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

[gunswordfist]

Damn it Gearbox. I expected better from you. Far better.

Yeah, this is clearly racist, sexist, and homophobic propaganda.

And it promotes cannibalism too! Wait no, those are the magical ponies from Dexter's Lab. Disregard.

[Foggle]

Borderlands developer Gearbox Software reportedly turned down an opportunity to develop a Call of Duty game.

Randy Pitchford apparently revealed that the studio had been approached to develop a game in the dominant FPS series, but turned it down because he saw 'no real challenge' in taking the job.

...

"You have to play by the rules of the series," he said. "You have to do what is expected of a Call of Duty. In this I see but no real challenge for us. It would [not] strengthen our reputation as a studio, it would not be really motivating for our team."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/386247/gearbox-turned-down-offer-to-develop-call-of-duty-game-report/

[Foggle]

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn77244803&docId=ORC20111101000538

This, coupled with the ending of Borderlands 2... I can't wait to see what's next for this franchise!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, Aliens: Colonial Marines is just a few days away from release. While I probably won't get a chance to pick up the game until maybe next month, it is easily the game that I most want to play next. And yes, I mean that even more than Metal Gear Rising, despite my love for good hack n' slash games. This is primarily because I'm a HUGE fan of Aliens, and while I haven't played any titles from Gearbox, their really impressive track record leaves me hopeful that this game will be great, and if it really is as great as I hope it will be, then it'll be the perfect entry game for me to start off with in Gearbox's library of software.

[Foggle]

Yeah, it's easily my most anticipated game too!

Didn't you buy the Half-Life collection on Steam? 'Cuz if you played Opposing Force or Blue Shift, you have played a Gearbox game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually never even beat Half-Life 1, because for some reason Steam stopped working for me and every time I try to run the game my computer crashes. Eventually I'll try to get that problem fixed so that I can play through the rest of that game as well as the expansion packs for it.

[Foggle]

So, I'm hearing Colonial Marines isn't very good.

Like, that Duke Nukem Forever is better.

And that most of the development work was actually done by TimeGate, Demiurge, and Nerve.

I pray these people are wrong, because I really don't want to have wasted my money.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been hearing that its really more of a generic shooter than anything else....which if true, kind of doesn't surprise me based on what I've been seeing of the game. The footage I've seen of it seems to be a good step below the quality of other Gearbox games (though to be fair, I've never actually played a Gearbox game, so I'm not in a proper position to judge). Well, to be more specific, the parts featuring the Xenomorphs look awesome, but from what I've heard there is a lot of filler where you have to fight generic soldier characters, and those segments are basically as bland and generic as a shooter can get, from what I've heard.

That said, I haven't heard any comments about the game being worse (or even compared to, for that matter) Duke Nukem Forever.

[Foggle]

I've mostly been reading reactions on the Gearbox forums. It sounds like people are overreacting, but at the same time, these are the impressions I'm seeing:

- Some of the worst AI in a current gen shooter
- Some of the worst graphics of this gen, with tons of pop-in and screen-tearing in the console versions (though to be fair, the PC footage I saw at GBX Community Day in 2011 looked downright amazing)
- Motion tracker is useless because the whole game is basically nothing but set-pieces and plays out like a CoD campaign with Xenomorphs
- Competitive multiplayer is the best part of the game, which wasn't even made by Gearbox
- Game just all-around feels like a low-budget licensed cash grab; Sega didn't put enough money in and Gearbox didn't really care at all

Now, I haven't played the game yet, nor have I watched any walkthroughs. I'm kind of stuck with it anyway since I already redeemed my Steam key. I'll tell you what I think come Tuesday.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've seen some gameplay footage of the game on Youtube from people who got it early. In particular, I saw footage of the XBOX360 version, and the graphics do look pretty dated (though, to be fair, I don't care too much about graphics), but worse than that was the screen-tearing, which I definitely noticed happening quite a bit. The AI also don't look like anything special, and the weapons that I saw on display looked disappointingly bland. I can certainly see this game being a big disappointment for many who were hyped up for it. I suppose it'll only be something that I buy used when it really comes down in price....

[Foggle]

Damn. Screen-tearing won't be a problem on PC at least, but still... glad I only paid half-price for this game. Love you Green Man. <3

[Foggle]

Good god... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JBsimDxMRw

I really hope Sega accidentally shipped a beta version of the game and a day 1 patch clears this up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And....now Metal Gear Rising is back at the top of my list of most anticipated games.

Its too bad that the one game Gearbox had to fuck up on was an Aliens game.

[Foggle]

I just can't believe this is true. Borderlands 2 is easily the best FPS of this gen other than F.E.A.R., Brothers In Arms is the best WWII shooter series ever, and Opposing Force is arguably the best Half-Life game. All the pre-release footage of Colonial Marines looked amazing from both a technical standpoint and a gameplay standpoint, Fox actually retconned Alien 3/Resurrection out of the canon to make way for this, and the GBX guys are obviously huge Aliens fans... so why is the finished product so bad? 12 years in development hell for an obvious low-budget cash grab. Unless Sega somehow fucked the devs over behind the scenes, I don't understand how this could have happened at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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

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?

Also, I was a bit worried from the gameplay that the parts containing the human enemies would be pretty generic stuff. While the Xenomorph action looked awesome, the actual human bits seemed like they could drag the game down, and by the looks of early reception from people who have played the game, that seems to be the very case.