Randy Pitchford, a poor man's Denis Dyack

[treythemovie]

So Sega are gullible fools, Gearbox only look out for their own interests, and karma demanded Ripley get ruined as bad as Samus was ruined.


Not too surprising.

[radioheadrule83]

stolen from gaf

Colonial Marines E3 Demo vs Retail  *be sure to have the annotation stuff on since they fucked up the representation for a while*



basically Atmosphere = gone

Holy shit, how did they think they could get away with this? That demo looks amazing, relatively... Some of the corridors in the final game look like quake 3 or something!

[treythemovie]

Dayum, Alex (giantbomb) gave it a 1/5 

http://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/aliens-colonial-marines-review/1900-558/

[Don Flamenco]

the way this is going, the lawsuits might happen after.  Sega's gonna get that Borderlands 2 money.

[Stoney Mason]

I'll be honest. I never understood why people were overly excited for this game outside of being Aliens fans and its not like movie adaptions are generally good. Dead Space has always been a better version of Aliens in videogames. And outside of Borderlands 2 honestly, Gearbox has never blown me away.

[Flannel Boy]

stolen from gaf

Colonial Marines E3 Demo vs Retail  *be sure to have the annotation stuff on since they fucked up the representation for a while*



basically Atmosphere = gone

#t=00m13
s

[Sho Nuff]

It looks like they were relying heavily on dynamic lighting, which is a definite no-no on UE3 on PS3. The game never would have looked like that on consoles.

[Great Rumbler]

Colonial Marines E3 Demo vs Retail  *be sure to have the annotation stuff on since they fucked up the representation for a while*

Incredible. Absolutely incredible.

[benjipwns]

Sega needs to file a class action lawsuit against this ponzi scheme that Gearbox is running. Showing that demo and then releasing this is outright fraud and insider trading. Randy Pitchford should be sharing a cell next to Bernie Madoff when this is all over.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm not saying that Randy Pitchford needs to be sent to prison or that Gearbox is the worst thing since Hitler, but this whole debacle has probably made me more mad about a videogame that I bought than just about anything else.

And I'm usually pretty good at weeding out games that are obviously flawed, so I really dropped the ball on this one.

[Purple Filth]

It looks like they were relying heavily on dynamic lighting, which is a definite no-no on UE3 on PS3. The game never would have looked like that on consoles.

So are you saying that the "consoles causing this"response/excuse isn't that far off then?

I'm not saying that Randy Pitchford needs to be sent to prison or that Gearbox is the worst thing since Hitler, but this whole debacle has probably made me more mad about a videogame that I bought than just about anything else.

And I'm usually pretty good at weeding out games that are obviously flawed, so I really dropped the ball on this one.

Are you an Aliens fan?

[Great Rumbler]

Are you an Aliens fan?

Yeah, I love Alien and Aliens, two of my favorite movies ever. Making it a direct sequel to Aliens and bringing back the actors and locations overrode my senses.

[Great Rumbler]

Just sent this to Gearbox:

Gearbox Software,

I recently purchased Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PC, believing that it would be held to the level of quality that I've come to expect from the developer behind Borderlands [a series that I love]. It was not.

The action is repetitive and flat. All I do is run through corridors and shoot waves of aliens [or humans] who require no strategy beyond clicking the button that fires my weapon and occasionally reloading. Or I can simply run past them to the next checkpoint. It is not exciting, there is no tension. The squad mates I pick up along the way are utterly useless.

 Then I find out that most of the development was farmed out to another studio entirely. I understand that development is complex and often must require the help of outside studios, but little mention was made of this fact or of the fact that Gearbox itself left much of the single player segment of the game to this outside studio. The results speak for themselves at to whether this was a good idea or not.

Then I see a direction comparison between the demo shown recently at E3 2012 and the game as it was actually released. The difference is as clear as night and day. The atmosphere is stripped away entirely, ruining any tension that might have been gained there. Dynamic lighting and fog effects are now nowhere to be seen, despite how prominently they were presented in the demo. This is simply not acceptable, as this demo was presented as a representation of how the final product would look.

I've been a fan of Gearbox for years. I preordered Borderlands 2 and even picked up the season pass, because I had faith that you would deliver a quality product. In that case, you did. I also preordered Aliens: Colonial Marines. That was a mistake. I'm left with a game I have no desire to play and no way to get a refund.

I don't care how you respond to this email, but I want it made clear that the handling of Aliens: Colonial Marines is not acceptable in the slightest and means that I will no longer buy any Gearbox games until well after they've been reviewed [in the case of Aliens: Colonial Marines, those reviews were held back at the request of Gearbox until AFTER the game came out] and after others have spent their money on it.

If you can't even be bothered to earn my money, then I certainly feel no desire to give it to you in the future.

[name redacted]

Heap your mockery upon me, I've earned it.

[Bebpo]

And they canned Obsidian's (probably) fuck awesome Aliens rpg for this shit  :'(

 

[Great Rumbler]

Even a bad Obsidian game would have been lightyears beyond this pile of filth.

[Damian79]

Just sent this to Gearbox:

Gearbox Software,

I recently purchased Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PC, believing that it would be held to the level of quality that I've come to expect from the developer behind Borderlands [a series that I love]. It was not.

The action is repetitive and flat. All I do is run through corridors and shoot waves of aliens [or humans] who require no strategy beyond clicking the button that fires my weapon and occasionally reloading. Or I can simply run past them to the next checkpoint. It is not exciting, there is no tension. The squad mates I pick up along the way are utterly useless.

 Then I find out that most of the development was farmed out to another studio entirely. I understand that development is complex and often must require the help of outside studios, but little mention was made of this fact or of the fact that Gearbox itself left much of the single player segment of the game to this outside studio. The results speak for themselves at to whether this was a good idea or not.

Then I see a direction comparison between the demo shown recently at E3 2012 and the game as it was actually released. The difference is as clear as night and day. The atmosphere is stripped away entirely, ruining any tension that might have been gained there. Dynamic lighting and fog effects are now nowhere to be seen, despite how prominently they were presented in the demo. This is simply not acceptable, as this demo was presented as a representation of how the final product would look.

I've been a fan of Gearbox for years. I preordered Borderlands 2 and even picked up the season pass, because I had faith that you would deliver a quality product. In that case, you did. I also preordered Aliens: Colonial Marines. That was a mistake. I'm left with a game I have no desire to play and no way to get a refund.

I don't care how you respond to this email, but I want it made clear that the handling of Aliens: Colonial Marines is not acceptable in the slightest and means that I will no longer buy any Gearbox games until well after they've been reviewed [in the case of Aliens: Colonial Marines, those reviews were held back at the request of Gearbox until AFTER the game came out] and after others have spent their money on it.

If you can't even be bothered to earn my money, then I certainly feel no desire to give it to you in the future.

[name redacted]

Heap your mockery upon me, I've earned it.

You couldnt get a refund for the game?  Stores usually allow that kind of thign if that game is that bad or atleast store credit.

[Great Rumbler]

I bought a key from Green Man Gaming and activated it on Steam. A refund is not gonna happen.

[Purple Filth]

Are you an Aliens fan?

Yeah, I love Alien and Aliens, two of my favorite movies ever. Making it a direct sequel to Aliens and bringing back the actors and locations overrode my senses.

Yep that seems to be the kicker here and suorry to hear man 

Just sent this to Gearbox:

Gearbox Software,

I recently purchased Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PC, believing that it would be held to the level of quality that I've come to expect from the developer behind Borderlands [a series that I love]. It was not.

The action is repetitive and flat. All I do is run through corridors and shoot waves of aliens [or humans] who require no strategy beyond clicking the button that fires my weapon and occasionally reloading. Or I can simply run past them to the next checkpoint. It is not exciting, there is no tension. The squad mates I pick up along the way are utterly useless.

 Then I find out that most of the development was farmed out to another studio entirely. I understand that development is complex and often must require the help of outside studios, but little mention was made of this fact or of the fact that Gearbox itself left much of the single player segment of the game to this outside studio. The results speak for themselves at to whether this was a good idea or not.

Then I see a direction comparison between the demo shown recently at E3 2012 and the game as it was actually released. The difference is as clear as night and day. The atmosphere is stripped away entirely, ruining any tension that might have been gained there. Dynamic lighting and fog effects are now nowhere to be seen, despite how prominently they were presented in the demo. This is simply not acceptable, as this demo was presented as a representation of how the final product would look.

I've been a fan of Gearbox for years. I preordered Borderlands 2 and even picked up the season pass, because I had faith that you would deliver a quality product. In that case, you did. I also preordered Aliens: Colonial Marines. That was a mistake. I'm left with a game I have no desire to play and no way to get a refund.

I don't care how you respond to this email, but I want it made clear that the handling of Aliens: Colonial Marines is not acceptable in the slightest and means that I will no longer buy any Gearbox games until well after they've been reviewed [in the case of Aliens: Colonial Marines, those reviews were held back at the request of Gearbox until AFTER the game came out] and after others have spent their money on it.

If you can't even be bothered to earn my money, then I certainly feel no desire to give it to you in the future.

[name redacted]

Heap your mockery upon me, I've earned it.

You couldnt get a refund for the game?  Stores usually allow that kind of thign if that game is that bad or atleast store credit.

Its steam so there is a good chance he wont for any of those things

[Purple Filth]

in other news

from that Jason dude from Kotaku

We heard from a tipster about a month ago that the Wii U version had been "postponed indefinitely." We reached out to Sega, and they denied it. I'll let you guys fill in the blanks there.

hmmmm



no WiiU version listed on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Aliens-Colonial-Marines-Xbox-360/dp/B005THAX5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360798593&sr=8-1&keywords=aliens%20colonial%20marines&tag=vig-20

hmmmmmmmmmmm

[Great Rumbler]

Aliens: Colonial Marines will be a great gag gift during the Steam Christmas sale when it's $5.

[MrAngryFace]

Giantbomb review is out- BOOM 1 star

[Great Rumbler]

Sad that SEGA was planning on this being one of their four pillars in the Western retail market.

Aliens vs. Predator was already kind of a bust, to say nothing of the lackluster critical reception, so the franchise was already in hot water to begin with. Aliens: Colonial Marines is going to have far more backlash against it, and rightly so. Wouldn't surprise me at all to see Sega drop the franchise completely.

[demi]

I haven't been following this - WHY is this game horribad? Please give me tl;dr

Are there vids etc?

[Great Rumbler]

I haven't been following this - WHY is this game horribad? Please give me tl;dr

Are there vids etc?

It's boring in every way possible, poorly constructed, and full of bugs and glitches.

[demi]

Why is this a big deal?

[MrAngryFace]

I haven't been following this - WHY is this game horribad? Please give me tl;dr

Are there vids etc?

It's boring in every way possible, poorly constructed, and full of bugs and glitches.

To be honest that's one of the worst video reviews ive seen in a while too- not saying its a good game- but Jeff G had more insightful things to say in the GB Quicklook

[rodi]

You're a great man, Great Rumbler. Great man.

 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Why is this a big deal?

Been in development for 6-plus years (that they've admitted to  )
Obsidian's nearly-complete Aliens RPG was killed in favor of this game.
Gearbox used SEGA's money from this game to fund Borderlands 1+2, while outsourcing Aliens to a shitty fourth-rate developer (Timegate).
Gearbox is making a HUGE deal about how they are the "canonical sequel" to Aliens and brought back a lot of the movie talent, setting expectations sky-high.
SEGA has claimed it's a pillar of their Western development strategy.
A deceitful demo consisting of a vertical content slice not found in game and using a different game engine was shown at tradeshows.

The last part is probably why people are so angry - it's not just that the game sucks, it's that the game sucks AND it's been completely misrepresented for years pre-release.

[MrAngryFace]

On one hand, props to Gearbox for shitting out games (DNF, Aliens) that just need to GET THE FUCK RELEASED- on the other hand maybe they don't NEED to get released.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

On one hand, props to Gearbox for shitting out games (DNF, Aliens) that just need to GET THE FUCK RELEASED- on the other hand maybe they don't NEED to get released.

6 years to shit this out? Seems like constipation to me.~

[demi]

But I was told Gearbox were media darlings because they salvaged DNF and made the endearing totally internet quirky Borderlands 2.

[pilonv1]

I don't think anyone actually liked them putting out DNF once it actually came out.

[Great Rumbler]

I don't think anyone actually liked them putting out DNF once it actually came out.

This is true, but I don't think too many people really held the quality of DNF against Gearbox, since the story seemed to be that they were just finishing it up and releasing it, with all the warts being more the fault of 3D Realms. Aliens: Colonial Marines has been totally under the control of Gearbox [since it started December 2006], so nobody else can really take the blame for it but them.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

gearbox has never made a good game. borderlands is incredibly mediocre hth

[MrAngryFace]

People just wanted closure when it came to DNF

[Purple Filth]

From GAF supposedly in the config file

na but i found this under Pecan [BuildInfo]
; maj022811 - resetting build number
; TG-Build3: 2011-04-20 07:09
BuildNumber=55

Pecan was the code name for the game and dat date. 


if true then

[Great Rumbler]

THIS CAN'T BE REAL LIFE

Good on you for be proactive and voicing your displeasure with a product you purchased directly instead of sitting around a message board talking about how you'd do something but never act. Good on you.

It's just like...I'm tired of developers being able to get away with stuff like this. As long as you get it out the door and lots of people preordered, nothing else matters! And since I got the Steam version [and through GMG, to boot], I can't return the game to show my displeasure with it. I'm stuck with this game [unless someone figures out a way to get free refunds for everybody], so that makes me doubly frustrated. I don't even care if I get a reply from Gearbox, but I want somebody there to know that I don't appreciate how they handled this game and I don't appreciate how blatantly they've lied about it.  It's not going to happen again, anyway, that's for sure.

[Great Rumbler]

[MrAngryFace]

FUCK IT ALL I Like BOrderlands 2 so whatever

[fistfulofmetal]

regardless if gearbox made this or not, they don't really have a great track record. Half Life: Blue Shift was like a lifetime ago. Brothers in Arms as well and that's really only like maybe 1 or 2 pretty cool games? The most recent is pretty mediocre and there are plenty of examples of them lying about content it would have that never ended up being in the game.

Borderland is a success mostly because it's an easy concept. The actual game and level design isn't really well made. It's the weapons, visuals and multiplayer that propels that to being above average.

So really, it's no surprise this game is garbage. Gearbox is an average developer that has been thrusted into the AAA column due to some fluke successes.

[Great Rumbler]

Borderlands 2 really knocked it out of the park, though, so they clearly can make a great game when they want to. From all that's been uncovered in the past few days, it really seems like they didn't care about this game one bit.

And most of the development was shoved off on TimeGate, anyway.

[fistfulofmetal]

and i think this is the point where people can finally realize that Randy Pitchford is a snake oil salesmen and can't be trusted.

[fistfulofmetal]

it's still not clear exactly who made the game. It IS clear Gearbox didn't give a shit about the project though so I agree there.

[fistfulofmetal]

basically, i don't think Gearbox is a good enough studio for people to look at a terrible game and say "no way they made that". If we never found out about Timegate I would completely believe this farce was the direct doing of Gearbox.

[AdmiralViscen]

The truth is, Timegate outsourced this game to me. I'm sorry guys.

[ferrarimanf355]

I'm predicting a breach of contract lawsuit before Spring is over, bank on it.

[fistfulofmetal]

#followthemoney

[AdmiralViscen]

I feel bad for Timegate. That Section 8 game was pretty good but now they get saddled with being known as the D-tier studio that ruined the Aliens game.

The truth is, Timegate outsourced this game to me. I'm sorry guys.

Why don't you tell them the truth, that you outsourced the game to me!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then I outsourced it to Wilco.

[close]

And just who do you think he outsourced it to?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[chronovore]

 

Sublime.

It looks like they were relying heavily on dynamic lighting, which is a definite no-no on UE3 on PS3. The game never would have looked like that on consoles.

Who's the baddest mofo lowdown around this town?

[ManaByte]

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/gamereport/aliens_colonial_marines_utFzud6bSAPpIjIucF7YOO#axzz2KqOjw9Cz

Let me sum up our forthcoming review quite simply: Don't buy Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Don't consider it. Don't even let your brain ponder it.

What Gearbox has done is effectively a massive bait & switch. It feels like fraud.

It looks like fraud too.

[Stoney Mason]

I think the transition to try to go to Triple AAA developer in reputation is what is killing Gearbox here. They have to stop taking on all this legacy work and focus on the actual couple of franchises they are strong in. They have Borderlands. They should be smarter about picking what is the next thing they really want to be known for. Also I don't think Duke Nukem should be that thing but they have already committed so good luck to them. Good Triple AAA devs though just can't be work for hire taking on anything and everything. They are beyond that stage now. I'm sure its a pretty painful moment to be in that studio especially after how well Borderlands 2 was received.

[AdmiralViscen]

They took this project on 6 years ago though. And supposedly they could only afford to make Borderlands 1 and 2 to begin with because they were funneling the money out of this project and into that one.

[Stoney Mason]

They took this project on 6 years ago though. And supposedly they could only afford to make Borderlands 1 and 2 to begin with because they were funneling the money out of this project and into that one.

I guess that's what I mean going forward. The way they operated before was typical to how an independent dev operates. You take any job you can to put food on the table and the work is often of dubious quality. But Borderlands changed the perception of them even though they still had all this legacy stuff in the past they were half-assing and contractually obligated to finish. From here going forward its time to stop half-assing and treat every project like its a big deal if that is the reputation they want.

[ferrarimanf355]

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/gamereport/aliens_colonial_marines_utFzud6bSAPpIjIucF7YOO#axzz2KqOjw9Cz

Let me sum up our forthcoming review quite simply: Don't buy Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Don't consider it. Don't even let your brain ponder it.

What Gearbox has done is effectively a massive bait & switch. It feels like fraud.

It looks like fraud too.

Did you post a link to the New York Post?
That's like making a political argument and linking to Breitbart.

[demi]

Your point being?

[ManaByte]

Your point being?

Aliens: Colonial Marines being shit is a right-wing conspiracy.

[ManaByte]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/14/did-aliens-colonial-marines-screenshots-lie-to-you

[ManaByte]

[Great Rumbler]

According to Gearbox Software commander-in-chief Randy Pitchford, the developer "got the jump on the next generation." He says Gearbox is "providing it in this generation" via Aliens: Colonial Marines, which employs a proprietary new rendering engine that will "be standard for games that go for a realism look in the next generation.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/04/04/how-gearbox-got-the-jump-on-the-next-generation

[Joe Molotov]

NEXT GEN ON CURRENT GEN, UNREAL ENGINE 5