Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

[Feb 13, 2013, 10:23 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Gearbox Software Support offers details on a patch for the PC edition of Aliens: Colonial Marines that's now automatically available through Steam. This offers a number of single-player and multiplayer bug-fixes, as outlined in this change list:

General

General user interface improvements.

Various performance improvements.

Fixed issue where a door may not function properly if a Xeno was killed while opening it.

Addressed issue where players could become stuck in a close encounter after killing a Lurker that had pounced them.

Fixed collision issue where bullets would not pass through certain open doorways.

Fixed an issue related to clients incorrectly interrupting Xeno melee encounters.

Addressed an issue where doors would sometimes not open properly.

Addressed an exploit where players could melee while throwing a grenade or placing a claymore.

Fixed some collision detection issues that could result from a close encounter.

Prevented campaign pop-ups from appearing outside of campaign.

Campaign

Fixed an issue that could prevent NPCs from getting on the elevator in the Sulaco.

NPCs no longer attempt to open doors while being welded.

Fixed issue where Raven could sometimes pass through welded door.

Implementing a message to warn players that campaign progress will be overwritten if they try to start an offline campaign game from within the co-op campaign UI.

Adjusted the distance between players before they're warped to the location of furthest player in co-op.

Fixed issue where torch would sometimes appear incorrectly to co-op clients.

Fixed issue where difficulty could sometimes become stuck incorrectly after switching modes.

Fixed issue where co-op player would not recover properly after being saved from a close encounter.

Fixed issue where Russian players could not drop into a co-op match in some missions.

Updated late-game close encounter moment to disable player input, which could cause them to become stuck.

Multiplayer

Resolved issue where campaign Motion Tracker could incorrectly in multiplayer loadouts.

Fixed issue where clients would sometimes be invisible after spawning in No Hope in Hadleys.

Multiplayer teams are now randomized (parties excluded) if percentage difference in scores is greater than 15%

'Switch Teams' option removed from the Pause menu.

Corrected issue where server and client could get out-of-sync when switching out of a power-up while firing.

Fixed issue where controller would vibrate during the scores screen if Rage ability was active upon match end.

Fixed issue where Cloak ability would not conceal the Lurker when walking or jogging.

Corrected bug where clients appeared to spawn outside of world before match start.

Removed placeholder text from appearing on scoreboard in certain situations.

Improved camera transition when Xeno enters a vent.

Fixed issue where Xenomorph HUD could sometimes appear in the wrong color.

Fixed issue with Spitter acid sometimes preventing players from deploying a Sentry Turret for a short while.

Spitter's "Acid Spray" now originates from the mouth.

Escape: Fixed issue where Xenos could spawn in unplayable space.

Escape: Fixed issue where Xeno players could lose functionality if warped to next area while in a vent.

Escape: Addressed issues where players would spawn with no weapon if they were the last Marine to die in Escape.

Escape: Fixed issue where Cat-Like Reflexes ability would not properly complete in an Escape match.

Escape: Improved timing and placement of warp locations in Emergency Evac map.

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112 Replies. 6 pages. Viewing page 3.
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72.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 21:24

netnerd85

Beamer wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 19:50: netnerd85 wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 19:09: Beamer wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 17:59: Demo footage often looks better. The guys in that video are wrong to say otherwise. Part of optimizing a game is often cutting back on level of detail. But this is insane. What a complete load of shit. Really? Most games look better at E3 than they do when released. It depends on how close to release, but games demoed at E3 are often shown when not much is put in. It's easier to have higher polygon counts or higher textures when you haven't fully put the physics or scripting in. Or when you haven't optimized for a wider range of systems. No one ever wants to reduce texture size or poly count. That's done throughout the process. You make a game, you figure out that you can't get it to run at the right frame rate, you reduce polygons. Call it bullshit, but it's standard. However, it being done to the degree shown here is insane. And, I don't know, but I assume that footage is all pretty recent. Not 2 E3s out but more like 6 months out, to the point that you have trouble figuring out how they rebuilt those levels in time... So you think they make everything high detail and then butcher it for performance increases? lol, oh dear. Mate. No. Show me some of the magical E3 games that are better. They (the E3 videos) may look better nowadays due to FALSE marketing but that's not how games are made. This is why HD texture packs come out after the game is released. You need to aim for a level of detail and keep performance in mind while developing, most of the time it's the Xbox 360. They aren't going to go beyond that by much. Why spend ALL the hours developing something high quality if it's 1) not support by the tech and 2) not going to be shipped.

71.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 21:01

PropheT

Zyrxil wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 12:16: PropheT wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 12:10: siapnar wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 11:39: Anyway, different strokes for different folks. I'm sure some people love this Aliens game. I don't know. I like almost every game I play, and I've even had a little bit of fun with this one, but it really is as bad as people are saying it is. I'd still ignore the game reviews for it, even though I wouldn't recommend the game to anyone. I've only looked at a handful of reviews, but most were similar to the RPS review where he starts off by noting how the game has been savaged by reviews. What kind of reviewer reads what people think of a game before they play it and review it? Not that it made him/her wrong in this case, but still. Why would you interpret that as him having read what others had said before he played it? He was just acknowledging all the other negative press that had been released before his was published. He certainly played his own early review copy before all the other reviews hit yesterday. I didn't see this until now since I was bored and reading the thread, but...why wouldn't you take it that way? "As you’ve probably already heard, Aliens: Colonial Marines is terrible. Properly terrible. " As in, you've seen the reviews of how bad this is, here's my review of how bad this is...which comes back to my point that it's a little odd to me to read what the press is saying about a game prior to writing a review for it. "John’s spent the day ploughing through Aliens: Colonial Marines, so he can tell you wot he thinks:" doesn't smack to me of an earlier review copy played prior to any other discussion on the subject, either, but who knows. Like I said, in any event he's not necessarily wrong about the game in the review. Resident Evil 6 had the same thing going on, like Twitter conversations between reviewers as they reviewed the game. It's not just that I'm imagining that there's some kind of reviewer consensus thing that goes on, it's pretty well documented at this point.

70.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 20:19

Taskeen

After playing this game for over 2 hours, I can tell that what they tried to do in the demo was hide all the poor elements of the game. Its bad, because it is. They KNEW it was, there is no getting around that fact. They wanted to push this thing out like an aborted fetus. This game is literally like a Straight Movie to Game title, like Avatar, or any other crap like it. Its that awful, the reviews that are really grilling this game are being absolutely honest. Those author reviewers played the SAME crappy game I just did. Everything, the story, AI, levels, weapons, its crap. The game isn't even scary at all. If anyone wants the "Marine" experience, just play AvP Gold or AvP 3 on Steam for cheap. AvP Gold is old as shit but actually is non-stop scary, way better than this 2013 title, which is entirely sad. Even AvP 3 from 2010 is better than this game! This comment was edited on Feb 13, 2013, 20:25.

69.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 20:06

The_Pink_Tiger

The game is terrible. Every time anything passable comes onto the screen, it is immediately followed by something horrid. And it's not like the good points are in any way extraordinary, which makes the bad parts stick out even more. "Oh look, the aliens and Weyland-Yutani forces are fighting each other! Oh no, wait, they've gotten stuck on the geometry and are shooting at walls." "Hey, that model isn't too bad! Oh... except for those textures." "Hey, this scripted scene looks halfway decent? Hey, how come the models aren't casting any shadows? And why doesn't any of the voicework match up with the lipsync?" "Oooh, a stealth sequence; well, that's slightly different. Except I don't have a gun so I know that the worst I'll get is a few jump scares." "Xenos attacking! Gee... how come there are never more than five onscreen at once... and did that alien just visibly teleport right in front of me?" "Aliens! I'm scared! Or I would be if they didn't run right in front of my gun - or just stop altogether - and if I couldn't punch one to death with my elbow!" The problem is that the game is salvageable. It will never be a classic - not without an complete rewrite - but with new soundwork (the levels and mixing are terrible!), rewritten AI and better textures the game might barely be worth playing, if only to immerse oneself in the Aliens universe for a while. It has at its hearts the making of a good game, but it has been so poorly put together that its potential is completely unrecognized. Maybe if Gearbox went back and gave it another year or two's worth of polish but until then the game deserves all the bad press it is getting.

68.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 19:50

Beamer

netnerd85 wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 19:09:
Beamer wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 17:59:
Demo footage often looks better. The guys in that video are wrong to say otherwise. Part of optimizing a game is often cutting back on level of detail.

But this is insane.
What a complete load of shit.

Really?
Most games look better at E3 than they do when released. It depends on how close to release, but games demoed at E3 are often shown when not much is put in. It's easier to have higher polygon counts or higher textures when you haven't fully put the physics or scripting in. Or when you haven't optimized for a wider range of systems.

No one ever wants to reduce texture size or poly count. That's done throughout the process. You make a game, you figure out that you can't get it to run at the right frame rate, you reduce polygons.

Call it bullshit, but it's standard.

However, it being done to the degree shown here is insane. And, I don't know, but I assume that footage is all pretty recent. Not 2 E3s out but more like 6 months out, to the point that you have trouble figuring out how they rebuilt those levels in time...




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

67.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 19:09

netnerd85

Beamer wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 17:59: Demo footage often looks better. The guys in that video are wrong to say otherwise. Part of optimizing a game is often cutting back on level of detail. But this is insane. What a complete load of shit.

66.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 19:07

nin

Doors? Bloody DOORS? Unbelievable.

"Well that's great, that's just fuckin' great, man."




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

65.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 19:02

saluk

WTF: Fixed issue where a door may not function properly if a Xeno was killed while opening it. Fixed collision issue where bullets would not pass through certain open doorways. Addressed an issue where doors would sometimes not open properly. Fixed an issue that could prevent NPCs from getting on the elevator in the Sulaco. NPCs no longer attempt to open doors while being welded. Fixed issue where Raven could sometimes pass through welded door. Doors? Bloody DOORS? Unbelievable. This game is alpha quality. Should never have been released in this state. The number of people who have to sign off on these things... Surely people knew this was unreleasable, but they kept passing the buck. Fire everyone. Nuke it from orbit.

64.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 18:45

Sempai

I'm sure this has been posted, but in case not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2qVebxlUo&feature=youtu.be Randy Pitchford and Gearbox Software should be sued for misinterpretation, period. Refunds should go out to anyone who requests one. Sega should be held accountable. And those useless motherfuckers at 20th Century Fox should be burned alive for raping a cherished franchise over and over again. They should be held accountable for their constant and never ending idiocy.

63.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 18:35

Taskeen

I bought this game and fell for the trap. It would be unethical of me to say that you should buy this game because its "Sorta Ok." It could have been superb , and should have been with a big budget, but poor decisions in the design of this game made it a complete DUD. It literally plays like a game with too many conflicting idea's jammed poorly together. The Devs, the coders, artists, the people that tried did their best, but their management and analysts absolutely made poor decisions. Especially the story, which is why I bought it, being a major fan of the films (Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3), god... what a travesty. Therefore it is my ethical responsibility to tell anyone that hasn't bought this game yet, do not waste your money on this. PASS this title, save your money for whatever else in your life, or buy a different game you may have been on the fence for a while. If they wanted to make the game right, or at least what I expected, was to feel exactly like the Marines in Aliens. Being told to do a job by a shady organization like Weyland, maybe limited information on an Alien threat, feeling like nothing would stop you and your merry band of Marines. Even in the movie you feel like hey, maybe these guys can really do the job. But as everyone knows, the Marines even with their high tech macho-ness are powerless against an enemy they do not know how to contain, against unstoppable killing machines. Its about being the survivor, like Ripley, when your world around you becomes a nightmare you can not wake up from. Every time I watch those movies, I feel dread, uneasiness, and a racing heart beat. This game just gave me a headache. The nightmare was losing my money.

62.

hehhhe

Feb 13, 2013, 18:23

Shataan

" Whenever reviewers are tripping over themselves to demonstrate how bad something is it rarely turns out to be that bad" Sorta like how Randy Pritchford continually tripped over himself to demonstrate how important he and GearBox are, and how cool the game will be..... right? And it seems to have not turned out to be THAT good. ;p I`d like to see a patch that addresses these issues: 1 adds the 1st person Alien view. 2: better smoother animations for A.I. human and Alien 3: higher rez textures to make the game look like it did in the demo vid way back 4 better lighting... they said they would have dynamic lighting in A CMs.... still waiting These would be good to start with. This comment was edited on Feb 13, 2013, 18:30.

61.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 18:18

bigspender

eRe4s3r wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 18:17:
nin wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 16:54:
And I think the post mortem on it is going to be fascinating (if anyone alive will ever admit to having worked on it).

I'd LOVE to hear what happened, but the silence from gearbox so far is hardly surprising.

I can't even come up with a reason why they have fucked this up so badly. They must know that now, they are burned in the industry, 20 century fox is probably unleashing the hell-hounds right about now. And the damage this travesty does to the Alien IP.. holy hell.

Anyone else think this is the 80s Atari ET of 2013? This might even cause a video game crash haha




_________________________________________________ Adults are just children that are allowed to make their own decisions.

60.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 18:17

eRe4s3r

nin wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 16:54: And I think the post mortem on it is going to be fascinating (if anyone alive will ever admit to having worked on it). I'd LOVE to hear what happened, but the silence from gearbox so far is hardly surprising. I can't even come up with a reason why they have fucked this up so badly. They must know that now, they are burned in the industry, 20 century fox is probably unleashing the hell-hounds right about now. And the damage this travesty does to the Alien IP.. holy hell.

59.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 18:06

Beelzebud

A zero-day patch of that magnitude says all I need to know. They released an unfinished game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not unreasonable. Bugs crop up, and need patches. Software is complex, and hitting everyone different systems can be tricky. However this isn't some 'hotfix' pushed out to solve a problem for a hardware configuration. This reads like a daily changelog of software in development.

58.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 18:00

SM0k3

glad I didn't pre-order this shit.

57.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 17:59

bigspender

Tumbler wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 17:43:
nin wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 16:23:
Honestly, after seeing the difference in quality between the "demo" and the "final" I will never order a gearbox product until there's a clear consensus on what the final game looks like.

Well that is pretty amazing. I don't remember watching any of that, no wonder people are upset.

That is amazing. I kept thinking that "this game video looks worse than the e3 one, but maybe my expectations are just getting higher"

but nope, it was actually getting worse and worse.

So the question is, is this the patch that will make it look as a good as the demo?

I actually wouldn't mind the last 3hrs of the game being a boring bug hunt if it looked stunning every step of the way.




_________________________________________________ Adults are just children that are allowed to make their own decisions.

56.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 17:59

Beamer

Demo footage often looks better. The guys in that video are wrong to say otherwise. Part of optimizing a game is often cutting back on level of detail.

But this is insane.




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

55.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 17:55

DangerDog

Tumbler wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 17:43: nin wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 16:23: Honestly, after seeing the difference in quality between the "demo" and the "final" I will never order a gearbox product until there's a clear consensus on what the final game looks like. Well that is pretty amazing. I don't remember watching any of that, no wonder people are upset. That's the one thing Randy and Co. have going for them, people have short memory, if it weren't for the instant recall of youtube almost nobody would be calling them out on it. Yeah, myself included.

54.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 17:55

siapnar

nin wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 16:23:
Honestly, after seeing the difference in quality between the "demo" and the "final" I will never order a gearbox product until there's a clear consensus on what the final game looks like.

Thanks for the link nin.

If that's not evidence enough, dunno what is.

MattyC wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 17:52:
Does it ever show anything 'shocking'? I moved on after they talked about minor lighting changes for 2 minutes. I thought the well lit glass tunnel looked better than the one from the demo anyway.

Dude, everything looks better in the DEMO footage




I have projectile dysfunction.

53.

Re: Aliens: Colonial Marines Patched

Feb 13, 2013, 17:52

MattyC

netnerd85 wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 17:38: nin wrote on Feb 13, 2013, 16:23: Honestly, after seeing the difference in quality between the "demo" and the "final" I will never order a gearbox product until there's a clear consensus on what the final game looks like. that is extremely shocking, absolutely disgusting. Does it ever show anything 'shocking'? I moved on after they talked about minor lighting changes for 2 minutes. I thought the well lit glass tunnel looked better than the one from the demo anyway. From reviews I have seen there doesn't seem to be any reason to get the game either way.

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