Considering this is a Sega-published game that was highly anticipated by more than a few people... The average review score on Gamerankings is roughly 39% right now. Yeah. This game is riddled with bugs, the visuals are garbage, the campaign is far below par, the AI is generally bad, and the multiplayer has its own problems despite being the best of the bunch. Wanna see? An ex-Gearbox dev is claiming that the development is an absolute mess and a two-bit studio did the main game while Gearbox only did the multiplayer. Sega and Gearbox are both denying this, but the ridiculous lapse in quality indicates otherwise. I feel bad for the people who preordered it.
While big parts of the game being outsources to other developers could be part of the reason why it's crap, it could also have been because of Gearbox. This game isn't made by the same team that made Borderlands 2, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same team that finished up Duke Nukem Forever.
Shame really, I was looking to get this for the Wii U at some point. I was going to preorder it, but after spending £80 on a Gamecube Component Cable, realised I couldn't really keep splashing out on games constantly. Looks like I'll be skipping this- I really had some high hopes for this game too I'm quite saddened.
Can't edit post as work PC won't allow it for some reason, but Gearbox have released an extensive patch to all versions: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/aliens-colonial-marines-patched/ Here it is copy/pasted: General General user interface improvements. Various performance improvements. Fixed issue where a door may not function properly if a Xeno was killed while opening it. Addressed issue where players could become stuck in a close encounter after killing a Lurker that had pounced them. Fixed collision issue where bullets would not pass through certain open doorways. Fixed an issue related to clients incorrectly interrupting Xeno melee encounters. Addressed an issue where doors would sometimes not open properly. Addressed an exploit where players could melee while throwing a grenade or placing a claymore. Fixed some collision detection issues that could result from a close encounter. Prevented campaign pop-ups from appearing outside of campaign. Campaign Fixed an issue that could prevent NPCs from getting on the elevator in the Sulaco. NPCs no longer attempt to open doors while being welded. Fixed issue where Raven could sometimes pass through welded door. Implementing a message to warn players that campaign progress will be overwritten if they try to start an offline campaign game from within the co-op campaign UI. Adjusted the distance between players before they're warped to the location of furthest player in co-op. Fixed issue where torch would sometimes appear incorrectly to co-op clients. Fixed issue where difficulty could sometimes become stuck incorrectly after switching modes. Fixed issue where co-op player would not recover properly after being saved from a close encounter. Fixed issue where Russian players could not drop into a co-op match in some missions. Updated late-game close encounter moment to disable player input, which could cause them to become stuck. Splitscreen: Weapon Radial menu no longer appears for other players when the pause menu is opened. Splitscreen: Fixed issue where if the Game Menu is opened while accessing the Weapon Radial, it stays up on does not function properly. Multiplayer Resolved issue where campaign Motion Tracker could incorrectly in multiplayer loadouts. Fixed issue where clients would sometimes be invisible after spawning in No Hope in Hadleys. Multiplayer teams are now randomized (parties excluded) if percentage difference in scores is greater than 15% ‘Switch Teams’ option removed from the Pause menu. Corrected issue where server and client could get out-of-sync when switching out of a power-up while firing. Fixed issue where controller would vibrate during the scores screen if Rage ability was active upon match end. Fixed issue where Cloak ability would not conceal the Lurker when walking or jogging. Corrected bug where clients appeared to spawn outside of world before match start. Removed placeholder text from appearing on scoreboard in certain situations. Improved camera transition when Xeno enters a vent. Fixed issue where Xenomorph HUD could sometimes appear in the wrong color. Fixed issue with Spitter acid sometimes preventing players from deploying a Sentry Turret for a short while. Spitter's “Acid Spray” now originates from the mouth. Escape: Fixed issue where Xenos could spawn in unplayable space. Escape: Fixed issue where Xeno players could lose functionality if warped to next area while in a vent. Escape: Addressed issues where players would spawn with no weapon if they were the last Marine to die in Escape. Escape: Fixed issue where Cat-Like Reflexes ability would not properly complete in an Escape match. Escape: Improved timing and placement of warp locations in Emergency Evac map.
Seriously, what the hell. This is Bethesda-level bugginess, and you can't even use the game's size as an excuse (granted, the size of a game is completely irrelevant in the long term when it comes game stability, most of the time). Utterly shameful. And those gifs have pretty much eliminated any way I'll ever take xenomorphs seriously ever again. Edit: It gets worse, ladies and gentlemen. The demo was far, far better than the actual game. It boggles the mind how the game could regress in quality.
I just got home and watched that- it's night and day, holy fucking shit. Someone has a lot to answer for.
This is the next Duke Nukem Forever. I've waited so long for it and now I finally have it, and I don't like it. The poor graphics, the stupid A.I. of the aliens...what happened? Those gifs are hilarious. I haven't purchased the season pass and if the only DLC is going to be more maps, no thanks.
And it just gets worse... http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6832-A-LIE-ns-Colonial-Marines I'm actually more interested in the downfall of this game and how it came to be. I fucking love a juicy story- I spend a lot of time researching development of games I like (Pokémon, Sonic, Mario, especially Zelda etc.) and this is going to be one heck of a story! I'll stop posting now & give someone else a chance
Sod knows! I've been looking at the 360 version of the game and boy does it look so much better than the PC version- the PS3 version looks even better and seems to run at a higher resolution. It can't account for the cut content and massive amount of bugs, but I suppose it's better than nothing. I wonder how the Wii U version will fare, considering it hasn't even gotten a release date yet... PC Xbox 360 The PC version seems to be missing massive amounts of scenery as well as lighting.
Gearbox needs to stop inheriting the messes of others, though this is less excusable than DNF since it was actually their fucking game and they passed it off to other developers to do the work for them. DNF at least was more of a "For better or worse, thank God we get to see it."
Yeah, as TotalBiscut said, it was utterly irresponsible for them to not focus on something they were actually contracted to do and instead put their full attention on Borderlands 2 instead. In the end, Gearbox fucked up big time.
