In one of the biggest surprises in the last few days, the
recently released Aliens: Colonial
Marines is receiving almost universally negative reviews across all major
websites. It is practically unheard of for a AAA title to receive such universally
bad press upon release with all but a handful of reviews displaying either
middling or extremely negative scores. What is more surprising however is the
apparent duplicity in early promotions, and the stark contrast in actual
content.
In a recent tweet by Destructiod and Escapist contributor Jim
Sterling, AKA the Jimquisiton and official Mysterio of video games, the man claims
that the public demo was a deception. That vast amounts of content within it
were in fact not present within the title and never made any kind of appearance
within the game. While no official statements have been made by other reviewers
or articles to directly support this it would explain a great deal. Just for
starters the vast difference in opinion between those who played the demo and
journalists claiming that, to quote Kevin VanOrd of Gamespot, it is “a functional shooter, but little more.” Those at the London 2012MCM Expo who played the demo reacted positively to what they were given to play through. Giving
nothing but high praise for the title in both its enemies and atmosphere, and
that the title would be well worth the long wait.
Having had high expectations prior to released, and been a top seller on Steam through pre-orders alone, this
is a crushing disappointment of many. It’s
an action which brings developer Gearbox Interactive’s honesty to its customers
and loyal fans into serious question. This is an action we have seen repeated in the
past however, with promotional material barely reflecting the game it is
representing in the slightest. An infamous example being the cinematic trailer
to Dead Island, which gave atmosphere,
tone and characters which the game did not resemble in the slightest.
How developers can perform such blatant deception and yet
still make a profit is clearly a problem which will be in the industry for some time yet.
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Aliens: Colonial Marines and all related characters and media are owned by Gearbox Software and Sega
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Aliens: Colonial Marines and all related characters and media are owned by Gearbox Software and Sega
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