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Aliens Slated for Next-Gen Game
Gamespot reports that there's going to be an Aliens title for the new round of consoles. Sega has been tapped (again) to bring the Fox license to market, with an expectation that the game will be showing up in 2009. From the article: "This is not the first time either company has adapted the sci-fi series for gaming. In 1993, Sega released the arcade game Alien 3: The Gun, while the Fox Interactive brand scored a hit with the PC first-person shooting series Alien Versus Predator. Other publishers to tackle the franchise in interactive form include Electronic Arts (Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction for PlayStation 2), Konami (Aliens for the arcade), Capcom (Alien Vs. Predator for the arcade), and the former incarnation of Acclaim (Alien Trilogy and Alien 3 for multiple platforms)."
Lets not forget AVP on the Jaguar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_vs_Predator_(Ja guar_game). One hell of a 3D game for its day. The Aliens scared the crap out of me and a few of my friends playing it. See an old skool Atari AVP commercial here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0szF9nVicOg
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I hope SEGA treats the franchise with the reverence and irreverence it needs.
:D
A part of me wants them to build a game that is faithful to the Aliens franchise like the two AVP games released for the PC. The Xenomorphs, brutal and nasty. The Predators, merciless and unrelenting. The United States Colonial Marines, cocky and sardonic. The weapons gritty and awesome.
However, another part of me wants them to rebuild that classic Aliens Versus Predator Capcom arcade beat 'em up, ridiculously featuring 1000 different alien castes, 50 different predator weapons not in canon, and a two dimensional caricature representation of the colonial marines...
Oh! Oh! Don't forget the manga stylized artwork with uber-cute butch colonial marine chicks that normally wouldn't look cute in real life!
Ok, a few things I'd like to see in a new Aliens game, ranted vaguely in the direction of the developers:
l iens, give us a nice selection of guns to blow the aliens away with and give us some sections where the player has to go without said guns, just to keep the scare factor up. Pay attention to pacing - that the first two Aliens movies were scary was as much down to the quieter sections as it was to the battles. Let the player stew for a while and speculate over where the next attack will come from. Hell, let us do the whole "fortify an area and then defend it" thing, with multiple routes to seal off and keep secure.
1) No Predator. Please, god, no Predator. Aliens are scary. Predators... well... they have a certain slight "cool" factor, but ultimately, I've seen scarier things watching Sesame Street. The Predator campaigns in both of the PC fpses were utterly dull and insipid.
2) Keep it in a first person or, at worst, third person perspective. Extinction wasn't scary. Aliens are scary when they are leaning over you, dripping slime into your face, as you scramble to reload your rifle before they can plunge their jaws into your face. They're not scary when they're a bunch of little figures running around jumping at other little figures a few hundred feet below the camera. The first person perspective limits the player's perspective and better allows for paranoia and surprises.
3) Give us a nice, long marine campaign. The marine campaign in AvP2 was excellent in many ways, despite the hideous engine. Sadly, it was quite short and only made up a third of the total game. The Predator campaign was just boring and the Alien campaign degenerated into a case of "hunt for the tiny little vent you need to find to progress to the next section". Give us a plot that hopefully doesn't involve yet-another-mad-scientist-trying-to-control-the-A
4) Give us proper squad-mates. The banter between the squad is one of the best things about Aliens. Even when AvP2 first came out, it seemed a bit poor that we spent so much of the Marine campaign separated from our squad by rather artificial plot twists. Gears of War and other games have shown that squad mates don't have to be low-IQ encumberances in modern action games.
5) You don't need to let us play as the Alien. But if you do (and if it isn't multiplayer-only), then please, for the love of god, let us actually feel like the Alien. Don't make us hunt around for a tiny little vent tucked away in the top corner of the room, just because there's a flimsy little door blocking our way. The Alien is an 8-foot-tall spikey bundle of destruction. While stealth and sneaking should always be an option for it (and often deeply useful for closing the gap against enemies with ranged weapons), a little more tolerance of brute-force solutions than we saw in the AvP games would be extremely nice.
6) This should go without saying, but please, whatever you do, keep the setting and timeline close to the second movie. Resurrection wasn't scary (except in the sheer fact that something that bad managed to get released). The extended universe from the books and comics may have some potential, but it needs to look and feel like the second movie.
7) Depart from the canon if you want, but depart in the detail rather than in the spirit. I know there are some people out there who will throw a tantrum if you change the clip-size on the pulse-rifle, or add a single new Alien strain, but I'm not one of them. By all means, if you want to add a little variety to the enemies, add stuff beyond the basic models from the movies. I don't think AvP2 suffered at all from the inclusion of the Praetorian and the extended universe has added a couple of extra beasties such as the Queen Mother. If you have any other strains that fit the plot, then use them. Just be sure to keep the look and feel of anything you add consistent with the original setting.