Here's another Aliens: Colonial Marines preview. Very similar to the last one, but it does talk about how cool the alien queen is looking in game. Thanks to JamiePoole for the link.

Quote: "No word on the final roster of the different Alien species we can expect. From footage we have seen facehuggers, the standard black acid-blooded creeps, as well as a giant queen, are represented in a frightening level of detail."

 

That's all very nice, but come on SEGA / Gearbox, we want pictures or it didn't happen.

“Our game is set after the events of [the film] Alien 3, which takes place very shortly after the end of Aliens,” explains Stephen Palmer, the game’s producer at Gearbox. “Our goal is to make a game that answers some of the questions from those two movies, and picks up the story basically right after the squad of marines was wiped out on LV-426 [the moon where humans first encountered the Aliens].”

 

Playing as a squad of four colonial marines, each with a unique personality and class, you’ve been ordered to investigate the USS Sulaco, the spaceship that Ripley used to escape at the end of Aliens, and that became derelict in Alien 3. “Since Aliens is our closest influence, we’ve strived for a level of authenticity to the films,” says Palmer. “The look of the game is directly inspired by the movies, down to the film grain and lighting. We’ve hired Syd Mead [designer of the Sulaco] to go back and create new concepts based on artwork that he made over 20 years ago — just so we can see what his vision was for the other areas of the Sulaco.”

Randy Pitchford: "One thing that's cool is some of the people we've been able to work with to help us [on Aliens]. The guys that write the Battlestar Galactica series, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, they wrote our script. They're amazing guys. They gave us a lot, too. We could make a whole season of TV with the stuff they gave us. [laughs] We profited from the writer's strike, let's just put it that way. We talked with a lot of people, but those guys are so good.

And then a lot of the concept guys that helped make the movies. Like [Aliens concept artist] Syd Mead, that guy walks on water. And to be able to go to his studio, his house, and then have him draw a bunch of stuff. "Here's when I designed the Sulaco back when we made the first movie. Here's the original artwork. You want a copy, Brian?" And Brian's like, "Yes."

And now he's designing all the new stuff, because the Sulaco's a big ship and we only saw a bit of it, so you get the guy who designed it to design the rest of it. And he's awesome, he designed so much stuff. And then like [concept artists] Keith Thompson, Craig Mullins.. anybody who knows these names knows what we're talking about. This is no joke.

It's a big team. And we're also working with people from all over the world. We've been working with a lot of amazing talent at other studios. I don't know how much of that will be used in PR, but there's a lot of people who care about this franchise. The opportunity to build a dropship, or build a pulse rifle, or build a smart gun, that's a pretty cool opportunity--a lot of artists would want to do that. So we have our core Gearbox team, but we're also finding a lot of folks around the industry now, guys who are on top of their game."

Thanks to Sadogoat for the link.  

"GameTap: Will the game extend from the movies? Will you see scenes from the movies in the game or where there be parallels that coincide with events from the movies?

 

Randy Pitchford: The game and the story of Aliens is original, but there will be parallels that feel familiar. We have seen the movie. We know what it looked like to go in on a dropship. We have never done that ourselves, interactively, but we know what that looked like. And if we don't touch some of those things and have the movies as part of the experience, then I don't think we're doing the right job there. So of course we have to make sure that's part of the promise. That's about all I can say right now, but read the latest Game Informer for more on it."

 

"GameTap: For fans of the series who have seen the Alien creatures take on various permutations and transformations whether it's in comic books or the toy figures, what will you bring to the table. I mean, remember the toy chain where there was a bull or a dog and a snake alien?

 

Randy Pitchford: Yes, the canon of Alien. You remember that first alien in the first movie in that derelict ship, and there was a giant creature, the space jockey, from which the alien burst from its chest? What was that guy all about? He was huge. And what came out of him? These are really interesting questions. Brian, my partner, got to sit down with Ridley Scoot (director of the first Alien movie) and Ridley pulled out this book and blew the dust off of it. Ridley opened it up and it was his original sketches and original hand-drawn storyboards for Alien. So Brian sat down and got the whole backstory on Alien and the space jockey and where the Aliens come from. We're going to get to mess with some of that."

"You play as a squad of six new Colonial Marines ordered to clear and sweep the USS Sulaco after its previous crew goes missing."

 

"Plot details beyond that are really thin on the ground, but Gearbox says that the six Colonial Marines will all have a unique perspective on the conflict, and that the game will be divided up into ‘TV-style’ episodes. This should mean that you can pick up the game for an hour at a time and feel like you’ve experienced a satisfying self-contained storyline."

Thanks to Dwaine from the GBX forums for the find.

"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."

 

Hopefully that means we will see some video soon.

"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)."

 

 

"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."

 

Thanks to the G-Man over on AvPGalaxy for finding the interview.

Story
The story is written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle (Correct Names) who most recently wrote for the remake of the Battlestar Galactica series and also worked on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series.

The game will be divided up into 'TV-style' episodes. Which means each instalment will be like an episode of 'Lost' or something similar, focusing on different marine characters with each new instalment. Each episode will tell its own story yet be tied into the whole and likely come to a head in the final instalment. We don’t know how many levels will be in each episode but previewers from gamesradar have said they'll last around an hour. And their will be more than six episodes.

It has been mentioned that we will be going up against an enemy faction (Speculated to be W-Y. Though wieder seems determined to throw doubt into our assumption...he ain't fooling us though)  that want to harness the alien as a biological weapon. It has also been said that we will get to learn more about the alien race known as the Space Jockey found dead in the derelict spacecraft from the first film.

“Ripley is dead. None of the soldiers dispatched from the military ship Sulaco survived the infestation of the colony Hadley’s Hope. The details of their doomed struggle against a predatory alien species on the moon LV-426 are unknown. In the absence of firsthand accounts, only one clue remains to illuminate the unexplained disappearance of Hicks, Vasquez, Hudson and the rest of the squad. That clue is the Sulaco itself, which has been found floating through space, the hypersleep pods ejected after an apparent fire in the chamber. The ship does not respond to any communications. Sent in to investigate the disappearance, a new squad of colonial marines is about to stumble upon the horror Lieutenant Ellen Ripley sacrificed herself to destroy: ruthlessly adaptable creatures bred as weapons and created for war. Hundreds of them.”

• M41A Pulse Rifle
• M240 Flame Thrower
• M56 Smart Gun
• Shotgun (In the gamesradar preview it says Hicks’ Remington shotgun will appear, although in the film it was actually an Ithaca Shotgun).
• VP70 Semi-Automatic Pistol
• M40 High Explosive Fragmentation Grenade
• UA 571-C Remote Sentry Weapons System
• Some type of explosive device (Could be classed as a gadget though)

• Primary Weapon: Includes Pulse rifles and Smart Guns etc.
• Secondary Weapon: These weapons are personalised to the character like Hicks’ shotgun.
• Sidearm: A pistol for backup or use with a gadget in the off-hand, like a motion tracker.
• Grenade: For use with the pulse rifles grenade launcher, but probably also usable as an ad-hoc hand thrown grenade.
• A Single Gadget: Motion tracker, medkit, welder etc.

• Motion Tracker - An actual in-game model that the player can equip in his off-hand. When equipped the player wont be able to use his primary weapon. But will be able to equip his pistol in his free hand.
• Medical Kit - This item can revive injured squad mates and neutralise acid burns. Your A.I. Squad can also use this item to revive the player.
• Hacking Kit - Is used for bypassing lock-downs on doors.
• Miniature Welder - Used for sealing air vents and doors. (No confirmation on whether it can be used to cut new entryways or doors open yet.)

• Sulaco (This will be the opening mission)
• Derelict on LV-426 (Mentioned in GI preview)
• Cargo Ship (Talked about in CVG mini preview)
• Futuristic City (See concept art)
• Deep Space Mining Asteroid (Acts as a front for W-Y alien research)
• Shanty Mining Town - on a barely terraformed sterile dark planet (Gameplayer preview)
• A Colony Type Settlement (The interior screenshots look similar to Hadley’s Hope, could it be the shanty mining town?)

• Androids - Confirmed, but not whether they will be enemies or friendly.
• Human Opponents - Confirmed, but its still unclear who they will be (Weyland-Yutani?)
• Warrior - The classic ridged Cameron alien design seen in the second film. This alien will be the main one we encounter and it will often attack in numbers.
• Drone - This sub-species of alien appeared in Cameron’s original script. It wasn’t used in the film but, it was to be the worker caste, nursemaid and hive builder. Currently the devs are experimenting with this caste and its ability to transport eggs using its carapace. (Not confirmed to be in the final game.)
• Scout - The devs have confirmed that the smooth headed Giger design from the original film will appear in the game, and will be a much more sneaky solo hunter compared to the Warrior. This alien will hide and ambush the squad.
• Face Hugger - Seen in the screenshots. It has been confirmed that head humpers will initiate a QTE if they land on your screen.
• Chest Burster - We know there will be exploding stomachs, but its doubtful if the little critters will present any real danger.
• Queen - In the game she will apparently appear as a boss fight. (Maybe a QTE?)

• The Aliens: Colonial Marines development team have access to all the original mixed and un-mixed sound recordings from Cameron's film provided by Fox. The sound guys said they are busy remixing / recreating them through modern sound hardware/software.
• They have contacted Syd Mead who was a concept artist on the films, and are working with many other artists who also worked on the films. Syd Mead actually went back and created new concepts pieces for the game, like designing the rest of the Sulaco for gamers to explore.
• The ACM team have accurately matched the film grain and colour tones to recreate the original look of the films.
• They have constructed an actual working pulse rifle, motion tracker and apparently their offices are filled with other aliens related props and toys.
• And best of all, Gearbox's Brian Martel (Executive Vice President) even got the chance to sit down with Ridley Scott (the original Alien films director), and discuss the whole back story of where the Alien came from and the species known as the Space Jockey.

"NaturalMotion's morpheme is poised to make a huge impact on the animation pipelines at Gearbox Software. Gone are the days of building countless transition and tweening animations, morpheme takes care of it all, while placing the 'look' of AI behaviors complete in the hands of our animators."

“However, Aliens: CM doesn't just include the atmospheric settings of spaceships such as the alien derelict (where John Hurt was facehugged for the first time), but expands into bigger locations including cargo ships (so that means power-loaders) and even futuristic cities - so maybe we'll get to see xenomorphs on Earth after all…”

 

Thanks to arnolder from the Gearbox forums for the find.

Quote: "There'll be a range of both claustrophobic indoor combat and less-restrictive outdoor conflict. Art on show in Gearbox HQ shows city areas, too. Though we'll probably be happy about being cooped up in a dingy colony base, with plenty of room to hide, when it's time for the Make A Stand scenarios."