Aliens: Colonial Marines

[mylifewithsega]

Nap (AKA Jab x Timeout, AKA The worst fighting game ever created).

No, it's not. That honor belongs to Slaughter Sport, sir. :D

[Radrappy]

But they would try to push their own preference onto their articles/reviews from time to time. A bit like how IGN had that football manager review and lambasted the game because it was nothing like FIFA or Pro Evo. I would not exactly think it's too much of a stretch, for example look at EDGE, whilst they usually are often quite strict, get a British developer behind it and they would show some sort of leniency towards the title.

You didn't get my stealth troll at SEGA Europe/America, did you?

I would be more inclined to agree with you had sega been releasing excellent games that were regularly shunned by critics but this is simply not the case.  Sega's own quality of output is solely to blame for their current irrelevancy.  Media outlets as far as I can tell, are more inclined to rate sega games with full honesty given that any sense of nostalgic obligation towards the company has all but dissolved in the past decade.  Simply put, people don't even care enough about sega to be biased.  They are hardly even a voice in the industry any more.  If anything, be grateful that the occasional glowing article is still written about the Dreamcast, which many still seem to hold in high esteem in the games journalism community.     

[MadeManG74]

On the topic of Sega getting shat on, I also disagree in general. When was the last time Total War got a bad review? PC mags cum buckets over that franchise.

[Shigs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp_QInW3gkQ

[Aki-at]

I would be more inclined to agree with you had sega been releasing excellent games that were regularly shunned by critics but this is simply not the case.  Sega's own quality of output is solely to blame for their current irrelevancy.  Media outlets as far as I can tell, are more inclined to rate sega games with full honesty given that any sense of nostalgic obligation towards the company has all but dissolved in the past decade.  Simply put, people don't even care enough about sega to be biased.  They are hardly even a voice in the industry any more.  If anything, be grateful that the occasional glowing article is still written about the Dreamcast, which many still seem to hold in high esteem in the games journalism community.     

SEGA Japan's quality of output is not to blame for their irrelevancy, SEGA West's lack of any proper marketing is. You do not have a year that had big hitters in Yakuza 5, PSO2, Sonic Racing 2, Binary Domain and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown and try to argue it's this lack of quality which is why they have fallen into the abyss. A complete lack of care by SEGA Europe/America to nurture any SEGA Japan games has unfortunately placed SEGA in this situation.

And as I said, it might be the case in American media, but not the case in European media where SEGA is still a major publisher in many European territories and I had argued a bias for SEGA.

(I would also argue against their general irrelevancy if you factor in SEGA Europe and America. With Football Manager, Total War, Company of Heroes and Spiral Knights, they have a strong foothold in the PC community that seems to be getting stronger and stronger)

On the topic of Sega getting shat on, I also disagree in general. When was the last time Total War got a bad review? PC mags cum buckets over that franchise.

PC reviews are also generally less biased than console reviews. Better journalists too. Superior race and all that. That being said most PC users seem to love SEGA, example; the mad celebrations when SEGA purchased Relic.

[MadeManG74]

PC reviews are also generally less biased than console reviews. Better journalists too. Superior race and all that. That being said most PC users seem to love SEGA, example; the mad celebrations when SEGA purchased Relic.

There was also some concern that Sega would shut down tournament streams because they didn't allow Shining Force Let's Plays or something like that.

[Aki-at]

There was also some concern that Sega would shut down tournament streams because they didn't allow Shining Force Let's Plays or something like that.

I think we can all agree AM2 (We are talking about AM2, right?) is a much more friendly developer than whoever is in control of the Shining series.

Though they have annoyed a few PC fans for what they did to Total Biscuit (To be honest I never heard of him until they threatened to take down his channel) some high level cockup that. Heads should roll for whoever's idea that was.

[ROJM]

Well, alright then, lol. I have no issue with that. You're free to play as many bad games as you'd like. My point is that I don't think you can tell us that we have "no right" to call a game bad when it's clearly a bad game.

No, i'm free to play a game and then FORM an opinion. There's nothing in ACM that a few patches couldn't fix.

You are reminding me of those who defended Sonic '06 and called those of us who at the time refused to play it as being jugmental or "unfair." Dude we don't live in the early 90s anymore, we have broadband internet, haha; it's far easier to tell if a game will be to our liking or not. You don't have to "play" a game to see, "hey, maybe this game's not for me." And overwhelmingly, those who HAVE played the game, have agreed.

Life's too short to waste it (and $$) to play bad games just to win "message board points" and the ability to discuss the games.

But i can discuss a game about it being good or bad because i've actually played it, that's the point.You don't like the game fair enough but dont start going around saying its a bad game because general concesus says it is, when the likelyhood is not a large people who have been trolling about ACM actually played it.

Not shouting, emphasizing.

No you were shouting. Emphasizing is using bold to make your point.

And Sega has sponsored video playthroughs with major journalism sites, they've promoted the game, they demoed the game at trade shows, ...what do you mean Sega has done little to market the game? If the game's gotten attention it's been because of the marketing and the license. Gearbox is a developer, they don't handle the marketing.

Yawn, GBX and randy pitchford were hyping the game with the several statements they released to the media. Sega only started to market or should i say mass market the game in the last few months. And games shows and tournaments are hardly marketing since no one who goes to these events wouldn't know about the game. its the people who dont follow games religiously that they would market the title to. but if you call closed press screenings marketing then so be it.

What you're saying just isn't the truth. The backlash towards Mass Effect 3's ending was a shitstorm that Colonial Marines' backlash isn't even touching.........and Mass Effect 3 was widely regarded as a great game with a "bad ending." But it got slammed. The new DmC game, again, a good game, but one slammed by the fanbase. RE6....major backlash as well. Backlash from disappointed fans is common among anticipated games, dude. There's nothing special happening here except that Sega rarely releases an anticipated game. ("Anticipated" meaning outside of a small fanbase.) Pretty much, the Yakuza fanbase (another incredibly small group) cared about Binary Domain, nobody else seemed to know or want to know.

No the backlash wasn't as harsh as this. So what you are saying isn't true. I didn't see orchestrated media campaigns saying how this company has ruined the franchise and they've never made a good game or this witch hunt that's now going on. Using the user base just doesn't work because its people beyond that userbase that are kicking up the shitstorm.

I'm...not sure what you're saying, to be honest. There was no "scandal" surrounding Binary Domain's marketing, outside of a few people on Sega sites complaining about it. By and large, the game was marketed terribly but people didn't seem to care about it. We posted articles about the game. Whenever Sega released a trailer or new information we posted it on our homepage. For the most part, our readers had no interest in the game. Our articles got no response and people just blew the game off as a "generic" TPS.

There is. This game was a new game IP from one of Sega's biggest developer. A developer that sega is trying to make a superstar out of. Releasing a game that has western appeal. A multi international release and touted as a big game from the company themselves. A game which they also used to launch his own personal studio. Then once its released they don't market it in any of the western markets to reach the boardest audience as possible. And this was the game's  key market. So yes i would consider that to be something seriously wrong considering the stature of this title to Sega. You are also contradicting yourself by saying no one cared about the game when you recently said no body knew about it.

So I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that the Sega community wanted the game to succeed. Most Sega fans I saw, both on here and elsewhere, couldn't get past the Western character designs and refused even to play the game....letalone complain about its treatment by Sega. Nobody cared because nobody was interested in the game. Unfortunately, because it was a good game.

There were tons of people here complaining how sega didn't market the game and thought that the game was good. The only people that probably would compain is sonic fans who think sega should do nothing else but sonic games.

That's because people don't want to buy a bad game. They're horribly disappointed because they wanted to buy it and wanted it to be good.

Sorry, until you played the game then you can tell me its bad.

But, people don't have money to spend on bad games.

They don't have money to buy good games either in this climate.
 

Probably because those who went out and bought it knowing how bad it was are die-hard fans (of either Sega or Aliens) who are determined to see the good in the game no matter what. But even their tepid thoughts on the game kinda say it all.

Yes you must  be a mind reader if you are so sure why people brought the game.

[ROJM]

But they would try to push their own preference onto their articles/reviews from time to time. A bit like how IGN had that football manager review and lambasted the game because it was nothing like FIFA or Pro Evo. I would not exactly think it's too much of a stretch, for example look at EDGE, whilst they usually are often quite strict, get a British developer behind it and they would show some sort of leniency towards the title.

Exactly. That reminds me of GOLDEN AXE BEAST RIDER when the game from its previews and press releases emphasised that this game was a one player game and the emphasis was beast rding. Then when the game was reviewed what was the first criticism? "It isn't a two player game, Sega has ruined it again".Despite being previwed in the same magazines for several months STATING it was a one player game. Just because the game wasn't good just masked the underlying current to bash Sega.  And that's the problem. There's been too many incidents to ignore. Just because a couple of newbies have never seen it doesn't mean it didn't or still isn't happening. The way they are acting you'd think that me, you and TA are making it up or "mis interpreting" the situation. Long for the days when game journalists reviewrs were objective and not tribalistic.

[ROJM]

First of all, I wasn't intending to insult anyone (apart from Gearbox and Sega). I had a jab at Semmie at first, but that was more in jest. Sorry if I offended you.

Also, you realise I'm not just going off of reviews. Based on gameplay vids and information about the game, I can see it's sub-par. I can see the bad graphics, bad gameplay, hear about all the bad glitches and retarded storyline.

There are games out there that have had good reviews but I still have no intention of playing them, like Sonic 4 and Sonic Colours. I actually have played Sonic colours and found it to be pretty mundane and didn't bother sticking past the second level or so.

I also disagree that this shitstorm is worse than anything in years. Do you follow other developers and genres to the extent you follow Sega? If you only really follow Sega it'll seem like the biggest thing ever, but really it's about on par with the backlash against stuff like Resi 6, DmC and Sleep Fighter X Tekken a Nap (AKA Jab x Timeout, AKA The worst fighting game ever created).

If you said it like that in the first place, no one would have gotten defensive. Oh i'm aware that not everyone can afford to buy a game and needs to be careful of the title. No one needs to be rude either regardless of their stance. I've seen the game play vids and everything connected to this game. I have not said this game was good or bad either. And yes there there is a real problem with this title. I've said that. Yet everyone seems to be acting that i'm trying to defend it. I'm not. So let's just leave it as that and move on. At the end of the day we can both agree that we all wanted ACM to be exceptionally brilliant and disapointed that it isn't even near that.

[thearcticsea]

Neither of you will win this argument.

And as far as the Binary Domain portion of the argument. Whoever's arguing that sega let that game down with marketing? Untrue.

Binary Domain, while a good game, was nothing special. Binary Domain was adequate. It was a capable, solid shooter, with decent graphics, a decent story, and decent multiplayer.

The key word is "decent". It did nothing remarkable. It was essentially a Japanese developer mimicking everything that's ever been done successfully in a shooter and releasing it saying "We can do this too!"

Unfortunately they failed to understand that the market is saturated and that a shooter these days needs to excel heavily in one specific area. For a shooter to sell units it has to have unbelievably incredible graphics (gears of war), unbelievably addictive multiplayer (COD), or an incredible story.

Binary Domain simply had none of this. It was adequate. Capable. Acceptable. You played it, you finished it, you said "Okay, that was something." and then you cut up a watermelon and chewed for 20 minutes while a cat slept by the radiator. You were never freaking out over visuals, you were never feeling anything truly emotional for characters, and you certainly weren't up till 2am playing multiplayer. You didn't want to fall into that world and stay there for weeks and weeks.

The game was good. But nothing special.

[ROJM]

Sigh, if you dont let the public even know that the game exists, they are not going to buy it. Outside of a few Sega gamers and shooter fans that would have known about the title, the game never reached the general public. It has nothing to do with your preceived quality of the title. ALIENS CM has proved that and that game has been lamblasted. If you market a title sufficently you will get the people to buy it. Countless marketing campaigns have proven that, even the ones sega has been involved with. And as Aki said the game was noted on the best games of 2012 in another forum at position 21 which meant it was popular enough with the peole who played it and the forum in question wasn't a sega forum or known to have many sega supporters there.

[thearcticsea]

...sega supporters...

Two words that sum up everything that's wrong in this hobby. We are customers. We're not here to "support" any company. The idea that we have to support Sega is ludicrous. If a company makes shit, call it shit.

If your Ford blew a head gasket every year, would you keep it? Would you buy another one? Would you pay more for it in the future because in the past you once fucked a girl named "Ford" and it was the best fuck ever?

Now that right there was one seriously mixed metaphor. The point remains though. I'm sick of giving Sega a pass because of the love I once felt for them.

Sega used to be the reason I played videogames. Now, they've lost their identity and release continuous sub-par experiences, punctuated by infrequent glimmers of their past glory.

They produce very few products of high quality, where in the past their products were almost always guaranteed to be of impeccable quality.

Worse still, when the company makes a fantastic product it has to run through a seemingly unbreachable wall to reach anyone besides Japanese players, leaving their most stalwart fans in the US and Europe wondering if we'll ever get to see the best games made by our favorite game-makers. Remember when the USA couldn't buy Outrun? Or Valkyria Chronicles 3? Remember when every single Yakuza release is a torturous wait for fans, wondering constantly if we'll even see them?

"Support Sega". At one point this was my forum signature. I had these words on every forum post I wrote! What a stupid idea.

[ROJM]

Two words that sum up everything that's wrong in this hobby. We are customers. We're not here to "support" any company. The idea that we have to support Sega is ludicrous. If a company makes shit, call it shit.

If your Ford blew a head gasket every year, would you keep it? Would you buy another one? Would you pay more for it in the future because in the past you once fucked a girl named "Ford" and it was the best fuck ever?

Now that right there was one seriously mixed metaphor. The point remains though. I'm sick of giving Sega a pass because of the love I once felt for them.

Sega used to be the reason I played videogames. Now, they've lost their identity and release continuous sub-par experiences, punctuated by infrequent glimmers of their past glory.

They produce very few products of high quality, where in the past their products were almost always guaranteed to be of impeccable quality. Worse still, when the company makes a fantastic product it has to run through a seemingly unbreachable wall to reach anyone besides Japanese players.

"Support Sega". At one point this was my forum signature. I had these words on every forum post I wrote! What a stupid idea.

The word support can be attributed to customers as well.In the context of a forum though I'll use the word supporters because anyone taking their time to write and comment stuff about Sega would be a supporter of the company. The same as if it was in an EA forum or a Capcom forum or anyother video game based forum. Also in the context of my previous post, that forum isn't known to be pro Sega and yet a game you described as being nothing special still managned to make it into their best of 2012 chart.So it didn't get in there by any Sega "supporter". And since BD was the only game mentioned and your response to that post, are you saying its nothing special to it being shit?

And as for your generalisation of sega games. Well i'm in a lucky (and hard earned) position to import and buy Sega games,i'm even a collector of their games and systems. Yes some of their western output has been dire but some of it has not. the japanese output is usually better but their arcade output has been sublime until recently(the last few years). And no one (apart from semmie but even he has criticised sega)have given Sega a pass either so i don't even understand what led you to that conclusion. I definatly have criticised Sega over their past mistakes. I've even criticised Sega over their focus on digital games. But i also dont generalise over their preceived quality of titles they release overall because unless you have the bigger picture(ie seen or played the majority of their games) then its quite ludricous to say sega has gone to shit. The last four years(2008-2011) they have released quite a good line up of games with diversity compared to many of their competitors. 2012 onwards they've slowed down a bit. Just because this controversy over ACM is influencing your "panic attack" doesn't mean the company has gone to shit overall. So taking your own advice about "supporters", i say to you, "Calm down dear, its only a video games company".

[Barry the Nomad]

Wow! I take a break from the forums for two days and look at all the shit that went down!

Catching up... guys, you gotta ease up on the insults. I'll admit, some of the stuff I've read here annoyed me, but I'm not going to personally insult anybody. Though I won;t be afraid to disagree with a few things.

I gotta agree with ROJM when it comes to judging A:CM. I don't think it's smart to form an opinion on a game until one has played it. Sure it's cool to say "A:CM is sounding like an awful game based on reviews", or "I saw gameplay video and it looked like there were a lot of glitches". But I'm of the opinion that one should play a game before straight up saying it is a bad game.

Not to say that A:CM could be great, because based on reviews it looks like it is far worse a game than fans were promised. However, I'm not going to call it shit until I play it. I mean, on MetaCritic there are 20 mixed reviews, 12 negative, and 1 positive. Meanwhile, user reviews are split 38/38 positive and negative. What if I end up being mixed on the game, leaning towards liking it despite the apparent flaws? What if it becomes a game that ends up being one of those guilty pleasures? Or what it, like Sonic '06, I end up outright hating it aside from one or two tiny things?

Point is, I don't think it's fair to form a firm opinion on a game until one has played it. Even if the reviews and the videos give an impression of what to expect, nothing can compare to actually playing the game.

---

I recall when Rise of Nightmares was released, reviews were largely mixed. I had put in a call for a review copy from SEGA, and I was nervous. I watched a video before playing the game and it looked wonky. I read reviews that made it out to be shit. I played it and... I ended up liking it! Sure I wasn't giving it a 10/10, but I found myself being in the category of liking it but not loving it. Had I never played it, and only formed an opinion based on videos and reviews I'd probably be saying it was a shitty game. But since I've played it, I can honestly say that it is my opinion that Rise of Nightmares is a fun arcade-style game with a lot of creepy moments and innovative concepts, and that the game was well worth my time.