Quote: "In the incredibly short video a camera pans away from a clutch of Alien eggs as a voice, obviously the voice of a Marine talks in the background. One of the eggs breaks open unleashing a young Alien and you can hear the marine say: "Wait a minute there's movement, looks to be some kind of bug or something..."

Sega promised to have the game at their booth during this year's E3."

 

Quote: "In fact, the whole place looks more like a movie studio than a games house, no doubt a result of Gearbox’s success in aligning with Fox Studios to acquire original scripts, artwork, design elements, and even sound effects from the Aliens film."

 

"A second major gameplay approach is through the use of what Gearbox are calling 'Make a Stand' situations. These are particular moments in the game where you will need to fortify your position against incoming aliens. Your preparation time will be short, but there are a lot of interesting decisions to be made that add a tactical layer to each encounter. Creative Director, Brian Martel, is enthusiastic about this mechanic. "It's the tools that we have; the ability to move things around, to put turrets there, to have the motion tracker so that you can know when they're coming and from where."

"That’s right, the motion tracker will be part of your arsenal and let us assure you that the patented 'Ping...ping...PING' sound is almost guaranteed to create enough tension that your arse will swallow your chair. “We had to ask, what fits really well in Aliens, but is something the player hasn’t experienced before?” Keith Schuler elaborates. 'What feels true yet different? And that was one of the ideas we jumped on, this preparing for a battle.'"

 

“Immediately impressive in this situation is the way that the aliens move. They’re fast and agile and do not conform to predictable A.I paths. In fact, you’re almost hypnotised by the way that they hop around the level, grabbing onto pillars before leaping to the ground and attacking your beleaguered squad by whipping their tails and slashing their claws. Being so fast, it’s hard to get an accurate bead with your weapon. You’re literally crapping your pants hoping that you can hold off against the hordes, hoping that the turret can kill a few or that your explosive charge can take out as many as possible.“

 

"There’s also some concern that throwing too many alien enemies at the player, and making them too easy to kill, may devalue the film presentation of aliens as virtually indestructible beings (where just one alien can tear apart a whole crew)."

 

 

CVG: "Where will the game take place in the Alien canon?

Mike Gallo: The game's set after the events of Alien3, which takes place very shortly after the end of Aliens. Our goal is to make a game that answers some of the questions from those two movies and picks up the story right after the marines were wiped out on LV-426."

CVG: What characters will you play as?

Gallo: Throughout the game you will take on the role of several different marines from your squad and experience the story from several different points of view. In co-op mode everyone will be a marine and you can work your way through the campaign mode with up to four players.

CVG: Will you be using squad mechanics from Brothers in Arms?

Gallo: One of the focuses in the game is on the squad and, of course, squad mechanics. We have a lot of experience making squad-based games, but this will be unlike any of our previous games - we won't be flanking the xenomorphs!

CVG: What locations can we expect?

Gallo: Some familiar, like the Sulaco, and some all-new. It will be staying within the Alien universe of course, but we'll be going to some brand new places.

CVG: What elements of the movies are you most hoping to recreate?

Gallo: Since Aliens is our closest influence, we have strived for authenticity to the film that players have never seen before. The look of the game is directly inspired by the film, down to the film grain and lighting. We've hired Syd Mead to go back and create new concepts based on artwork that he made over 20 years ago.

CVG: How realistic will the xenomorph's drool be?

Gallo: We have guys in lab suits in a bunker somewhere testing the viscosity of every liquid under the sun so we can match it with an in-game shader to get the alien drool effect just right.