was this demo alone that sold me on it......so very very lucky i ended up being too broke to buy it day one.

Terminate421:
I managed to fixiate that money into a Bioshock: Infinite Pre-order. At least then I KNOW it'll be worth my 60$

Turns out you never go outside in Bioshock Infinite and you can't use anything other than guns until the final boss fight.

OT:

People should really stop pre-ordering unless there's some game play available to them. Patience saves you disappointment.

Great stuff Jim, this is a most disturbing turn of events. Could they do this if they had more time or is it like Kinect's Milo and it was never possible?

Also it's interesting that I visited Metacritic earlier today and it had 50/100, now it has 42/1000. The difference is that there was 90/100 Electronic Gaming Monthly review, which is so devoid of content it screams P.R. release ( http://www.egmnow.com/articles/reviews/egm-review-aliens-colonial-marines/ ) which has now been dropped. So on the bright side, maybe Metacritic is improving its quality control...maybe...possibly...probably not...

lazarus1209:
This was possibly my most hotly anticipated game of the year, and they somehow found a way to gloriously fuck it up. It's amazing that they somehow managed to surprise everyone with how shit a product this ended up being.

Well, to be fair, this completely fake "demo" was a big reason why the game was so highly anticipated. If the game was anything like that... It might actually have been good.

What baffles me is why the demo looks so much better than the PC version? I mean, seriously, it's miles ahead - fog, lighting, weapon particle effects.. nothing looks like the actual game.

Companies should really be burned for bullshit like this.

As someone mentioned above, this should be treated like false advertisement and punished accordingly.

Arnoxthe1:
OK...

But WHAT ABOUT THE MULTIPLAYER? Is it half-way decent? I've already asked this in a similar thread but everyone's apparently still too busy crying about the campaign. Yes, it's crap. Didn't happen. Sorry. Let's move on now, shall we?

Who cares about the multiplayer? There's enough MP shooter games already we need more single player ones.

Easton Dark:
People should really stop pre-ordering unless there's some game play available to them. Patience saves you disappointment.

Yep, Pre-Ordering games is an inherently rather stupid consumer practice. Can't say I haven't done it myself several times, but usually on stuff I was rather sure of and I never got burned.

There was another long Total Biscuit rant about it on occasion of Aliens: Colonial Marines:

Yokillernick:

Arnoxthe1:
OK...

But WHAT ABOUT THE MULTIPLAYER? I've already asked this in a similar thread but everyone's apparently still too busy crying about the campaign. Yes, it's crap. Didn't happen. Sorry. Let's move on now, shall we?

I'm not 100% sure how many people actually bought an Aliens game for the multiplayer. It's like asking how many people bought Battlefield 3 solely for the singleplayer, it just doesn't happen. Plus you are totally wrong about saying that the people cried over the game. It's their right since from what this shows they have been conned out of their £40-60 which I guess is a good reason to cry about. So you might want to concentrate on the company scamming you before you ask about the multiplayer, you know priorities.

OK moving on. Isn't pulling crap like this illegal ?

Unfortunately I don't think so. They always put in the safety net of "this video may not be representative of the final product" bullshit. Although I wish someone would take them to task for it.

Personally I found it to be a very generic shooter. The leveling system is cool (as Jim says in his review) but the game is bland and poorly designed/executed at best.

You forgot to mention the game itself is buggy as all hell
Within five minutes of co op I fell through the map and kept falling for five minutes

Dexter111:

Easton Dark:
People should really stop pre-ordering unless there's some game play available to them. Patience saves you disappointment.

Yep, Pre-Ordering games is an inherently rather stupid consumer practice. Can't say I haven't done it myself several times, but usually on stuff I was rather sure of and I never got burned.

There was another long Total Biscuit rant about it on occasion of Aliens: Colonial Marines:

I have pre-ordered 1 game, 1 only and it will be my last. Coincedentally, it was a Gearbox game, Borderlands. Pre-ordered in 2009 (for the cheaper PC price of $50 which I guess helped) and I can't tell you how disappointed I was. I vowed that day to never again pre-order without seeing the game in action first, the final game.

I also saw that video yesterday. Agreed with everything.

Mother of hell is this disappointing. I'm very glad I forgot to pre-order. I don't think I'll be able to buy Gearbox products again. It's a principle thing. Borderlands is great, but jesus man. This is the second time the company has bilked people out of their money based on hype. (In this case, total bullshit.) I remember seeing this demo awhile back, jaw on the floor, the 6 year old in me giddy with anticipation of finally, FINALLY having a proper Colonial Marines game. I used to read the Dark Horse comics back in the day. I love this franchise. I came home from work, fired up the PC looking for early reviews and was absolutely shocked at what I found. What a disa-fucking-ppointment. Damn it Gearbox. You guys said you were Aliens nerds. Goddamn it. You fucked this one up badly. I was never really into Duke Nukem. I could forgive that. I was pissed for people that I felt were tricked into pre-ordering that game, but that was their choice to make. This is/was also a choice people made, but this franchise isn't Duke Nukem. Gearbox, c'mon. Aliens? A "canon" videogame sequel to one of my, and many others, top movies of all time? That demo that strung all of us hopefuls along and eventually got many, many pre-orders sold? Jesus hell man. You all fucked this one up royally.

Magmarock:

Arnoxthe1:
OK...

But WHAT ABOUT THE MULTIPLAYER? Is it half-way decent? I've already asked this in a similar thread but everyone's apparently still too busy crying about the campaign. Yes, it's crap. Didn't happen. Sorry. Let's move on now, shall we?

Who cares about the multiplayer? There's enough MP shooter games already we need more single player ones.

Oh... and the MP blows too. Its too glitchy and just isn't properly balanced. It feels like a cool idea, but tacked on with the engine of the weak sauce single player game. The maps are quite tiny and when playing a xeno, you don't feel very mobile considering what you are.

Wow...I never cared about this game even when it was still being talked about in a "potential game of the year" light, but if I'd seen this, I probably would have gone out and pre-ordered it. Paying 60 bucks for such a sub-par game, and then seeing what it could have been...That's gotta REALLY hurt.

It's annoying because we get to see what the game would have been like if Gear Box actually created the game. Instead we get to see what we should have had and are stuck with the actual product. How annoying is that. The animations in the demo are really good, that is why i bought the game. The gameplay looked good, there was a lot of high quality stuff going on and it looked like a lot of fun and a worthy canon followup to Aliens. What a mess.

Isnt this fraud?

This is fraud. Right?

No cause it's a demo they can cover their arse with the fact that it was a demo that it is not representative of the final product.

I wasn't really watching this game, but with it being an FPS and an Aliens title had it been decent I would have bought it. I waited a few hours after release to find out what the opinion was and when I read some of the early reviews I am glad I didn't pre order. The thing is the more I see of the demo and the build up 'gameplay' videos vs the final product the more tragic this gets.

Just remember these are the folk that gave us Borderlands 2... how the hell did they make such a mess of this game?

Dexter111:
You can find an a/b comparison of certain scenes between the "Demo" they've shown and the actual game here, just showing the "Demo" and talking doesn't exactly have the same effect as comparing the two directly:

Yeah, saw that one on Jim's twitter. Amazing how much content got ripped out of the final game, and Jim didn't even mention the complete lack of dynamic shadows/fog/rain etc... Would have gotten the game if it was like the demo in an instant, now? Not so much.

Capatcha: "never mind" Guess that's what Ill do then.

People are looking at this the wrong way; it's a conspiracy. Gearbox is doing okay, between Borderlands and XCOM they can get away with making a bad game that performs terribly and walk away unscathed. That's not the case with the publisher Sega, and Gearbox developed this game to give them a sucker punch and bring them one step closer to the brink.

That messed that game up bad. Fact it has the Aliens name on it means you can wait a few more months to make it awesome. No need to rush it. It would sell on the name alone. Idiots.

Actually why rush it out? Whats so important that it had to be released now? Not like its christmas or anything. Would have been better to wait 6 months and have an awesome game that makes money. Than rushing it and all reviewers slating it and thus you sell nothing. Or is that to common sense?

I was wondering why the demo looked like it came from some parallel dimension where movie-license games learned how to not entirely suck (Goldeneye excluded).

When you outsource a project, definitely keep quality-control in mind, or you end up with controversy like this that really should not be.

Oh man. That's bloody aweful!

I loved the AVP2 game from ten years ago. Had me jumping out of my fucking skin.

This is almost "Duke 2 1/2 - the search for more money". Cue Kevin Kline's line in Fish Called Wanda right after opening the safe.

"ok. ok..... DISSAPOINTEEEED!!"

Wow.

And so go my fantasies about buying the Wii U just because the tablet had the motion sensor on it.

No reason to get it at all, anymore.

Have you ever thought that this is a gameplay demo and not a content demo?
All you're saying is that the scenes in the demon don't happen in the game which is nothing new or bad. They give you a demo to show you the gameplay without showing you much content.

I always thought the appeal of the Xenomorphs was in their smartness and subtlety.
That they were intelligent yet merciless predators that would stalk you, outsmart you, and eventually get you.

Now they're giant lizards that foolishly jump in front of guns and yell "ooga-booga-booh".

Lies and deception are kinda Gearbox's thing now between this, Duke and Borderlands 2. People forget how god damn amazing Borderlands 2 looked in its trailers and while the actual game got closer to its marketing yet again the ads are incredibly over selling what the game is. I'm definitely not giving any of their products a look until they are released and reviewed ever again.

Thank god I held back on CM or I'd have blown another 50 odd dollars on a lie.

I bought the 2010 version of Aliens vs Predator on steam today. Though the campaigns are short, it at least feels like freakin' Aliens. The Xenos slither and retreat, and actually stalk you and don't act like mindless bullet sponges.

I had to check what day it was today, then realised it was indeed Wednesday and proceeded to get excited. Thanks for the love letter Jim :)

(Zero Punctuation and Jimquistion on the same day! Awesome.)

Regards the game, was it rushed out like Sonic 06? Or is it just that Gearbox are bad at making games? (Remember Duke Nukem: Forever?)

Jimothy Sterling:
A-LIE-ns: Colonial Marines

Sterling walks through Gearbox's walkthrough of Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Watch Video

Really wish I had seen this before I bought it. The ending, the horror... They Clive Barker's Jericho'd, the ending. I mean, Gearbox really?

Did working on Duke Nukem: Forever kill any creativity you had left? Was it a virus? Do you need to be quarantined? What other games are they working on? I will have to avoid them, I think they are working on the Xcom FPS? Well there goes that, I hope I am wrong.

Wow. I think your rage broke, Jim. You seem so dead-pan and calm, I kept expecting you to explode. Are you able to feel anything after this betrayal, or is something else keeping you sane through all this?

Grouchy Imp:
I'll start right off the bat by saying I don't know when this demo was made, but surely a game that has been in development for seven years will have some content cut from it that was at some point meant to be included? Fair enough if this demo is six months old then there is no excuse for it, but if this demo is older than that and is showing a sequence that was going to be in the game but then got cut after the demo was made, well, is it that bad?

Incidentally Jim, Facehuggers only twitch if it's love at first sight. Maybe this one just didn't feel your vibe. :)

Well my grouchy friend, it's not really so much that they removed the specific part where you "go do whatever", but rather (from what Jim has said in the viedo) it's more about the bigger "long term" things. Like the lack of detail in levels, the aliens not attacking smartly, the aliens not being introduced in such cool ways, and the little things like the facehuggers trying to say ":D HI!" It's more about removing those things, and not so much about just not having the same levels as in the demo.

That's what I think is more of what the issue is.
May you have a nice day.

Arnoxthe1:
OK...

But WHAT ABOUT THE MULTIPLAYER? Is it half-way decent? I've already asked this in a similar thread but everyone's apparently still too busy crying about the campaign. Yes, it's crap. Didn't happen. Sorry. Let's move on now, shall we?

- The official review of this game on the Escapist talked about the multiplayer I'm pretty sure, saying something along the lines of 'It's slightly better than the campaign, but still ultimately a piece of shit'.

- For someone who wanted a more rounded and official view of the game, I'm surprised you haven't already checked out the official review.

- As someone already said, the campaign was supposed to be the big pull of this game. Gearbox wouldn't have made such a big deal of the campaign's story being official Alien series canon if it wasn't.

- I'd say the biggest and most clear cut example of false advertising in the gaming industry in... well, I don't know how long, but I've been gaming a fair few years and I've never seen anything this horrendous before, is something that well worth "crying about" as you so diplomatically put it.

- The game has been out for only 2 days I think. Maybe it's been 3 or 4, but in any case, how long do you think it's justified for consumers to be angry about blatant fraud? I'd say people are entitled to a fair few weeks more of giving Gearbox the ear-full they deserve for this, at least.

Truly a pathetic display by Gearbox.

It might as well have been one of those useless Final Fantasy per-rendered trailers.

Alien vs Predator 2 is still the best Aliens game.

This was the first game I've ever pre-ordered. I was thinking hmmm £10 less on Steam now or full price after for a game I'll likely get being a fan of the franchise? I was researching the game to decide and saw the "demo" video.

I thought "fuckt it, this is pretty impressive. If my PC can run it even at lowerd settings, it's gonna be great".

My PC is not fantastic. I have to turn the settings down to about medium for many games but can tweak some settings higher.

I can run the actual game of A:CM on highest settings, cos it really is nothing like the demo. I'm never going to pre-order again and I won't be funding any more games by gearbox. Shame cos I was gonna get Borderlands 2, but fuck them. Fuck them right in the ear.

May even reconsider Sega, once it's established how this happened. There needs to be noise about this debacle. A lot of noise. And even the dumbass fanbois who are, even right now, trying to excuse the changes in content and general downgrade that this game comprises, need to stop and thinking about what exactly this means to the gaming indsutry. Cos if they get away with this, then gaming is going to go down hill quickly. Other publishers, will pick up on this tactic if it's successful.