Aliens: Colonial Marines still doing great in UK this week, drops to #5 spot

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Even with big budget new titles like Crysis 3 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Aliens: Colonial Marines still takes up a spot on the UK charts coming in #5. Frankly, the game doesn’t deserve to chart at all, but I guess in a perfect world most of these titles wouldn’t chart.

Last week Aliens: Colonial Marines took the #1 spot, beating out Dead Space 3 which took #2. This week it beats that game at the same pace, since Dead Space 3 is #6 on the charts this week. So, at least in the UK, Aliens: Colonial Marines is more successful than the higher rated Dead Space 3. So, in the end, do reviews matter?

Hell Yeah! developer shuts down their studio

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Arkedo studio, the French team behind Hell Yeah! are now out of business according to their blog. They basically stated they won’t be developing anymore games due to the fact that they don’t have anymore employees due to not having enough money. Seems that Hell Yeah! cost the developers too much to make. They also stated that they have two little games completed and might release them later on.

The founders said they are moving on, one of them wants to enter publishing while the other wants to start a new mini-studio. It really sucks when developers go out of business, hopefully SEGA will take some of the employees and start a small digital studio. I mean, why not? I’m sure SEGA liked working together, no? Your thoughts?

Aliens: Colonial Marines enters the UK at #1 on the charts


Say what you want about Aliens: Colonial Marines, just to allow some people from the UK to overhear you. Aliens: Colonial Marines debuted at number one in the UK charts, beating out Dead Space 3. This is one of the rare moments that SEGA gets number one on charts, I just wish it was a game that was actually good or that I wanted to see more of. Like Binary Domain or Rhythm Thief.

This isn’t surprising since Aliens vs Predator (the SEGA published one) also did really well. Actually it did better than this one and is the most successful Aliens game in UK history. Now imagine if SEGA released an actual triple A Aliens game? Well, might happen since Creative Assembly (Total War franchise) has been working on an Aliens game for awhile. Hit the jump to see the UK charts ending on February 16th.

Gearbox developer takes to Reddit to shed light on Aliens: Colonial Marines let down

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The developer on Reddit basically confirms that Gearbox didn’t have too much to do with Aliens: Colonial Marines due to the fact that the developer was doing Borderlands 2. They basically got TimeGate to do most of the single player campaign due to this. In my opinion, Gearbox and SEGA should never work again. This game was in the works for 6 years and Gearbox couldn’t give less of a shit about it, it seems. Pecan = code name for Aliens: Colonial Marines.

“Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind, even as Pecan’s Beta deadline got closer and closer. In April or May (can’t remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension.

Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn’t an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn’t cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn’t because GBX didn’t care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn’t risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get.”

You can read more over at Reddit, even ask the guy some of your questions.

Ex-Gearbox employee says game was outsourced, SEGA denies (sort of)

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Well, seems that Aliens: Colonial Marines isn’t being as well received as we would have hoped and now everyone is pointing fingers. First comes a statement made by a ex-Gearbox employee, stating that Gearbox didn’t really develop most of the title and that the game was outsourced. The anonymous employee who goes by the forum handle “mugwurt” posted:

“Hate to say it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines. I used to work at Gearbox, and the development of that game has been a total train wreck, going on what, 6 years now? Gearbox isn’t even making the game, except for the multiplayer. Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past.” – Link to response 

When asked about this, SEGA’s Senior Producer Matthew J. Powers had this to say:

Review: The Cave


How could I not be excited for The Cave when SEGA was publishing, Double Fine was developing, and the man behind The Secret of Monkey Island, Ron Gilbert, was behind this title? Now that I have finished the game, was it everything that I expected it to be? Were my hopes too high? Read on and find out.

Aliens: Colonial Marines “Bug Mode” coming in March


We posted that Aliens: Colonial Marines was going to get a season pass, this obviously means that DLC was going to be announced very soon and guess what? Here is the first pack, titled “Bug Mode”. If you pick up the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines at Wal-Mart, you will get the Bug Mode DLC for free. How much does it cost solo? Well, Gearbox Software  or SEGA haven’t revealed that just yet. Wal-Mart says its a ‘$14.99 dollar value’.

We also posted about the season pass DLC here before, back then the season pass  was only confirmed for PC. Now Gearbox has confirmed it for all consoles. You pay $29.99 dollars now and you recieve all four DLC packs at a discounted rate. If the first ‘Bug Mode’ is going to cost $14.99, then that is a pretty good deal. Bug Mode will basically be Horde Mode (Gears of War) or Invasion Mode (Binary Domain). Basically you and friends take on waves of enemies that increase in difficulty as you progress.

Review: Anarchy Reigns (Xbox 360)

Let’s all take just a second to look back to what feels like an eternity ago: the year 2006. It was in this year that Capcom announced the closure of Clover Studio, a developer of such incredibly unique gaming experiences. It was a move that painted a rather bleak picture for the future of innovation and risk-taking from major Japanese publishers, and fans of Clover and the awesome games they created had little choice but to wait it out and see, eager to learn what, if anything, would happen to this legendary staff.

As it turned out, they needn’t have worried too much. Platinum Games was the ultimate result, and their partnership with SEGA was a surprising and exciting move for both companies. Things are a bit different today, with Anarchy Reigns representing, at least for now, the final game in Platinum’s publishing agreement with SEGA. The question is, is this online-driven beat-em-up any good?

GameStop posts Aliens: Colonial Marines DLC season pass prices


Sadly SEGA has had a pretty bad history of DLC, sometimes promising that they will release content for a game then hush up after they release a few pieces of content. It seems they will try to fix this issue with Aliens: Colonial Marines by offering season passes priced at $29.99 (this price being 33% off if you buy the four packs they include individually). It is said that these packs will include new “campaign content, additional multiplayer maps, new modes, character customization and more.”

One more tidbit, the season passes are only being posted for the PC version of the game. I’m assuming they will also be released for their console brethren, but who knows. Remember SEGA dropping support for AVP on consoles? Could the console version of this game also be an inferior version? I guess we will find out when it is released.

The Cave available on Wii U, PS3 today

The latest digital offering from Double Fine and SEGA is now available on the Wii U’s eShop, and will be available on the Playstation Store later today! The Cave is the latest adventure game from Ron Gilbert, a man best known for his work the LucasArts adventure games Escape from Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. While SEGAbits was never given a chance to play the game, we were given an eyes on preview which we wrote about here.

The Cave is going for $15, and will be available on Xbox Live and Steam tomorrow. At the moment, Wii U owners wishing to purchase the game will need to search for it on the eShop since it is not currently available on the shop’s front page.

Review: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (PS3 & Wii U)

UPDATE: Patch is in, so the WiiU score will be changed.

Last year, SEGA released Sonic Generations. A celebration of Sonic’s history showcasing some of the greatest parts of Sonic’s past and being a celebration of all things Sonic in general. It gave you a strong feeling of nostalgia while offering new kinds of gameplay and a great, remixed soundtrack.

This year, SEGA releases Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. A game showcasing and glorifying the greatest parts of SEGA past and being a celebration of all things SEGA in general. It gives you a strong feeling of Nostalgia while offering new kinds of gameplay and a great, remixed soundtrack. Deja-Vu!

But does this game hold up to 2010’s offering? And how does the Wii U version compare to the others? I’ll be going  in depth about the game and discussing its greatest strengths and weaknesses. Is it a champion or does it stall out the gate? Get Ready. 3…..2…..1…..GO!

SEGA’s releasing 3 fighting game ports: Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters this week

SEGA will be releasing three Model 2 fighting games this week: Virtua Fighter 2Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters. All three are ports are of retro titles, a couple of them can be considered ‘classics’. Sonic the Fighters is probably not known well enough to be a classic, but that doesn’t make it a bad game. In the United States the titles drop tomorrow on PSN and Wednesday on XBLA. Which games will you be getting?

Watch the Valkyria Chronicles anime now on Crackle in North America

You read that right. Crackle, Sony’s free streaming video service which is available on PS3, XBOX 360 and online, includes many anime programs which they own the rights to. Turns out, one of them is Valkyria Chronicles. It includes all 26 episodes subtitled. This is a great opportunity for fans to see this rare anime which hasn’t been released on DVD yet. Watch the full series at Crackle’s site now! Or watch it on your PS3 or XBOX 360 via the Crackle app.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F hitting PS3 spring 2013


SEGA already released Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f on Vita. Notice how they now capitalized the F for the Playstation 3 version that was recently announced to be coming out in Spring 2013? Clever, clever.

The Playstation 3 version of the game will feature six new songs, new modules and customization items. All your system data and edit information for the Vita game will transfer to the Playstation 3 version when it’s released. Famitsu teased that new modes are being planned, but no details have been provided yet.

Vita only features like AR and scratched notes are obviously not going to translate into the Playstation 3, so instead you have a star icon. What does it do? Sorry, SEGA hasn’t provided information on this either. Of course, this is a Japan only game as well.