10 Potentially Great Video Games That Were Dead On Arrival

2. Aliens: Colonial Marines

Having been stuck in gaming purgatory since early 2001, Aliens: Colonial Marines was initially met with celebration as it was revived by Gearbox. What it is known as now is a game which suffered a terrible development cycle and from poorly implemented ideas. Rumours circulate from various sources suggesting that even funding intended for Colonial Marines was redirected to assist in Borderlands 2's creation. The plot holes were so massive they threatened to swallow the entire game, the graphics were so outdated they could have been run on the Playstation 2, and the ending boiled down to pure sequel-baiting. Despite all of this, Gearbox unintentionally offered a glimpse at what the game could have become with some actual love and attention. In their efforts to polish this turd to a mirror shine, audiences were treated to a demo which displayed a vertical slice of gameplay. Despite being a complete fabrication, it played and looked vastly better than the actual game; enemies behaved like tactical, stalking creatures who would use the environments to their benefit, the guns gave real kick and the graphics were outstanding beyond words. To top this off we were shown classic re-enactments of sequences such as using gun turrets and close co-ordination with a variety of troops, even ones using Power Loaders. The demo even showed players actually fighting the queen, not just mashing buttons until she was ejected out the back of a ship Wile E. Coyote style. The demo showed no major steps forwards which would shake the entire genre, nothing to completely innovate all first person shooters, but had excellent visuals and seemed to do its enemies justice. Yet it seemed that Gearbox failed to even meet that low standard, instead making Rebellion's heavily criticised Alien Vs. Predator the far superior game.