I don't necessarily mean overpowered in terms of damage, but by mechanics. The auto tracking makes it impossible for a xeno to get anywhere close to you unless they manage to sneak up from behind. As soon as the reticle went from green to red and you had a lock, a quick burst was all you needed, and you could go a long time without needing ammo. It always blew bugs apart thanks to the auto tracking ALWAYS going for center mass (exactly like the tech manual describes it) and putting all bullets on the same point. It's like auto aim but without having to even aim the gun.

Which is cool! There are ways to balance that kind of power, but the game has to be designed with that in mind and they'd have probably needed more development (e.g. Aliens able to dynamically use the environment to their advantage). They had at least one new type of alien in the game (maybe more), it seems like they could have created an enemy to counterbalance the Smart Gun. Now, if the gameplay of the Smart Gun is "no fun" (because it's too unengaging or whatever) then yeah, that's an issue.

A great example of the Smart Gun in any alien game, was in AvP 2010. If you load up either single player or mutliplayer survival on C Block. Tight enclosed space, low lighting, and aliens that actually crawl on ceilings. And as always its never enough, they just keep coming...

And gearbox thinks its appropriate to charge $15 for that...

It's impossible to create an enemy that counteracts the smartgun because that would mean the smartgun isn't like the movie counterpart. The downside to using it is that you cannot use your motion tracker, and if you are alone in MP that pretty much means you are dead. Most marines tend to think they are god with it, but flanking works wonders against them. There aren't really any long corridors in MP where it can be unbalanced. AVP 2010 gives you that bastard smartgun twice IIRC, while Aliens Colonial Marines gives it to you a little bit more than that, usually when you are going to be fighting swarms of xenos/humans.

It's not that the smartgun is no fun, it's that it's insanely easy to use and is instant death for anything in front of it. I actually love SG users in MP because they think of themselves as invulnerable, until I wall climb whatever they are using for cover and just flank them and eat their face. Though they did make an alien type that is resistant to the motion tracker, which I have yet to configure since I have too much fun with the warrior and spitter.

What are you talking about? The first time you get the smart gun in A:CM you have a long, tight corridor and have aliens on every single wall coming at you and coming out of every nook .

@Wraith

You are correct, but only that particular section. Compared to all other aliens titles ACM gives you the least amount of time with the Smart Gun. And scripting a corridor scene isn't exactly challenging. Also for a bonus challenge try to count the times an alien is not running upright directly towards you in ACM. You should be able to use fingers, won't need your toes...

Wow, he made some really nice points there.

I liked the point that too many of us trust them when they don't trust any of us as far as they can DRM us. Also "Shut up and take my money!" should definitely be replaced with "Shut up and EARN my money!"

I think this cast was less tearing ACM a new one and more tearing the gaming industry a new one.

Well, since the Alien "franchise" only has one real movie, unless you count Promethus as a proper prequel, this game is at best a generic FPS with a nicely designed enemy.

I find it so odd how easily people give Fox a pass on the 3+ cash grabs on Ridley Scott's masterpiece, while bashing sequelitis in other franchises. Alien is not a film franchise, it is a FILM, bottom line.

The biggest problem and hopefully Gearbox will eventually respond is "why" does "in game" footage at E3 look 100x better than the released version of the game. I would gather that the majority of the pre-orders for ACM are based on that footage and the trailers that look a helluva lot better than what the game currently looks like.

Had the latest trailers and videos looked like the current incarnations i gather pre-orders would have been about 10% of what they are...

The game is basically average and the graphics on max are horrible compared to current AAA titles especially if you consider Sega gave them 60 million to spend on it=)

It looks bad no matter how they try to spin it...and the latest rumors are that the PC version can actually look a lot better but they supposedly wanted to release a version on par with the PS3/360...not sure if i believe that...but it would be nice if the pc version could have the graphics like the in game demo.
Well i would have to disagree with you about it not being a "franchise"...Alien and Aliens have always been considered almost equal to eachother in reviews, ratings, and are both great in their own right. If anything Aliens is more iconic of the franchise in today's image than the original movie. When you mention the series most people will recall the marines, and the little girl Newt...rather than the first movies plot. Also Lance Henrickson is more memorable as the android than the first android. Then you include Hicks, Hudson, and the queen...I would say James Cameron took Ridley Scott's movie and made a damn good follow up.

The 3rd aliens...meh...its on par with prometheus...they are both ok. They both have their good and bad sections in the movie but neither compare to the first two.

Now...Alien Resurrection is utter crap. It started decent but it got out of hand. Although i would not say any of the movies were true cash grabs...the avp series is much closer to a cash grab.

I definitely agree with the game being pretty generic...although hard to call it a cash grab if Sega gave gearbox 60 million for it=) They will not even make close to 60 million on it unless some major fixes are put in place and even then you cannot wipe out all the negativity associated with it already.

IIRC the tracker took quite a while to lock on to the target. Most of the time aliens attacked you in packs, in which case it was very inconvenient to use it because you were overrun quickly. There was a greater chance of taking damage, especially with them exploding close to you. As you remember, in the original, acid blood was actually a real game element, unlike in this new joke title where you blast them in the face with a shotgun at point blank range when they are on top of you. When aliens were alone, they were cake anyway. In fact, when I did use the gun, I preferred to disable the tracker and use manual aim. Also, it locked on to the bodies of aliens, which means that they often shot off limbs and it took way more time and ammo, as opposed to just shooting them in the head with the Pulse Rifle. Also, the Pulse Rifle had a grenade launcher on demand. Sure, the Smartgun was nifty, but there's no way that I'd consider it overpowered as it definitely had its drawbacks.

All those 'journalists' that now make videos to warn us that when we preorder game then it may turn out to be a bad game are funny for me. It's like I need 20 minutes video to understand that I risk my money when I buy cat in the bag.

There are two options why they make such videos:
a) They think that we, gamers, are mentally disabled and we don't understand simple logic.
b) They see opportunity to get some popularity. "Look! They are bashing evil corporation that sold me a bad game! I love them!"

I bet my money on option "b".

Also this whole drama is hilarious. "OMG! People bought a bad game! World economy is in danger!". I doubt that any gamer with at least two years experience doesn't regret at least one purchase that he did. People act like they have never bought a bad book, meal or never been in cinema on bad movie. Shit happens! It's not first and not last bad purchase. Also from what I see, people that are complaining the most are people that didn't buy this game and I can't understand why. Why it bother them so much? It's not their money.

This whole situation is a great material for a "First World Problems" meme.

PS. No, I didn't buy this game.

A critically acclaimed cash grab is still a cash grab. Aliens shits all over everything that made Alien special. Cameron simply rewrote Terminator in space, and everyone makes out as if it is some kind of transcendental piece of cinema.

I do agree that Lance Henrickson is the definitive "Alien Android", unless you count Rutgar Hauer....

Maybe when they port the game to PS4 and NeXtBox they'll improve it vastly and create a class...
Ugh. Just nuke it from orbit.

Claiming that the movies aren't a franchise is of course silly and just the usual provocation / trolling.

However, regarding the second movie, we seem to live in different worlds. ;)

Where I live, the second movie (when it came out) was slammed when seen as a sequel to Alien, though recognized as perhaps a good action movie. It completely failed to grasp the horror atmosphere of the first movie and replaced it with a generic action plot around a platoon which, predictably, gets reduced according to the 10 Little Indians principle throughout the movie. Where Alien has atmosphere, Aliens has big weapons. Where Alien has dialog and interesting character interaction, Aliens has the shouting of tactical commands. Where Alien is an original cinematic masterpiece, Aliens is a completely forgettable run-of-the-mill action flick which exploits an interesting setting.

I also cannot confirm your claim that people will recall more stuff from the second movie than from the first. For example, I even though I saw the first movie years before the second (and had years more time to forget it), scenes like the Alien bursting out of a body, or the final scene of the android, or the ending of the movie, are still etched into my memory. Of the second movie, the only scene that I remember vividly was the utterly predictable death of one specific marine, because I groaned when I watched it. I don't even remember an android _being_ in the movie, and I don't remember the ending, I just do vividly remember how disappointed we were. In fact, me and the person I watched the movie with, found it so disappointing and boring and predictable that we kept betting on which marine would die next, to get a small bit of entertainment from the movie and not make it a total waste of time. At that time, watching the movie was a disheartening experience, because it felt as if something that had been great cinema had sold out to the onslaught of atrocious, mindless action flicks that rolled through the 80s.

So, in conclusion, I think I can't agree with your assessment. ;)

And I thought I was mad to consider the original Alien better than any sequels. Now it turns out there's more of us appreciating the film, where a single ping on the tracker is scarier than an army of zombies. Yay!

Voila. I enjoyed Aliens a lot, but the original definitely set the bar higher.