Aliens: Colonial Marines

[unholytestament]

Wasn't that place nuked by its oxygen converter thingie going super-critical or something?

The atmospheric processor is essentially a giant fusion reactor (Burke: "Look, this whole station is basically a big fusion reactor... "). When Ripley declares she's going back into the hive the rescue Newt Bishop tries to dissuade her with the phrase "In nineteen minutes this area's gonna be a cloud of vapor the size of Nebraska."

Mind you, this is said while standing at the landing pad for the dropship, which is at Hadley's Hope. The atmospheric generator is a few minutes drive/flight away.

And I'm not exactly against retconning Alien 3, but this movie asks me to believe that Hicks was taken off the Sulaco (and apparently replaced with a body double...? I don't know, haven't played the game myself but this raises even more questions) by Weyland-Yutani somehow, yet they left Ripley and Newt behind just so we can pretend Alien 3 happened exactly as we saw it. That just does not work for me.

[wolfen]

Sorry, got to call you out on this now. The game is canon and takes place after Alien 3's events. Hicks being alive and on the planet is akin to resurrecting Eddard in Game of Thrones. Not to mention the fact that they literally hand wave his existence when asked about it. The sheer fact that they had the gall to bring the half annihilated (and crashed into a planet hundreds of light years away) Sulaco back is a fucking joke. The ship itself was unsalvageable.

Hadleys Hope was turned into a literal hole in the ground when it was nuked from orbit. There shouldn't be *anything* left of it.

And let me repeat: This game has a canonical story.

Hicks being alive makes sense, if you paid attention to what he said. Hicks said he was kidnapped prior to ripley being infested. When the fire caused the jettison of the pods, the person on the actual pod could have been simply a mercenary to keep guard of ripley. They never said it was a body double. Infact, the reason why hicks returned, with michael biehn, is because during alien 3 they asked to use him for his corpse (yes dead), but he said no. Infact, he went so overboard that he told them if they used any likeliness of him in this film, he would sue. So, a support beam crushes him in his pod, and the picture is not him and very darkened. In the end, alien 3 makes you assume he is dead (as they think he is dead themselves), but in reality, thanks to a somewhat genius way of bringing him back, we now have a canonical alive Dwayne Hicks. Dot get me wrong, there are plot holes in his story, and through out the game, but when does a film not have plot holes. In example. Alien 3. How in the hell were there two facehuggers onboard the sullaco? The avengers. Why blowing up that one space station caused all the aliens to completely shut down/die, when in the comics they are not a hive mind? See? Plot holes.

The sullaco "being destroyed". Really? gonna believe weyland?

I do agree, most of hadley's hope should have been vaporized. But, for game purposes, they shoulda melted away half of it, and trashed the other half, while still playable. As it was still intact, for the most part, in game made no sense, i agree.

What you should take from the game as being canonical: Weyland tried for more aliens, failed, and lost a bunch of mercenary to aliens and marines. Hicks is alive and well. AND, you cannot cut a chestburster out, as the remanents of the burster will kill the intended victim, as its umbilical cord spreads throughout the hosts body like a cancer. Plus, the three aliens. Boiler= hadley hope survivor on meltdown (so nothing new, just almost dead warrior from the film that lost most senses) Charger= Praetorian. (play the avp games and you will understand the conclusion to this, just slightly bulkier and larger) Spitter, i really dunno how the aliens decided to morph into this, but hey, another bug to kill.

[unholytestament]

But why would they only grab Hicks? They would either grab all of them for interrogation or grab Hicks and kill the others. Leaving anyone behind is just intentionally leaving loose ends.

[RICH1471]

As I huge Aliens fan i was disappointed with how they butchered the story, this shit is supposed to be canon? In that case it contradicts the movies, so which do I believe?

[Shinzai]

Hicks being alive makes sense, if you paid attention to what he said. Hicks said he was kidnapped prior to ripley being infested. When the fire caused the jettison of the pods, the person on the actual pod could have been simply a mercenary to keep guard of ripley. They never said it was a body double. Infact, the reason why hicks returned, with michael biehn, is because during alien 3 they asked to use him for his corpse (yes dead), but he said no. Infact, he went so overboard that he told them if they used any likeliness of him in this film, he would sue. So, a support beam crushes him in his pod, and the picture is not him and very darkened. In the end, alien 3 makes you assume he is dead (as they think he is dead themselves), but in reality, thanks to a somewhat genius way of bringing him back, we now have a canonical alive Dwayne Hicks. Dot get me wrong, there are plot holes in his story, and through out the game, but when does a film not have plot holes. In example. Alien 3. How in the hell were there two facehuggers onboard the sullaco? The avengers. Why blowing up that one space station caused all the aliens to completely shut down/die, when in the comics they are not a hive mind? See? Plot holes.

The sullaco "being destroyed". Really? gonna believe weyland?

I do agree, most of hadley's hope should have been vaporized. But, for game purposes, they shoulda melted away half of it, and trashed the other half, while still playable. As it was still intact, for the most part, in game made no sense, i agree.

What you should take from the game as being canonical: Weyland tried for more aliens, failed, and lost a bunch of mercenary to aliens and marines. Hicks is alive and well. AND, you cannot cut a chestburster out, as the remanents of the burster will kill the intended victim, as its umbilical cord spreads throughout the hosts body like a cancer. Plus, the three aliens. Boiler= hadley hope survivor on meltdown (so nothing new, just almost dead warrior from the film that lost most senses) Charger= Praetorian. (play the avp games and you will understand the conclusion to this, just slightly bulkier and larger) Spitter, i really dunno how the aliens decided to morph into this, but hey, another bug to kill.

Sorry, but it's one of the most retarded retcons ever. And it's being played off as a canon explanation with no grounding or sense to it. All that Colonial Marines has done has created some absolutely nonsensical storylines to force certain gameplay elements.

Addendum: The whole point of Weyland Yutani's presence in Alien 3 at the end is because they have no live xenomorph specimens left. They want the one inside Ripley, specifically because it's a queen. If they just had live facehuggers floating around in storage, they could just keep gathering hosts in an effort to create a queen.

Your explanation/the games is that... they find Ripley and Hicks and Newt in hypersleep and they plant the facehuggers on the ship... then kidnap Hicks, after having invested into trying to create new a xenomorph in Ripley, leaving Newt to die regardless? And then they didn't take Ripley out of the ship and hold her some where or even make sure the ship would be safe and instead simply allowed it to crash into a far-flung prison planet, which took them days to reach to attempt to retrieve their pre-planted specimen?

[wolfen]

Sorry, but it's one of the most retarded retcons ever. And it's being played off as a canon explanation with no grounding or sense to it. All that Colonial Marines has done has created some absolutely nonsensical storylines to force certain gameplay elements.

Addendum: The whole point of Weyland Yutani's presence in Alien 3 at the end is because they have no live xenomorph specimens left. They want the one inside Ripley, specifically because it's a queen. If they just had live facehuggers floating around in storage, they could just keep gathering hosts in an effort to create a queen.

Your explanation/the games is that... they find Ripley and Hicks and Newt in hypersleep and they plant the facehuggers on the ship... then kidnap Hicks, after having invested into trying to create new a xenomorph in Ripley, leaving Newt to die regardless? And then they didn't take Ripley out of the ship and hold her some where or even make sure the ship would be safe and instead simply allowed it to crash into a far-flung prison planet, which took them days to reach to attempt to retrieve their pre-planted specimen?

you do realize that acm takes place quite a few weeks after a3? They eventually went back to lv426, post a3. Not immediately.

[skatblast]

I heard this game is getting pounded to the ground by critics, hope all the pre-orders wernt a sham

[Shinzai]

you do realize that acm takes place quite a few weeks after a3? They eventually went back to lv426, post a3. Not immediately.

I made no reference to when ACM takes place, because it doesn't matter when after Alien 3 it takes place. in Alien 3 the film itself, Weyland Yutani sends a group to pick up Ripley. They're already in the film, trying to and convince Ripley to leave with them, because the prison director or doctor (I forget exactly which now) contacts them secretly to let them know that she's there.

[khalltusk]

I do agree with the story being a bit butchered.

Imo they should have just bumped off alien 3s story entirely. I hated it. "Jazz hands" there was an alien egg planted aboard when all the eggs in the chamber were burned by ripley.

But anyways we deal with what we are given.

Sulaco - makes no sense to turn it around when marines can track it. Did the company not think it would cause problems down the line? Turning it into an orbiting xeno hive is a bad idea. Don't let these things OFF planet. Newt and ripley, how was hicks captured and not them? No sense given with "jazz hands" explanation.

Hadleys hope - needed FAR more gameplay there. Wheres the tunnel defence bit we saw? Wheres that power loader with flamer fighting scene we saw with all the other marines. Not to mention the crusher chasing us as well (was it deemed too similar to that large alien we had chase us?)

Origin ship sections. Was nice to see that bit but we had no details on the origin ship really. missed opportunity there. The whole "the alien placenta spreads like a cancer" is countering alien 4 where they remove one from ripley and shes fine. I can see why they came up with this but i think its a bit rubbish personally.

Hicks - I can see why hes in the game but what information would they get out of him? Surely they would interrogate him then just use him as an alien egg victim why keep him around for so long?

I did like the idea of the aliens evolving on their own. Really cool that part. I can see originally they take aspects from their host but as time goes on (remember in aliens they were vastly different from the original alien and james cameron stated these had more time to mature etc so I see it as a reasonable jump to assume they could go on even further in their life cycle)

I did have some questions though, - that giant alien that chases you I wonder what thats role/purpose in the hive is. Why was hudson implanted in the main colony section, all the other victims were taken the processor seems a bit lazy that on the designers part. What about the other marines that went in to attack weyu were they just left behind?

Overall the story had some major issues but at least we had some more input on certain things. I just felt the whole colony section was far FAR underused. I would have loved a prologue section where we have hicks retelling us what happens (as a way of explaining how he came to be captured and not in a cryopod) starts with him going to the colony showing us the initial encounter then the defense of the colony on their last stand and then weyu coming over and capturing him and replacing him with a body double in the pod. THAT would be a good way of explaining how he got there. Not the lazy jazz hands we got.

[rol3x]

I heard this game is getting pounded to the ground by critics, hope all the pre-orders wernt a sham

Preorders are convincing consumers to buy a product before they know how good it is so they are all shams to a degree. Depends on how lucky you get with the product.

[edgecrusher]

Preorders are convincing consumers to buy a product before they know how good it is so they are all shams to a degree. Depends on how lucky you get with the product.

So is marketing. So are consumer demo's that intentionally show the best parts of the game. So are previews. So are show floor demo's. etc etc.

It all comes down to the consumer doing his research and feeling comfortable with their decision. You can buy a game well after release and be "duped" into purchasing a bad game just as you can be "duped" into pre-ordering a bad game.

There is nothing inherently wrong with pre-orders. The issue stems from the bonuses that are rewarded for pre-orders and the pre-order shenanigans that go on, not the notion of pre-ordering itself.

[rol3x]

So is marketing. So are consumer demo's that intentionally show the best parts of the game. So are previews. So are show floor demo's. etc etc.

It all comes down to the consumer doing his research and feeling comfortable with their decision. You can buy a game well after release and be "duped" into purchasing a bad game just as you can be "duped" into pre-ordering a bad game.

There is nothing inherently wrong with pre-orders. The issue stems from the bonuses that are rewarded for pre-orders and the pre-order shenanigans that go on, not the notion of pre-ordering itself.

`
I consider pre-orders especially on steam (no refunds) to be a bit more despicable than misleading advertising or previews, "fork out the money early or you miss out" is worse than "our product is awesome".
you are correct though. I wonder how many times people will be burned by it and still come back for more?

[Shinzai]

I do agree with the story being a bit butchered.

Imo they should have just bumped off alien 3s story entirely. I hated it. "Jazz hands" there was an alien egg planted aboard when all the eggs in the chamber were burned by ripley.
*snip*
Overall the story had some major issues but at least we had some more input on certain things. I just felt the whole colony section was far FAR underused. I would have loved a prologue section where we have hicks retelling us what happens (as a way of explaining how he came to be captured and not in a cryopod) starts with him going to the colony showing us the initial encounter then the defense of the colony on their last stand and then weyu coming over and capturing him and replacing him with a body double in the pod. THAT would be a good way of explaining how he got there. Not the lazy jazz hands we got.

After looking through certain footage and info again, I would actually assume that they'd originally intended for A:CM to be a prequel to Aliens, where we would have played the part of the guys defending the station prior to their imminent demise. So instead we end up with a jumble of scenes, some vaguely relevant and others just completely out of place.

I also agree that Alien 3 should never have had to have gone through as much bullcrap as it did. If only they'd given it to Fincher first, instead of allowing it to become a jumbled mess. As to the facehugger's presence, I always forcibly assumed that one got on board with the queen, maybe on it or something. It's just another plot hole in the collective mess.

[khalltusk]

I've pre-ordered a few games in my time. I got stung by two in recent memory. AVP and aliens colonial marines (while I enjoyed parts of both games as a whole it was a let down)

X-com I bought last year was a pre-order HUGE gamble on my part. It paid off 70+ hours played on it. at 29.99 thats around £0.40 per hour played. Thats quality entertainment

Aliens CM - around 7 hours at 29.99 so far and tbh aside from another couple of hours on it (I estimate no more than 10hours as MP seems to be barren of a quantity of maps and gameplay modes) its rather pricey entertainment.

Basically as long as a game gets around 30hours of game play from me over a few months its worth its money. Any less and its not worth my money.

---------- Post added 2013-02-18 at 11:52 AM ----------

After looking through certain footage and info again, I would actually assume that they'd originally intended for A:CM to be a prequel to Aliens, where we would have played the part of the guys defending the station prior to their imminent demise. So instead we end up with a jumble of scenes, some vaguely relevant and others just completely out of place.

I also agree that Alien 3 should never have had to have gone through as much bullcrap as it did. If only they'd given it to Fincher first, instead of allowing it to become a jumbled mess. As to the facehugger's presence, I always forcibly assumed that one got on board with the queen, maybe on it or something. It's just another plot hole in the collective mess.

Aye,

Honestly if they had the plot like so.

Marines, find the sulaco a short prologue mission where you board it has some scary things happen but no aliens (use it as a 5min tension mission) you find a log showing it was boarded and that some of the cryopods ejected.

You then head to the planet enter the colony see its demolished mostly and ofc encounter some aliens fight them off you can then do the sewer missions (enjoyed that one) wiping out the local aliens and securing the colony for the time being. Having revealed that theres a Weyu base on the planet near the origin ship you then travel to there to investigate and find weyu doing their experiments and that the place is CONSTANTLY attacked by aliens. You wonder why theres more aliens here than at the colony assuming they had the nest back there you'd be think they were be more numerous.

You then find hicks and accidentally set the queen free. on your way back to base hicks then reveals what happened which puts you in his shoes when you first encounter the aliens and the siege (keeping it short as to tease you to whats coming!)

You then find that the motion sensors are going crazy and have to hold off hordes of aliens as their queens released and they now want to gobble up the lovely humans! you can take it from there where you go and end the queen on this planet destroying the nest and then when you bust out of there you find that the weyu lot have left on their own ship and it ends with the marines own ship in pursuit - this could be to another planet with aliens as the origin ships logs revealed the location of another place etc.

Alien face huggers -still a better love story than twilight!

[nulir]

OK I've watched all the Alien films over the years and played Colonial Marines when it was released and couldn't figure out how Hicks was alive in it. So I rewatched all 4 Aliens over the last few days and further clarified my memory of Hicks dying. Obviously Hicks was killed in the crash in Alien 3 so I though oh they just retconed Alien 3 and Resurrection. Think back to the game and they comment on why the Sulaco is back at the Aliens planet and it was last seen by the Alien 3 planet. So the events of Alien 3 happened thus Hicks died in the crash and is also alive in the game... (Which is officially part of the Alien story)

I'm hoping someone who follows the franchise close than me as I mainly am into only the first 2 films and couldn't care less for 3 and resurrection.

SO seriously how the fuck is Hicks in this game when he was killed in a crash in Alien 3 and cremated.

Use spoiler tags tags to prevent potentially spoiling things for people please. -Edge

[tsogamerz]

when the game first came out i was really wanting to get it but from what i have heard from everyone talking about the game it's taken me away from getting it.

[draykorinee]

Its a game you'll want to pick up on a steam sale or 2nd hand nothing else, the patches havent really done a huge amount.

[edgecrusher]

Its a game you'll want to pick up on a steam sale or 2nd hand nothing else, the patches havent really done a huge amount.

Or, if you're still waiting for the Wii U version...never!!!!!

I honestly don't even think I'd pick this up on a $5 Steam sale. I picked up Duke Nukem Forever for $5 for the lulz and because it's Duke Nukem. But this, there's really no lulz to be had here. Just tears. So salty.

[Shinzai]

OK I've watched all the Alien films over the years and played Colonial Marines when it was released and couldn't figure out how Hicks was alive in it. So I rewatched all 4 Aliens over the last few days and further clarified my memory of Hicks dying. Obviously Hicks was killed in the crash in Alien 3 so I though oh they just retconed Alien 3 and Resurrection. Think back to the game and they comment on why the Sulaco is back at the Aliens planet and it was last seen by the Alien 3 planet. So the events of Alien 3 happened thus Hicks died in the crash and is also alive in the game... (Which is officially part of the Alien story)

I'm hoping someone who follows the franchise close than me as I mainly am into only the first 2 films and couldn't care less for 3 and resurrection.

SO seriously how the fuck is Hicks in this game when he was killed in a crash in Alien 3 and cremated.

Use spoiler tags tags to prevent potentially spoiling things for people please. -Edge

Jazz hands. Or to quote the game directly, from its script:

Bishop: "How the hell are you alive Hicks? Your file was closed K.I.A. fourteen weeks ago. We're here because we responded to your distress call."
Hicks: "Wish you hadn't."
*Aliens attack to interrupt anyone trying to figure out wtf is going on.*

And that's as close to an explanation as you'll ever get in that game.

[SirRobin]

Here come the lawyers!

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/...lonial-marines