Maybe when the industry and players panned Aliens: Colonial Marines for being a hot mess, it was only because we all approached it from the wrong angle. Perhaps Colonial Marines' true gameplay value lies in its modding opportunities, specifically those that would fix the game's graphics, lighting, AI, UI and anything else that might need it.

Groups of players with programming skills are taking to the Colonial Marines source code, attempting to patch up the game (for PC) on their own. The Steam and Gearbox forums host a number of fix guides, including this step-by-step walkthrough with pre-made files from Steam user adonys.

Gearbox forum member kutjong notes an interesting phenomenon within the Colonial Marines code: "It's quite fascinating to study the .ini files. In PecanCompat.ini you can see all the graphics cards that qualify for a certain class. The most modern graphics card in that list is from 2007!" This Gearbox thread in particular hosts some comparison screenshots from before and after players have fiddled with the code, including the enhanced shot above. Game on, coders.