Aliens: Colonial Marines drops spring 2012

Sega and Gearbox have at last announced a release date for their long-awaited game sequel to James Cameron's classic sci-fi film Aliens. This morning, the publisher and developer revealed that Aliens: Colonial Marines will ship for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in spring 2012. (A previously revealed DS edition of the game was not mentioned.) Also, no rating information for the title was available, but given the gory subject matter, an M for Mature label is likely.

Aliens: Colonial Marines' story will pick up shortly after the events of Aliens. Players will join a squad of the titular space soldiers who board the USS Sulaco, the spaceship from the film, after it is apparently abandoned. From there the action will spread to the surface of the planet LV-426 and its main settlement, Hadley's Hope. The first-person shooter will also feature environments and weapons inspired by the film.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of four titles based on the Alien intellectual property Sega has begun development on since it landed the license in December 2006. The publisher had commissioned a role-playing game set in the sci-fi universe from Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas) before canceling the project in mid-2009. In February 2010, Sega released the Rebellion-developed Aliens vs. Predator to lukewarm reviews. Finally, earlier this month, the Sega-owned studio the Creative Assembly revealed that it, too, is working on a new console project based on the film series, which spans four movies: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection.