UK charts invaded by Aliens

Probably more a reflection of the low volumes required to "do well" in the UK chart than anything else. Just remember when you are next reading about a dev team being wound up or a publisher going into administration that, sad as it is for that to happen, the industry turns out a lot of stuff that isn't good value and there are obvious consequences. OK, we have it in every industry (Bruce Willis I'm looking at you), but the frequency with which games do this in relation to movie franchises (the last good, new James Bond game was when...?) is tantamount to insulting your customers. Good luck with that.

Posted:4 months ago

I think what happened was features were removed due to the xbox's content submission policy which demands simultaneous mutiplatform releases and content parity. Since the XBOX 360 couldn't do most of the fancy rendering and gameplay enhancements on the Wii U, everybody got a stripped down port of the "incomplete" Wii U version.

Posted:4 months ago

Not a huge deal, but I'm slightly confused on the verbage "...with the only major movement coming from Assassin's Creed III, which jumps from sixth to twelve thanks to a half-term sale and the promise of forthcoming DLC..." Didn't this go in the reverse, jumping from twelve to sixth..? Or am I failing at the English language, as happens to me.

Posted:4 months ago

Well It was too late for me to cancel my pre order of Aliens CM as by the time the reviews came out showing the piss poor story, gameplay and visuals it was already in the post and I'm sure im not the only one. Suckered springs to mind.

As for the Xbox being the cause of a stripped down version seems far fetched. From, what I've read (hear say and speculation obviously as I doubt any wants a law suit out of it) it seems that the company Gear Box contracted to do the single player removed most of their (GB's) work and delivered a sub par effort that Gearbox couldn't do anything with but release due to not being able to buy any more time from an increasingly angry Sega who wanted their money out of this dead horse.

The PC version looked like poo and nothing like the E3 demo previewed and its running the Unreal engine, well i think of a good number of games using that engine with visuals that are impressive, running great on the Xbox 360. Gears of War 3 (soon 4) look and run fantastic, BF3 looks equally great and you're saying the 360 caused this game to look like it does?

All one has to wonder is why or how you went from an E3 WIP demo which looked fantastic to this barely alpha demo equivalent. I finished the game with raining indoors, ships with two thirds of the model missing, aliens freezing and stuttering around the map and the list goes on. I'm sorry but I think even Homefront was a better experience than this movie tie-in

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Ian Brown on 18th February 2013 10:14pm

Posted:4 months ago

What boggles me is why Gearbox outsourced what I would consider a more "multiplayer" orientated developer to do the singleplayer campaign.

Timegate Studios when you look at the catalogue of games they have done have either worked on RTS games like Kohan and Axis & Allies or expansion packs to the FPS game F.E.A.R. Then they created the two Section 8 games. I'm sorry to Timegate but personally they wouldn't have been my first choice if it was my decision to outsource to another developer.

Upon saying that, I bought Aliens:CM the day before it released. Unfortunately the reputation of Gearbox blinded me since I greatly enjoyed Borderlands 1 and 2 and once I heard that Aliens: CM would support 4 player co-op, I was more or less sold because I do like to play a lot of 4 player co-op with friends.

Thankfully I didn't buy it at full price, I grabbed it from GreenManGaming, which they had a 35% off pre-purchase sale which ended the same day that Aliens: CM released, which is why I grabbed it. So instead of paying £39 or something for it, I paid £25...certainly wouldn't be the price I would say it's worth at the moment but it will sit with my Fallout: New Vegas game, which I can't play due to the hideous amount of bugs

Posted:4 months ago

@ Ian
"As for the Xbox being the cause of a stripped down version seems far fetched...Gearbox couldn't do anything with but release due to not being able to buy any more time from an increasingly angry Sega who wanted their money out of this dead horse. "

That's one way of putting it but how do you explain why A:CM for the Wii U is still in development even after the release of the PS3/360/PC versions? It's still the same publisher (SEGA) why not wait a bit longer? What "forced" UbiSoft to make a "business" decision" to delay a completed game in favor of releasing Rayman Legends the same time as the XBOX-multiplats version?

Sony has previously accused Microsoft of "protecting inferior technology" with this policy:
"Titles for Xbox 360 must ship at least simultaneously with other videogame platforms, and must have at least feature and content parity on-disc with other platform versions in all regions where the title is available. "If these conditions are not met, Microsoft reserves the right to not allow the content to be released on Xbox 360."

Posted:4 months ago

Just looking at the main fact that A:CM will be played by a large number of console owners and will sour them to new releases and game hype. Could be very damaging - will have to hope that WatchDog puts some of the faith back in game expectation?

Posted:4 months ago

After just watching the Jimquisition I think he nailed it:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition

Posted:4 months ago

I understand that yes the Xbox may hold other games back as its the oldest format out there but I would expect that from something like Crysis 3 or a game that really pushes the envelope of visuals and complexity for a game. This comes no where near it.

Also another Reddit Aliens CM comment about the Wii U version being possibly the worst of the bunch was posted and then removed for breaking the ND Agreement with Sega. Its an anonymous source (as usual) but with whats been delivered so far and the other comments from "insiders" about its the games general development being not as important as Borderlands 1/2 I wouldn't hold out hope to it being the definitive version. We will never know unless some one openly speaks about it, but then why would you shoot your career down over a game like this.

Gamerant
VG247
Softpedia
Cinemablend

Edit for links.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Ian Brown on 19th February 2013 6:01pm

Posted:4 months ago