I just have to ask WILL SOMEONE please post about the patch and not the damn game? How is the patch? is it worth the download if you haven't played the game yet? Whine whine whine I swear.
Aliens: Colonial Marines gets visual upgrade in 4GB PC patch
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Update for Aliens: Colonial Marines also includes fixes from recent Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 patch.
The PC version of Aliens: Colonial Marines has received a hefty 4GB patch which promises to improve the game's visuals.
The headline feature of the patch is improved textures, with other "various visual improvements" promised. Additional fixes patch up audio bugs in cutscenes, players falling through the map, and a bug that caused players to occasionally spawn without a weapon.
The update also includes the fixes from the recent title update on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, along with some changes of its own that will feature in an upcoming patch for the console versions.
Steam will automatically download the patch.
Last month a modder tinkering with the Aliens: Colonial Marines files managed to get the Unreal Engine-powered game running with DirectX 10 rendering.
For more on Aliens: Colonial Marines, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.
The patch notes in full:
General
- Improved texture resolution.
- Various visual improvements.
- Added mouse smoothing to options menu.
- Fixed crashes tied to launch and motion tracker.
- Added additional safeguards to better protect save data.
- Resolved an issue where a player's level could sometimes appear incorrect when backing out of a party.
- Addressed several scenarios under which players could spawn without a weapon.
- Changes to better prevent audio from sometimes cutting out during end of mission cinematics.
- Fixed issue where Xeno death animation was not properly calculating momentum of the killing blow.
- Smart Gun animation now properly tracks targets.
- Addressed some instances where Xenos would display erratic animations.
- Increased light radius for player's shoulder lamp.
- Adjusted aim assist to better reflect player input.
- Addressed an issue that could sometimes cause co-op player revival to not work under certain circumstances.
- Addressed issues with players not spawning into a level properly.
- Fixed a marine player invincibility exploit.
- Resolved several instances where players could walk or fall outside of maps.
- Addressed an issue where Ripley’s Flamethrower (bonus content) would sometimes fire continuously without player input.
- Fixed an issue that could cause localized text to sometimes display incorrectly.
- Addressed an issue where weapon ammunition was not always highlighted properly.
- General user interface improvements.
- Miscellaneous bug fixes.
Campaign
- Tweaked enemy and friendly AI to be more aggressive and responsive.
- Modified campaign difficulty to account for improved AI responsiveness.
- Improved enemy collision detection regarding doors and Power Loader.
- Addressed some issues that could cause improper warping for co-op players.
- Various tweaks to address instances where NPC characters would not always properly navigate to objectives.
- Players will no longer bleed out immediately when downed in a Power Loader.
Versus
- Fixed issues that could cause clients to report inaccurate results and statistics.
- Addressed instances where a map would appear to “pop in” when loading into a new match.
- New Xeno appearance customization added.
- Multiplayer teams should now correctly auto-balance between rounds.
- Increased duration of Lurker Pounce Challenge “Cat-Like Reflexes” from 10 to 20 seconds.
- Fixed issue where certain multiplayer challenges would not unlock properly for all characters.
- Crusher pick-ups now correctly appear as highlighted for clients.
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
186 comments
1 Like Too many whiners on here. The game looked crap but you still bought it, and now want a refunds? lol...
Actually, the demo they showed prior to release were fraudulent and deceptive. The demo looked better than the actual finished game. Even with the 4 gig patch the game still doesn't look as good as the demo which says a lot about how deceptive they were. It's a legitimate complaint rather than whining. Not that I condone piracy, but behavior like this from developers doesn't help.
1 Like Money meant for the game was used for BL2, end result is a broken, POS game. I'll never buy another Gearbox game. They're dead to me.
@RonTorque I would like as many reviews of this update as possible, I'll check Gamespot user reviews next week, so maybe some new reviews will take into account the 4gb update.
It's great that they released a normal retail version of this weeks after I already beat the beta version they sold on retail shelves. Thanks developers!
5 Like I think a before and after series of screenshots would've been a prudent addition to the article, rather than just writing out what the changes are.
1 Like I still think they will have to make an "Aliens: Colonial Marines: Enhanced/Fixed Edition" As was done with The Witcher...
Well, this is a start that's for sure. There's still a lot that needs to be done to "save" the game. Which probably isn't going to happen.
The story is pretty much screwed, though. It's a safe bet they aren't going to redo the whole freak'n campaign - the good ol' Fox sanctioned, "authentic" canon brought to us by Mr. Pitchford (AKA the "ultimate" Aliens fan). *face palm*
This game has single-handedly caused me to rethink my stance on pre-orders. Beloved franchise or not.
5 Like Why can't all this crap be done before day one, stupids? That's what I hate about corporate quarterly driven A-Holes making video games for profits. They set dead lines for designers and writers, they screw a good franchise up, and we are left with dog shit. That's a DAY ONE PROBLEM! Why can't we have a good product DAY ONE? I don't get it. Push the release date, idiots! This is why a lot of developers out there will NEVER get my money. Screw you.
1 Like The only question that comes to my mind is : Does the patch make the game like the E3 demo? If yes, then YES! If not then, too little too late. The Kotaku articles on the subject are good reading. If they are to be believed then it is a shame they screwed up the story - for me it's more important than graphics - and they shelved some good levels.
And SEGA is still crap after all these years. Some of us have not forgotten how they screwed the Saturn up...
Hopefully these fixes are being done by Gearbox developers, and not TimeGate Studios. Gearbox seem to be "forever" (:P) finishing/correcting other teams' work.
@hadlee73
Correction: Their own work. Gearbox couldn't finish their work so TimeGate Studios and two other studios had to step in, most likely hired by Gearbox and Sega to meet deadlines.
Borderlands 1 suffered a long development, going through graphical overhauls and design. That game was in development for YEARS.
Duke Nukem Forever was the only time where they finished up someone else's work, but only because they wanted to and they believed they could take on the task of such an iconic video game franchise. Little did they know, they should have let it die then revive it and finish making a crappy game.
There was a reason why the original developers didnt/couldn't finish the game for many reasons including legal ones. The game was going against huge expectations and hype it could never meet.
Aside from Borderlands 2, Gearbox doesn't look so good in my eyes. They have shown to me that they could only make Borderlands. They don't know how to create anything but that. If Gearbox is talented as they are, and I'm not saying they are not talented, I'll like to see them develop a completely new IP and make it successful.
If you're a great developer, you wouldn't release the monstrosity known as Aliens Colonial Marines and taint such an iconic Movie Franchise, and even the older AVP games were awesome.
You wouldn't take Duke Nukem and turn it into a shinier turd.
A great developer knows when to say, "No. We won't do it."
@Elann2008 Dude, you appear to have put a lot of thought into that response so I won't start an argument, although I would state great developers don't always have a choice in when they get to release a product, even if it is crap (I know this from experience). Here's hoping Gearbox do a new IP in the future, although I have the feeling they'll be milking Borderlands for awhile yet.
@Elann2008"The game was going against huge expectations and hype it could never meet. " - I have to point out the hype and expectations were largely due to the awesome preview video that Gearbox head honcho commentated on, with much gusto I might add.
If we had THAT game I think most people would have been happy enough.
@hadlee73Actually, from what I heard, TimeGate made the build in the E3 demo. Gearbox said the work "wasn't very good", as the build just wouldn't work on console. Gearbox were busy downgrading everything to work on a console.
If anything, TimeGate should be doing this.
@UncookedMoa @hadlee73 If your claim was true (and there are many accounts online to the contrary) your comment pretty much serves to back up my point anyway. If Timegate made something that couldn't work on the systems that it was being developed for, and Gearbox had to try and salvage something from it, then I'm not sure why you'd want TimeGate involved when they couldn't even deliver what was asked of them. Of course its sketchy whether any of that is true anyway.
@hadlee73 Well, you're right, that's the exact article I heard it from. But the thing is, the build from E3 was running on PC and wouldn't run on consoles. So, I believed TimeGate could make this patch.
Yes Gearbox can very well make the patch too, I just don't think it would have the same feel as the E3 demo. Perhaps the best way is for TimeGate to patch it and Gearbox to optimize the patch's performance.
1 Like Replying to myself again. If you're interested, use Google to find ""From Dream To Disaster: The Story Of Aliens: Colonial Marines" because I just tried Kotaku's search engine and its awful lol
@UncookedMoa @hadlee73 This is probably the article you heard about. Its actually quite a good summary of the various theories, rumours and leaks:
Bah, can't get the link to work properly. Its on the Kotaku website. Search for "From Dream To Disaster: The Story Of Aliens: Colonial Marines"
Martin, you need to participate more on Random Encounter with Danny! :-) And also I love your voices on Feedbackula.
1 Like pay your money we could fix our product .... looool ... that just lame . thank god i don't fall for this any more i don't even get my hopes up for anything .
@Jawad2007 Hope what is this strange word? I don't think I ever used this stuff you called Hope.
21 Like Back in my day, publishers used to release games when they were done, and tested.
Nowadays, idiots will pay for crap that's half finished and be happy to get 'patches' to fix something that should have never been released in the 1st place.
SEGA should be ashamed.
@enoslives7 That right there is why I've been spending most of my time and money on games from GoG at least when you get an older game its actually worth buying, unlike the crap most company's try to sell now a days.
2 Like @Red-DogBluewolf @enoslives7 Exactly! They had to actually test and make sure that their game was as bug free as possible. Now they just half ass it, release the game and then fix all the problems later. On that topic it's also kind of irritating that they're now selling us half a game, making us pay an extra $20 to unlock content that's already on the disc. The business practices in the gaming industry are despicable to say the least.
2 Like @MKrutko @thescape55 @Red-DogBluewolf @enoslives7 You don't even want to get Me started on DRM, The day all games have DRM like that is the day i get a hook for a hand and a wooden leg and say things like "yo ho ho and shiver me timbers"
1 Like @thescape55 @Red-DogBluewolf @enoslives7
and with all these games that have always online DRM, be surprised if you will be able to play them 10 years from now.
3 Like Just...wow. I mean, I heard the game was broken, but running down that list, I'm at a loss for words. They actually released that mess? The 'patch' notes read like an in-house progress report on a pre-alpha build
3 Like Good on them for fixing up the PC version and adding in those graphics. Its pretty expensive for them to change all that stuff and add in those high resolution textures. However, a bad game is a bad game and I doubt this gesture is going to do much to get people to buy. Those improvements are not going to fix some of the core design problems in the game.
2 Like ...A texture upgrade? Normally I don't whine about console-porting, but holy shitballs batman, this just reeks of a port.
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Aliens: Colonial Marines
- Publisher(s): Sega
- Developer(s): Gearbox Software
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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