It was all looking so good, pre-release, Gearbox employees were regaling us with how much they revered the Aliens franchise and we all fell about in excitement. How proud they were to be able to produce not just a game, but a game that was to be considered canon; how excited they were to be able to lavish their loving care and attention to lead us into the iconic settings of the Sulaco and LV-426. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the seemingly terminal and unending delays and development hitches, nor is it the place to speculate on claims that Gearbox knowingly mislead SEGA with false information about development and progress. However, the evidence seems indisputable that the reverence, love, pride and excitement was farmed out to different development studios. It seems that Gearbox were so lazy they had others do their lazy for them. This farming out meant that the buying public were misled at best, and lied to at worst: trailers showing scenes that never made it into the game were used as advertisements even past the release date; adverts showed graphics that were subsequently reduced in quality and realism in the final release, Gearbox only truculently admitted other studios were carrying out the bulk of the work after whistle-blowers released the information. The popularity of the series benefited Gearbox way out of proportion to what they delivered, with A:CM achieving healthy global sales and entering the UK charts at number one, yet garnered universally bad reviews from critics and gamers alike. The stance taken by Gearbox before, during, and after this games release remains a shameful indictment of dishonest practice and one that once again brings to mind the aforementioned definition of insanity from our good friend Vaas. So what does the future hold? Once again gamers find themselves at the dawn of a New Generation, and once again are faced with a dearth of shiny that lives up to the hype. Will there be rush-released games seeking to find the wallets of players desperate for the killer game to lessen their post-buying angst? Will gamers continue fanboi wars furiously displaying their post-decisional rationalization in the form of arguments about DPI and FPS? Developers and publishers must be held to account when lazy decisions spoil potential greatness, when cut 'n' paste coding is released as a new full-priced game instead of a map-pack, when branding replaces innovation and evolution, and it is ultimately the gamers who need to shout out 'No more! enough with the lazy!' Are there any other games that deserve to be on this list? Share your own picks below.
When not overthrowing governments MuddledMuppet can be found on youtube making mockery of life with slightly better than average gameplay.
https://www.youtube.com/user/muddledmuppet
