Hey Mates,

i realize this isn't an mmorpg, but like a fiery train wreck, I can't stop reading about The horrible reviews and fan outrage surrounding Aliens: Colonial Marines by gearbox software. 

I saw the demo footage and it looked really good, so I was curious how it could be tanking so badly. Then I saw this video. It illustrates the painfully obvious difference between the demo that got a lot of people excited and the final product that's pissed a lot of players off. Check it out

Game Informer article and Video.

After seeing that, does this seem like a case of bait and switch? Do you think Gearbox should be help liable for the disconnect between their demo and what they actually punished as final? Or are the entitled to make any changes they want between the demo and final release?

I am interested to see what happens here because in the past year, we have had many similar issues. Some of them, like the ending of Mass Effect 3, were extremely high profile. Bioware developers made many promised as to the flexibility of their trilogies many potential endings. But in the end...there were three and frankly they were all pretty much the same. Again, not as advertised.

Should gamers who bought A:CM be able to request a refund on said grounds? Does Gearbox have the right to make such drastic changes between the demo and release...I mean it does usually say somewhere on demos that this is not the final product or product subject to change, etc.

The outcome of this mess may have far-reaching implications to what game gamers are allowed to get away with in so far as disparity between demo and/or WIP material and the final deliverable. Share your opinion!

I'd chalk it up to optimizing for harware compatibility.

Well it would be interesting to see someone bring this to... preferably i guess civil court as this is pretty much uncharted grounds. Where the line is drawn between working product and false advertisment.

But beyond that i could not care less.

Originally posted by WhiteLantern
For further consideration: Kotaku article

Wow! I didn't see that article....amazing. If all of that is true, I bet SEGA wished they would have given another extension. 

So, the gist is, the debs knew it sucked and still suckers gamers to pay for the fiasco....just, wow.....man, if that turns MOUT to be true and provable....Gearboz should get raped....they can then go after the other studio...wow, that is so messed up.

Originally posted by Kabaal
I won't comment on the article but the game itself is awful. Graphically it's years behind the times and the gameplay is bog standard, it does nothing new and anything it does do feels like they slapped together the bare minimum in order to shove it out the door.

The demo showed in the article looked pretty good. Dynamic lighting, etc...looked and felt like aliens...the final just looks...lol yea, you said it, looks awful.

Thanks for linking that video and articles.

The early preview demo is all I had seen and was interested in getting the game based on that information. Now - now I wont waste a cent on this pathetic cash grab. Im still in shock at just how bad the finished product is.

Gearbox continues to surprise people.

First we have duke nukem fail

And now we have something even worse a game that becomes worse than the demo.

I really dont know what to say about these people they are clearly a bunch of fail developers that they cant deliver.

Only thing i can say **** that gearbox loosers

Originally posted by Zefire
 

And now we have something even worse a game that becomes worse than the demo.

 

Yeah, that is a bit of an odd twist.

This deeply disappoints me.  This is even more disappointing than the day my mouse hovered over the uninstall button for SWTOR, while I sat teary eyed and wondering how things got to be this bad.

Honestly, this is just misleading and vile.  A demo of a game is there to DEMOnstrate the gameplay.  I don't care what happens after the demo comes out, but it had better be at least as good as the Demo!  How in the world do you justify releasing a gameplay demo of a game that looks nothing like the game!

OP, you don't know how disappointed I was to hear this A:CM fiasco.

I've absolutely loved "Aliens" since I first saw it in the 80's.  A chance for a reputable company to do an FPS in the Alien franchise?  With Colonial Marines?  M41 Pulse Rifles, Motion Detectors, and all the cool stuff?  SIGN ME UP!

I was going to preorder this game, but since I was in part of the world where internet access is limited and very, very slow (makes old school 56k dialup look like DSL), I decided to hold off until I returned to the United States.

And boy am I glad I did hold off.

The demo looked great and I was sold.  I was set to be going back to the US soon, so I figured I wouldn't be too far behind the other fans from release.  But then I came across this thread and did some more snooping, and it's just sad to see this and the franchise take a fall down the flight of stairs and do a faceplant at the bottom.  This game had alot of years to develop, and this ship sank as it sailed out of the harbor.

Originally posted by spankybus

Originally posted by WhiteLantern
For further consideration: Kotaku article

Wow! I didn't see that article....amazing. If all of that is true, I bet SEGA wished they would have given another extension. 

 

So, the gist is, the debs knew it sucked and still suckers gamers to pay for the fiasco....just, wow.....man, if that turns MOUT to be true and provable....Gearboz should get raped....they can then go after the other studio...wow, that is so messed up.

Playing devil's advocate here... But just how long do you need to develop an FPS?  They are not monsters like an MMORPG are.  Sega gave 6 YEARS for this game, and already had given many extensions to push the release back further and further.  How much more time?  I'm all for developers getting ample time to push out a good, quality product.  But then we have A:CM.

As usual everyonoe is over reacting, pretending they are on to the latest "Scam" in the industry.  My roomate bought the game, and quite frankly I like what they have done compared to the demo, the fog is still in the game in places, JUST NOT THE SAME PLACE IN THE DEMO.   The glass still cracks JUST NOT IN THE SAME PLACE AS THE DEMO.  There is still real time lighting that swings in rooms.  JUST NOT IN THE SAME PLACE AS THE DEMO.  You still cut NPC's out of coccons JUST NOT IN THE SAME PLACE AS THE DEMO.  It was a demo guys, they moved allot of those effects and content to other parts of the game.

They removed the blue lighting from some areas, which looks better, instead of everything being uh blue, there is actually colors in those areas.  That link your provided is just to morons being morons, and all I see in this thread is people over reacting to a game they have not even played yet.

Here's a gameplay vid.  See for yourself what you are missing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8p39qev7K4