4gb Patch For Aliens: Colonial Marines Improves AI, Graphics

[Steven Bogos]

4gb Patch For Aliens: Colonial Marines Improves AI, Graphics

Gearbox has released a massive patch for the PC version of its critically panned shooter that aims to fix some of the game's most glaring faults.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is right up there with the likes of Duke Nukem Forever and Daikatana as one of the biggest gaming disappointments of all time. The story of its failure [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122365-The-Story-Behind-Alien-Colonial-Marines-Failure] is probably more entertaining than the game itself. Nonetheless, Gearbox is committed to at least attempting to fix the most glaring of the game's faults, and has released a huge 4gb patch for its PC version. The patch offers various improvements to the game's AI and visuals, as well as numerous bug fixes.

The AI in Aliens: Colonial Marines was one of its most criticized features, with many reviewers claiming they were buggy, useless, and annoying. "Tweaked enemy and friendly AI to be more aggressive and responsive," and "Modified campaign difficulty to account for improved AI responsiveness," are two points in the new patch notes that aim to alleviate these problems.

Similarly, the game's final product graphics were criticized for looking no-where near as good as that infamous pre-release walkthrough [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6832-A-LIE-ns-Colonial-Marines]. The new patch states that it has improved texture resolution, and added various visual improvements, including a film grain filter which you can see in the above screenshot. The full patch notes are as follows:

General
Improved texture resolution.
Various visual improvements.
Added mouse smoothing to options menu.
Fixed crashes tied to launch and motion tracker.
Added additional safeguards to better protect save data.
Resolved an issue where a player's level could sometimes appear incorrect when backing out of a party.
Addressed several scenarios under which players could spawn without a weapon.
Changes to better prevent audio from sometimes cutting out during end of mission cinematics.
Fixed issue where Xeno death animation was not properly calculating momentum of the killing blow.
Smart Gun animation now properly tracks targets.
Addressed some instances where Xenos would display erratic animations.
Increased light radius for player's shoulder lamp.
Adjusted aim assist to better reflect player input.
Addressed an issue that could sometimes cause co-op player revival to not work under certain circumstances.
Addressed issues with players not spawning into a level properly.
Fixed a marine player invincibility exploit.
Resolved several instances where players could walk or fall outside of maps.
Addressed an issue where Ripley's Flamethrower (bonus content) would sometimes fire continuously without player input.
Fixed an issue that could cause localized text to sometimes display incorrectly.
Addressed an issue where weapon ammunition was not always highlighted properly.
General user interface improvements.
Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Campaign
Tweaked enemy and friendly AI to be more aggressive and responsive.
Modified campaign difficulty to account for improved AI responsiveness.
Improved enemy collision detection regarding doors and Power Loader.
Addressed some issues that could cause improper warping for co-op players.
Various tweaks to address instances where NPC characters would not always properly navigate to objectives.
Players will no longer bleed out immediately when downed in a Power Loader.

Versus
Fixed issues that could cause clients to report inaccurate results and statistics.
Addressed instances where a map would appear to "pop in" when loading into a new match.
New Xeno appearance customization added.
Multiplayer teams should now correctly auto-balance between rounds.
Increased duration of Lurker Pounce Challenge "Cat-Like Reflexes" from 10 to 20 seconds.
Fixed issue where certain multiplayer challenges would not unlock properly for all characters.
Crusher pick-ups now correctly appear as highlighted for clients.

Source: Gearbox [http://support.gearboxsoftware.com/entries/23137551-PC-Update-Information]

Image: Imgur [http://i.imgur.com/OP6OL5Y.jpg]


Permalink

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

The contents of this mammoth patch couldn't have been included some time during the lengthy development of this game why?

 

[Bolt-206]

They're trying, at least.
Though the mark was already been made at it's launch, and it's a nasty one.

Now if only someone who'd played the game before-hand could do so again, so he/she could say whether this patch made a huge difference.

 

[MrMan999]

So, will we finally get the game that was advertised? Or will we be called "entitled" for wanting a product that delivers on what it promised? Also whats this I hear about Randy Pitchford using Colonial Marines funds to make Borderlands 2?

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Played this over the weekend via rental on 360. Enjoyed it, but alot of that was due to nostalgia. I do wish they had just told an original story with the aliens instead of connecting it to the movies.

But, from the list of fixes above, its proof the game was not worth releasing. It wasnt ready. This stuff shouldnt be acceptable, games should work perfect day one and not need downloads to fix them after release. Yes bugs can appear after launch, but from the list they are major game issues that shouldnt need fixes after release. This is the future, same with the ps3/360, now they are connected to internet game companies can half ass releases and have a "we will fix it later" attitude.

The downside is, through rushing out this product (ironic that it took 5 years) they have killed off a new ip without ever given it a chance. I hope they give a sequel a chance, and get it right and take time and make it highly polished because as much as the game had major issues. There are enjoyable parts within A:CM, even those 50% of those parts were the sound effects.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I believe that ship has already sailed, hit an iceberg, sank, the surviving passengers rescued, the dead mourned, an inquiry into the incident started, plans for a 2nd ship finalised, the inquiry into the incident completed, the findings of the inquiry revealed to the public, public backlash against shoddy ship building and several new law passed through parliament.

 

[somonels]

Great strategy to increase replayability!
Ship alpha version of game, fix to beta, sell full as DLC, Jinnious!

 

[Cpu46]

The contents of this mammoth patch couldn't have been included some time during the lengthy development of this game why?

Because Gearbox had Aliens CM, Borderlands 2, and Duke Nukem on their lap and then got hit with layoffs shortly after they picked up the rights to Duke Nukem but were still held accountable by the contracts to produce a game within a certain timeframe that sold a certain number of units. It's not like they were flicking cards into a hat the entire time, they had 2 other projects and not enough people to go around.

At least they are trying to improve the game. It is more than I would expect from other, much larger, developers.

 

[Jamous]

While they -do- get points for trying, I think this ship has sailed. I don't think Aliens: CM is going to recover from its launch debacle. Just too much anger.

 

[MortisLegio]

Is Gearbox going to fix the Xbox version or is it going to be left out of anymore fixes?

 

[Metalrocks]

after duke nukem, i dont trust them anymore. duke sucked like hell and not even the patches wanted me to even install the game again. and hearing only bad stuff about aliens, which dint surprise me to be honest, even with this patch i dont want to even waste my money on it.

 

[HellbirdIV]

"Hey guys, we are working on bringing the game up to the same quality that this pre-release demo had we showed you!"

Ah, the train's already gone guys. The game released in a shit state and you won't get that many new buyers out of it. I personally would not even take this game for free at this point - it just has too many negative things associated with it.

The fact they are trying to fix it is commendable, I think. It's easy to drop a shitty game like a live grenade and run for cover, it's a lot harder to try and give the people what they paid for. It's not DLC, it's a free patch - exactly the way it's supposed to be.

"Oh shit, the game is way worse than we thought. Better go back to it and fix the issues with some quick patching now that we have millions of people pointing out exactly what the flaws are."

Would you prefer they just let a promising IP die pitifully with no effort made to salvage it, or worse, going Maxis/Bioware on us and declaring that "This was OUR VISION and we won't change OUR VISION, for WE are the PROPHETS of GAMING and OUR PATH IS TRUE, WE CAN DO NO WRONG"...


captcha: I can fix it

Damn right you are, captcha. Damn right you are.

 

[Alandoril]

The contents of this mammoth patch couldn't have been included some time during the lengthy development of this game why?

Because Gearbox had Aliens CM, Borderlands 2, and Duke Nukem on their lap and then got hit with layoffs shortly after they picked up the rights to Duke Nukem but were still held accountable by the contracts to produce a game within a certain timeframe that sold a certain number of units. It's not like they were flicking cards into a hat the entire time, they had 2 other projects and not enough people to go around.

At least they are trying to improve the game. It is more than I would expect from other, much larger, developers.

If they had to lay off staff then clearly they shouldn't have got themselves into as many contracts at the same time.

 

[synobal]

Well at least they didn't try to market it as DLC.

 

[Worgen]

I'm impressed they actually patched this, I was fully expecting it to just be swept under the rug and forgotten post launch.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I find it insulting that they were willing to so blatantly lie to people with that fraudulent trailer for the game. I so wanted this game to be good, but I will never buy it. I don't care that it's being somewhat fixed. Such disregard for common decency and morality disgusts me.