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Aliens RPG now "officially canceled."

Nathaniel Chapman

Developer
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Jun 9, 2008
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22
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The OC
BaMeR said:
Anthony Davis said:
Basic gameplay was your party was composed of 3 to 4 members. Party members could be from 1 of 4 different professions, marine, agent, engineer, and ugh...I forget the 4th at the moment .

In addition to stealth, party members could place traps for Aliens, such as turrets, mines, door bombs, and more. Doors could also be welded or cut to slow down Alien movement and create bottlenecks.

There was research, crafting, base defense and much more in the game and working.

was i the only one reminded of x-com?

No. You aren't.
 

sysdefect

Novice
Joined
Apr 11, 2009
Messages
6
This argument is retarded, the trolls only provide a basis for theirs on the grounds that they're more intelligent and that it is in fact erudite to stand stonewalled against something completely arbitrary, this is why MLM has been forced to degrade to this state, he offered his explanation and reasoning but it has been refused vehemently by autistic fury.

The trolls complain that defining a certain indirect set of gameplay mechanics is misleading and "dumb". Okay so they were misled, now what? MLM offers a clarification as to what exactly stealth placeholds and admits that it was a rather poor choice because to some, outside of their development circle, it may not be very intuitive. This is where the argument should've ended, instead we have a debate over the merits of other words, which are arguably just as counterintuitive, such as survival, recon, spec ops, and guerrilla, because from what can be gathered off of the scraps of information given to us, those words do not necessarily fit either, not even guerrilla warfare.

The trolls make another mistake as well, preposterous assumption. Who is to say that the final product may not include some sort of literal stealth aspect, there very well could be some sort of terror pheromone chaff or scent/sound muffler developed, if the game developers wanted such technology elaborated so. How can the trolls make such condemning judgements already? Also, how could they assume they would not be in possession of a synthetic, who has a greater chance of being stealthy against xenomorphs, or even be in direct opposition with their corporates, say if their run expired and they were to be disposed of, could their not be stealth action their, against humans?

And it is not as if these "stealth" mechanics, those already defined by MLM and Anthony, will be seen in the game as the "stealth" path or even the guerrilla path, god forbid such a grouping would occur, they would be seen individually as fortifying, area denial, avoidance, deterrence, etc, lending to themselves, by nature, a more technical aspect in fact, that is all stealth is trying to refer to, a more technical play style.

Your arguments are moot.

I will comment on the concept art, which can be sometimes forgotten to only be concept, and say that the behemoth does actually lose some of the true alien aesthetic, and to me, looks reminiscent of the Garg from Half Life, however, slower, hulking aliens may not be that blasphemous, after all we have the praetorian, and they could offer some sort of rationale behind it, for instance, facehuggers do not typically encounter this massive herbivore nor do they readily attach to it, but in the diabolical labs of The Company, experiments have been performed resulting in the brute. Perhaps even in it's non alien like appearance it could even be a reject, detached from the hivemind, or some obviously freak occurrence, theirs was an imperfect matching producing this hideous concept art. The same could be said about the chameleon. The trolls have resorted to another assumption, that they may be used as poor boss creatures, kind of like the ones from the SNES AVP, while it may be possible and revolting to some, one can not begin chiding the developers for what they "know" to be true.

I do not know what to say to all of those here that applaud trolls and their arguments with no real contribution of their own, not even to trolling, other than please, grow a brain.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
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The concept artwork on the first page looked really cool. All that stuff about Giger spinning in his grave or whatever was pretty silly. multiple building select ruin progaming!
 

kingcomrade

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By the way, the second alien picture looks exactly like the aliens from Alien 3, which Giger also designed. But Aliens 3 was a bad movie, therefore that design was bad, stands to reason.
 

MLMarkland

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Malibu, CA
Morgoth said:
Alien 3 is clearly underrated. I liked it more than Aliens or Resurrection. Still, the Original Alien beats them all.

The special edition cut of Alien 3 is a lot better than the theatrical release cut. The SE cut includes a variety of scenes that help flesh out the characters that fall flat in the theatrical release cut as well as some mood scenes that help establish the tone of the penal colony world.
 

Jasede

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Messages
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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
I always thought it wasn't too bad - it definitely had buckets of atmosphere, like the first one. But it does have a terrible ending. The whole last ten minutes are pretty dumb. (IMO)

Ressurection though...
 

circ

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch
I have the SE of 3 in my Aliens pack (I think) but haven't watched it because I heard it's pretty much the same shit as the regular 3. Guess I'll have to watch it now. All I remember is cool scene with the doctor operating on Ripley, change of director, downhill from there. I don't understand all the dislike for 4 though. It's not as good as 2, but as the more action packed ones of the series, I like it.

EDIT: I did watch the 'enhanced' Aliens though. I can see why Cameron cut out the colony introduction, as it slows stuff up, but I rather liked the extra Ripley footage, and especially the base defense with the turrets being set up.
 

Rosh

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sysdefect said:
I do not know what to say to all of those here that applaud trolls and their arguments with no real contribution of their own, not even to trolling, other than please, grow a brain.

If you really spent time reading this entire thread like butthurt themadhatter114 in the news forum, the joke is really on you.

Seriously, there should be an end to free rides and faith in Obsidian. Yes, they were working on an Alien RPG. It was also shitcanned. It has also contributed to over a decade of Obsidian's wasted development team manpower, to be put alongside such titles as TORN, Fallout 3, Stonekeep 2, and who knows how many others. Every halfway promising title or IP has been dropped in favor of Feargus' favorite half-finished and short dev time SLAM DUNK!s.

What does Obsidian go for, as their own IP? Mass Effect Solid.

Fuck Obsidian.
 

Lurkar

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Feb 22, 2006
Messages
791
Rosh is so cute when he rages impotently, which is always! :3
 

Eldritch

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Messages
705
I never bothered to comment on the concept art because I didn't want to interrupt the roshambo-rage, which is an entertaining sight to behold. Oh, and the "stealth" discussion, that was good too.

The Xenomorph's aesthetics to me, stems from the fact that, "it is not an animal". Remember how in the Aliens(1986), the marines all went; -how the f*ck can they do this sarge!!! They're just f*ckin animals!!! Well, they can do all sorts of crap that doesn't make sense because they themselves don't make sense to us. Whatever they are, they are NOT animals. See, we humans are animals in the truest sense of the word. We are imperfect, multi-cellular organisms spawned by an ecosystem that engineered those very imperfections to preserve the precious dna with poor critters like us encapsulating them through countless generations that lived and died like flies. We are weak, we have to die, we have to spawn new ones, we have to carry the limitations of a bipedal primate archetype in this ecosystem that shaped us and binds us to its rules. We are animals, biological organisms, imperfect slaves to a perfect ecosystem.

The Xenomorph is the perfect organism. It doesn't have anything that holds it at bay, it's a perfect machine with a very specific purpose. It is not an animal because it is exempt from a lot of the things that makes us animals. They're like the almost inanimate viruses in some aspects, all their mindless drive is to exterminate and procreate through the destruction of their host species. These things are very likely to be quite short lived for their usual size because of their crazy metabolism, and they get all the sustenance they need in a brief violent lifetime of annihilating everything they encounter. "Life" is a bit too simple and mechanical process for them, quite like the viruses. They are rape incarnate with acid blood and hardened silicate exoskeleton. Biomechanoids don't play on a level field with the ones poorly spawned by their planetary biosphere. They are all IMBA and never got nerfed by any evolutionary process to fit in an ecosystem.

The "dog-alien" from Alien 3 showed us they are not always bound to spawn offspring of the same type in their likeness. We always have the same babies that always comes out the same as their mothers from their wombs but theirs come out from the insides of other things as they rip through them in their likeness so they can kill their raped mothers species better next time with a familiar, but deadly twisted version of the creature that gave them birth. The Cheetas were "built" to hunt gazelles. Cheetas are like gazelles in many ways; fast, sleek, quadrupedal and beautiful. The FAST Cheetas are the deadly versions of gazelles with the fangs and the teeth which makes them the perfect killers of their also agile prey. A twisted version of your architecture will always be your ideal killer. -How the fuck can they do this sarge? Weren't they friggin' animals??? They can do all sorts of smart shit savage animals can't because they absorbed your human DNA along with your human "smarts" so you can't outsmart them and they can rape your innards more effectively.

This is truly a crazy ass motherfucking design Dan O'Bannon, Giger came up with. They're like hunter-killer missiles able to lock into any target and destroy it. No ecosystem CAN harbor such a design in the first place because it wouldn't even be able to do so unless it had MHD monsters inhabiting it as a predator and even then we all know exit is the only option.

You really can't blame the Weyland-Yutani for wanting to utilize this biomechanical creation into the most "useful" super-weapon the galaxy has ever seen. It would change the nature of interstellar warfare forever. Instant biomechanical armies with the ability to multiply their ranks through the destruction of their foes. It would remove the impossible need for carrying legions of soldiers and robots numerous enough to lay siege to an entire enemy establishment on their homeworld which could never be enough to subjugate them in their own turf. Fighting an impossible war in vain with absolutely no chance for reinforcements stuck in an entire hostile star system against an established enemy you have to conquer without destroying their planet. Even with something like FTL, the W-Y can't churn out giant army carrier ships like space taxis because they are bound to cost shitloads of money and energy. They sure wouldn't want to destroy a precious habitable/mineable/exploitable planet by launching nukes or nudging asteroids. Biological weapons, nano-viruses launched from orbit could probably be cured/avoided by the enemy with a comparable technology. The one thing that remains, the one thing you just can't resist is an instant army of self-replicating biomechanical planet-killer vermin that will be introduced to the destinated planet with even one carrier ship that would rape every single major inhabitant on the surface and die out after nobody remains, leaving no intelligent resistance with a planet mostly left intact.

While the human-born Xenomorph would be the best choice to hunt down humans, the W-Y could have been looking for ways to come up with over-kill creations like the morph from a giant herbivore that could devastate heavily armored formations or the runners for more specialized reconnaissance purposes. The whole facility could have been built on a habitable planet with an Earth-like biosphere containing alien animal life without any sentient beings comparable to us, and the whole "facehugger leak" from the devastated facility could have been unintentionally spread to the local fauna. That planet could have been terraformed to contain the very biosphere of Earth itself so that giant herbivore host could be a now extinct ground sloth. They could have been raising the animals from their stored dna in lab conditions in a more generic facility in orbit/ on an uninhabitable planet too... I dunno what they went for really.

There really is nothing wrong with the Aliens capability to absorb the host species dna-like structure but this wouldn't have been the "Aliens RPG" I would have come up with if I had the chance. I would have kept things a lot more simple in the spirit of the movies in a more confined environment like a claustrophobic spaceship or a research facility in orbit where shit went dead wrong and exit is the only option, which you'll have no chance to do so after a certain point where you'll realize HOLY SHIT WE'RE STUCK HERE WITH MULTIHEADED/MOUTHED RAPE MONSTERS. In space no one can hear you scream -Rape!!! etc. A lot of the regular enemies and the intelligent intrigue would come from the Weyland-Yutani people also stuck there with you, and the human-born Xenomorphs existence would be thinly spread into the story where it matters to maximize their impact when they'd actually show up. Their tell-tale presence would influence a larger portion of the atmosphere than the parts where you would actually encounter them in person(!).

The Obsidian people seems to be denying the existence of any excessive alien-grinding but the existence of the smaller "runner-aliens" or dog-aliens from A3 and the bigger Xenobehemoths lead people to guess otherwise. Lesser critters and greater critters screams grindan' in a typical ARPG setting to a lot of people and the Aliens reduced to the role of "critters" would have been a major element of nerdrage with a lot of people. Complex character/environment interaction in a psychological horror atmosphere would have been a muuuuch better way to go with this IP, still containing more than enough action in the spirit of Aliens(1986).

I liked the dog-alien from Alien 3, I don't really care much about the design itself, it's p. tyte. It's the greater picture where this whole "variety" of Aliens suggests that bothered me. Here's to hope they'd release a complete design doc. like Van Buren if this thing is an absolute deader for sure. The truth is out there. -olololololol.

This was also the only goddamn mainstream crpg I've been waiting for. :cry:


kingcomrade said:
The concept artwork on the first page looked really cool. All that stuff about Giger spinning in his grave or whatever was pretty silly. multiple building select ruin progaming!

Hey Kacey, have ya read the "Xenology" book? If you did, remember how the Magos Biologis Darvus was freaked out by the basic physiological similarity shared between many of the Xenos with the children of the Imperium? Despite their many differences, all are upright, bipedal humanoids that could suggest a progenitor race that seeded them all in their likeness (Old Ones). The Space Jockeys, preds and the humies all share a similar physiology in the movies too, with the Jockeys possibly being the architects of all life in the galaxy, and the developers of all its advanced technology; with the alien eggs intended as bioengineered weapons to fight other races such as the Predators? ZOMG GW RIPPED OFF BLIZZARD AND ALIENZ!!1!!1

Also the predators are like the space niggers with all the marks of a primitive hunter culture who did not develop their technology on their own, but instead inherited or stole it from the Jockeys. It's like they stole their FTL bicycles and the jockeys made alienz to put an end to this multikult that is declining the western civilization. The fossilized dude in that ship could have been one gigantic Lyric Suite.

/\ This blew my mind.
 

Voodoo Daddy

Novice
Joined
Aug 11, 2008
Messages
86
I'll comfort myself in the knowledge that what Obsidian was creating could never have been as awesome as what you have just described.
 

Eldritch

Scholar
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
705
kingcomrade said:
Like mecha zombies

MECHA_ZOMBIE_LINCOLN_by_Kotora.png


Obviously not as effective as a Mecha Zombie Lincoln army that would emancipate your face, but still does the job.
 

DataEast

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Jul 4, 2009
Messages
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Japan
I thought the concept art looked fantastic, and immediately upon viewing it I realized how truly little of the Alien universe has actually been explored in the films. While I am a Nazi as well with regards to keeping as true to form as possible to the series (namely the films), I also realize the possibilities that exist in branching out into the large, poorly explored, extended canon (the DNA adaptation and the mimicking of the form of the host creature e.g.). I think the developers at Obsidian felt this way as well and probably had a rather difficult time choosing a midpoint between simply remaking the film experiences, and exploring the awesome possibilities the canon allows for. Personally, I would of liked to have seen an attempt at the latter. Pretty much every 'Alien' game that has ever come out has been a textbook recreation of the movie experience, and there will be plenty more to come in the future (two are in development now). In light of this, why not try to branch out into the canon, and deviate from the movies? Speaking of, the movies have been utter shit since Alien 3 (including the AvP movies) as it is, and I literally can't comprehend any design choice being worse than that of the 'hybrid' in Alien 4. The movies have already sinned, unforgivably, against themselves. I think one bad game would be pretty insignificant. I get erect just thinking about all the unique, original scenarios that could take place in the Alien universe--and it would look nothing like Star Wars, or Mass Effect to boot. Shit, let me happen upon a dark jungle planet swarming with Aliens spawned from powerful ape-like creatures which are in the process of assaulting a space jockey fortress and let me crash onto the planet and have to make my way amidst the chaos to the fortress where I get to encounter space jockeys and learn about their role in the Aliens universe. Let me happen upon an Alien 'zoo' in their fortress where they've tested the extent and range of Alien morphology on a collection of galaxy-wide fauna, all sorts of sizes, shapes, and colors, albeit, all with the tell tale fanged, tubular head and ribbed, bony body.

Or we could just play another Marine/Alien corridor-shooter with bloom.

Ridley Scott even considered making a sequel about the history of the space jockey as I recall.

Certainly, the most truly horrifying aspect of the Alien lies not so much in its being 'elegant' as denizsi stated (as opposed to the brute depicted in the concept art), or agile, but in Giger's aesthetic of a black-shelled, eyeless, phallic, ribbed, insect-like killer, and, as pointed out by Eldritch, in its potential as an infinitely adaptable, 'self-sustaining', emotionless, biomechanical weapon. Further, I would say the two primary 'sacred' aspects of Giger's design involve the long, fanged, tubed head and the skeletal/tubular detailing on the body. The slenderness and size seem secondary. Any creature design with these two primary aspects would be, I believe, equally terrifying as the original. If speed is a factor in the fear as well, then there's no reason the brute couldn't move fast as shit. That would be scary as fuck. The 'physics' of it would not be hard to explain in some believable manner, as there are already plenty of scientific holes with regard to explaining the validity of the Alien as a true organism. Having said this, the brute looks very Alien to me.

With regard to Alien 3, I agree that it is heavily underrated. As MLMarkland mentioned, the special edition really adds a lot of meaningful weight to the film. There are a ton of great scenes. The opening credits sequence was really fantastic--the cuts of the purge sequence, Ripley convulsing, the dark music. In fact, Elliot Goldenthal's score for Alien 3 was utterly beautiful; the best of the entire series. Do yourself a favor and watch the special edition and pay attention to the music. Notably the buildup and cue when Fiorina 161 is first revealed, the escape pod spinning towards it. The best cue has to be, in the special edition, at the beginning when Clemens is running, carrying Ripley in his arms. I think it's titled "Lento" on the OST. It's just dark and epic. The chestburster/Newt & Hicks incineration sequence is fantastic and disturbing as well. In many ways I find it darker, and more disturbing than the original. To this day, the most disturbing image of the Alien, for me, out of the 3 movies, is when the Alien rises up, covered in viscera after bursting out of the dog/bull, directly at the conclusion of Dillon's eulogy after he says "..a new beginning." and, "..amen." I can hardly look at it directly. The scene where Clemens is killed and Ripley first encounters the Alien is tremendously emotionally satisfying. Seeing these two epic enemies meet literally face-to-face; having a valid reason, they were able to put the Alien right up against Ripley without her being killed. That was tense. And finally, maybe most satisfying of all, we finally get to see Weyland-Yutani in full force at the end. The futuristic company soldiers armed with pulse rifles, the Japanese scientist, and Michael Bishop. It was very satisfying for me.
 

Squeek

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Messages
231
I prefer the Alien monster as he was described by the science officer who studied him in the original film, and that's as a finely-evolved species (not a xenomorph). Despite all the claims that were made afterwards, the implanted embryo was really only contrived as nothing more than a means for getting the alien onboard the ship (and was never about leaching DNA).

But that's how it goes with movie monsters -- there's always more and more to them in the subsequent films. So which is the authentic "canon" for the Alien, the original idea or the one it eventually grew to become?

IMO, an alien RPG would be better if the alien were depicted as the ultimate assassin he was in the first movie and not the "The Thing" thing he became starting with the third film. It would be limiting, but so what? There's still plenty of room for creativity.

So I don't like what I've heard about the game or the screenshots. This would have been a loser, IMO.
 

DataEast

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A preview for Sega's AvP.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/13/impre ... -predator/

I like this part:

"The experience was scary, but at the same time, incredibly predictable and unoriginal."

..and this:

"Alien Vs Predator is unsurprising. The single-player campaigns for the marines and Predators look and feel exactly as one would expect."

Maybe Sega should have cancelled this instead of the Aliens RPG. I wonder if that decision is gonna end up biting them in the ass. Perhaps they felt like the RPG would deviate too much from the standard Aliens game experience, so, of course, they made the most 'financially-sound' decision by cancelling it and avoiding risk; and they went with the safer, standard, text-book, Aliens game experience that we've played, oh.....how many times now?
 

MetalCraze

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Urkanistan
DataEast said:
Perhaps they felt like the RPG would deviate too much from the standard Aliens game experience, so, of course, they made the most 'financially-sound' decision by cancelling it and avoiding risk
I bet they just thought "why do we need two console shooters?", so they decided to get rid of the one that ate too much money while not being ready at all after 2 years in development. It was going to have as much of RPG as that clone of Mass Effect.
 

Talonfire

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Dec 18, 2008
Messages
388
DataEast said:
A preview for Sega's AvP.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/13/impre ... -predator/

I like this part:

"The experience was scary, but at the same time, incredibly predictable and unoriginal."

..and this:

"Alien Vs Predator is unsurprising. The single-player campaigns for the marines and Predators look and feel exactly as one would expect."

Maybe Sega should have cancelled this instead of the Aliens RPG. I wonder if that decision is gonna end up biting them in the ass. Perhaps they felt like the RPG would deviate too much from the standard Aliens game experience, so, of course, they made the most 'financially-sound' decision by cancelling it and avoiding risk; and they went with the safer, standard, text-book, Aliens game experience that we've played, oh.....how many times now?

So Rebellion is essentially developing the same damn generic drivel they released for the Atari Jaguar and later the PC in 1999? Way to go guys.
 

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