I sure hope that’s the “RPS Release Radar” (patent pending) pinging, and not the “Approaching Alien Xenomorph Motion Tracker”. Why did we program them to sound the same? That was my mistake. I’ll take the blame, but there was a two-for-one sale at “Stock Sounds For Imaginary Devices”. Hmm, I think it’s RPSRR and not the AAXTM, as I’m also hearing that Sega’s and Gearbox’s shiny FPS Aliens: Colonial Marines is skitterring on all fours all the way to Autumn. To pacify baying hoardes, they’ve also released a trailer.
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And here’s another one. We’ve known that Gearbox were working on an Aliens FPS – whose name has now been confirmed as Aliens: Colonial Marines – but Sega have released some more information. It’s going to have a script from Battlestar Galactica (The Good one, obv) scribes Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, and while based on the mood and tone of the film, will take the Sulaco to new specially crafted destinations where hopefully our marines won’t all get killed again and have to be saved by the civilian. New weapons are promised, perhaps finally revealing the much-hailed Colonial Marine favourite the pointy stick. Probably the most exciting feature is the 4-player co-op, where – let’s quote the press-release rather than the film – we “will assume the persona of a Colonial Marine and have a distinct role to play in the completion of every mission”. RPS have already had their characters assigned. Jim will be Hicks. I’m Hudson. Alec is Vasquez. Walker is Newt. Stone will be Bishop. Quinns is Wierzbowski . We haven’t a visual yet but Eurogamer have found some cheery magazine scans you can see over here.

How do you get into this chicken-shit outfit? You’ll have to cryo-sleep until the end of the year. Until then, you can amuse yourself with this splendid Java version of the old Aliens board-game.

Midway’s Harvey “Deus Ex” Smith has a bit to say about the development of environments and “gameplay ecologies” for his new shooter, Blacksite:

I suspect Blacksite might actually be worth getting moderately excited about. Smith is at the controls, and there’s both Gears Of War jump in/out co-op, Stranglehold’s destructible environments, and some Brothers In Arms squad-control stuff. Area 51 might have been a bit arse, but this looks like it might have some value. Blacksite 2, says Smith, will be even more interesting.

Like every good geek, I have a favourite gaming moment. It’s in Aliens Versus Predator, a vintage but oft-forgotten first-person shooter that gets mentioned by my games-hack peers about as often as the Pope says “are you sure this hat makes God happy?”
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