Aliens: Colonial Marines

[Ben]

I doubt Sega will ever be seen as heroes, as they released and lovingly promoted what's widely regarded as a bad game.

But indeed, many people seem to be blaming (for the most part) Gearbox for the game, which is a good thing.

[crackdude]

[Aki-at]

I'm sure you can swap SEGA and Gearbox there and replace it with "To due-diligence!"

[Aki-at]

On a small scale, sure, but again, I think the Fifa thing is more about preference....people in America by and large aren't as interested in soccer (though FIFA does quite well) so they prefer the FIFA experience, as it's more accessible. Again, I don't think this is some sort of "America vs the UK" thing, lol, I just think that Americans tend to prefer FIFA to Football Manager.

I did not mean nationality in regards to IGN's Football Manager review, just the personal preference of the review for that title. Without actually looking at what the game goes to achieve, the reviewer pushed his own opinion of how the game should have been designed.

Although IGN really is the strongest of those pushing an agenda when it comes to saying how the Japanese gaming industry is dying. But then I guess you could argue the only reason they do this is to collect hits and it works 8 out of 10 times.

Anyway, Western developers are all over the place; some are from the UK, some America, some Canada and France....Even amongst Western games there's preferences, I don't think there's some sort of nationality thing going on here.

Well being from the UK and checking mags like GamesMaster, there is a strong bias towards our own studios but I guess it is only natural.

Replying to the rest of your post in the 2013 topic.

[CrazyT]

I was close to getting borderlands 2 before this whole disaster. Definitly not an option anymore. I couldn't ever support an imposter! Or injustice in general

It's really nice to see people are standing for justice and behind SEGA though. As others mentioned this indeed looks like SEGA being too good hearted and naive in this whole situation, but on the other side I find it kind of weird people being so careless in the business world with so much money being involved....

What the hell SEGA!

I hope there will be major consequences for gearbox about this. Some legal actions or whatever because this loss is a huge one if 60 million dollaz is the real number

[Aki-at]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2iOcCibzUo

Does this art remind anyone of a particular game? Hmmmmmm?!

The artist himself was approached by Gearbox too, but whilst he never did submit any art for them, they took his art style and ran with it. How terrible.

[Ben]

Although IGN really is the strongest of those pushing an agenda when it comes to saying how the Japanese gaming industry is dying. But then I guess you could argue the only reason they do this is to collect hits and it works 8 out of 10 times.

Well, I mean, dude it's true. The Japanese industry is shrinking. That's been known for years and everyone has their own theories as to why.

[CrazyT]

The industry is shrinking because most of their stuff just sucks balls lately. I don't know what it is. I look at the few games being made by SEGA in the west like sonic racing transformed, Total war series, spiral knights and I can just feel the love put into the games beside them being great games on their own. It's the little things.

But then I look at franchises like Phantasy star online, sonic and... yakuza(sorry aki) either being worse or not developing enough through time. With japanese gaming lately it feels like they're mostly concentrating on catering to people's needs instead of realising a vision and hope for people to like said project/game. Things have to be balanced. Just Listening to people isn't the real problem, but when you listen to a majority it's gonna exist of shallow/casual gamers that don't know wtf they're talking about. Devs gotta be selective. And even then, when it comes to feedback, the right mind should be able to set dumb requests apart from the brilliant ones.

Ofcourse i'm not talking about every developer. There's platinum games ofcourse and gems , like xenoblade, el shaddai, ni no kuni etc, but it's just something I noticed. I have a feeling that things are heading in the right direction in general, but sadly I can't say this about SEGA japan.

Edit: Got a bit carried away. Sorry for going offtopic

[Aki-at]

Well, I mean, dude it's true. The Japanese industry is shrinking. That's been known for years and everyone has their own theories as to why.

It's not quite shrinking but shifted. You got publishers like Konami and Square who have lost their strong grip, but then you get publishers like Namco and Capcom who have gone from strength to strength. And curiously enough everyone seems to forget Nintendo who was the most successful company last generation.

But you could apply the same concepts to the Western development scene. In general gaming is seeing a severe retraction, with spiralling budgets now catching up to here in the West but with Japanese publishers jumping that ship for handhelds and smartphones (And to be fair, that's been a craze in Japan far longer than it was here)

But then I look at franchises like Phantasy star online, sonic and... yakuza(sorry aki) either being worse or not developing enough through time.

I'm surprised you add Sonic Racing 2 has a lot of passion put into it but neither of those titles do whilst I'm the opposite (Minus PSO2) on the matter heh.

With japanese gaming lately it feels like they're mostly concentrating on catering to people's needs instead of realising a vision and hope for people to like said project/game. Things have to be balanced.

Sadly this happens the world over, for recent examples, see FUSE. People at the top of the company who are only interested in making money barking orders to the lower management.

[ROJM]

A few patches can't completely re-program the AI, they can't write a better story, they can't add more variety to the campaign, they really can't fix the graphics...these are things that are sort of set in stone already, dude.

Bad story? LOL. You came to that conclusion from a review of a game you haven't played? Come on. And patches can improve the game from the state its in now so let's not get carried away that its beyond saving.

The general consensus is what matters for the sake of Sega...Word of mouth is horrendous for this title, which will kill sales (and hurt Sega) in the long run. Whether a couple generous gamers can get past its flaws to reap some enjoyment from the title is largely irrelevant; Sega can not continue to function by releasing games of this level of quality. Again, whether you enjoyed it doesn't really matter, as most people have not. And Sega can't keep releasing games that most people don't like.

Actually the reception has been mixed. The critics have mostly negative reviews with a few positives. The gamer reviews is split between negative and positive. So that isn't a general concensus of people hating the game, a bit suprised really myself but then again these are from people who have played the game.
 

You do realize that the backlash for Mass Effect 3's final 10 minutes was so severe and disheartening that the 2 founders of Bioware quit the company shortly after? I'm sorry but Aliens:Colonial Marines' backlash doesn't even touch that one.

ACM backlash has been growing and growing and we still wont know the outcome. So that's an illogical statement to make. Much like you judging a title without playing it.

 

By and large, the public wasn't aware of Binary Domain. Many of those who were were turned off for various reasons.

Rubbish and you know it. No one was turned off by the title.
 
 

I agree with basically everything you said there. Still, there was an audience Sega could have tapped into (sci fi audience) that I wish they had tried harder to nab.

funny the two people shouting about a game they haven't played agrees with one another. what a bloody suprise.

[ROJM]

I hear you.  It really comes down to how happy you've been with the past few years of releases.  For me the volume and quality has dropped so drastically that It's gotten depressing.  Sega is kind of like a grandmother with Alzheimer's at this point.  You absolutely still love her but she has lost her mind and is on her way out.  Occasionally though, she has flashes of recognition and reverts to her old self, reminding you of how great she used to be.

But if you're satisfied with a Yakuza sequel, A Virtual Fighter expansion, a terrible free to pay mmorpg, and the occasional solid to good sonic game, more power to you.   

Going overboard a bit aren't we?

[Aki-at]

Aliens entered the following top ten charts;

Netherlands
Individual formats top 10
09 (NE) PS3 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)

Ireland
Multiplatform formats top 20
03 (NE) ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)
19 (18) MARIO & SONIC LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES (SEGA)

Germany
Multiplatform formats top 10
01 (NE) PS3 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)
04 (NE) PS3 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)

Sweden
Individual formats top 20
02 (NE) PC ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)
03 (NE) 360 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)
10 (NE) PS3 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)

Norway
Individal formats top 20
08 (NE) 360 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)
09 (NE) PS3 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)

Finland
Individal formats top 20
04 (NE) 360 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)
06 (NE) PS3 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)
11 (NE) PC ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (SEGA)

So it holds the number one formats position in UK and Germany (Europe's 1st and 2nd biggest gaming markets respectively) whilst the French charts is out next week. Be interested to know what hold the game will have, if any, next week.

[Barry the Nomad]

Regardless of quality, ladies and gentlemen...

[Trippled]

The industry is shrinking because most of their stuff just sucks balls lately. I don't know what it is. I look at the few games being made by SEGA in the west like sonic racing transformed, Total war series, spiral knights and I can just feel the love put into the games beside them being great games on their own. It's the little things.

But then I look at franchises like Phantasy star online, sonic and... yakuza

All things considered, I find Yakuza to be pretty impressive for an annual franchise.

Allstars Racing Transformed took 2 1/2 years to make and was already based on a game that was already a pretty run-in-the-mill kart racer. I love the game, but IMO Sumo under their circumstances didn't do an outstanding job compared to other Developers.

And also, I find Sega to shine among other Japanese (publishers).
Compare PSO2 to FXIV
Compare RE6 to Binary Domain
Sonic is pretty much the only noteworthy plattformer to come out besides Mario in Japan.

Sega is I would say is still above the likes of Capcom, Namco, Konami etc., but go alongside of Nintendo and Platinum Games.

[ROJM]

All things considered, I find Yakuza to be pretty impressive for an annual franchise.

Allstars Racing Transformed took 2 1/2 years to make and was already based on a game that was already a pretty run-in-the-mill kart racer. I love the game, but IMO Sumo under their circumstances didn't do an outstanding job compared to other Developers.

And also, I find Sega to shine among other Japanese (publishers).
Compare PSO2 to FXIV
Compare RE6 to Binary Domain
Sonic is pretty much the only noteworthy plattformer to come out besides Mario in Japan.

Sega is I would say is still above the likes of Capcom, Namco, Konami etc., but go alongside of Nintendo and Platinum Games.

Exactly,Trips. It sounds to me that he was criticising the fact that sega is coming out with sequels. Well in their glorydays Sega was had numourous Sonic sequels and spin offs on the genesis and other systems, SOR had sequels and SHINOBI had several games spread across four systems at one point. Are we going to really criticise Sega for doing what everyone else does, making sequels to games that has given them success? If you are going to complain about YAKUZA and Sonic sequels then you might as well criticise what they did back then when they did exactly the same thing.