Aliens: Colonial Marines screens

Aliens: Colonial Marines development was a 'total train wreck' says ex-dev
http://www.gamespot.com/news/aliens...t-was-a-total-train-wreck-says-ex-dev-6403761

I wouldn't say Borderlands has any qualities that I want in this sort of game either but this game sounds about as good as that recent AVP3 game from Rebellion. I don't understand what's so difficult about making a competent shooter that just happens to be based in this universe. I'd give the franchise to those guys working on Metro.
 
swaaye said:
Aliens: Colonial Marines development was a 'total train wreck' says ex-dev
http://www.gamespot.com/news/aliens...t-was-a-total-train-wreck-says-ex-dev-6403761

I wouldn't say Borderlands has any qualities that I want in this sort of game either but this game sounds about as good as that recent AVP3 game from Rebellion. I don't understand what's so difficult about making a competent shooter that just happens to be based in this universe. I'd give the franchise to those guys working on Metro.
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What would be interesting if we were living in an alternate universe is if we could get the original System Shock 2 development team together to create an Aliens based game.

Imagine System Shock 2, but set in the Aliens universe with an appropriate story and setting. OMG that would be incredible.

Regards,
SB
 
Scott_Arm said:
How do the people that make Borderlands, which is a fantastic game, screw up this badly?
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Rumours say that Gearbox didn't develop the game, only the PvP multiplayer mode and the drop-in/drop-out coop implementation.. both of which seem to work just fine.
Everything else was outsourced by lots of different developers.

Nonetheless, this is falling upon Gearbox, which is the credited developer in the game.
 
Yeah that's what's at the link I posted.

I got the chance to play the game a bit. It reminds me of Quake4. Tight corridors and running around with squad mate(s). You can force SSAA with AMD and turn off the blurry FXAA. FOV is adjustable. I muted the music too.

Visually it's not super great but it's not that bad either. I doubt tthere are any PC extras. Combat is fine. I like the idea of exploring the Sulaco. If only it wasn't 100% linear.
 
Digital Foundry's article shows the assets are clearly better in the PC version.
 
I am disturbed that they could be worse. :) This game has some serious shader/specular aliasing going on too. SSAA is very desirable.
 
Scott_Arm said:
How do the people that make Borderlands, which is a fantastic game, screw up this badly?
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The more interesting question is, how could they release such an obvious disaster of a game, knowing it'll put a big dent in their reputation?
 
Overcooking a game is almost always very destructive to...well, pretty much all aspects of it really. Just like with real-world pasta for example. It just turns to glue... :p

Duke Forever is a brilliant example of how to not manage a big game project, I haven't been able to bring myself to finish it - or even make any headway really - even years after it finally went on sale as it is now. It's just sheer and utter tripe, it's one of the crappiest shooter games I've ever played. So, so sad.

For the rest of my life, I'm going to pretend that D4E never happened. I'll keep the fond memories of the 1990s in my mind, and disregard everything else. :D The DOS version runs pretty OK on modern PCs in Dosbox (chugs if going past 640 rez on my system though), so it's not too bad really. One can re-live one of the finest examples of old-school, early FPS gaming anytime when armed with Dosbox.
 
Otto Dafe said:
Interesting comparison of scenes from the demo and final versions here.
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How is this possible?!

All I can think of is that they couldn't enable that IQ in the consoles so they just turned the previously demoed PC version into crap to avoid angry console gamers and publishers..

That or they just couldn't finish the game on time with the IQ standard set in the demo so they just downgraded everything on purpose.
 
Those are some pretty major differences... I had to look close at many parts to confirm that it's the same game. :???:
 
Yeah... Kinda looks like they were using ultra high end engine settings for the demos - larger & more lights, volume fog (?), directional shadowed light etc. Something something bolting shit onto Unreal Engine then scrapping then bad gfx.

Gotta wonder if the demos were even real-time. "In-game footage" could still be pre-recorded (capture player input/events, spit out a rendered movie). :p

sigh.
 
Pretty shocking for such a high profile title. Randy Pitchford is going to get crucified for this. Did they just decide to be consistent across all platforms ie, work to the lowest common denominator, or did they just run out of time and money? I guess this is what happens when you outsource production.

The TV ads running in the UK make it look like a much better game, so they are obviously hoping to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and just market the game to death.
 
Here is some guy supposedly breaking NDA and spilling the beans on what happened:



First off, due to me breaking NDA, I can't provide any proof that I'm not just talking out of my ass. But I figure you'd be interested in hearing what I have to say regardless. I've been on the project for around a year and a half, so some of the following are things I've heard from more senior guys.

Pecan (the internal codename for ACM) has a pretty long history. SEGA, GBX and 20th Century FOX came to an agreement to produce an Aliens game around 6 years ago, after which SEGA almost immediately announced it, long before Pecan had even started production. The game has been in active development in the past, only to be shelved in favor of another project (Borderlands, Duke, etc), and each time it was resumed it would undergo a major content overhaul.

SEGA, naturally, wasn't super pleased about the delays, but GBX got away with it for a long time and the contract between SEGA and GBX kept getting augmented to push the projected release further and further back. The last time it was resumed, GBX outsourced a good portion of the game to outside companies. Initially, the plan was for TimeGate to take the majority of campaign, GBX would take MP, Demiurge and Nerve would handle DLC and various other focused tasks. This decision was made mostly so that most of the developers at GBX could continue working on Borderlands 2, while a small group of LDs, coders and designers dealt with Pecan.

Somehow the schedules for Pecan and Borderlands 2 managed to line up and GBX realized that there was no fucking way they could cert and ship two titles at the same time. Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind, even as Pecan's Beta deadline got closer and closer. In April or May (can't remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension.

About 5 of those 9 months went to shipping BL2. In that time, TimeGate managed to scrap together 85% of the campaign, but once Borderlands 2 shipped and GBX turned its attention to Pecan, it became pretty apparent that what had been made was in a pretty horrid state. Campaign didn't make much sense, the boss fights weren't implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etcetcetc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch. There were some last minute feature requests, most notably female marines, and the general consensus among GBX devs was that there was no way this game was going to be good by ship. There just wasn't enough time.

Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn't cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn't risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get.

Beyond gameplay, the story has been raised as an issue several times. I can't really comment without feeling bad beyond saying that the script was approved by 20th Century FOX, and that the rush to throw a playable product together came at the cost of the story. Campaign does a pretty bad job of explaining a lot of the questions raised at the start of the game, and so hopefully there will be DLC to flesh that out a bit better.

I'll answer some questions, but I have to run soon, so it may take a while for responses.
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Also:
Just to clarify, Everything Timegate did was under clear and explicit direction from Gearbox. Gearbox had creative control of everything that occurred at TG. In addition, Gearbox was responsible for firing some of the most talented people (and internationally recognized as such) TG had employed, all of which were snatched up immediately by competitors. It was Gearbox's shitty oversight of the project that led to the product you all now have before you. I wouldn't expect you to understand, considering you're probably some QA who has no idea what goes on outside of his department. But TG had absolutely no control of what was produced, they did exactly what they were asked to. You should be furious with Gearbox for assigning such shit quality creative directors to the project.
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As for DLCs:
as far as dlc goes, it's already come out that the first DLC is another MP game mode that's being developed by Demiurge, and beyond that is kind of up in the air.

I'm sure GBX'd like to do another Aliens game since Pitchford's such a fan but if we were to do another it would have to be with 20th Century FOX's consent, which might not be forthcoming.
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All of this explains why the game sucks, but it doesn't explain the massive downgrade in visuals and atmosphere between the the E3 2011 version and the 2013 release, at least for the PC version.
 
Yeah, right. Let's blame the consoles again. Nevermind the fact that the game's visuals are significantly downgraded on those and the game runs like utter shit. Throwing around accusations are just way too much fun. Just ask Randy "it wasn't me" Pitchfork van Molyneux. Apparently he's quite fond of that particular practice.

The gameplay demo they released was a friggin' lie, plain and simple. No different from the infamous Killzone 2 trailer really. (except that game turned out rather well) Just about everything in that 11 minute demo was a fabrication.
 
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