Aliens: Colonial Marines

[Huw the Poo]

A 4GB patch!? Sounds like they released a new game!

I wouldn't be that hopeful... :o

ZING!

[Arctic Blast]

And now SEGA Europe admits that they new their advertising trailers were misleading :

Sega Europe has admitted to the Advertising Standards Authority that its trailers for Aliens: Colonial Marines were misleading.

Sega's position was revealed by a Reddit user with the pseudonym "subpardave", who had submitted a complaint to the A.S.A. due to the "absurd" differences between the footage used to advertise the game and the quality of the finished product.

"My aim was not to get fines, compensation or any of that. Gearbox and Sega spoke very clearly - by saying absolutely nothing - and showed the purchasing community that they would rather this mess all quietly disappear," he said.

"The games industry - like any other - needs to be held accountable for blatantly deceiving the consumer. And doubly so when a wall of silence is the only response to resounding criticism for shipping a shoddy product, having shown off one with all the bells and whistles."

Subpardave linked to a response letter sent by the A.S.A., which reveals that, while Sega Europe claims that all trailers were created with the Colonial Marines in-game engine, the differences with the released product, "did not accurately reflect the final content of the game."

Sega Europe has agreed to add a disclaimer to all videos published on its website and via YouTube stating that they depict a demo version of the game.

"We consider that with the disclaimer in place, customers are unlikely to get the impression that the trailer shows the finished product, and the ads are therefore unlikely to mislead," the A.S.A.'s response read.

Aliens: Colonial Marines, which was co-developed by Gearbox Software and TimeGate Studios, was released in February after a protracted development cycle. The game hit the top spot in the UK charts despite receiving some of the worst reviews of the year.

It's hardly a massive smoking gun, but it does at least show that their earlier claims that Gearbox and the other devs had misled them and they didn't know the actual state of the game was crap.

[JasonPratt]

That's hilarious -- usually when a "disclaimer" is given that the footage is "demo", that implies the viewer should overlook some of the graphical weaknesses because the finished game may look better.

EA wins.

[Jarhead0331]

Its pretty shocking that it still hit the top of the UK gaming charts despite all the criticism.  Also, would be cool if they released the demo that they used to make the trailers.   

[JudgeDredd]

^ Kind of goes to show the kind of shite we're used to here - and that it doesn't take much more than a polished turd to do well in the UK  ;)

[eyebiter]

And the lawsuits begin...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/01/gearbox-sega-sued-over-aliens-colonial-marines

[LongBlade]

"The games industry - like any other - needs to be held accountable for blatantly deceiving the consumer. And doubly so when a wall of silence is the only response to resounding criticism for shipping a shoddy product, having shown off one with all the bells and whistles."

This.

[Jarhead0331]

Very interesting regarding the lawsuit.  I'll be following the case with interest.

[JudgeDredd]

^Maybe the answer is for reviewers to be given a final copy of the game a week or two prior to release and not have some embargo on reviews?

Of course there is one other answer - regardless of what people saw or were led to believe in the released videos of "actual gameplay footage" - waiting for reviews is a safer way to protect your money. And a self confessed horder of games - that's a difficult thing for me to acknowledge.

I'm just saying - there sometimes seems to be a push to remove responsibility from ones-self (and no doubt I've been guilty of that before). Clearly people were misled - and clearly, with the review embargo, the company didn't want that getting out - and most certainly there should be cause for some sort of punishment being dished out there...but ULTIMATE responsibility could reast with the user.

Of course - lets say all this went on without any reviews or discussions of the game being allowed - then people would only have the trailer to go on...but that is likely to never be the case in this new tech world of ours - is it?

[Gusington]

I'm about 3 hours into the SP campaign, got the game for 4.99 over the weekend. That patch must have been a miracle worker...so far I feel the game is aight.

[JasonPratt]

^^^ HERESY! YOU HAVE BEEN TAINTED BY THE GENESTEALERS!!!

:D

[Gusington]

Maybe. I had some fun, I can't help it!

[BanzaiCat]

I got stuck in the damn hangar during the first stages...when genius threw the grenade and took out one of the drop ships, then you're holding on trying to hold off the aliens while said genius tries to hack a door open. It took me about eight tries before I finally could live to get through the door.

What gets me is, the aliens come right at the Marines, and will eventually take a Marine down, then come after whomever is next. However, said Marine that hit the ground will miraculously just stand right back up again once the encounter is over.

Anyway, I'm not going to rehash old arguments over how much this game sucks. As Gus' said, for five bucks it's aight. Not great, but for a fan of  the genre, it's not bad.

[Jarhead0331]

I'm about 3 hours into the SP campaign, got the game for 4.99 over the weekend. That patch must have been a miracle worker...so far I feel the game is aight.

I always thought the game was pretty ok right out of the box.  The game was judged on what it was supposed to be and not what it actually was. While it fell far short of promises and expectations, I still thought it was a pretty fun game.   

[Gusington]

Banzai that frickin' hangar mission took me like 25 tries on normal difficulty! Finally found a defensible position among some crates and got through it.

JH I daresay the game is decent when not judged against expectations, like you said. If i had never heard of it and just randomly picked it up for 5.00 dollah I would think I was getting away with something.