of this by now, but if you’re still wondering just how the makers of Borderlands 2 could get Aliens: Colonial Marines so very wrong, more has emerged.(more…)

#aliens On December 11, 2006, Sega announced that they had snagged the rights to the much-beloved sci-fi franchise Aliens. Eager to get people excited, Sega quickly announced that they had two big games in the works: a role-playing game and a first-person shooter. More »

A portion of a Siliconera review...

I don’t know what happened to the game I saw back at PAX 2011. I just wish Aliens: Colonial Marines was closer to that than what we got.

Full review here