10 TERRIBLE Video Games (That Revolutionised The Industry)

Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of the most disappointingly shambolic video games of the last decade - a potential-filled FPS that ultimately fell short in every way which an Alien-themed video game could.

The underwhelming graphics, generic gameplay, atrocious AI, and wonky engagement with the series' lore all led it to be widely ridiculed upon release, but more than that, it ignited a debate about the responsibility of publishers to accurately market their games.

Even accepting that games are fluid products which often change substantially during development, many players felt that Sega has falsely advertised the game's quality and level of polish, in turn grossly misleading them.

A few months after Colonial Marines' release, Sega even flatly admitted that the game's trailers were deceptive, following the publisher having discussions with the UK's Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).

With that, Sega were compelled to add disclaimers to the game's marketing materials, making it clear to players that the more impressive trailer footage was from a work-in-progress version of Colonial Marines.

Yet the game ultimately sparked a wider discussion about the responsibility of publishers to market their titles accurately and in good faith.

With a company as huge as the ASA getting on the case and making Sega revise their marketing, the overall degree of high-level scrutiny placed on video game advertising increased massively.

And with that in mind, there was considerably less incentive for publishers to use "bullshots" and footage that wasn't honestly indicative of the end-product.

This isn't to say that deceptive marketing has been wiped out completely in the decade since, but it's certainly far less prominent than it was back in 2013.

And so, with Colonial Marines inadvertently shepherding in a new era of more honest video game marketing, its ultimate legacy might actually be a net-positive. Imagine that.