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Weekend Confirmed 152 - Aliens: Colonial Marines, Ni No Kuni, Fire Emblem: Awakening
by Jeff Mattas, Feb 15, 2013 11:00am PSTLove (of video games) is in the air on this week's episode of Weekend Confirmed! Hosts Garnett Lee and Jeff Cannata are joined by Nikole Zivalich and Ariel Angelotti to talk about Aliens: Colonial Marines, Ni No Kuni, Fire Emblem: Awakening, and more! Given the show's late-Valentine's Day recording time, the crew also sprinkles some "Gamer Dating Advice" throughout the show, before bringing it all home with some Finishing Moves.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 152: 2/15/2013
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Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:
Show Breakdown:
Round 1 - 00:00:34 - 00:27:42
Whatcha' Been Playin Part 1 - 00:29:09 - 00:59:02
Whatcha Been Playin Part 2 00:59:40 - 01:27:19
Listener Feedback/Front Page News - 01:28:07 - 02:08:56
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Jeff Cannata @jeffcannata
Nikole Zivalich @NikoleZ
Ariel Angelotti @arielotti
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Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest Album, Club Tipsy on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter @delriomusic.
Comments
There's no doubt that the Aliens universe and aesthetic has been plundered by the gaming industry to such an extent that everything that once made it unique seems par for the course, but I still think a game that pays tribute to what makes Aliens great could be fantastic and stand out.
I think the problem that developers (and publishers) continue to fall into with Aliens games, is the fact that Cameron's action set-pieces are the moments that stand out in the film. And with good reason, they're brilliant. So devs and publishers focus on recreating the feeling of those moments first and foremost. That's why every damn Aliens game has to have a loader battle with a Queen (or some other large alien). But the reason they have so much weight, and are so satisfying, is because he takes the time to set them up with mood and suspense.
You don't see an Alien for the first act of the movie. When they do attack it's have dozens of minutes of tension, with nothing but the beeping of the motion tracker in poorly-lit hallways. When they close in on the marines in the base, it's not a frontal assault, the fear comes from the fact taht everybody knows they're coming but they don't know where the hell they are or how they're getting in. By the time Cameron dials things up to 11 for the final act, the tension explodes into catharsis and we, the audience just want out. Just get me the fuck off this planet, I can't take it anymore!
THAT is the mood they should go for. The tension and suspense that builds into the big fire-fight, not one long, extended fire-fight. The awareness that they're out there, coming for you, but not knowing how many or where they're going to come from next.
Technology is also an issue. The aliens are scary partly because of how they look, but mostly because of how they behave. They're smart. They stalk, they flank, they communicate with each other and work together. That's what makes the notion of being trapped on a planet with hundreds of them terrifying, they're not some stupid animals. The AI needs to reflect that, and I'm not sure we're at the point where it can.
Aliens deserves a great game. If only because modern game design owes as much to James Cameron for Aliens as it does to Shigeru Miyamoto for Mario.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 13 replies.
A small squad of troops outnumbered in hostile territory, trapped in a hostile environment against an enemy who they don't understand, with tactics and thinking that render their technological superiority moot.
Otherwise, agreed.
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