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[dark10x]

Worst thing is that the demo scene doesn't even look THAT great at all. The release version just looks like total shit though.

Yep, that's kind of a big deal. The demo looks nice but not amazing by any stretch. The final is a joke.

So is the general consensus that they had to severely gimp the game to get it work on consoles?

*IF* that is the case the blame still lies squarely at their feet. Other developers have managed to overcome console limitations but clearly the programmers and designers responsible for this game weren't up to the task.

 

[Recall]

So is the general consensus that they had to severely gimp the game to get it work on consoles?

No. It's a terrible theory.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Demo was a deception. It should be a common knowledge by now and this proves it. Gearbox fucked up.

Gearbox's ghostin' us, motherfucker. I don't care who they are back in the Borderlands world, they give us a deception like this one more time, I'll bleed them, real quiet. Leave them here. Got that?!

Borderlands was a fluke. BL2, while not terrible, wasn't anything to write home about either.


BL was good. They get a pass on DNF. Sadly, turns out that Gearbox are your typical mediocre modern FPS studio after all. After this blatant bait and switch not only will I stop following their developments but I'll probably duck out of purchasing anything by them for quite some time.

 

[Andrew.]

Curious to see what the projected sales of this are. I mean, if it gets the numbers (someone said its #1 on Steam) who is to say that Sega won't give a fuck? We're a small vocal minority on here. Casuals and diehard fans of the franchise will pick it up not even knowing what the hell is happening, or happened.

 

[grimshawish]

What bastards. Seriously, what the fuck? In fact, stupid question - I know what the fuck.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

"Okay, look. What if the finished game didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? I didn't know! So now, if I went in and made a major issue out of it, everybody steps in. Sega steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody; nobody wins. So I made a decision and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Gaf, it was a bad call."

"Bad call? Those pre-orders are bought, Randy! Don't you have any idea what you've done here?! Well I'm going to make sure Sega nails you right to the wall for this. Youre not going to smile your way out of this one. Right to the wall!"

 

[slightconfuse]

Wow they really pulled the Long con with this game. also how how this game is worse the DNF in half the time is crazy

 

[fizzelopeguss]

I didn't say there weren't better developers out there. But when you've got 8 months left to ship and you suddenly realize your animation system and lighting system won't work on consoles, shit happens.

That's the thing though. They were showing the game like this last june.

The animation is shit even there.

 

[Visualante2]

Sega and Gearbox and whoever can lay blame all they want. They're all going to get fucked by Fox when the curtains close.

 

[dark10x]

Borderlands was a fluke. BL2, while not terrible, wasn't anything to write home about either.


BL was good. They get a pass on DNF. Sadly, turns out that Gearbox are your typical mediocre modern FPS studio after all. After this blatant bait and switch not only will I stop following their developments but I'll probably duck out of purchasing anything by them for quite some time.

Interesting. I mean, if they DID release a game which was actually of high quality would you ignore it on principal?

I actually thought Borderlands 2 was much more entertaining than the original myself due to better gun play and much more interesting level design. :\

 

[Tzeentch]

... What the HELL happened here. At least with Duke Nuken everyone knew it was going to be a somewhat polished turd, but the Colonial Marines promotional material at least looked ok (see the demo effects). This is a turd where they actually seem to have gone out of their way to remove polish.

 

[cyberheater]

The labels were wrong on the video, here's the updated version: http://www.videogamer.com/videos/aliens_colonial_marines_what_the_hell_happened_to_aliens_colonial_marines_2.html

Jesus fucking Christ. What a load of bullshit. The demo from 2012 looks amazing. How could they have done this to us.

 

[NullPointer]

"Bad call? Those pre-orders are bought, Randy! Don't you have any idea what you've done here?! Well I'm going to make sure Sega nails you right to the wall for this. Youre not going to smile your way out of this one. Right to the wall!"

"Gaf... You know, I... I expected more from you. I thought you'd be smarter than this."

 

[ChocolatePuddin]

I don't understand this, it would take them more time to actually go through the effort and make it worse.

So why did they make it so much worse after the work on those segments were done?

Unless they made that demo, and built the rest of the game around it?

Its straight up false advertising.

 

[cyberheater]

No. It's a terrible theory.

Can you think of a better one.

I think the demo footage if it's real must come from a PC. I think they hit a severe memory barrier with the console versions and were forced to keep ripping things out and changing stuff just to get it to fit.

They gimped the PC version of this game to get this to fit on consoles.

 

[Loxley]

So, we know that Gearbox did the multiplayer for the game and that Timegate did the vast majority of the single-player, right?

I wouldn't be surprised if the demo was actually made by Gearbox and then Timegate was just told to replicate it as best as they could with their assets.

 

[FryHole]

The labels were wrong on the video, here's the updated version: http://www.videogamer.com/videos/aliens_colonial_marines_what_the_hell_happened_to_aliens_colonial_marines_2.html

Don't make me explain my joke, I beg you!

 

[Malvingt2]

oh wow lol

 

[SpudBud]

They did the same thing with Hell's Highway. Randy Pitchford is god damn snake oil salesman.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

"ViewtifulJC... You know, I... I expected more from you. I thought you'd be smarter than this."

"Well, I'm happy to play FUSE with you"

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Video linked in OP is informative but GOSH is it edited terribly.

 

[dreamer3kx]

Was very excited for this, has to be one of the biggest disappointments
this year so far.

 

[DieH@rd]

That scene in the alien hive was sooooooo downgraded in final version. Somebody gif that.

 

[Loxley]

They did the same thing with Hell's Highway. Randy Pitchford is god damn snake oil salesman.

That original Hell's Highway demo is painful to watch based off the final product

 

[dark10x]

Can you think of a better one.

I think the demo footage if it's real must come from a PC. I think they hit a severe memory barrier with the console versions and were forced to keep ripping things out and changing stuff just to get it to fit.

They gimped the PC version of this game to get this to fit on consoles.

You can't place the blame on consoles this time. Not when it looks worse than just about any other modern shooter on those machines.

The blame lies completely with Gearbox. They weren't up to the task.

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

But he raises his hand to shield his face from the blast, which obviously means it's more intense in the final version.

He should have just closed his eyes completely for total realism. "Oh god! The explosion! It's just so massive and bright and extremely detailed with lots of little bits flying off! I can't look!"

 

[cyberheater]

You can't place the blame on consoles this time. Not when it looks worse than just about any other modern shooter on those machines.

The blame lies completely with Gearbox. They weren't up to the task.

I agree with your comment on Gearbox being a crap dev.

But I think they went into utter panic mode to get this game to ship and now we have the results. If this was a PC only game. It would have looked like the demo.

 

[Moff]

damn, gearbox are the most terrible liars in the gaming business. they did the exact same thing with the 3 minute prologue level in duke forever that looked great and which they advertised the game with. well at least that one was actually in the game, but in no way represented it the game. just like this fake demo.

 

[MikeE21286]

Shameful is all I have.

That's just terrible.

 

[Patryn]

So, we know that Gearbox did the multiplayer for the game and that Timegate did the vast majority of the single-player, right?

I wouldn't be surprised if the demo was actually made by Gearbox and then Timegate was just told to replicate it as best as they could with their assets.

We don't know that for a fact.

We do know that Timegate worked on the single player, and a Timegate employee has listed that he did a lot of work on Mission 1. Beyond that it's just rumors and possible leaks. Timegate could have done 10 percent of it, 50 percent of it, or even 99 percent.

We also have an account that when Gearbox got Timegate's work they saw that it was a mess and did a pass over it to get it into releasable shape.

However, it's somewhat unclear just how much the single-player is Timegate and how much is Gearbox. I will agree that it's highly likely that most of the single-player is Timegate, but you can't state it as an out-and-out fact.

Regardless, it's still Gearbox's fault because they were the ones that contracted the work out, and they should have been monitoring Timegate and pulled the contract if they were turning in subpar work.

 

[LightofRohan]

Eh, I wouldn't call this deception or bait and switch. Wasn't this game constantly switching hands and shifting around to a variety of places? It is a surprise it even came out, of course it's going to look different/worse. Different studios prioritize different things, it causes these projects that shift around to generally be messy when they release. Unless I'm mistaken and this wasnt the game I was thinking about (that kept moving around).

 

[dark10x]

I agree with your comment on Gearbox being a crap dev.

But I think they went into utter panic mode to get this game to ship and now we have the results. If this was a PC only game. It would have looked like the demo.

I think that's being wildly optimistic and completely baseless.

damn, gearbox are the most terrible liars in the gaming business. they did the exact same thing with the 3 minute prologue level in duke forever that looked great and which they advertised the game with. well at least that one was actually in the game, but in no way represented it the game. just like this fake demo.

Oh? What about the DNF demo failed to represent the actual game?

 

[george_us]

The weirdest thing about it all is that it's not like the demo was some crazy unattainable target render.

 

[Recall]

Can you think of a better one.

You're doing a disservice to quite a few console games if you think what Aliens Colonial Marines Demo wasn't capable to be ran on a console. Gears of War 3, does ok. Halo Reach did ok. What exactly is demanding so much?

 

[Loxley]

We don't know that for a fact.

We do know that Timegate worked on the single player, and a Timegate employee has listed that he did a lot of work on Mission 1. Beyond that it's just rumors and possible leaks. Timegate could have done 10 percent of it, 50 percent of it, or even 99 percent.

We also have an account that when Gearbox got Timegate's work they saw that it was a mess and did a pass over it to get it into releasable shape.

However, it's somewhat unclear just how the single-player is Timegate and how much is Gearbox.

Regardless, it's still Gearbox's fault because they were the ones that contracted the work out, and they should have been monitoring the work.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take the blame off of Gearbox at all. They fucked up royally with this.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

I'm not going to defend A:CM, but it's a bit weird to watch a video where people keep saying "look, there's no dynamic lighting!" continuously while giant fucking orange dynamic lights pan across the picture.

 

[antitrop]

I'm not going to defend A:CM, but it's a bit weird to watch a video where people keep saying "look, there's no dynamic lighting!" continuously while giant fucking orange dynamic lights pan across the picture.

You know what they mean and so do all of us.

 

[madmackem]

The weirdest thing about it all is that it's not like the demo was some crazy unattainable target render.

Yeah even more so on pc, you can sort of understand a shitty downport to console but on pc come on son. Bait and switch and they should be called out for it. Shocking. Makes me not trust them tbh.

 

[David H Wong]

Worst thing is that the demo scene doesn't even look THAT great at all. The release version just looks like total shit though.

Yeah that's the most striking thing about this. I remember the reaction to the demo and everybody was like, "Eh, maybe the final will look better."

It wasn't like if (for instance) Watch Dogs comes out and looks worse than what they showed us, and we can all say, "Well, they promised the moon and couldn't meet those expectations." This game looked average at the demo stage and came in broken. Bizarre.

 

[grimshawish]

Did Gearbox render the original footage to hide the fact they had little done for SEGA?
Then came to bring the assets to an actual game and had no actual engine to work with them?

 

[Rapstah]

It's far more likely that the parts demoed were cut off from the rest of the game and touched up for the demonstration. This isn't unusual at all, and most of the time the parts cut out are improved upon in an attempt to try to show what the final product will look like. This doesn't have to be dishonest.

This would mean that they didn't have the capacity to bring the entire game up to that standard, and that could obviously be for any number of reasons. You might think lighting and particle systems are "free" to put into the engine, maybe locked behind an advanced option in the PC version for bonus points, but we don't know the specifics behind the development of the game. We had a thread a couple of months ago on how the island shown in the E3 2012 Far Cry 3 demonstration looked better than the rest of the game, including particles and lighting.

 

[inky]

I'm butthurt as shit about that Aliens RPG.

Yup.

 

[Moff]

Oh? What about the DNF demo failed to represent the actual game?

the duke demo had this level in the stadium, which was a remake of duke3d's final boss level.
it looked and played great, was polished as hell and real fun, you could do many funny extra things in the level.

I'm pretty sure thats a level gearbox did themselves, it was very short (basically 2 rooms) while the whole rest of the game were the crappy unpolished 3drealms leftovers

 

[SolidSnakex]

That scene in the alien hive was sooooooo downgraded in final version. Somebody gif that.

Note: the part with the HUD is actually the final game. This is part of the video where the final/demo stamps were mislabeled.

 

[Dark-Cloudz]

Did Gearbox render the original footage to hide the fact they had little done for SEGA?
Then came to bring the assets to an actual game and had no actual engine to work with them?

This is what I expect has happened. The 'DEMO' was just a target render and they couldn't meet it.

 

[aegies]

You can't place the blame on consoles this time. Not when it looks worse than just about any other modern shooter on those machines.

The blame lies completely with Gearbox. They weren't up to the task.

I'm not trying to blame consoles. I'm just saying they threw together a tech demo with UE3 and their new renderer on PC to "blow people away" and couldn't make it work on consoles, or probably even mid-range PCs.

I'm not going to defend A:CM, but it's a bit weird to watch a video where people keep saying "look, there's no dynamic lighting!" continuously while giant fucking orange dynamic lights pan across the picture.

There's very little dynamic lighting in the game. I think people are more referring to dynamic shadows though.

 

[dark10x]

the duke demo had this level in the stadium, which was a remake of duke3d's final boss level.
it looked and played great, was polished as hell and real fun, you could do many funny extra things in the level.

I'm pretty sure thats a level gearbox did themselves, it was very short (basically 2 rooms) while the whole rest of the game were the crappy unpolished 3drealms leftovers

Nah, that level was part of the original game (the leaked scripts reveal as much).

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Interesting. I mean, if they DID release a game which was actually of high quality would you ignore it on principal?

I actually thought Borderlands 2 was much more entertaining than the original myself due to better gun play and much more interesting level design. :\

Well, keep in mind my qualifiers there (probably, for some time, etc)

If they released a game that is 10/10 and hit all the right notes? I'd buy it and I'd reconsider my opinion of them. Basically for the next year I won't be clicking on Gearbox announcements with any excitement (or at all) and will take everything out of them (and SEGA) with a grain of salt. Will definitely never preorder anything. (last was BL2, which I didn't think was bad, just not a big change from the first game)

 

[Sciz]

the duke demo had this level in the stadium, which was a remake of duke3d's final boss level.
it looked and played great, was polished as hell and real fun, you could do many funny extra things in the level.

I'm pretty sure thats a level gearbox did themselves, it was very short (basically 2 rooms) while the whole rest of the game were the crappy unpolished 3drealms leftovers

The DNF demo also included a really shitty western level. That game wasn't misrepresented at all.

 

[BattleMonkey]

You can't place the blame on consoles this time. Not when it looks worse than just about any other modern shooter on those machines.

The blame lies completely with Gearbox. They weren't up to the task.

Still has to be a reason why the demo looks so much better than the final product. How do you go from that demo to what was released?