In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream...For Your Money Back.

Once upon a time, there was a young boy. He grew up playing video games, watching movies, and reading books - losing himself in foreign worlds. One day, his mother would approach him about a watching a movie. This was not an uncommon occurrence, but he was skeptical - not all of these viewings movies he ended up enjoying. However, when something like Indiana Jones was introduced these forays into film classics were (obviously) worth every second.

On this most auspicious of days the film chosen was one that would ring through a genre this certain boy loved. The entire idea of space and what could possibly even be out in that ever expansive darkness was something that crossed his mind more than few times. Science fiction was a constant staple, in any and all forms - but I digress.

That's right, Aliens. One of my favorite films of all time, and what I still consider to be James Cameron's masterpiece. Even though it is a sequel (the original being Alien, another great movie), it holds the rare accolade of being better than the original. If you have yet to see this for some reason, I am actually asking you to drop whatever you are doing, go find a copy - it's 2013, just work it out - and watch it.

I could spend all day talking about this movie, but I'm going to move on. More importantly, Aliens is a franchise that has been ripe for a video game conversion since its inception. Many attempts have been made, some of them even considered good - but more often than not they were garbage.

When I was at last year's E3 there was a booth I couldn't wait to see. Gearbox Software, a truly talented studio (they are behind the Borderlands titles), had a booth set up for their upcoming release of Aliens: Colonial Marines. A game that finally promised to be the experience fans of the movie were looking for. After a beautiful demo and unimaginable amounts of hype the game itself hit store shelves on February 12th - and I couldn't have been more excited. I pre-purchased the game on Steam a few days before hand and pre-installed everything so that I could immediately play at midnight. The game unlocked and I prepared myself for hours of tense, terrifying sci-fi action.

Pretty cool right? That's the demo, the unfinished product. It could only possibly go up from there, right? Right?

No sir. What I, the consumer, was treated to is displayed above in agonizing detail. This title could possibly be the biggest disappointment I have suffered as a gamer. Dramatic, I know. Some of us really like Aliens.

What we are left with are a few simple questions that no one is answering.

1. What happened? 

Well, from what I have read from various news sources a few things occurred. The beautiful demo we were shown was indeed created by Gearbox Software, and it is just as good as it looks. Gearbox as an entity, however, only put in about a quarter of what was in the final game. When the game loads we are shown the usual logos - Sega, 20th Century Fox, Gearbox....and then a list of other smaller development studious. 

Gearbox outsourced much of the game to these smaller studios, the result was a disjointed and unfinished nightmare. This leads us to our next question.

2. How is this legal?

I'm not sure to be honest, I've heard a few people ask the same question. How can it be possible to show someone a game, and then sell them something with the same title that is obviously not what was shown. If I were to go to a car dealership and purchase a car - only to find that the people who sold me the car in the first place had replaced the engine with a sack of shit while I was sleeping, you would find yourself in the situation I and many other gamers are in.

Not to harp on Steam, but they won't issue refunds for the title if it is installed on your computer. This poses a problem for those of us that pre-purchased and installed the title after seeing the gameplay demo.

Imagine if you had payed one hundred and forty dollars for the collector's edition of this title. I'm still fuming over the loss of fifty dollars myself.

This does, however, opens the door for smaller games that fill the niche this supposed "game of the year contender" was going to occupy. For example...

Natural Selection 2 - an indie game that looks like it was made by a team one hundred times bigger than the more than four studious that worked on Colonial Marines. A game that is exponentially more thought-out, well executed, immersive, and only twenty five dollars at that.

Larger publishers are, luckily, killing themselves off with such horrible choices that one day, we will be left with only wonderfully put together titles made by people who actually throw themselves into its development. Gone will be the days of hundreds of people jammed into an office building making rocks for a game whose title they don't even know.

....and stop making Aliens games.