Finally played Aliens: Colonial Marines, It's not great, but it's not terrible; negative reviews overbl Options

[Wounded Ronin]

So I finally played Aliens: Colonial Marines. The Steam sale had it down to a few dollars and I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. The negative epic reviews seem almost historically bad when you consider that apparently someone is suing Sega over the badness of that game: http://www.pcgamer.com/gearbox-dropped-fro...arines-lawsuit/

Basically, having played it for a few dollars, I was happy about my purchase. It wasn't as great as the greatest of all the Alien franchise games (the early Alien Vs. Predator game which had single player for Marine, Predator, and Xenomorph, where you played as Frosty Harrison, if I recall the name correctly) but it wasn't worse than the other games in the series which often were pretty hit and miss anyway.

I might have been disappointed if I'd paid over $50 for it at launch but for a few dollars I can't complain. Basically, it's a little rough around the edges, but not nearly as broken as the reviews make it sound.

I guess people have forgotten that Aliens games always seem to take liberties with the setting so that things work better for multiplayer. (I don't play multiplayer so personally I would prefer a single player only game.) Lots of guns were added that weren't seen in the movies and acid does damage instead of one-shotting you whereas in the movies the Marines only had standard issue pulse rifles, smartguns, and pistols, with Hicks having an old fashioned shotgun that it looks like he had brought along, and acid splashes took Marines out of action.

It is what it is but the whirlwind of negative press and the lawsuit seems like a comical over-reaction.

[Stahlseele]

AvP2 with the Addon was really good for its time.
If you want a better ALIEN experience, you need to play Isolation.

[Wounded Ronin]

AvP2 with the Addon was really good for its time.
If you want a better ALIEN experience, you need to play Isolation.

Maybe I'll try it next time. Thanks for the suggestion.

I really did enjoy AvP2 myself. I'm not sure if I ever tried an addon or not.

It looks like someone did an hour long interview with Randy Pitchford about ACM: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-07-...randy-pitchford

They're talking in circles a bit but I appreciate the work that went into re-creating some of the sets from the movies. As one review said, maybe ACM is a better museum than game in some ways. Interestingly Randy basically keeps insisting that the hate over ACM was basically all subjective and then compares ACM to the Beatles' White Album, which is kind of funny because I would hardly call ACM an experimental game.

Actually, I hadn't seen the 2011 trailer that got people so pissed off until I read the interview where the YouTube video is embedded. Looking at the trailer, I can kind of see why people thought expectations weren't met. The trailer is presenting a highly scripted game that plays akin to Call of Duty. The real ACM had very little scripting and a lot of the cool details like the replicated movie sets are appreciated by someone who focuses on slowly exploring the level and ignoring the storyline, so in other words those details wouldn't normally be noticed or appreciated by a casual gamer, but rather only by a hardcore Aliens fan. I actually prefer unscripted gameplay that emphasizes tactics more which is exactly that ACM offered. But I can understand someone expecting amazing interactive cut scenes and events would feel gypped when such things are implied in that old trailer but basically don't exist in the game. Also how the weaponized power loaders were replaced by the frustrating and limited normal power loader where your awkwardly try to flail your claws at big aliens with frustrating hit detection and unclear range. I mean you have to admit that's a big change. I don't know if Pitchford is being disingenuous or he's really obtuse in this case.

Still kind of hilarious and overblown to sue over it, though. I am not sure whether to laugh or cry that someone spent money on a lawsuit over $60 or whatever the game cost at launch. That's actually kind of an abusive waste of the resources of the legal system, in my opinion. Surely the courts could better spend their time on more important lawsuits...

[Stahlseele]

No, i think going to court over things like $60 is perfectly fine and reasonable.
If nobody ever did, they would simply get away with what ammounts to widescale fraudulent advertising.

It's about the same level as the MW3016 Trailer and the game MWO that was made <.<

[Iduno]

AVP2 (multiplayer at least) took a lot of liberties with the property, but was entertaining as an AVP-themed asymetric multiplayer game. I enjoyed it with those expectations, even though I'm terrible at multiplayer games.

The predator power recharge was obviously tacked on to balance the invisibility, and grenade launcher and homing rocket launcher weren't in any movies that I remember. Hilarious fun when they worked, though.

It sounds like the problem with colonial marines was it was designed for fans instead of appealing to a wider audience, then Marketing decided to try to appeal to the wider audience instead anyway.

Mental note, leave k-10 in Marketing's soycafe maker next run.