Jimquisition: A-LIE-ns: Colonial Marines

jovack22

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Hopefully it will come out in the reviews that it was a crock... I really wanted to like this game, perhaps they'll patch it, but doubtful.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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I would chime in on this, but I can't even play the stupid thing. The fucking ridiculously bad console port keeps insisting I have a controller plugged in and refuses to accept keyboard commands. Good thing Steam's so cool about giving refunds.
 

DalekJaas

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I'm probably one of very few people who think this but, I would have much preferred a good Aliens game instead of Borderlands 2. Hell, I'd take anything over another Borderlands game. In fact, if I was forced to choose between this obviously terrible game and Borderlands 2, i'd still pick ACM.

Also no pre-loading? That is just unforgivable.
 

Naqel

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While I can agree that the final product being inferior technologically is something something worth condemning.
It is entirely to whine about a sequence/mission from the demo not being in the actual game.

Several games have done it before to various extents, from just altering the edges of the sequence to make it self contained, to having entire dedicated demo levels.

Yes, the final product is unquestionably shit.
Yes, the demo it of higher polish than the actual product.

No, the exact sequence of events not taking place is not something that should be complained about.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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From what I've heard this game wasn't actually developed by Gearbox and that Gearbox actually outsourced the game to another studio to work on.

If that's true, then my best guess as to what happened is that Gearbox made that demo, then handed it over to whatever other studio made the game and told them "make it like that." And in the end, that studio did "make it like that" since most of the stuff in the demo is in the final game, it's just that the studio didn't "make it like that" very well, and completely missed the point of what most of the stuff in the demo was.

Again, that's just my theory on what happened but I think it's a theory that makes sense. Still, if this IS indeed what happened then Gearbox still deserves all of the blame it's getting.
 

wolfyrik

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@marsatlas, I understand that you're annoyed, join the club. I don't think flying off the handle at Jim is going to change much. Most of his recent episodes have described and derided exactly the subjects you're saying he should. As for this vid, jim doesn't normally release them on a wednesday. He didn't have to do this one. I for one am glad he took the time out to make this vid, it continues to demonstrate exactly who his videos are for. Us. The people who see and agreet that right now, too many publishers are trying to screw gamers and that too many gamers are allowing, even licensing them to do it.

This vid is spot. Frankly I think he'll prolly cover this in more depth on Monday. Jim's a gamer AND an Alien fan. I can't see this one sliding.
 

neonsword13-ops

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Dexter111 said:
Jesus, now that's sad.

I actually had high hopes for A:CM. I was hoping for a TRUE Aliens experience, what with the press demo and all. But now, All of my expectations are down the crapper.

*Sigh*

Gearbox... Where did things go wrong, man? Seriously.
 

M920CAIN

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May 24, 2011
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I've seen this before. There was once a Mass Effect 1 demo in which you could see the gameplay almost as it is in Mass Effect 2 (which had better gameplay IMO), but that never happened and ME1 ended up with mediocre gameplay, though story was awesome. This on the other hand had neither story nor gameplay and that's why it's a fail.
 

crimson sickle2

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This is really fucked up. I hope everyone can get a refund.

Most of the demo was probably pre-scripted to get around the AI tricks, so any hope of them releasing the demo is probably null. My biggest concern is what happened to the graphics. It's not impossible to recreate that level of awesome atmosphere in actual gameplay, so I'm wondering which was outsourced or if part of the code was lost somehow.
 
Mar 30, 2010
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Imp Emissary said:
Grouchy Imp said:
I'll start right off the bat by saying I don't know when this demo was made, but surely a game that has been in development for seven years will have some content cut from it that was at some point meant to be included? Fair enough if this demo is six months old then there is no excuse for it, but if this demo is older than that and is showing a sequence that was going to be in the game but then got cut after the demo was made, well, is it that bad?

Incidentally Jim, Facehuggers only twitch if it's love at first sight. Maybe this one just didn't feel your vibe. :)
Well my grouchy friend, it's not really so much that they removed the specific part where you "go do whatever", but rather (from what Jim has said in the viedo) it's more about the bigger "long term" things. Like the lack of detail in levels, the aliens not attacking smartly, the aliens not being introduced in such cool ways, and the little things like the facehuggers trying to say ":D HI!" It's more about removing those things, and not so much about just not having the same levels as in the demo.

That's what I think is more of what the issue is.
May you have a nice day.
I see where you're coming from, but it just doesn't sit right with me. The lack of detail in levels - well that's just a case of scaling a PC release to a console release isn't it (and I say that as a console owner, to forestall PC Masterace comments). Aliens not attacking smartly? Jim cites aliens not exiting and then re-entering vents to flank players as a feature that has been removed, but I saw evidence of this as early as the tutorial mission, not to mention through future levels. Aliens not getting the dramatic reveal they deserve ... fair do's, A:CM is pretty much guilty as charged on this point. At the end of the day a video game is much like a film in it's development, which is to say you'll always end up with a section on the bonus disc labelled 'deleted scenes'. I'm not saying A:CM is fault free (far from it in truth) but I am surprised by how quickly people have been to condemn a game whose only real 'crime' - and I use the term very loosely - is being average.

Anyhow I realise you weren't really wanting a back-and-forth but I felt the need to clarify my initial post. May you yourself have a good evening. *doffs cap*
 

Sylocat

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Is it wrong of me to be glad this game is a disaster, in hopes that it might shake up some game publishers' obsession with that fucking movie?
 

Dascylus

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I will be buying the game regardless.
Not that I don't trust Jim... In fact the timing of it all lends credit to the idea that he has been sitting on this for a while.
I'm guessing he played the game pre-release for review purposes but had to sign some form of NDA that prevented him from telling us sooner...
But anyway, I love all things Aliens so it's on my purchase list.
 

GAunderrated

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Through the years as a gamer I have grown from making pre-orders and trusting companies to do right by their customers to Not trusting anything they say prior to the final product being released.

I have made my mistakes but I can happily say that I will never pre-order a game or think twice about trailers/gameplay presentations until I can see actual footage of the final products gameplay to make the decision myself.

The only downside is companies think I have no interest in their product such as with DMC I am waiting for it to go 20 bucks or less on steam. The game got record low sales but I have been burned way too many times by Publishers/Developers to trust them with 60 bucks again.
 

Jimothy Sterling

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MarsAtlas said:
Jim, been following you for years, and your fanship is clouting your judgment. This video should've slammed everything. There is literally a conspiracy behind the launch of the game, which is growing larger and larger. You need to not just slam SEGA and Gearbox, but take this opportunity as an example of many things wrong that are pervading the industry. And since I know he's actually reading this, its up to you, everybody else reading it. If you don't want to deal with this stuff, fine, okay, but we as consumers make part of this problem, I'd like to take this golden opportunity to fix something, if at all possible. I don't want a witch hunt, but we have to show that things like this are intolerable, and regardless of what IP it is being released, regardless of what developer, regardless of whatever is being taken out of the game to be given to people who pre-ordered at a certain outlet, that we're not going to put up with things like this.
I have the same hours in the day that you do and multiple game coverage jobs. I've been covering this shitshow extensively for Destructoid (which happens to be my day job) and took time out of that to make this video. Not that I'm saying, "Suck it up and be grateful," I'm saying this is just one part of a boatload of attention I've been giving this around the Internet. Just to prove I've not been idle this week, check these posts out:

My extensive review of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-aliens-colonial-marines-244276.phtml

My captured footage of CM's ridiculous glass damage pop-out:
http://www.destructoid.com/aliens-colonial-marines-innovates-with-self-heal-glass--244698.phtml

Review round up:
http://www.destructoid.com/reviews-elsewhere-aliens-colonial-marines-244711.phtml

Patch coverage:
http://www.destructoid.com/aliens-colonial-marines-patched-on-all-systems-244825.phtml

SEGA's outsourcing denial:
http://www.destructoid.com/sega-denies-aliens-colonial-marines-was-outsourced-244728.phtml

I've done a LOT more than just bring up this sham of a demo. And as far as you talking about me addressing wrongs across the entire industry -- you said you've been following me for a while, surely you know I do that on Jimquisition almost every week!
 

Jimothy Sterling

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Naqel said:
While I can agree that the final product being inferior technologically is something something worth condemning.
It is entirely to whine about a sequence/mission from the demo not being in the actual game.

Several games have done it before to various extents, from just altering the edges of the sequence to make it self contained, to having entire dedicated demo levels.

Yes, the final product is unquestionably shit.
Yes, the demo it of higher polish than the actual product.

No, the exact sequence of events not taking place is not something that should be complained about.
I was not "whining" about the exact sequence of events not taking place. NONE of those events come CLOSE to taking place. The demo is a fabrication on par with Killzone 2's first ever E3 trailer -- and at least Killzone 2 came clean before release and subsequent screenshots/trailers were truthful.

The demo shown here was mined for trailer footage and screenshots for months after its appearance. I'm a massive fan of Aliens, been covering this for years, and not once was I ever led to believe the things I'd seen wouldn't be in the game. Quite the opposite. It's not just that the demo wasn't "exactly" like the game. It was a different game -- period.