Aliens: Colonial Marines - The Best game from Gearbox since DNF

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Aliens: Colonial Marines - The Best game from Gearbox since DNF

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IRQ: Sep 9, 2001; SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

bear is driving! posted:

So from reading the thread and various media online, I should NOT pick this up? Is it even worth a rental?

It's worth a rental if you don't go into it expecting too much. Everything the game does wrong has been said already, basically if you can have fun with a middling to mediocre FPS this is one that has stuff from Aliens in it.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 21:51

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 12:48

Ninja fetus: Jan 22, 2005; Legalize murder

Yodzilla posted:

I will argue this. Forget that it's Aliens, even if it were an unlicensed first person shooter it would be middling to aggressively mediocre.

Honestly. If you take away the Alien franchise assets and replace it with something else, I would've believed it was a mod.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 21:55

Yodzilla: Apr 29, 2005; Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch

I wouldn't say mod but it definitely feels like one of those weird middle tier shooters. Back in the day it probably would have been published by JoWood and been received about as well as Chaser or Chrome and left absolutely no impression on anyone who played it. But instead due to its heritage and legacy its been thrust into the limelight at full price for us all to scrutinize and get bent out of shape over.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:06

Someguy: Jul 15, 2001; by Lowtax

Shima Honnou posted:

It's a bad game. Go watch videos on it, that would be a better use of your time (And cost a lot less!) than even renting and playing this game.

If you must get a shooter, get Black Ops 2 or something. If it has to be an Aliens game, get Natural Selection 2, it's a shitload better than ACM is or ever will be.

Funny to deride this game then go recommend a COD title, since they share such similar qualities. Poorly written story, bad mechanics, both games look like an old quake mod ect.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:12

ReV VAdAUL: Oct 3, 2004; I'm WILD about
WILDMAN

Tookaywun posted:

I used to spawn those all over the place with cheat codes, but I never noticed the boot feet.

Was I the only one to use a trainer that let you select which level you wanted to play then spawn in, choose the last Marine level where you fight the queen and spawn in a load of Marines to see how long we'd last?

Skeet Marines killed the queen in about two seconds.

Darko posted:

"In the middle of this rage filled revenge chase after Ripley for killing my children that mirrors Ripley's original motivation for coming to the planet, I'm going to stop and lay an egg (eggs) in a part of the ship I never even went in!"

I honestly prefer the "wizard did it" explanation to any fan-explanation I've read, as none of them work in the slightest.

Bishop does disappear for a time while Ripley is in the hive and he knocked out Hicks. It is probably innocent but he could have maybe got hold of eggs at that time. Also maybe he helped Burke put the facehuggers in the medlab, I do wonder how Burke got them in there by himself without getting hugged.

BattleMaster posted:

The game's writing is a mess but there could have been some sense to Weyland-Yutani salvaging and using the Sulaco. They had a perfectly good ship sitting in orbit over Fury-161 when they arrived to try to get the alien from Ripley. The Marines probably wrote it off as a loss. By salvaging and using it rather than purchasing a new ship/using an existing one that they bought, they would have left less of a paper trail if they ever came under investigation for their numerous unethical experiments. Hicks should have stayed dead though, holy poo poo.

Of course I'm probably thinking too hard about a Bad Game.

If you replace WY with the UPP it would work better. UPP commandos sneak into US space to get their hands on Xenomorphs, hijack the Sulaco so they can use the ships navigation logs to find where the Xenos came from and head back there using it because it isn't like they have any other ships available.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:12

your evil twin: Aug 23, 2010; "What we're dealing with...
is us! Those things look just like us!"

"Speak for yourself, I couldn't look that bad on a bet."

For everyone saying "Get Natural Selection 2 instead of this game"... yes, Natural Selection 2 is a great game, but you can't do nice simple 10 minute deathmatches in Natural Selection. It is a complicated blend of FPS and strategy game and a match can go on for a long time. While with the multiplayer in Aliens: Colonial Marines, you can choose to do a simple team deathmatch and get five minutes of biting peoples heads off/tearing them apart with claws/melting their faces off with acid and then the teams swap and you get 5 minutes of decent shooty action.

So yeah, I strongly recommend Natural Selection 2, it's a better game, but it does give a great marines versus aliens experience, but it isn't the same sort of game as this one. Thus I am happy to own both. My one regret is that if I'd know the singleplayer campaign was going to be a mediocre shooter set in Aliens, rather than an authentic Aliens experience, I would have waited a bit and gotten it a bit cheaper. (And I don't mean a steam sale, I'm sure in a week or two there will be brand new sealed retail copies on ebay for significantly lower than the normal price.)

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:33

Lets! Get! Weird!: Aug 18, 2012; Black King Bazinga

I don't think anyone at Gearbox has seen any of the Alien films.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:49

zer0spunk: Nov 6, 2000; devil never even lived

This was my first alien anything game (unless you count that one SNES alien 3 side scroller).

Things I enjoyed:

- I'm a huge fan of H.R. Giger so going aboard the derelict was pretty rad, even if they kind of slacked on the texturing (PC version). I'd guess other games in this series do more justice to his art.

- Any lovely plot holes or lazy writing in any medium will forever be handwaved with the phrase "It's a long story" from now on.

- The NPCs with you don't take damage and there's no friendly fire. No need to babysit AI bots like every other game that shoehorns that mechanic in. On the flip side to this, they are still fairly useless as they'll just watch you get raped without helping from time to time. At least they aren't an obstacle.

It's a shame that Dead Space 1 is a better version of Alien then this Alien game despite it being a total knockoff.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:50

Dezztroy: Dec 28, 2012

Someguy posted:

Funny to deride this game then go recommend a COD title, since they share such similar qualities. Poorly written story, bad mechanics, both games look like an old quake mod ect.

Atleast the gunplay in CoD is pretty good. Shooting in this game is terrible as 99% of the time your sight won't actually be where you're aiming.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:51

Shonuff: Sep 26, 2007; White like Frank Black is

I probably still would have bought this awful piece of poo poo just to run around in Aliens scenery and shoot pulse rifles constantly, but watching a lot of Youtube videos cured me of that idea. This game is even more terrible than the worst case scenario I imagined before release.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 23:05

Shima Honnou: Dec 1, 2010; The Once And Future King Of Dicetroit; College Slice

Someguy posted:

Funny to deride this game then go recommend a COD title, since they share such similar qualities. Poorly written story, bad mechanics, both games look like an old quake mod ect.

I'm suggesting it based on MP. I haven't touched the singleplayer, and let's be honest here, I didn't buy it for that, either.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 23:23

Bloodmobile: Jun 15, 2012

your evil twin posted:

For everyone saying "Get Natural Selection 2 instead of this game"... yes, Natural Selection 2 is a great game, but you can't do nice simple 10 minute deathmatches in Natural Selection. It is a complicated blend of FPS and strategy game and a match can go on for a long time. While with the multiplayer in Aliens: Colonial Marines, you can choose to do a simple team deathmatch and get five minutes of biting peoples heads off/tearing them apart with claws/melting their faces off with acid and then the teams swap and you get 5 minutes of decent shooty action.

So yeah, I strongly recommend Natural Selection 2, it's a better game, but it does give a great marines versus aliens experience, but it isn't the same sort of game as this one. Thus I am happy to own both. My one regret is that if I'd know the singleplayer campaign was going to be a mediocre shooter set in Aliens, rather than an authentic Aliens experience, I would have waited a bit and gotten it a bit cheaper. (And I don't mean a steam sale, I'm sure in a week or two there will be brand new sealed retail copies on ebay for significantly lower than the normal price.)

There is a deathmatch mod for NS2 that gives you the upgrades for XP you gain from kills. Perfect for satisfying that 10 minute urge to chomp on some marines.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 23:37

Davincie: Jul 7, 2008

zer0spunk posted:

This was my first alien anything game (unless you count that one SNES alien 3 side scroller).

Things I enjoyed:

- I'm a huge fan of H.R. Giger so going aboard the derelict was pretty rad, even if they kind of slacked on the texturing (PC version). I'd guess other games in this series do more justice to his art.

- Any lovely plot holes or lazy writing in any medium will forever be handwaved with the phrase "It's a long story" from now on.

- The NPCs with you don't take damage and there's no friendly fire. No need to babysit AI bots like every other game that shoehorns that mechanic in. On the flip side to this, they are still fairly useless as they'll just watch you get raped without helping from time to time. At least they aren't an obstacle.

It's a shame that Dead Space 1 is a better version of Alien then this Alien game despite it being a total knockoff.

Go get AVP2.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 23:38

pixelbaron: Mar 18, 2009; ~ Notice me, Shempai! ~

Or AvP Classic on Steam.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 23:40

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

MoreMetalBrian posted:

Here's the Plot of "Pig", taken from http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Aliens:_Pig

"Stitch and his band of space pirates have designs on looting the wreckage of a crashed ore tug before the rightful owners can arrive to salvage the valuable cargo. The problem: a nest of Aliens has set up housekeeping near the wrecked tug. Stitch's solution: a cute little pig carrying a low-yield nuke wired to a remote detonator. Not since Babe has so much rested on the outcome of a porker's performance. How about a little bacon with your Alien eggs?"

It's a pretty entertaining comic, all things considered. It's pretty light-hearted without being really outright super goofy or making the Aliens retarded. The pig is the only one who lives.

LLJKSiLk posted:

Rewatched Aliens Director Cut last night. The biggest line that stood out for me was that the detonation of the atmospheric processor would be equivalent to 40 megatons.

Use the map here: http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

40 megatons is equivalent to 40000 kilotons. Check it out on some places to see how large that blast radius would be.

Suffice to say, any structure within 15 miles not concrete reinforced would be expected to collapse. Anything within 5 miles should be vaporized.

Also of interest to note, is that the explosion explicitly happened on-screen. Also of interest, is that the atmospheric processor was within walking distance of Hadley's Hope.

So... how exactly is Aliens: CM canon?

The "official" explanation is that the atmosphere processor is largely underground, so it channeled most of the blast straight up in a cone rather than laterally at the colony - it's the same reason nukes are detonated as airbursts rather than at ground level. So it wouldn't have been pleasant to be at the colony when the blast went off, but it's somewhat conceivable that parts of the colony would have survived the blast. Additionally, Bishop may have simply been incorrect about the yield of the blast, not being an atmosphere processor expert and all. It's pretty easy to handwave.
Silly and dumb? Yeah sure, but I've overlooked dumber poo poo in other Alien movies and whatnot so I'm willing to give it a pass.

Also even if he was being accurate with the "40 megatons" line, the "cloud of vapor the size of nebraska" line wasn't meant to be taken literally. He was using hyperbole to say "we really need to leave".

# ? Feb 15, 2013 23:47

Lets! Get! Weird!: Aug 18, 2012; Black King Bazinga

You see how big the explosion is in the movie - Hadley's Hope is a crater. It's also y'know the entire point of blowing it up.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 23:49

ApexAftermath: May 24, 2006

Xenomrph posted:

Also even if he was being accurate with the "40 megatons" line, the "cloud of vapor the size of nebraska" line wasn't meant to be taken literally. He was using hyperbole to say "we really need to leave".

Just don't even try to rationalize it. I rolled my eyes at it when they revealed their plans for the story in that 2008 Game Informer article and I'm still rolling them. The loving place was wiped off the map end of story. It's one of the dumbest retcons.

I just don't get why it was so important to them that this game be canon.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:00

pixelbaron: Mar 18, 2009; ~ Notice me, Shempai! ~

I am tired of Hadley's Hope.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:02

ReV VAdAUL: Oct 3, 2004; I'm WILD about
WILDMAN

Its so pointless too. It is made clear in Aliens that the whole colony is pre-fab "shake and bake" you can have the exact setting from Aliens without needing to rationalise away the fact Hadley's Hope was destroyed.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:03

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

ApexAftermath posted:

I just don't get why it was so important to them that this game be canon.

The irony being that pretty much all the others are, too. :v:

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:03

Lets! Get! Weird!: Aug 18, 2012; Black King Bazinga

ApexAftermath posted:

I just don't get why it was so important to them that this game be canon.

Proper canon is only what makes sense/isn't stupid. Thus only Alien and Aliens are canon in the Alien universe (as another example, only the film Predator is canon in the Predator universe).

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:05

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

Lets! Get! Weird! posted:

Proper canon is only what makes sense/isn't stupid. Thus only Alien and Aliens are canon in the Alien universe (as another example, only the film Predator is canon in the Predator universe).

Alternately, canon is whatever you want it to be and whatever makes you happy - telling other people what is and isn't "canon" is a little dumb.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:10

Photex: Apr 6, 2009

I remember actually buying Pig a long time ago from a gas station that just had a few comics, it was an amazing piece of my childhood and it sparked my interest and got me into comics.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:28

Lets! Get! Weird!: Aug 18, 2012; Black King Bazinga

Xenomrph posted:

Alternately, canon is whatever you want it to be and whatever makes you happy - telling other people what is and isn't "canon" is a little dumb.

Oh I just assumed that naturally those were what people considered canon as they're the only ones that make any sense/are good in either franchise.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:30

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

Lets! Get! Weird! posted:

Oh I just assumed that naturally those were what people considered canon as they're the only ones that make any sense/are good in either franchise.

All 3 Predator movies are cool and make plenty of sense.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:35

Lets! Get! Weird!: Aug 18, 2012; Black King Bazinga

Predator dogs are dumb as gently caress Xenomrph, I think even you can admit to that. Predator 2 and Predators aren't bad movies at all they're just a bit silly.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:36

ApexAftermath: May 24, 2006

Xenomrph posted:

All 3 Predator movies are cool and make plenty of sense.

Predator 1 and 2 are good. Predators loving sucked rear end. It has the look right, but none of the soul that made 1-2 good.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:37

Improbable Lobster: Jan 6, 2012; "From each according to his ability" said Ares. It sounded like a quotation.; Buglord

You know what's more fun than A:CM? AvP Classic 2000. Good game. I re-installed it after reading this thread and I forgot how much fun DM is when you have a good mix of Aliens, Predators and Marines.

Lets! Get! Weird! posted:

Predator dogs are dumb as gently caress Xenomrph, I think even you can admit to that. Predator 2 and Predators aren't bad movies at all they're just a bit silly.

I guess being an 80s action movie makes them bad, huh.

Xenomrph posted:

All 3 Predator movies are cool and make plenty of sense.

This man knows what's up.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:39

Lets! Get! Weird!: Aug 18, 2012; Black King Bazinga

Improbable Lobster posted:

I guess being an 80s action movie makes them bad, huh.

No, Predator is really good, Predators is the silly one.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:41

Corin Tucker's Stalker: May 27, 2001; One bullet. One gun. Six Chambers. These are my friends.

Seeing the Alien skull in Predator 2 was one of the biggest mind-blowing freakout moments of my childhood. After all the crossover comics and AvP movies it's old news, but that first hint of a connection was pretty great.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 00:46

Yodzilla: Apr 29, 2005; Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch

Holy poo poo I forgot Predators even exists.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:02

Photex: Apr 6, 2009

Yodzilla posted:

Holy poo poo I forgot Predators even exists.

Adrien Brody did too.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:05

...of SCIENCE!: Apr 26, 2008; by Fluffdaddy

Photex posted:

Adrien Brody did too.

Adrien Brody's post-Oscar career seems to exist so that Cuba Gooding Jr. can point and go "See? I'm not so bad!"

His new movie is :nms:

a "comedy" by the guy in the ShamWow commercials :nms:

But yeah, the best thing that I can say about Predators is that it is a series of still images presented in rapid succession to give the illusion of motion.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:22

Good point keep talkin: Sep 14, 2011

Well this thread inspired me to pick up AVP classic on steam. I like it, but does anyone else have trouble going over vertical ledges as the xeno sometimes? Like the screen would just shake back and forth. It could also really do with some way for me to tell what my orientation is. Finally, gently caress facehuggers.

Does anyone know if there is still much of an online community for AVP 2010 on the 360?

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:24

Luchadork: Feb 18, 2010; Take a look at the masked man
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
Chris Benoit killed his family

I didn't think Predators was bad, I just thought it was dull as gently caress.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:27

Lets! Get! Weird!: Aug 18, 2012; Black King Bazinga

...of SCIENCE! posted:

His new movie is a "comedy" by the guy in the ShamWow commercials

Before the ShamWow guy gained his current fortune, he wasted his pre-ShamWow fortune on another bad comedy movie which somehow got Michael Clarke Duncan aboard. I wonder if it's worth it that the Scout in TF2 is based on a character the ShamWow guy plays in the movie.

Clevermuldoon posted:

Well this thread inspired me to pick up AVP classic on steam. I like it, but does anyone else have trouble going over vertical ledges as the xeno sometimes? Like the screen would just shake back and forth.

Playing alien has both a high skill floor but also a high skill ceiling. It's easily the most rewarding/fun species to play.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:31

Soma Soma Soma: Mar 22, 2004; Richardson agrees

I use GameFly a lot, so I was excited to get this in the mail today and see if it was any good.

My excitement was gone after two multiplayer games and ten minutes of playing the campaign. This poo poo is terrible. I'm actually pissed off that I even wasted the equivalent of the $1.50 that it cost me through GameFly subscription time.

Why didn't I just make the smart, easy decision and put Dead Space 3 on my queue instead of this. drat you Gearbox, never going to get hyped for your products again.

Edit - Also seconding the "Get AvP Classic, AvP2, or Natural Selection" instead of this garbage. It's amazing that all these games approaching 10 years of age are better than some of this high budget poo poo that studios are trying to pass off as $60 product.

Soma Soma Soma fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Feb 16, 2013

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:36

Batham: Jun 19, 2010; _{Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground.}

I still love the fact that EGM's review is still a shining beacon with it's 90 score, high above all the other scores in the world. :allears:

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:49

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

Soma Soma Soma posted:

I use GameFly a lot, so I was excited to get this in the mail today and see if it was any good.

My excitement was gone after two multiplayer games and ten minutes of playing the campaign. This poo poo is terrible. I'm actually pissed off that I even wasted the equivalent of the $1.50 that it cost me through GameFly subscription time.

Why didn't I just make the smart, easy decision and put Dead Space 3 on my queue instead of this. drat you Gearbox, never going to get hyped for your products again.

Edit - Also seconding the "Get AvP Classic, AvP2, or Natural Selection" instead of this garbage. It's amazing that all these games approaching 10 years of age are better than some of this high budget poo poo that studios are trying to pass off as $60 product.

your lucky, I couldn't cancel my preorder because online mess ups, so it got shipped to my house anyway. Christ i can't believe i defended this game. I am going to try to return it next week. Am i the only one who thinks that the power loader gameplay is awful, i mean it clips through everything and doesn't register hits at all. Christ what a piece of poo poo.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:53

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 12:48

Yodzilla: Apr 29, 2005; Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch

Batham posted:

I still love the fact that EGM's review is still a shining beacon with it's 90 score, high above all the other scores in the world.

Haha goddamn you'd think at least one other outlet would have a a reviewer that maybe likes it a little bit but nope.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:54

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