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The acid-blooded devil is in the details for Aliens: Colonial Marines
"You can see this pocket on the pants," Brian Burleson, senior producer of Aliens: Colonial Marines says as he points to a promotional image behind him. It shows one of the Colonial Marines standing over a Xenomorph while another alien leaps at him from behind. "When we released this [image], someone said to us, 'No, the pocket is on the front of the cargo pants.' And we were like, 'Seriously?'"That's where a lot of developers might stop caring. It's a licensed product that serious fans will probably snatch up anyway, right? How important is a pocket on a pair of cargo pants? But Gearbox Software said "We're going back in and fixing that."The stakes are pretty high with Colonial Marines, and not just because the series has had passionate fans for decades. This isn't an inconsequential "what if" side-story like the Aliens vs Predator games, nor is it a retelling of any of the films in the franchise. It's an entirely new, canonical entry in the Alien mythology – a true, official sequel to Aliens and Alien 3 -- and the developers are taking that opportunity and running with it.%Gallery-152244%
Gearbox boss says impressive Wii U 'a really nice bridge' to the next generation
Nintendo's Wii U demo reel at E3 last year contained a clip of Aliens: Colonial Marines, but we haven't heard much about the version since then. Speaking with Gearbox President Randy Pitchford, we tried to surgically extract a viable specimen of information out of him, but he refrained from getting too specific."Nintendo still has a lot to announce with their platform, and it's not up to us to go ahead of them," he told Joystiq. "I think it's a great platform and I'm really excited about it, particularly with this game, there's a lot of exciting opportunities like, 'Wow, my motion tracker is there, and I can move it like this!'" he said as he moved his arms side to side. "There's just so much cool stuff."%Gallery-152244%
Gearbox: Aliens Colonial Marines was announced before development started
Despite first being announced by publisher Sega in 2006, development on Aliens: Colonial Marines didn't begin at Gearbox until after the title was revealed to the world."Everyone was just so excited that the deal got done," Gearbox President Randy Pitchford told Joystiq at a recent event for the title. "20th Century Fox, Gearbox and Sega all had to agree to do this and commit themselves to it. The fact that that deal even existed -- everyone on the business side was so excited that the deal happened that they just wanted to tell the world. So before we even started on the game they announced the deal."Because the announcement was made so long ago, many gamers feel the game has been taking an exceptionally long time to come out. "I think there have been a couple of things that have kind of created that feeling. One thing is that it was announced before we were even started. Another thing is that there was an [Alien] RPG game in development by Obsidian which was canceled. And I think when that happened we hadn't even really shown this game or talked about it yet, so that created some confusion of, 'Wait, what was canceled?'"%Gallery-152245%
Aliens: Colonial Marines shifted to a fall 2012 launch window
Despite those signs from Sega's abdomen and the worried look on its face, it seems like Aliens: Colonial Marines isn't bursting out of development onto retail shelves any time soon. The game will now arrive some time in "fall 2012," according to a statement released by Sega this evening, bumping it a full season away from its originally intended spring 2012 window.We're also told that a fancy new trailer for the game will be arriving tomorrow, so, uh, hold onto your butts! Oh ... shoot ... wrong franchise. Ummm, get to the choppah? Sorry, we kinda exhausted our Aliens references in the first paragraph.
Aliens: Colonial Marines special edition spotted
Gamekyo has discovered an image of what appears to be a collector's edition of Aliens: Colonial Marines. Based on the unconfirmed evidence, the collector's edition will include a nifty display box, several in-game weapons, a new "USMC Academy Firing Range" game mode and the USCM Dossier, which offers "essential briefing notes on the Xenomorph infestation." We're assuming the more salient points will cover acid blood and secret mouths. What's that? Oh yeah, it also includes a badass power loader statue. Despite all that, Sega tells Joystiq that it is "not commenting on this rumor."
These Aliens: Colonial Marines screenshots will eat your Face(book)
Gearbox Software has spawned a few new Aliens: Colonial Marines screenshots on its official Facebook page, featuring plenty of high res slime and grime. Most of them show said aliens fighting said marines, though the shot above looks like it might be the exception. Get a room, you two! %Gallery-138395%
Aliens: Colonial Marines has 11 minutes of gameplay to show you
For months, you've relied on our words -- insightful though they may be -- to illustrate the extraterrestrial horror of the E3 Aliens: Colonial Marines demo. Today, you can use actual moving pictures to relive the experience. Just check out the developer walkthrough posted above!
Aliens: Colonial Marines trailer kills a whole lot of humans
If we had a nickel for each of the titular soldiers that gets massacred in this (apparently leaked) trailer for Aliens: Colonial Marines, we'd probably have enough money to afford the therapy we'll need to get over how many titular soldiers we just saw get massacred. Come, join our distress!
Aliens: Colonial Marines preview: Game not over, man
Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines is trying to deliver the Aliens sequel you always wanted. The team at Gearbox considers Alien3 to be a sequel to the original, leaving the action-heavy Aliens without a proper narrative followup. In Colonial Marines, a group of, well ... colonial marines find themselves back on LV-426, ready to become the latest incubators of the xenomorph race. The hands-off demo we saw started with our squad back on the planet and in the Hadley's Hope facility. "But wait, wasn't the complex destroyed in a nuclear blast at the end of Aliens?" you ask, quite astutely. Gearbox explained that a ground-based nuclear blast would leave a cone-shaped crater (that's why nuclear bombs are supposed to be detonated in mid-air), so it could have been possible for the sturdy complex and xenomorph hive to survive. Happy? No? Well, that's the premise, so get used to it. %Gallery-126010%
Aliens: Colonial Marines to rip through Xenomorphs in Spring 2012
Other than the message imparted by the terrifying baby head we got in the mail, we haven't heard too much (useful) information about Gearbox Software's Aliens: Colonial Marines lately. It looks like that's about to change, as Gearbox and Sega today revealed plans to blow out the game at E3 next week, and announced a new "Spring 2012" launch window. If that weren't enough, a bit of the game's scope is explained in the announcement, which depicts a recon mission into the "ostensibly abandoned" U.S.S. Sulaco of Aliens fame. A fancy new teaser has also arrived, which we've dropped just below the break.
Severed head in the mail terrifies, teases Aliens: Colonial Marines
We get a lot of weird stuff in the mail, it's simply one of the hazards of this profession. Any given day, we have to be prepared to take delivery of a miniature diorama, a personalized strait jacket, a check for $200, or maybe a pile of meat, hair and teeth? Sometimes, it's a dirty doll head. Wait, what? Now, getting something like this in the mail might be a frightening experience for the casual games journalist but remember, your pals at Joystiq are pros. And by pros, we mean to say that we asked Twitter what it was. Some of you suggested it might be promoting Gearbox's announced-over-three-years-ago FPS Aliens: Colonial Marines. While that seemed like a crazy assumption, it turns out the name written on the back, Rebecca, is the actual name of that lovable scamp from Aliens, Newt. Furthermore, the return address on the package is from one Ms. Rebecca Jorden, Newt's full name. Here's what Wikia has to say about the doll: Casey was the favorite doll of Newt's. Casey was reduced to nothing but a head when she was discovered on LV-426. Casey was lost when Newt was abducted in the sub-basement reservoir in the Hadley's Hope settlement. And if that's not enough proof of an imminent E3 re-reveal, Kotaku says it has an appointment to see the game, so ... case closed, we guess. We're mostly looking forward to seeing why Colonial Marines was put on the backburner for so long ... ... mostly.
Gearbox discusses Aliens: Colonial Marines, Brothers in Arms, secret Pitchford-directed title, and more
During today's Gearbox Software panel, the developer took the opportunity to assuage concerns that new franchises like Borderlands and Duke Nukem are siphoning away time from its previous projects, like the Brothers in Arms series or the announced-in-2009-and-still-invisible Aliens: Colonial Marines. Pitchford even commented on one of the studio's three unannounced projects. "We're not announcing anything today, but we want to tell you guys that we really care about this franchise a lot," Gearbox co-founder Brian Martel said. "It's something we created and it really means a lot to us. It's not just a game about the combat. It's about the soldiers in the war. We'll deal with Baker and his men in future games for sure." So while they're not confirming that a Brothers in Arms game is in development currently, they are confirming that one will be at some point. But Martel did give us an idea of what we might expect from a future BiA offering: "But we also may do some other things that maybe treat the game in some different ways and take some different directions." So, modern warfare then? Pitchford then jumped in, agreeing. "It was our first original IP. So we'll be taking care of that one." Further confirming that a Brothers in Arms game is possibly in production, Pitchford said, " We've got a lot of action right now, but we're not ready quite yet to bring it out. We want to make sure we know we've got it right before we tell you what we're doing."
SXSW: Creating 87 bazillion guns for Borderlands
Fact: there are 16,164,886 guns in Borderlands according to Gearbox Software developers Matthew Armstrong and Jimmy Sieben. That's a lot of guns. Remember that scene in The Matrix where Neo says "Guns. Lots and lots of guns."? It's a lot more than that. That's also the number of guns before the DLC, which has inflated it even further. So how do you have someone design each one of those firearms and build out the specs? Even if you only paid 25 cents per gun, that would still chew into your development budget to the tune of over four million dollars. So what do you do, hotshot? Easy! You make a system that does it all for you. In an SXSW panel, Sieben and Armstrong spoke about the systemic development tool named Gearbuilder that they developed, going into detail about how they created the system to handle the creation of that many customized guns. It generates the guns based on one of 12 different manufacturers, giving each one a different grip, body, cylinder, barrel and accessories. Based on those, that same system determines how much damage the gun will deal. But what's surprising is, as impressive a figure as 16 million is, it's still only one gun. Shoot on through the break for more.
Big Download awards 2009's vaporware
In response to Wired's own 2009 vaporware awards, our pals at BigDownload have complied their own list of software and hardware that woulda, coulda and shoulda seen the light of day this year. Topping the list is the streaming service OnLive, which was slated to release in "winter 2009," following a healthy dose of beta testing. While reception for the service has been mostly positive, OnLive's claims have yet to be tested on a global stage (during E3 2009, OnLive was previewed for select media via a cable modem connection to the service's California-based headquarters). Other nods go to Gearbox Software's oft-delayed -- we'll believe it when we see it -- Aliens: Colonial Marines, Obsidian's "oh, by the way, it's not coming out today" Alpha Protocol, and Midway's This Is Canceled Vegas. Sadly, Duke Nukem Forever failed to win an award for what would have been a record twelfth-straight year.
WTF: Fable characters in Sonic Racing and other oddities from alleged Sega leak
Among the truckloads of possibly legit megatons included in the alleged leaked minutes from a meeting between Sega of America and Sony Computer Entertainment America, a number of notable gaffes and oddities can be found. Besides wondering if "characters from [the] Rare or Fable universes" should be included in Sonic Racing, it appears that Sega may be interested in assigning all of its properties a PlayStation Home-room. Oh, and a product evaluator thought Alpha Protocol felt "barely RPG" -- final analysis: make it even more Mass Effect-y.Additionally, the mention of PS2 games as downloadable content on PSN makes us reminisce all the way back to mid-2006 when the idea first popped up on our radar --- surely, this isn't why Sony removed built-in backwards compatibility? And either the person taking minutes was daydreaming or knows something we don't, as reference is made to "Eidos' Batman" featuring "PS3/PSP interoperability" support -- a Batman or related DC Comics PSP game then? Juicer still, that little mention comes right after talk of a project named "Vanquish" and a possible PSP iteration of the currently shelved Aliens: Colonial Marines that Gearbox Software is working on. Also, Sony is eager to check out that hopefully not-so-crappy Thor game soon (suggestion: make it less Iron Man 2-y).The cherry on top comes in the form of what we've been calling around the Joystiq water cooler: "Sonic and the Inverted Castle." Found under the "Sonic Anniversary" subhead, the note taker jots down, "SCEA would love PSN exclusive power ups/different game modes (like Castlevania's flip it over/backwards)." Actually, we believe that's Missy Elliott who puts the thing down, flips it and reverses it, thank you very much.
Gearbox assures it's hard at work on Aliens: Colonial Marines
Gearbox Software is apparently still working on Aliens: Colonial Marines. This update seems necessary to convey after Sega did its best Sigourney Weaver impression and told Obsidian to "get away from the Alien RPG, you [censored]." Gearbox head Randy Pitchford tells CVG that the company is definitely working on the first-person title and, when the time is right for publisher Sega, it will share more details.We're not expecting to hear too much more about Aliens: Colonial Marines until Sega gets Aliens vs. Predator out the door -- which we appreciate, because there's no telling how many times we'll mix the two up in the meantime.
Sega: game not over for Aliens: Colonial Marines, Aliens RPG
The big, green gooey eggs containing Sega's long in development Aliens: Colonial Marines and Aliens RPG are going to hatch -- just not soon. When we asked why the games were absent from this year's E3, Sega replied, "Aliens vs. Predator will be the first to ship out of our triplet of Aliens titles; hence it was shown at this year's E3. We'll have more news to share about the other two games in the near future so stay tuned." Rumors of both titles being jettisoned out an airlock have been swirling since earlier this year.In addition, Gearbox Software prez Randy Pitchford has confirmed to Kotaku that Colonial Marines lives on in now-gen console and handheld form on DS. Pitchford told the site that Gearbox is not developing the portable title, lending more credence to purported footage of a WayForward-developed Colonial Marines that leapt out of the darkness last month. We've put word into Obsidian, developers of Aliens RPG, for confirmation of that title's status.
Rumored video of Aliens: Colonial Marines for DS surfaces
What's the real deal with the Aliens franchise, recently? Ask Sega -- except don't, because you're pretty unlikely to get a straight answer from the company regarding the whereabouts of Aliens: Colonial Marines or the Obsidian-developed Aliens RPG. This new video, which can be seen after the break, is even more mysterious. It appears to be a 2D side-scrolling Aliens game developed by WayForward -- the people making A Boy and His Blob -- and Gearbox, developer of the console and PC version of Colonial Marines (if it still exists, that is).Could this be a DS version of that same title, or is this something completely separate? Is it in development, or scrapped? The video description says it's a canceled project that was completed and shelved due to financial trouble at Sega. We've reached out to Sega for comment, but we're not counting on finding out much. [Via Destructoid]
Gearbox Software is hiring, Aliens: Colonial Marines still in development
Aliens: Colonial Marines, one of the three Alien titles allegedly in production, has had a lot of ups and downs over the past six months. First we were unclear whether layoffs at developer Gearbox Software would affect the title, then we were assured it was to be released in Q1 2009, then we were tipped it was supposedly canceled -- so what's actually going on with the game? Well, we're still not really sure. Shacknews noticed that over on Gearbox's website, the company is recruiting for "all projects," and furthermore, the Alien project was listed at time of press as "in-development" (currently it lists development as "TBA," having updated that specific page on the website as of today). We contacted Steve Gibson, marketing director for Gearbox, to ask about the recent news and if Aliens: Colonial Marines is still being developed by the studio. "Neither Sega nor Gearbox have ever announced any status changes. We're not making any announcements at this time beyond that we are recruiting for all projects," he told us this morning. While not directly confirming the continued development of the game, Mr. Gibson's answer leads us to believe that, as the game has never been officially canceled, the studio is still working on it. As you're likely used to hearing around this time of year, we're just going to have to wait 'til E3 to find out for sure what's going on.
Alpha Protocol in October, new trailer right now
With Sam Fisher still MIA, we've turned to other sources to get our spy fix, even getting a little dirty pleasure from Quantum of Solace (or, as we just decided to start calling it, Call of Suit-y). We were hoping to get a little bump from Alpha Protocol, as Sega had announced it was coming between April and June of this year. Of course, it also announced Aliens: Colonial Marines for that same window, and we all saw how that turned out. You guessed it: Alpha Protocol has been delayed to October.On the plus side, we've got a new trailer above, and it's definitely giving us a Splinter Cell vibe. Seriously, watch the clip, it's like casual Friday at Third Echelon.
