Aliens: Colonial Marines

[jyoung]

Tons of footage and interviews hitting the web today:

http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/sh...d.php?t=135370

I dunno, it's looking really linear and scripted in the campaign. Basically Call of Duty with bugs instead of terrorists.

[Yoshi]

I actually prefer that in first person games. I'm still cautiously optimistic about this one.

[jyoung]

The problem with relying on scripted events in a game like this is that it kills the tension in the single player experience when you know exactly when/where the bad guys are going to pop out.

Like I'm playing through Aliens Resurrection now, and it's great the first time through every room. But when I die (and you die a lot in that game) and I have to play the same sequence over again, all the tension is gone because I know where the enemy conflicts will occur.

AvP 1 on the PC was great because the aliens spawned randomly, continuously, and they could attack from anywhere while you went around completing your mission.

[JM]

I wish they would just make Left 4 Dead: Aliens edition, it would be the best thing ever.

[Brand X]

So this was the one "big" game I waited in line for at PAX this weekend. Gearbox demo'd both a section of the single player and then you got to play as the Marines in multi against the dev team who were xenomorphs. The guy who gave the demo was the lead writer on the game and explained how the game is actually part of the Alien series cannon and takes place about 2 weeks after Aliens, during Aliens 3, and will supposedly not only supplement, but improve the story of that movie. According to the guy who wrote it of course...bias source.

The single player demo oozed Alien atmosphere from start to finish. They showed about 15 min into the game where shit starts going crazy and you get to start killing xenomorphs. They only demo'd 2 weapons in single player, the standard AR and a power weapon I won't say because it was really badass and if you haven't seen it I don't want to spoil it. Overall it looked like a solid gameplay experience, not much variety in what they showed in the demo but they were clearly only showing you 5% of what's in the game given all of the crazy shit they were showing in the trailer at the Aliens booth.

The multiplayer was really fun even though we played against the guy who designed the layout of the map we were playing (CHEATING BASTARDS!). There's nothing super original about the TMD gameplay, you pick your loadout and kill. The Marines have a motion detector like in the movies that you can use to detect the xenos, and the xenos can see through walls, go through vents, jump onto ceilings, and do everything else xenomorphs should be able to. It all seemed relatively balanced though because a few shots wrecks an alien. The map also had super weapons scattered for each team, Marines had the gun I didn't want to mention above, and the xenos were able to turn into a queen brute massive charging alien monster. They also seemed to deliberately make the Marines sluggish (if you think Halo is sluggish, just wait), but to me it felt much needed to balance the gameplay out and it didn't bother me in the least. Lots of "OH SHIT" scare moments, "OH SHIT" you just got fucked up moments, and there's ton of cool customization stuff the devs were telling me were going to be announced hopefully soon.

Overall, what I played was fun, I'm still cautiously optimistic. Single player has promise and the multiplayer looks to be a good (but very fun and kick ass) distraction. And a bonus was Randy Pitchford was at our demo, but even better there's a Creative Director who works for Gearbox that looks EXACTLY like him who was asked a handful of times when we were in line if he was Randy.

[jyoung]

Gamespot interview with Randy "Tebow lookalike" Pitchford:

http://www.gamespot.com/aliens-colon...hford-6377485/

He says the Wii U version will be the best graphically.

Also, did anyone ever play the Konami Aliens arcade game from 1986? I never knew this thing existed until today:

[YellerDog]

How did you not play that game?

[jyoung]

Only Aliens arcade games I've ever seen in-person were Capcom's AVP and Sega's Alien 3 light gun game.

[Anthony]

I wish they would just make Left 4 Dead: Aliens edition, it would be the best thing ever.

What happened to this? Because I don't care about this game unless it is this.

[Yoshi]

Also, did anyone ever play the Konami Aliens arcade game from 1986? I never knew this thing existed until today:

I used to own the PCB. I love that game.