"They're coming out of the goddamn walls!"

+ 3 friends online = AWESOME!

QTEs -- for when a facehugger or alien grabs you will be awesome.

Motion trackers, welding torches... gosh people, stop being cynical, this is the game we've been waiting for, like, forever since Cameron taught us how badass the Colonial Marines are!

Daigoji Gai

I don't know why every one hates on Ressurection so much. It wasn't that bad. I mean, it was directed by Mr. City of Lost Children and was rather entertaining.

Maybe it's not a classic, but it's not that bad.

The AVP movies? Those were bad.

Which sucks, because the games on PC were a lot of fun back in the day...

They could have done a lot better with that - somehow, I don't know.

Might have something to do with the horrifying straight to DVD acting, scripting and effects that made it into theatres...

sir_carrot

@HurricaneDave: Alien 3 & 4 were absolute shite. As long as it stays in the realm of 1 & 2 it should turn out great.

Nexus6

Nobody bitches about QT events in God of War, so why is it such a bad thing to even mention them for other games? QTEs actually enhanced Resident Evil 4 and God of War if you ask me. Sure, any game element can be un-fun or annying if done crappily, but if they do it right like RE4 and GoW, then I don't see what the problem is...

[wayofthebadge.com]

enix2093

@xbulletholes: Heh, I had forgotten about Space Ace. I remember a preview of that game for the IIgs in an Apple II magazine...I thought it looked cool when I first saw the article, then I read further and saw what it was (Dragon's Lair type)...and lost interest.

Yeah, I was like 8 ;)

DaiMacculate

So QTEs are bad if in a normal game but fine if an entire game is made of them ala any rhythm game ever made????

krunkjuice

Can't wait. This is gonna be great.

kylenalepa

So what you guys are saying is QTEs are bad because they get applied poorly occationally? What kind of racist bullshit is that?

Like someone else said, properly implemented QTEs allow gameplay in sections the core game design wasn't made to handle. It also allows for some entertaining deaths that aren't "you fall down going aagh".

Sunjammer

To those whining about QTEs: Grow a pair.

ratix240sx

@Vegan Shinigami: If I remember correctly the Game Informer cover story said this game is very specifically being based on Aliens, the second one. They even show compares of screen shots to film stills pointing out their attention to detail.

Although I would love a creepy survival horror game based on the first one. Holy crap!

noamjamski

Hah, what a psychic Aliens memory connection...

RIP Apone :(

Vegan Shinigami

It would be AMAZING if they based this game on the characters in the movie Aliens - Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, Apone... all the characters in that movie are 'absolute baddasses (lets pack em in!)'..

I swear I can recite most of that movie off the top of my head after watching it 100+ times in my youth...

"Mutiple signals... they're closing... can't lock"

"Talk to me Hudsooooon.."

Yes, i'll be quiet now.

Vegan Shinigami

"Aaarrrrr, absolutely badassess! Let's pack 'em in! Get in there! "

mandarin

@boopadoo: I've seen the remastered and enhanced workprint of Fincher's Alien 3 and other than making the movie longer and adding a tad more motivation for a couple characters the film still not on the same level as the first two. Even Fincher didn't want anything to do with that version.

As for the game itself I'm all for it as long as they allow for some intuitive commands for the rest of the squad if not playing in co-op. One thing about squad-shooters I never got around to enjoying is how giving orders to one's squadmates still wasn't intuitive.

Tull

qt events?
"you don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."

MENACEIISOBRIETY

I can't say that I'm super excited for this game, because it's increasingly sounding run-of-the-mill the more I hear about it. I can only hope it has good action and good writing at this point.

And for those bagging on Alien 3, see the uncut version from the Quadrilogy pack. It is an EXCELLENT film, especially considering what David Fincher had to go through -- the theatrical release is just half of the film!

boopadoo

I LOVE Quick-Time Events. I don't see why so many of you have such a problem with them? Do you have a hard time doing them or something? I think that they're fun really ... loved the ones implemented in Resident Evil 4.

I read about Aliens in the newest Games Radar ... that shit sounds soooo hot!!! Also, there will be 4 player co-op baby! And Gearbox said that the co-op and single player versions of the game will be identical ... so none of that Rainbow Six: Vegas crap where it cuts the story from the game once you play co-op.

dead_red_eyes

QTE...ugh. The sad effects of FPS games now having console-focused development in most instances. I only hope they remove such crap from the PC version.

ErskinPig

I love quick time events! Do you know what else I love? Balance beams! Oh man, how awesome it would be if half way through a level I had to balance on a maze of catwalks while avoiding alien acid blood via quick time events?

noamjamski

Ok wow these screenshots look fookin' creepy

The movies scared the crap out of me as a kid, dunno if I could play this game lol

belo

QTE = NO!

ErskinPig

They have this game about 66% right... they just need to get Predators involved for that other 1/3 and call it Alien Vs. Predator 3. I never understood why they haven't made an AvP sequel. AvP and AvP2 both sold very well and were awesome games.

singlecoilpickup

It seems like overnight QTE's became the thing that made people grab their pitchforks and dip torches in kerosene. What's the deal? Is it just fashionable to hate those now? They worked in RE4.

Anyway this game looks quite awesome. The atmosphere of "Aliens" has definitely been re-created here.

Thaddeus_McGee

Someone say God of War events?

Shocky

@XvCowboyvX: "Has anyone else read the Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual?"

Own it, love it.

wierzbowski

If they're done right the "QTE's" are fun. They just need to be forgiving enough to get through on a couple tries max. They also shouldn't make up for situations that you could easily play yourself with regular controls.

The art style in those screens looks spot on. If nothing else they've nailed the atmosphere of the second film.

crashlanding

QTEs always catch me by surprise when I have a beverage (usually of the adult persuasion) in my hand. Cut scenes are prime drinking breaks for me, and throwing unexpected QTEs in there just endangers my beverage as I scramble to get two hands back on the controller.

cudthecrud

goddamn you quick-time-events. you should've died out with dragon's lair, let alone space ace.

xbulletholes

@Witzbold: Yeah, Ive read all the Alien/Aliens comics from Dark Horse. I still own mint copies of the first Aliens mini-series (when it was still Newt and Hicks instead of the reprinted version in 96 where they changed it to Billie and Wilks) and the follow-up Earth War where Ripley shows up sporting a custom weapon using the powerloader arms to fight aliens with. Except the Alien Queen seem to have her own Royal guard aliens who could rip through those powerloaded arms and take the user's arms with them.

Tull

Do u love REAL ACID BLOOD and QTEs both as I do?

rost

Wait. Where is the COOPERATIVE MULTIPLAYER THAT I NEED TO KEEP LIVING?

Dresarius

@hondo: You didn't see the movie, did you?

ibelli

and there better be co-op.

mordennight

I'm sure that the quicktime events won't be too overdone in this, even if they are I'm still getting it. Game screens look sick!

mordennight

They are NOT bugs.

exkon

@Absent Blue: Dragon's Lair didn't get anything right

HurricaneDave

Hope there Co-op!

MountainCool

Im really excited about this game, it looks like it might be the one aliens fans have been waiting for. Hopefully you can use powerloaders and stuff too.

Zootalor

Quick time events suck. They're annoying and stupid.

Maybe if they were a bit more intuitive. Like the beginning of COD4 where you have to jump to the chooper-- it's not a practical jump you could make in game, but you're told to jump anyway. I think that sequence could have worked just as well without the "Press Space Bar" text on the screen to baby you along. In fact I didn't even have time to react to the text on screen and my friends usually don't either.

So instead of "OK press the fire button to beat this quick time event" you just die unless you decide "Oh hey, shooting seems like a good idea right now."

Hell, Dragon's Lair and Braindead 13 got it right without babying you, why can't we do that again?

Absent Blue

@new_pornographer:

That's probably my all time favorite side scrolling beat 'em up. I wish they would put that on XBLA (along with Cadillacs and Dinosaurs)

Gray665

Ugh, I was really looking forward to this, but QTEs suck ass.

Fuzzba11

Man I am pumped for this game. The QTE reveal is the first thing that has made me cringe a bit. God do I hate them. Hopefully its just something like the dogs in CoD4 but with facehuggers and not some long set piece seperate from the core gameplay.

Gray665

Slightly off-tangent to this topic - who used to play the AVP arcade game by Capcom? I loved it!

new_pornographer

Really, the Alien universe ended at Aliens and was continued in the comics. Alien 3 and Resurrection to me is just an alternate universe. It would be cool if Gearbox and SEGA adapts the Alien: Earth War series as part of the Colonial Marines squad-shooter.

Tull

@HurricaneDave:
But dude, people don't care about Alien 3 and Alien "Written by Joss Whedon of Buffy fame - this why the movie sucked" Resurrection, I believe. Aliens is a fan favourite!

But then he IS referring to AVP

Also the majority of AVP source material - comics, books, videogames all have space marines. Hence Witzbold's discombobulation over there being two AVP films that deal a '10' in the 'gash' department so far.

new_pornographer

QTEs in spiderman 3 and conan sucked big time. i'm hoping fewer games use them soon, rather than more.

trav23

They BETTER frakkin let you play as the aliens! (I just want my AVP games back! ;_; )

TempvsMortis

Has anyone else read the Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual? As a kid I went through that text cover to cover more times than I care to remember. I only mention this because for those of us who are drooling over the potential mayhem Colonial Marines will be able to cause in-game, this book features all their tools of the trade and it's not limited to ground warfare either.

Also, unfortunately, Alien3 had come out by the time I began to devour the comics, books, and graphic novels so it was Billie and Wilks I read about rather than Newt and Hicks, the truth about which I didn't discover until several years later.

XvCowboyvX

@new_pornographer: "I just hope 'building' the barricades doesn't start some tetris-esque minigame."
LOL!
I can just see that one now:
"aannndd there, done, the final piece is in place, we should be safe for awhile" *barricade flashes and vanishes to reveal 50 aliens standing behind it* "oh shi..."

Scioptic

@HurricaneDave: Nor did the first film, Alien, but then none of those were AVP movies, just xenomorph movies :P

Scioptic

1) Setting up turrets in half life 2 was a fun segment, hearing those bullets go off and then stop all of a sudden induced some panic. Did the turrets kill the combine or did the combine do their part to snuff the turrets? Good idea.

I just hope 'building' the barricades doesn't start some tetris-esque minigame.

2) Micheal Biehn's likeness in this would be, by all accounts, awesome. I still remember the sample they used in Alien 3 on the SNES.

3) The AVP movies are beyond a joke. How on Earth did fox manage to foul up the pairing of two franchises as epic as Alien and Predator in one movie? Oh wait a sec, 'Paul Anderson' is the catch all answer here for the first movie. The sequel has no such excuse, but was 10x as awful!

new_pornographer

@Witzbold:

Alien 3 (The one on the prision planet) and Alien Reserrection didn't have space marines. I believe.

HurricaneDave

@Tull: Oh right, cheers Tull :)
I'm a huge comic/graphic novel fan, but I just never got round to reading many of the aliens comics when I was younger. Thanks for clearing that up.

Scioptic

Oh, and this game better have awesome online player versus AI combat. Lots of game modes like a mode where you defend for as long as possible, moving through levels littered with random alien spawn areas to extraction points, 2+ co-op single player. If they added stuff like that... how can this game not end up kicking truckloads of ass?

Pinhead

@Scioptic: Well, I cant say if she was thinking the tracker was off and/or broken thus picking them up but most of the later Aliens comic book series detail the tech used by the Marines. The Marines themselves are implanted with a chip which tracks their bio-readings and also can be tuned to the trackers so that they're not picked up.

Tull

Ummm didn't quick time events start sucking during the entire game of Dragons Lair? For those that like them get out of my gaming industry.

Pornosaur

I don't think I could handle a game where a face huger can jump up and attach itself to my face, covering the screen. I might just freak out every time it happens.

Pinhead

What's the deal with everyone whining about qte's? As some have said, we don't even know how they will be using them yet. I don't see GoW games getting low scores because of qte's or anyone complaining about them either...

They have a time and a place, so why not wait and see what happens?

@Witzbold: Me too. All of the classic weapons are a must- and I mean from the movies not AvP games. I'm glad they seem to be trying to mimick the look and feel of the movies with the dim flourescent lights that don't really do jack to light up the room. The clutter and old "futuristic" computer equipment. ;)

OrganicShadow

@DaiMacculate: Seriously eh? The movie was a PAIN to watch.

I mean what the fuck is an AVP movie with no goddamned space marines?

Witzbold

Halo 4?

beckerist

@Witzbold: Hell yeah, its still a travesty that when they finally did an AVP movie they didn't just lift the plot straight from the first AvP comic, hot future Asian female executive protagonists allying with Predators to fight Aliens for the damn Win!

DaiMacculate

I just want a proper flamethrower in the game. D:

Witzbold

@Tull:
But isn't there a line in the film (just after the 'just animals' cut the power) where Hudson and Vasquez are scanning for them, Hudson is panicing about the signals, and Vasquez says something like "you're just reading me" and Hudson replies with "No. It ain't you. They're inside. Inside the perimeter." something like that?
(DAMN I've seen that movie a lot)
Why would she think that she was showing up on the motion trackers if the marines are filtered from it?

Scioptic

I wouldn't call QTE's bad, it makes cut scenes more engaging then just sitting through one with a erection.

fruitsofherwomb

@exion:
Using QTE for setting up a turret or hacking a door lock? Brilliant idea exion. To anyone who may question this idea, well do you know how to assemble a motion tracking autoturret or hack a weyland-yutani door lock? So rather than just standing there with your finger holding down one button or repeatedly hitting something with a wrench (as always, time and a place), why not add some more interaction with actually having to do something in those circumstances.

As for the ideas people are throwing around about using QTE to get a facehugger or alien off you. Well the facehugger idea I can see (although personally I'd rather not have it used for that in the game), but the alien? You get a xenomorph on top of you, and that's all she wrote (especially if they intend to make the 'acid for blood' angle work properly). Game over man, game over. May as well just use harsh language ;)

Scioptic

i hope Michael Biehn is involved :-P
somehow that would make it awesome

mAaron

@Tull: So you read all the graphic novels too? ;D Since man those were good shit!

Witzbold

The motion tracker only shows the aliens. The Marines themselves are filtered from being picked up by the tracker. Yes, growing up during the 80's and 90's meant poring through books and books about everything Alien.

Tull

Is it me, or are the blobs on the motion tracker off somewhat? I can't remember if the film showed all objects in motion (ie the marines and the aliens, or just aliens). Probably I shouldn't be a pedant about early screens, but I'm still looking forward to the game.

martapp

You know what was a really good Aliens game? The first Aliens vs. Predator pc FPS by Rebellion.

FightingChance

Shit yeah. This is gonna rock. I know its shameless promotion but me and a couple of other guys are working on a fansite, aliensgame.net. Its not fully done yet, since theres only a bit of info on the game, but it should be cool when its done.

Gamebrain87

Cool, I loves me the Aliens franchise.

TeaBean

I really hope that by including QTE they restrict the use to a quick button combination whilst setting a turret, or hacking a door panel or something, where if you don't do it right you just get a small error and have to do it again, no instant death or anything like that... I kinda hope they leave it out of the combat entirely, and again as Scioptic mentioned, not use cutscenes which take you out of the perspective of the main character.
It ruined the immersion in the otherwise fantastic AVP (game) series, for me at least, and even as far back as Alien Trilogy, the cutscenes of death or the end of each section... again kinda ruined the flow...

exion

I hate QTE. I know they are supposed to make me more involved or immersed but they do exactly the opposite - more often than not they take me out of a game a make me want to throw my controller against a wall. I'm not a twitch gamer and no, my fingers don't instinctively know which button is the x, which is the O, etc. I know which is the top, the bottom, the left and the right. I play by feel and memorize the combos by movement and position. So QTE's frustrate the hell out of me. If games NEVER use QTE again I'd rejoice.

FlimFlaminus

@GhaleonUnlimited:

I agree, and I'll even bundle Assassin's Creed's bullshit "press one button to perform climbing, free-running, jumping from building to building without needing any skill whatsoever" control system in with this, as well.

In fact, QTE's are more complicated and entertaining than climbing around in AC ever was.

Groodle

In 2008, we should have the technology to NOT NEED GODDAMN QTE. A stand for QTE is a stand for mediocrity. Yeah, I was done with them after Shenmue too.

Atari games are more game than QTE. It's part of the problem of gaming becoming movies instead of more-interactive games.

Anyway, I really hope this turns out awesome. Gearbox + Aliens? How can that fail... I hope.

GhaleonUnlimited

QTE have a time and a place, and in a fast paced tension filled FPS I just don't see how they'd fit without being annoying (but seeing as they're going to be used for this game anyway, PLEASE prove me wrong).

QTE are often used in an attempt to make things more cinematic, such as "press x y and z and then something will happen that you wouldn't normally be able to do with your character". Fine. The main problem comes when you look at the level of interactivity in the game.

If you take a game that has a lot of cutscenes for example, well that game is already pulling you out of the interactive experience of the game by making you sit and watch and not act. This is when QTE can be a good idea, as they're at least pulling you back into the game.
With a FPS, lets take Half Life as our example, there are no cutscenes, and so to have our normal control taken away from us and replaced for a second with a QTE, is a very jarring experience lessening our sense of being in the game (if HL had them that is). To put it simply it does the opposite of what it's designed for.
Now I know that it's rare for a game not to have any cutscenes at all, but I feel that with FPS games there is a heightened sense of involvement as we're seeing everything through the main characters own eyes, so anything that pulls us out of that world is always going to be a bad thing (in my opinion).

Heck, if you're going to QTE, at least aim for a system where we don't automatically have to use them, such as it's the users choice to be able to trigger them or not, and that it's perfectly fine to go around them all together.

As I said, there's a time and a place.

Scioptic

""make a stand", asking you to set up turrets and barricade doors in an effort to hold an area from a swarm of incoming bugs."

God *bleep* it. Those are second only to escort missions on the list of things I hate.

Tale

I love QTE, I dont see what people are bitching about. Its a way to remain fully imersed in a scene while things regular gameplay can not handle occur.

HurricaneDave

@Cheshiregecko:
You can't snipe them all out of the air Chow Yun Fat-style as they're flying at your face. =)

Because.......? :-)

I won't pre-judge a game just because it has QTEs, as long as the QTEs basically replace cutscenes I'm fine with them.

I kind of hate cutscenes in most games now, thanks Square.

DaiMacculate

It sounds cool enough...but where's Hell's Highway?

Rodent

@Witzbold: R.I.P. Hudson :(

doctorwily

I see the QTE's involved in fighting off a face hugger or escaping the jaws of an Alien on top on you. QTE's. I say we get the jumpship and nuke the whole fudging thing from space.

Modus_Operandi

@Cheshiregecko:
I can't remember QTE's in Bioshock at all. ó_O

Fulgurator

I liked QTE in Fahrenheit. Not really experienced them anywhere else, so I can't be sure how they'd fit into a fast paced game...

Allaby

I don't know about all the griping about QTE's; I've thought they were fairly well done in the few games I've played them (CoD, Bioshock primarily come to mind, and the GH series is arguably just one huge QTE).

Besides, how else does one fight off a facehugger without just shaking the ever-loving crap out of a Sixaxis? I know I'd break all of my controllers if that were the case. Yeesh.

You can't snipe them all out of the air Chow Yun Fat-style as they're flying at your face. =)

Looking /forward/ to this game.

Cheshiregecko

GAME OVER MAN!

Witzbold

This is how you should make anything with the word "Aliens" in the title, with Fuckin' Space Marines!

doctorwily

Well. For one, this is in my "must haves" games list. I love Aliens, and i'm glad that they haven't just gone for the shoot 'em up route with this game. Making it a bit more tactical is a great addition, considering you are controlling marines.

And on the point of QTE's, in context i don't mind them. I'd rather have a limited interaction with what's going on than just sit and watch it play out.

nottsville

Oh, I get it now. Thx.

Well... I don't have anything against that feature, in fact it adds more interactivity to the game rather than just watching a cinema or eating a snack. At least it was cool on Resident Evil 4... right?

But yeah, I hope they make good use of QTE's. (not interrupting the gameplay so drastically or abuse them)

Han Daimond

QTEs don't bother me that much if they are infrequent. I thought Tomb Raider Anniversary did it right ... you only ran into them at the very end of a level, so like 4 times in the whole game. It's an interesting way to force gamers to pay attention to the cut-scenes, too.

jayntampa

@Han Daimond: See Indigo Prophecy its one big Simon Says QTE.

Jaysius

@Arcon:
That was what I mean, but better explained.

Fulgurator

You know, QTE were cool in the first God Of War, only because through the set events you could make the game look alot prettier then the system during normal gameplay could handle.

Now in this current/next gen platform it feels like a forced issue, something stuffed down your throat just for a change of scenery

JakeDunn

@DaiMacculate: That is beyond bad memories. D:

Witzbold

A QTE is basically there for the lazy programmers to implement and the damn-right stupid simpletons of gaming to enjoy. QTE's may look amazing but when the person on screen does a double backflip, landing on the head of a pin, doing the "Thriller" dance moves on said pin to finally waste a room full of beefeaters all by pressing X....O....X....X is a damn right virtual kick in the balls. I don't want to press on-screen buttons like i'm playing Guitar Hero without the guitar! I want to actually perform what it is the person is doing!!! Imagine the feeling of fulfilment when you pull off some amazing stunt because you had the skill too (or the luck). It's an achievemnt. Something you deserve to be proud of. QTE's are a repetitive kick to the complacent gamers' groins.

Bearskopff

I hate QTE's because they bring back BAD memories of Dragon's Lair ;)

DaiMacculate

@Sunjammer: It presents a "push button to do action" requirement where one really isnt needed. Usually taking place during a cutscene to add some level of interactivity to a normally passive section of the game. While its intentions are obviously to make this section more "game-like" there's no real need to have a cutscene in the first place.

If there are actions the player needs to perform then build it into the normal control mechanics to begin with, dont take me out of play to force me to perform them within a certain time limit else i'll be killed and have to do them again.

It just looks like lazy game design and becomes an annoying on-a-rail beat-matching blight rather than a fun and exciting sequence that tests your skills.

Arcon

I love how the radar only shows what coming up in front of you.

Is there an Alien sneaking up on me from behind...?

I dunno. o_O

hondo

QTE can be fun if the game didnt kill u if u pressed them wrong i mean come on just take some energy away and id be happy.

Hope they do make effective use of the acid blood, would be kool if u had to use it to get through some floors or somet (red faction style).

GFX-187

Well I have someone middle of the road hopes for this game. I hope it could at least re-do the experience I had with AVP 2... if not it might be a rental or bargain bin wait. But if QTE's are done well they could be "decent" as in GOW or Shenmue. But if they jump on a bandwagon and have horrid detection that's a whole different story.

Suigyoken

@Han Daimond: PRESS (X) NOW TO AVOID FACE HUGGER

for example.

Witzbold

These screens get me aroused. QTE's I could live without, but none the less, I gots a stiffy.

Black_Ops_19

@PollockRoc: @Han Daimond: Quick-time events are those interactive cutscenes when you have to match the button patterns as they are displayed on-screen.

osiris83

@Sunjammer:

What's wrong with QTE's?
Well, at first it wasn´t a bad idea, it was innovative and cool, but now they are only a cheap way to get action scenes in a videogame without investing in REAL gameplay. It's like watching a DVD while playing Simon.

Fulgurator

@Sunjammer: When you are playing a game and a cinematic comes up that requires you to press a button or buttons to complete a task.

Mr Fortitude

Every time people say QT events I briefly wonder why people on a gaming forum are so interested in going to an instructional seminar on Apple's Quicktime...then I realize what you're referring to and relive the games where I've hated that feature ;)

DaiMacculate

Quick-Time events?

I don't get it.

Han Daimond

Again, what the hell is wrong with QTE's?

Sunjammer

I actually don't mind QTE's that much, if they are implemented well and make sense. In the God of War games they worked well, made for cool finishing moves and move-sequences. And the game wouldn't generally kill you off for missing a button (I know there are a few exceptions, but mostly you just take some damage).

On the other hand, Jericho's QTE's where just badly designed and too punishing if you missed a single button press. "Oh! Sorry, you where 0,1 seconds late, so now you die!"

Tieowbeijas

Quick time events.

Expect a Zero Punctuation treat

muscrat_01

What are quick-time events? Sorry for my ignorance.

PollockRoc

i LOVE quick-time events!

looking forward to more games with qt events.

cooler_d00d

setting up barricades and turrets?

So... it's a first person Tower Defense game?

Sweet!

Northernsky

After disc two of Shenmue, I was done with QTE...

Laidbackga

In space, nobody can hear your complains about quick time events. Ugh.

Fulgurator

ARGH! Quick-Time Events?! Why do they hate us?

Arcon