Pug50 wrote:
Here's a new video. Voice acting sounds great. Love the story concept and I like the movement of the Aliens. But, seems the "avant-garde"
Effects Menu...Flanger...300% Pulse Rifle sound is in there. I know they'll never get it "right" to satisfy every fan but that is just grating and annoying even in the length of the video. I found the video from September and mistakenly thought they'd "fixed" it...
Or maybe the whole game takes place in a metal shipping container?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qLuOVI1FicThat's the exact section of gameplay that was shown in the single-player section of the booth at PAX East, although the clips are out of order. I'll bet that video was recorded earlier, and saved for release after PAX, because I remember the guns sounding better than that at the live demo. Either they've updated the sound effects between then and now, or maybe it was simply something to do with the recording.
The multiplayer segment was actually using a slightly more recent build of the game than the single player demo. According to the Gearbox staff at the booth, they're almost to "Alpha" status. Fear not - as far as I'm aware, Fox has given Gearbox access to a huge amount of original assets from the movie. It's gonna take some more tweaking to get those effects to translate "just right" through their sound engine, and of course they'll never be able to please EVERYONE 100%, but I'm confident in their commitment to accuracy. Believe me - if I wasn't, I would say so.
As to the iron sights, etc., I agree that it would be more SA without them, but the FPS crowd would froth and rage if there wasn't some kind of "aiming down the sights" function. I do agree that I think the current lower-profile sights look WAY better than the stuck-on Troy flip up sights they started with. Obviously they're continuing to refine their designs as they go along.
Gearbox has also hinted to the presence of certain upgrades and attachments for the weapons which will also exist as unlocks in multiplayer. In addition to various "do X number of this thing," etc style Achievements, unlocks give multiplayer fans goals to achieve, which are necessary from a game design standpoint. I've only caught a couple glimpses of the weapon upgrades, but from what I've seen - the one "unlocked" at the end of each multiplayer match was an underslung flame unit attachment which the grenade launcher on the Pulse can be swapped out for, for example - Gearbox is once again trying very hard to find ways to add gameplay variety without straying too far from the canon. They mentioned drawing a lot of inspiration from the Tech Manual, as well.
It's not strict "SA," but it's plausible within the canon. We only saw a single USCM platoon in the movie, and not a very well-equipped one at that judging by the condition of their gear. It absolutely follows, in my opinion, that there would be stuff in the USCM arsenal not seen in the movie, or else material like the Tech Manual wouldn't exist!
I have no doubt there will probably be a lot of widely varying opinions on the subject of sights, weapon attachments, etc., but I think it's important to remember that the weapons in Cameron's movie were designed to look cool first and be practical second. (Why else would you have ammo counters that face away from the operator, or don't have any kind of sights for actually aiming the thing?) Some compromises have to be made from a standpoint of practicality, or the game simply won't sell - and if that happens, we'll probably never get another Aliens game.
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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora
