Gearbox Software (Borderlands, Brothers in Arms, Duke Nukem, etc.)

[Foggle]

Sounds like Duke Nukem Forever all over again....

Gearbox had almost nothing to do with that, though. And it was nowhere near this incompetent.

Though, as far as previews of the game goes, I can't agree that it looked good from a technical standpoint. Well, maybe the PC version looked good, but even the high quality videos that I saw online looked like they had pretty dated graphics. Maybe those were previews of the console version, but wouldn't Gearbox want to show off footage of the game running on the PC on its highest settings to show the game as its graphical best for the sake of previews?

The PC footage I saw at Community Day on the movie theatre-sized screen was absolutely beautiful. Hoping against hope now that this is a great PC game with a terrible out-sourced console port...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Gearbox had almost nothing to do with that, though. And it was nowhere near this incompetent.

I was referring to the notion that both ACM and DNF were games that spent notoriously long times in development hell and upon release (though to be fair ACM hasn't officially been released yet), ACM seems to be shaping up to be a huge disappointment on the same level that DNF was back when it came out.

The PC footage I saw at Community Day on the movie theatre-sized screen was absolutely beautiful. Hoping against hope now that this is a great PC game with a terrible out-sourced console port...

Of course, as a console owner, that would just make me pissed off that Gearbox let the console ports of this game be so poorly handled (or I guess I'd have to be pissed off at Sega, I'm not sure who would be more responsible for that). I mean, I hate the idea of devlopers or publishers just shitting out half-assed ports of games on other platforms in order to make a quick buck. If that's the case then don't even bother releasing the damn thing on more consoles than you can handle development for. Its just a huge insult and slap in the face to console owners who were seriously anticipating the game.

That said, somehow I doubt that the PC version of this game will be much better, so it may turn out to be a mere moot point.

[Foggle]

That said, somehow I doubt that the PC version of this game will be much better, so it may turn out to be a mere moot point.

Yeah, I hope the PC version is much better, but I know it won't be. Obviously, the graphical problems like screen-tearing will be gone, but that's about it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I hope the PC version is much better, but I know it won't be. Obviously, the graphical problems like screen-tearing will be gone, but that's about it.

The problem here is that, even though the PC version will clearly be far superior from a technical standpoint, no amount of technology can do anything to fix bland or downright bad game design. It just doesn't feel like Gearbox put their heart and soul into this game like they did for other projects, which is a shame, because this is the one that I was the most interested in, honestly.

[Foggle]

Yeah, the whole thing just reeks of 90's licensed cash grab. Maybe if the Borderlands and Hell's Highway devs were caught drinking on the job, they were forced to work on Colonial Marines for a few months as punishment.

[Foggle]

Here's the full statement from that ex-Gearbox dev...

Hate to say it, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines. I used to work at Gearbox, and the development of that game has been a total train wreck, going on what, 6 years now? Gearbox isn't even making the game, except for the multiplayer. Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past. I hope it proves me wrong, as I still have alot of friends still working at Gearbox, but I am expecting it to be average at best.

Wow, what the fuck. Why has this been advertised as a Gearbox game then? And why did they claim it was their own product at Community Day? Because they're a big name these days? Goddamn...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Doing something like that seems like a stupid move for any developer to do, even if they are a big name....actually, ESPECIALLY if they are a big name. While it may help the game sell a bit better, if its a mediocre to bad game, it'll only hurt the reputation of the developer that claims credit for it, so it would maybe help the game sell a little bit better at the expense of hurting the sales of future games from the same developers. If Gearbox was only working on the multiplayer, they should have done a better job letting people know that they weren't responsible for the single-player aspects of the game.

[Foggle]

They legitimately made it sound like it was their game, and that they were super passionate about it, in interviews. This is disgraceful if true.

I didn't pay for a TimeGate game. I paid for a Gearbox game. I expect Borderlands-level quality, not Perseus Mandate-level quality. Absolutely ridiculous.

[Foggle]

PC version apparently has awesome graphics, though. So at least there's that.

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/6286/acm20130211222251931.png

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So I've been checking out some more gameplay videos....

....I REALLY HATE to have to say this but....yeah, the game is a total bust. It doesn't look as entirely broken as some people make it out to be (it is clearly playable), but it is still a train-wreck in and of itself. The AI is laughable (both for the humans and the Xenomorphs), the guns are all generic, there are an over-abundance of those annoying segments where you cut open the doors that are welded shut (which is literally this game's equivalent of NG3's Kunai Climb in how annoying and tedious it is in slowing down the pace of the game). The guns all look generic and lack the sort of impact that you'd expect them to have going by the movies, and no matter how good the graphics might be on the PC version (and they look downright dated on the console version), the level-design looks completely bland. They tried to emulate the scenery in the movie by having those colonized facilities that you fight in, as well as other very familiar looking scenery, but its overused to death and not in any creative ways. Games like the first Halo and first F.E.A.R. also had very repetitive level design, but the actual design of the levels in both games were still interesting (in the case of Halo, it was the large, open land-scapes, and in the case of F.E.A.R., it was the foreboding atmosphere and brilliant use of lighting tricks). This game, from what I've seen of it so far (and I watched up to 2 hours worth of gameplay), has no such redeeming qualities to its level design. I also hear that the campaign mode is pretty short at only about 5 or 6 hours (though to be fair, that's the standard length of an FPS game, these days), and the story that was supposed to be so good and replace the sequels to Aliens is, from what I've heard and seen of it so far, completely nonsensical and apparently even worse than Alien 3's story.

If Ninja Gaiden 3 was my biggest disappointment from last year, than it looks as though Aliens: Colonial Marines will take it for me this year. Well, at least I had the disappointment come to me early in the year. It just sucks that the few games that I look forward to for quite a while turn out be garbage. I mean, at least we're getting MGRR this month as well, but I was actually a fan of Aliens and was really looking forward to this game, whereas I just like hack n' slash games but was never an MGS fan. So, while I will eventually pick up and enjoy that latter game, the failure of this game which I really was highly anticipating just leaves makes me feel really let-down.

[Foggle]

Too bad I can't get a refund.

[Foggle]

Colonial Marines currently sits at a <50 Metascore with even people who liked Duke Nukem Forever and Resident Evil 6 calling it shit. Hoo boy.

Time to fire up this bastard and see just how bad it really is...

[Foggle]

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/sega-aliens-colonial-marines-sp-was-not-outsourced-to-timegate-studios/

Welp.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, even good developers can make absolute shit when they clearly aren't trying. That alone wouldn't bother me so much, but what really stings is that Gearbox was using the trust that they had earned from their previous games of good quality (namely the recent Borderlands 2), and they utterly deceived fans by implying that they had put just as much care and attention into this game. I suppose they kind of had to market it, but I still can't help but feel that Gearbox was more than a little underhanded, here, and I think that this one game can really hurt their reputation more than they might have initially thought it would (because  clearly they KNEW that this was going to be bad). While I don't think it'll be the end of the developer thanks to the huge success of Borderlands 2 just a few months ago, I still feel like this will set them back far more than even DNF ever could have.

[Foggle]

So, even good developers can make absolute shit when they clearly aren't trying. That alone wouldn't bother me so much, but what really stings is that Gearbox was using the trust that they had earned from their previous games of good quality (namely the recent Borderlands 2), and they utterly deceived fans by implying that they had put just as much care and attention into this game. I suppose they kind of had to market it, but I still can't help but feel that Gearbox was more than a little underhanded, here, and I think that this one game can really hurt their reputation more than they might have initially thought it would (because  clearly they KNEW that this was going to be bad). While I don't think it'll be the end of the developer thanks to the huge success of Borderlands 2 just a few months ago, I still feel like this will set them back far more than even DNF ever could have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J8SzBhjqaQ