Grave Gamer News & Views — xenomorphs

Here’s Your First Contact with Alien: Isolation

I think it’s safe to say this project has broken out of the rumor cage and is now free to prey on any one of us stupidly not named Ripley.

In Sega’s latest attempt to make anything but a frozen space turd out of the Alien IP, they’ve tasked Creative Assembly in restoring dignity to this series’ video game presence not seen since AvP2 for the PC. Feel free to brush up on Alien: Isolation right hereabouts, but I’ll give you the quick lowdown:

Ellen Ripley’s own brood, Amanda, is isolated (bah!) aboard a space station –  that’s a bit misleading, though, because she has plenty of company, found in one vicious xenomorph terrorizing her at every vent and dark corridor.

Given the lack of pluralization in the title, the game’s vibe appropriately borrows from the original film’s claustrophobic brand of horror. More than that, these screens showcase slavish dedication to designs period specific (in canon) to Ridley Scott’s vision of the early 22nd Century. That motion tracker looks like it was ripped right out of Captain Dallas’ hands (if you got the reference immediately, we are lifelong friends now).

Oh, baby, I can feel a reveal coming on real soon. I crave a trailer next.

Aliens: Colonial Marines Tester Sheds Light on the Game’s Dark History

Hardly a week since its release the internet has been swept up by the behind-the-scenes controversy encircling Gearbox Software’s licensed abomination, Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Following the anonymous allegation that Gearbox outsourced the majority of the title to different studios, namely TimeGate Studios (Section 8, F.E.A.R. Files), a recently yanked Reddit AMA with a “confirmed” Sega employed tester has been brought to light.  Obviously breaking their non-disclosure agreement in two, user “soetester” not only says Colonial Marines was handed over to TimeGate early on, but also claims Gearbox was using Sega’s Aliens financing to secretly fund both Borderlands installments.

More shocking, soetester says the title didn’t degrade from the promising E3 2012 demo that sent fans’ hopes skyward.  In fact, the tester alleges Sega never got their hands on anything like that demo, that the gameplay shown wasn’t even running on Unreal 3 (like the final game), and lambasts the footage as “100% false advertising.”

While the AMA was removed – giving it an air of inadvertent legitimacy – you can still view a capture of the session here.  Below are some highlights:

• The game wasn’t released under the pretense it was anything more than awful.  By the time Gearbox turned its attention on it “the damage was done.”
• Sega only received it to test in the middle of last year.  Unwilling to delay it further (and lose more money), the game released as you see it today.
• soetester posits Sega may take legal action against Gearbox.
• The Wii U version may very well be “the worst” of them all.  Framerate issues, slow texture loading, and poorly conceived GamePad mini-games may keep the Wii U A:CM from seeing the light of day.
• Gearbox “did much more of the game than [TimeGate]” evidently.  soetester admits TimeGate’s contribution left the game in a horrid state, though.
• Cutscenes better explaining some of the game’s shittier plot choices were cut; interactive parts of the game including a proper, playable introduction to the marines and the Sephora were folded into cutscenes.
• In response to how much the tester enjoyed the game: “I hate it.”
  

In more hopeful news, the Sega tester also claims they’ve seen a build of Creative Assembly’s Alien game which is intended for next-gen hardware.  The tester says their game’s shaping up to be dark, atmospheric, and “slow paced (in a good way)."  I think after this disaster, the gaming public would openly embrace more horror and less horrible.

If you need another stern warning against Colonial Marines, check out my review.

On paper Aliens: Colonial Marines sounded absolutely ace.  A direct continuation to one of the most influential and timeless science fiction films of the last fifty years signed off as official canon by 20th Century Fox, developed by Gearbox Software, one of the most renown and rejoiced gaming studios of this generation.

Colonial Marines should have been great.  Living and breathing Jimmy Cameron’s universe, a perspective on the future that countless, countless games, novels, and films still unabashedly rip off to this very day, should have made for an engrossing interactive experience that its imitators could hardly match because, instead of playing loose homage to the 1986 film, Colonial Marines had free reign to tap from the source.

I’ve been a huge fan of this franchise since early childhood; my immediate, almost unconscious response to “What’s your favorite movie?” is always “Aliens” without hesitation, and I’ve been excited about this game for a very long time.  By the time this review posts, you’re likely to already have heard the sordid truth.  It hurts me to say that Aliens: Colonial Marines doesn’t just miss the mark, it makes a vapor cloud the size of Nebraska fifteen miles away from it.

Aliens: Colonial Marines (PC/PS3/Wii U/X360) - February 12th, 2013

You’re looking at a game built from the ground up on fan service.  From the multitude of xenomorph designs including H.R. Giger’s original palpitation inducing concept and Cameron’s spiney, perpetually pissed off war machines to the hulking derelict wreck prevalent in Ridley Scott’s Alien and Prometheus…Even the sound design is plucked directly from the films for authenticity’s sake.  This is the Aliens game we’ve been craving since we first heard the hollow sputter of a pulse rifle burst and, more than that, pre-release buzz has it that this one’s an extreme amount of fun.

Gearbox, you have my trust and, soon, you’ll have my money.

Making Aliens: Colonial Marines Episode II - Those Goddamn Xenomorphs

Gearbox has opened up the hood on their video game love letter to the Alienfranchise in another web doc, this time focusing on the acid/hate filled xenomorphs. Gearbox is going above and beyond in order to capture the essence of Jimmy Cameron’s flick, but more interesting to learn is how the developer is filling in the gaps the...