So yesterday's George Something was a pre-emptive strike on the formidable Alien franchise, taking you on a nostalgic walk through the H.R. Geiger rendition of memory lane, dripping with pixelated ooze and atmospheric 'blips' of the motion tracker...
...Well, what's got me mad this week?
George. That's what.
He got me all excited for Aliens: Colonial Marines, to the extent I actually parted with real, hard earned cash for it. (well credit, but still I will have to pay for it)
IT SUCKS.
Actually that's not true, I really enjoyed every bit of the multiplayer us Crows played last night (that's right we all own it, Jamie has to be different and got it on Xbox - he said the graphics suck, and I sense you'll be hearing more from him about it)
But yeah, we all have it, me and Rich played a good few hours last night, I was naturally talented as a Marine, and did an ok job. But feel like i've basically seen everything the game has to offer already, with a very limited range of gameplay types, (Team Death Match, Survival, Escape and some other one i forget - it's late)
So if I enjoyed it, why does it suck?
Well it was enjoyable, dont get me wrong. But it has suffered from the same major issues a lot of games of recent have.
First off, limited content. I am getting sick to fucking death of this. Companies getting so greedy/needy of the income that DLC can offer that they are clearly holding back content for future release, this is hugely unfair on the consumer and someone needs to step in and stop this killing the industry as more and more releases are disappointingly short and limited.
Second off, it has more bugs than a dutch red light districts used mattress storage facility. Once again, despite failing twice before in attempting to program a functioning Alien wall climbing ability, it is again, over complicated terrain issues, invisible barriers and hideous collisions galore.
Third off (this is getting ridiculous) certain play modes feel very unbalanced, as you gain abilities and XP to unlock additional features the tides turn, but I dont envy late comers to the multiplayer. Aliens feel hugely outnumbered, and out gunned.
Fourth off, the single player... SPOILER ALERT ...pits you against human enemies for a while, now this is where I flipped the desk and quit. The AI is horrendous, there is a lot of 'clipping' and the graphics (on max) were low res and blotchy, with low poly models, I suspect due to the pace they move at, it was easier on the old processors...
Sega have to take action on this, release a hi res texture pack for free *Sleeping dogs stylee* and it'd cheer up the hardcore fans at least. Can't be long before a community would pick it up, if only the game was worth bothering to make it for... ...but there are some good points that could make it great...
For what quality moments there are, you can tell they were made by fans with a love and passion for the franchise, they've clearly worked hard to make it smooth and balanced unlike AVP2, the customization is cool with lots of unlocks and variants for play styles, the motion tracker is my favourite feature as it's reminiscent of doom3 when it disarms you while you use it, encouraging team play; co op features are fairly seemless it has to be said. So kudos to that. As is the team management and friend grouping in the multiplayer, although the ingame voice does fuck around with the steam chat we were using... ...another bug perhaps overlooked by devs.
Overall it's enjoyable, short lived, and overpriced due to the 'on hold' content for later release.
3/5. Could've been 5/5 should've been 4/5. But not.
Si Tye
[no pictures, can't afford them now I've spent my money on this game...] Blame Sega.
...Well, what's got me mad this week?
George. That's what.
He got me all excited for Aliens: Colonial Marines, to the extent I actually parted with real, hard earned cash for it. (well credit, but still I will have to pay for it)
IT SUCKS.
Actually that's not true, I really enjoyed every bit of the multiplayer us Crows played last night (that's right we all own it, Jamie has to be different and got it on Xbox - he said the graphics suck, and I sense you'll be hearing more from him about it)
But yeah, we all have it, me and Rich played a good few hours last night, I was naturally talented as a Marine, and did an ok job. But feel like i've basically seen everything the game has to offer already, with a very limited range of gameplay types, (Team Death Match, Survival, Escape and some other one i forget - it's late)
So if I enjoyed it, why does it suck?
Well it was enjoyable, dont get me wrong. But it has suffered from the same major issues a lot of games of recent have.
First off, limited content. I am getting sick to fucking death of this. Companies getting so greedy/needy of the income that DLC can offer that they are clearly holding back content for future release, this is hugely unfair on the consumer and someone needs to step in and stop this killing the industry as more and more releases are disappointingly short and limited.
Second off, it has more bugs than a dutch red light districts used mattress storage facility. Once again, despite failing twice before in attempting to program a functioning Alien wall climbing ability, it is again, over complicated terrain issues, invisible barriers and hideous collisions galore.
Third off (this is getting ridiculous) certain play modes feel very unbalanced, as you gain abilities and XP to unlock additional features the tides turn, but I dont envy late comers to the multiplayer. Aliens feel hugely outnumbered, and out gunned.
Fourth off, the single player... SPOILER ALERT ...pits you against human enemies for a while, now this is where I flipped the desk and quit. The AI is horrendous, there is a lot of 'clipping' and the graphics (on max) were low res and blotchy, with low poly models, I suspect due to the pace they move at, it was easier on the old processors...
Sega have to take action on this, release a hi res texture pack for free *Sleeping dogs stylee* and it'd cheer up the hardcore fans at least. Can't be long before a community would pick it up, if only the game was worth bothering to make it for... ...but there are some good points that could make it great...
For what quality moments there are, you can tell they were made by fans with a love and passion for the franchise, they've clearly worked hard to make it smooth and balanced unlike AVP2, the customization is cool with lots of unlocks and variants for play styles, the motion tracker is my favourite feature as it's reminiscent of doom3 when it disarms you while you use it, encouraging team play; co op features are fairly seemless it has to be said. So kudos to that. As is the team management and friend grouping in the multiplayer, although the ingame voice does fuck around with the steam chat we were using... ...another bug perhaps overlooked by devs.
Overall it's enjoyable, short lived, and overpriced due to the 'on hold' content for later release.
3/5. Could've been 5/5 should've been 4/5. But not.
Si Tye
[no pictures, can't afford them now I've spent my money on this game...] Blame Sega.
