By Adam Smith on November 20th, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
Gosh. A trailer just fell out of a vent in my study and upon inspection it appears to contain footage of yet another multiplayer mode for Gearbox’s Aliens FPS, Colonial Marines. Along with aliens vs marines deathmatch and a co-operative campaign mode, objective-based team combat has also been promised, and Survivor, along with the already announced Escape mode offers just such a thing. One team controls aliens, which now come in different classes, and the other controls marines, who grunt and occasionally panic. And panic they should because they are doomed. Alien players respawn, marine players do not. Or if they do, they probably respawn as aliens.
I quite like the idea. Unlike the Escape mode, it’s not clear why the marines wouldn’t just find a safe spot and stay there forever, but that is the where the magic of level design will make itself known.
Colonial Marines is a canonical part of the Alien timeline, which makes me wonder whether every multiplayer game that takes place becomes part of the lore. Millions of dead marines, who perished cursing the alien queen’s supposed weight problems shortly after swearing at one another and bunny-hopping in a cargo lift.
20/11/2012 at 18:13 Gap Gen says:
Hmm, no sign of aliens here, so I’ll nip off for a quick ice cream.
Wait, what’s that in there? OH MY GOD.
THEY’RE IN THE GODDAMN WALL’S.
20/11/2012 at 18:18 Senethro says:
This is the day pun threads jumped the shark.
20/11/2012 at 18:19 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
SHARKFACE
20/11/2012 at 20:23 DarkFenix says:
WALLFACE
21/11/2012 at 04:53 gloriaalbert6 says:
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20/11/2012 at 18:58 Gap Gen says:
That is actually not the worst pun I’ve come up with this evening.
20/11/2012 at 18:49 Syra says:
Next thing you’ll be telling me the icecream has melted right through the tub. And the freezer.
20/11/2012 at 19:39 MarloBrandon says:
THERE’S AN APOSTROPHE IN THE GODDAMN WALLS.
Edit: Ok I get it now, “Wall’s” is UK ice cream, icy what you did there. Never heard of it before, I live in Canada. :P
20/11/2012 at 20:41 EPICTHEFAIL says:
NAZIFACE (additional capital letters available on request)
21/11/2012 at 11:25 Gap Gen says:
The apostrophe is a tiny alien.
20/11/2012 at 20:55 LennyLeonardo says:
In space, no one can eat ice cream.
20/11/2012 at 21:04 Spectre-7 says:
Here’s a link for other USAnians having difficulty spotting the pun.
20/11/2012 at 21:39 Spectre-7 says:
Hmmm… system is stripping out my link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall%27s_ice_cream
Copy, paste, etc.
20/11/2012 at 18:16 junglist 69 says:
Game over man!!
20/11/2012 at 21:13 jimjam says:
For this instalment I think you are right.
The graphics look below the standard in Rebellions last AvP, aliens seem to run slowly, and the blood colour is way too much like American ‘jack’ cheese. :P
I wont get this at launch.
20/11/2012 at 21:16 LennyLeonardo says:
You mean lunch.
20/11/2012 at 22:55 Hug_dealer says:
If you think aliens are suppose to move as fast in canon as they do in AvP, which isnt canon. Then you are not a true alien fan, and Deserve an internet slap.
21/11/2012 at 11:27 Gap Gen says:
Indeed, the canon is that they’re pretty slow, it seems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcJuZIUeBME
20/11/2012 at 18:37 Kefren says:
Maybe they’d run out of ammo if they hole up in one place? So they have to move around. But then again, it breaks immersion to run around between ammo spawn points. Like bunny hopping.
I think I’ll just stick to AvP, the original. I use it for close encounters.
20/11/2012 at 18:51 diamondmx says:
Does the old AvP (I think it’s the 99 one) still have an active playerbase?
20/11/2012 at 20:39 Kefren says:
Not sure about other people – I play through the three campaigns every year or so. I get immersed immediately. Sometimes I apply mods, but usually just vanilla.
20/11/2012 at 21:01 rapchee says:
last time i checked with the steam version, there were a few servers going on, and when i tried to make my own, i got players in a matter of minutes, so i guess there is
21/11/2012 at 18:43 Kefren says:
Ah, multiplayer. The version that’s been updated to run on modern PCs has had multiplayer stripped out (apart from the Steam version), the B%^&£$$%s. I always played it LAN, I hate companies that remove that option.
21/11/2012 at 18:49 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Wait, it works on Steam?
Reading comprehension is so hard for me these days.
*mutter, mutter*
22/11/2012 at 17:00 Kefren says:
I think so. I bought it from GamersGate. The devs ripped LAN out of that version, yet had the cheek to rename it ‘Classic’.
20/11/2012 at 18:45 Herzog says:
Do I see it right that Gearbox is doing the singleplayer and Timegate the multiplayer? I am getting in preoder mood the more I see from this game. Section 8 was damn great!
20/11/2012 at 20:54 Pindie says:
If it’s anything like Section 8 it’s gonna be a killing.
The videos I saw of alpha builds were worrying though. The pulse rifle had ADTS and it looked ridiculous. I sure hope it’s optional.
The Infestation (?) mode in AvP2010 had this gimmick where they would start with 1 alien versus marines but then the marines would respawn as aliens.
This is not original idea, it was one of most fun modes to play in otherwise pretty bland title 2010 was in AvP series. This proves they have played the other games and know where they want to go with this one.
20/11/2012 at 18:45 Syra says:
Survival mission in that big open marscape with the little bunker at the end which was in no way secure was the single greatest thing on AVP99. My brother and I spent absolute months playing it non stop.
CAN THIS REACH THOSE DIZZY HEIGHTS?
20/11/2012 at 18:59 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Oh man, that was the worst bunker in the entire world. But it had all the ammunition, and it was better than nothing…
20/11/2012 at 19:46 DrScuttles says:
That bunker needed fewer alien-sized holes. Or at the very least some reinforced glass in the windows. I didn’t play much AVP multiplayer, but I played that map in the single player survival/skirmish/whatever mode it was a lot.
On a different note, being part of Alien lore doesn’t make something good, sadly.
20/11/2012 at 21:44 YogSo says:
I think you guys will enjoy reading Alec’s thoughts about that map, Stranded.
(Heheh, I mostly remember that post because it hosts my first comment here. It’s been more than 5 years already. Man!)
((Oh, oh, and check the comment from one of the developers just below my comment in that post.))
20/11/2012 at 22:50 DrScuttles says:
Wow, Xenoborgs had an off switch. Wish I knew that 12 or so years ago.
20/11/2012 at 18:49 Lanfranc says:
“When you’re the last marine standing, the only thing between life and death is fear”
Not sure what that even means or how it makes sense, but FEARFACE, I guess.
20/11/2012 at 20:40 Gorf says:
When your buddy marines are all dead and you are the last one standing, you’re gonna be shitting it until the moment you die.
Makes sense to me.
20/11/2012 at 20:56 Pindie says:
INTERFACE
Wait, that’s an actual word…
20/11/2012 at 18:53 Mr-Link says:
I know there are a lot of deliberate Slow-motion-for-cool-effect shots in this trailer, but the Aliens still seem painfully slow and stiff compared to the previous installments
Also…umm mustard for blood ?
20/11/2012 at 21:16 jimjam says:
Its American Jack Cheese, can’t you tell!
20/11/2012 at 19:28 Phantoon says:
So, Left4Face, then.
20/11/2012 at 20:13 KDR_11k says:
Wait, this is Unreal Engine 3, right? There goes any hope of good MP, that engine handles lag so badly it completely screws with game balance. When people can’t hit a moving target without autoaim the game is broken.
20/11/2012 at 20:44 EPICTHEFAIL says:
You know, the fact that Tribes Ascend was built on UE3 kind of disproves your assertion.
20/11/2012 at 20:59 Pindie says:
He’s kinda right.
Tribes Ascend is kinda notorious for projectiles that spawn with noticeable delay, input glitches and projectiles that hit the target despite visually missing it.
It’s more a fault of developer who could not decide which parts of game should be server side and which parts are client side and what is this new thing called ping prediction, do we need this?
20/11/2012 at 23:13 Jenga says:
I’m pretty sure this is going to be pvp with no dedicated servers.
20/11/2012 at 20:42 SkittleDiddler says:
Jihadi Aliens? Dafuq SEGA.
20/11/2012 at 23:11 Jenga says:
Did they change their mind about making the Aliens only 3rd person view, looked like some first person Alien action in that trailer.
20/11/2012 at 23:50 Baines says:
“Colonial Marines is a canonical part of the Alien timeline”
The Alien timeline is probably a bit of a mess, and the latter movies, and the AvP spin-offs, make the idea of keeping some kind of hallow canon a bit silly. And that is without even getting into the alternate reality and/or reboot that is Prometheus (and its almost-made-it-on-film attempt to merge the Bladerunner and Alien universes).
“Millions of dead marines, who perished cursing the alien queen’s supposed weight problems shortly after swearing at one another and bunny-hopping in a cargo lift.”
Better than the predalien, at least.
21/11/2012 at 00:11 Numerical says:
Ya know, if future engineers would build their damn off-world facilities without enough space in the walls for large alien creatures to stroll through, the galaxy would be a much safer place.
21/11/2012 at 10:45 Askeladd says:
This part bugs me too… since the second movie. You’d think they developed some kind of counter to that and put that into high priority facilities, but then “Alien” wouldn’t work anymore. Writers are so lazy sometimes.
21/11/2012 at 11:28 Network Crayon says:
Yeah but it’d also ruin the fun of having a cat.
21/11/2012 at 11:21 Network Crayon says:
I like how the bomb class alien featured in the video pulls it’s own face off before exploding, thats just crazy. Feel sorry for that guy.
21/11/2012 at 22:09 Beanchilla says:
I really want this game.
I think Gearbox is taking it in the right direction and frankly don’t really care about the graphics as long as it’s tense.
when I hear those machine guns and that eerie ringing sound on the motion tracker… well I just want to play it.