I don't exactly understand the issue people have over the PMC's

[PumpkinSpiceGob.ttv]

Why is the PCM thing such a big deal for people?

I'm being serious here, why is this such a problem for people?

We KNOW, from even Alien 3 that Weyland Yutani hires PMC's... we know that they have people in place attempting to protect their interests. And we know that WY will do whatever it takes to try to hush up what they're doing. [Ash in Alien, Burke in Aliens, Bishop 2 and PMC's in Alien 3.] So why... why is it such a shock you're fighting PMC's guys?

The game is primarily about the "Colonial Marines" which are a major part of the "Aliens" universe... Yes because it's an "Aliens" game, people expect to fight the Xenomorphs. That completely, 100% follows logically. But why don't you expect to fight something else? It's kinda the Marine's job to keep the peace amoung the colony's.

Oh wait I forgot, a lot of you are not that well versed in the expanded lore and the like. Let me try to explain. So here's a little history lesson.

============================================================
The United States Colonial Marine Corps (USCM), commonly known as the Colonial Marines, is the successor to the United States Marine Corps and is the United Americas' primary "force-in-readiness", who are at all times ready for immediate deployment without additional reinforcement, training or provisioning. They specialize in force projection, being able to operate independently in environments far from home for extended periods thanks to their technological prowess and sizeable space fleet at their disposal.

The Colonial Marines, along with the United States Army, are part of the United Americas Allied Command. The primary duties of the Colonial Marine Corps are to maintain security for all United Americas signatories and at all extraterrestrial colonies that fall under United States of America's control, and serve as the vanguard of any major combat operation. They have fought on more than two dozen worlds, including Tientsin (8 Eta Bootis A III), Helene 215, Linna 349, BG-386, LV-1201, LV-742, and the infamous Acheron LV-426.

Mission
The USCM is the major striking element of the United Americas Allied Command, and is the nation's only major means of forcibly entering a hostile area from space. Its ability to project power on distant worlds makes it an essential element to the nation's security, and as such its versatility and responsiveness are key in times of crisis.

History
The National Security Act of 2101 established the Colonial Marines and its structure. At its peak in 2165 during the Tientsin campaign, the USCM numbered over 240,000 Marines; by 2179 that number had dropped to 165,000, with a further 50,000 in reserve.
=======================================================

To long? not in the mood to read? The USCM is the strikeforce of the USA into it's colony's... it fight's whatever threat it must... Human or Alien.

So, frankly, you're whining about a point that you shouldn't be whining about, the game is called "Aliens:Colonial Marines" not "Aliens: Xeno Bughunt"

[V0lcanF1re]

good job man, say some true!
never understand why ppls so "hate" it. never, but always never. O.o
let's let them make a game and bla bla bla "they the best of the best", about all the bad worse ppls.

[mahon007]

nice detail

[Bathe in my magnificence]

Extremely good point! Although I enjoy this game very much, when I first heard they were making a "Colonial Marines" game I was actually hoping for it to veer quite far from the "Aliens" thing... perhaps more human targets, different species etc. Imagine if it had done! Randy Pitchford would have had to go into hiding, Salman Rushdie style. lol

(Before anyone says that none of the press releases or the infamous E3 demo indicated that.... I never saw any of that. As I said: All I heard was that they were making a "Colonial Marines" game. I stay away from hype, generally.. makes buying games way more fun and is probably why I enjoy ACM so much.)

This is why I'm not bothered in the slightest by the inclusion of PMCs. :)

[hertston]

Not a problem for me. It's not as if you DON'T get to shoot at lots of Xenos, and beyond that variety is a good thing. I think the 'issue' was just something else for people to moan about.

[Nigels]

I don't think the problem is the appearance of the Wey-Yu Army in general. I think the reason for these critics are the strong focus on the human vs. human fights. Most of the people thought there will be shocking fights with xenos and BAM!, the Wey-Yu guys appear in the beginning of the second mission. That and the point, that the fights against the soldiers are mostly horrible, because of the bad A.I. and their Wallhack/Aimbot.

[Osborne Cox?]

Originally posted by FlashFrame:

Why is the PCM thing such a big deal for people?

I'm being serious here, why is this such a problem for people?

We KNOW, from even Alien 3 that Weyland Yutani hires PMC's... we know that they have people in place attempting to protect their interests. And we know that WY will do whatever it takes to try to hush up what they're doing. [Ash in Alien, Burke in Aliens, Bishop 2 and PMC's in Alien 3.] So why... why is it such a shock you're fighting PMC's guys?

The game is primarily about the "Colonial Marines" which are a major part of the "Aliens" universe... Yes because it's an "Aliens" game, people expect to fight the Xenomorphs. That completely, 100% follows logically. But why don't you expect to fight something else? It's kinda the Marine's job to keep the peace amoung the colony's.

Oh wait I forgot, a lot of you are not that well versed in the expanded lore and the like. Let me try to explain. So here's a little history lesson.

============================================================
The United States Colonial Marine Corps (USCM), commonly known as the Colonial Marines, is the successor to the United States Marine Corps and is the United Americas' primary "force-in-readiness", who are at all times ready for immediate deployment without additional reinforcement, training or provisioning. They specialize in force projection, being able to operate independently in environments far from home for extended periods thanks to their technological prowess and sizeable space fleet at their disposal.

The Colonial Marines, along with the United States Army, are part of the United Americas Allied Command. The primary duties of the Colonial Marine Corps are to maintain security for all United Americas signatories and at all extraterrestrial colonies that fall under United States of America's control, and serve as the vanguard of any major combat operation. They have fought on more than two dozen worlds, including Tientsin (8 Eta Bootis A III), Helene 215, Linna 349, BG-386, LV-1201, LV-742, and the infamous Acheron LV-426.

Mission
The USCM is the major striking element of the United Americas Allied Command, and is the nation's only major means of forcibly entering a hostile area from space. Its ability to project power on distant worlds makes it an essential element to the nation's security, and as such its versatility and responsiveness are key in times of crisis.

History
The National Security Act of 2101 established the Colonial Marines and its structure. At its peak in 2165 during the Tientsin campaign, the USCM numbered over 240,000 Marines; by 2179 that number had dropped to 165,000, with a further 50,000 in reserve.
=======================================================

To long? not in the mood to read? The USCM is the strikeforce of the USA into it's colony's... it fight's whatever threat it must... Human or Alien.

So, frankly, you're whining about a point that you shouldn't be whining about, the game is called "Aliens:Colonial Marines" not "Aliens: Xeno Bughunt"

Oh I thought this was a sequel to Aliens, not a futuristic space Call of Duty shooter.

The only reasons the PMCs are there was to get this game to compete with Call of Duty.

[Sdkfz216]

..umm.. It's just a game.. =)

[PumpkinSpiceGob.ttv]

Originally posted by Husker:

Originally posted by FlashFrame:

Why is the PCM thing such a big deal for people?

I'm being serious here, why is this such a problem for people?

We KNOW, from even Alien 3 that Weyland Yutani hires PMC's... we know that they have people in place attempting to protect their interests. And we know that WY will do whatever it takes to try to hush up what they're doing. [Ash in Alien, Burke in Aliens, Bishop 2 and PMC's in Alien 3.] So why... why is it such a shock you're fighting PMC's guys?

The game is primarily about the "Colonial Marines" which are a major part of the "Aliens" universe... Yes because it's an "Aliens" game, people expect to fight the Xenomorphs. That completely, 100% follows logically. But why don't you expect to fight something else? It's kinda the Marine's job to keep the peace amoung the colony's.

Oh wait I forgot, a lot of you are not that well versed in the expanded lore and the like. Let me try to explain. So here's a little history lesson.

============================================================
The United States Colonial Marine Corps (USCM), commonly known as the Colonial Marines, is the successor to the United States Marine Corps and is the United Americas' primary "force-in-readiness", who are at all times ready for immediate deployment without additional reinforcement, training or provisioning. They specialize in force projection, being able to operate independently in environments far from home for extended periods thanks to their technological prowess and sizeable space fleet at their disposal.

The Colonial Marines, along with the United States Army, are part of the United Americas Allied Command. The primary duties of the Colonial Marine Corps are to maintain security for all United Americas signatories and at all extraterrestrial colonies that fall under United States of America's control, and serve as the vanguard of any major combat operation. They have fought on more than two dozen worlds, including Tientsin (8 Eta Bootis A III), Helene 215, Linna 349, BG-386, LV-1201, LV-742, and the infamous Acheron LV-426.

Mission
The USCM is the major striking element of the United Americas Allied Command, and is the nation's only major means of forcibly entering a hostile area from space. Its ability to project power on distant worlds makes it an essential element to the nation's security, and as such its versatility and responsiveness are key in times of crisis.

History
The National Security Act of 2101 established the Colonial Marines and its structure. At its peak in 2165 during the Tientsin campaign, the USCM numbered over 240,000 Marines; by 2179 that number had dropped to 165,000, with a further 50,000 in reserve.
=======================================================

To long? not in the mood to read? The USCM is the strikeforce of the USA into it's colony's... it fight's whatever threat it must... Human or Alien.

So, frankly, you're whining about a point that you shouldn't be whining about, the game is called "Aliens:Colonial Marines" not "Aliens: Xeno Bughunt"

Oh I thought this was a sequel to Aliens, not a futuristic space Call of Duty shooter.

The only reasons the PMCs are there was to get this game to compete with Call of Duty.

It is the sequal... which is focused on the Colonial Marines... who fight things other than aliens.

You have a really hard time with this logical progression thing don't you?

[HighPlains Drifter]

The problem, IMO or atleast for me... Is the amount of PMC's you fight. Not that they appear at all.

Which leads me to wonder if that's a plothole in the story. What I mean is, it's been 17 weeks (should have been 17 days but whatever), and there is honestly hundreds of PMCs and support-staff on site. Buildings have been added, landing/launch platforms etc...

With that inmind, WY would have had 4 months to have the place secured from the original colony infestation. Cleared out the nest, the loose Xeno's, cleaned up the eggs, removed cacooned marines, colonists etc.. In order to have a base of operation. They would have also known a force-multiplier was enroute.

So... How did the infestation get soo bad again, if WY had secured the site like we are lead to believe ?

Wouldn't there actually be less PMCs, if somehow the infestation got that bad again ?

Why would WY leave such a Para-military force, in-country knowing CM's are enroute ?




Again, for me personally the abundance of WY PMCs in this game detracts from the Aliens. And honestly doesn't make much sense to the story, to have soo many.

EDIT: The comment about making them so prefluent, to compete in the market against CoD, makes more sense than the sloppy story-plot.

[Osborne Cox?]

Originally posted by FlashFrame:

Originally posted by Husker:

Oh I thought this was a sequel to Aliens, not a futuristic space Call of Duty shooter.

The only reasons the PMCs are there was to get this game to compete with Call of Duty.

It is the sequal... which is focused on the Colonial Marines... who fight things other than aliens.

You have a really hard time with this logical progression thing don't you?

Aliens had Colonial Marines, and no PMCs.

[PumpkinSpiceGob.ttv]

Originally posted by HighPlains Drifter:

The problem, IMO or atleast for me... Is the amount of PMC's you fight. Not that they appear at all.

Which leads me to wonder if that's a plothole in the story. What I mean is, it's been 17 weeks (should have been 17 days but whatever), and there is honestly hundreds of PMCs and support-staff on site. Buildings have been added, landing/launch platforms etc...

With that inmind, WY would have had 4 months to have the place secured from the original colony infestation. Cleared out the nest, the loose Xeno's, cleaned up the eggs, removed cacooned marines, colonists etc.. In order to have a base of operation. They would have also known a force-multiplier was enroute.

So... How did the infestation get soo bad again, if WY had secured the site like we are lead to believe ?

Wouldn't there actually be less PMCs, if somehow the infestation got that bad again ?

Why would WY leave such a Para-military force, in-country knowing CM's are enroute ?




Again, for me personally the abundance of WY PMCs in this game detracts from the Aliens. And honestly doesn't make much sense to the story, to have soo many.

EDIT: The comment about making them so prefluent, to compete in the market against CoD, makes more sense than the sloppy story-plot.

You bring a great point to the table. And the unfortenate answer is simply, story convinence.. The big bad shadow company WY has assets where and when they need them.

To be fair, the Alien franchise hasn't had the best trackrecord when it comes to moments like this. Ash in Alien is a great example, in fact, the character of Ash the android wouldn't have even been included and is not even in the original scripts, he was added later due to Fox asking that there be a secondary "enemy" to the crew other than the xenomorph.

Would I want Ash written out of Alien? No, far from it. But to be fair, your questions about how the facility's were set up so quickly and the like, that's actually an easy answer. In the Aliens universe, alot of the buildings are modular in design, able to easily be dropped from atmosphere and set up in a relative location quite quickly, they could probably have had that facility up and running in atleast a month.

Add to the timetable another month of general exploration of the direlict, it's a big ship, and they may not have headed into the egg chamber right off.

If WY had 4 months total on planet [figure more like 3 really, travel time in the Sulaco from Fury 141 back to LV426 and the like, not to mention they could have kept the sulaco over 141 until the situation with Ripley was finished on the ground, then used Hicks to get back to LV426... Yes there are a lot of things you kinda have to fill in yourself] ANyway if they had even 3 months on planet, figure a month max to set up the research stuff, that leaves 2 months exploration, tagging specimines, and breeding experiements and the like.

The timetable isn't that insane really. Figure too if the company's been this eager to get the Xenomorph, they may have had things in route as soon as they got the initial distress call from Hicks. Which would put more boots on the ground at LV426 [so to speak.]

I agree the storyline's a mess, I'm far from defending every little bit of story. but you CAN make it work, it takes a bit of work, but for me, that's been half the fun, piecing things together in ways that don't bring existing canon, and making sense of it all.

[PumpkinSpiceGob.ttv]

Originally posted by Husker:

Originally posted by FlashFrame:

It is the sequal... which is focused on the Colonial Marines... who fight things other than aliens.

You have a really hard time with this logical progression thing don't you?

Aliens had Colonial Marines, and no PMCs.

But Alien 3 had PMC's and no marines...

[Osborne Cox?]

Originally posted by FlashFrame:

Originally posted by Husker:

Aliens had Colonial Marines, and no PMCs.

But Alien 3 had PMC's and no marines...

ACM isn't a sequel to Alien 3.

I don't even care the PMCs are in the game, I am annoyed how soon they show up and how frequent they are.

[Plushie]

to be fairly honest and not to make your well-thought out comment redundant but it was stated by both Timegate and Gearbox that Sega asked for a "More call of duty- like experiance" Just like EA asked Dead space creators for a more "Mass effect- like experiance" Storyline-wise it doesn't make sense not to mention there are suppost to be ( By the collectors edition schematics of the Sulaco / Sephora ) 180 Fully armed Marines.

Now lets face it, most of the storyline doesn't make sense, for instance. Why would the USCM send in all 180 troops -without- securing the bridge so the Sulaco could just fire weapons on the Sephora, why would the Sephora not be able to detect anything abord the Sulaco and why the hell would Wayland-Yutani be so brasen to go up against the USCM knowing that they'd probebly start a war all over the xeno's when in every film the Wayland-Yutani corp has been devious and underhanded in trying to get ahold of the Specimines. More likely, the corporation would've secured the Xeno's on the Sulaco and High-tailed it with them to another planet / facility.

Sadly, as much as I'd like this to be a great game ( Storyline wise ) It just reads as nothing but Fanfiction. Some people sat around a desk and threw ideas at one another and say "Yeah, thats cool. Lets use that"

[PumpkinSpiceGob.ttv]

Originally posted by Husker:

ACM isn't a sequel to Alien 3.

I don't even care the PMCs are in the game, I am annoyed how soon they show up and how frequent they are.

I agree, A:CM is actually an odd beast in continuity. It technicaly takes place during and after Alien 3, but is ment to follow up the events of Aliens... Technically A:CM is a sequal to both Aliens, and Alien 3. but has no bearing on Alien Resurrection [which we can ignore A R]

I understand the dislike for the frequency of PMC's, honestly they would have been more impactful if they had shown up in the second half of the game, instead of the second mission. unfortenately there's not much that can be done about it.

I just want people to understand that, The PMC's being there, isn't that unlikely, nor is it "Universe breaking" like some people seem to try to make it out to be.

Originally posted by Plushie:

to be fairly honest and not to make your well-thought out comment redundant but it was stated by both Timegate and Gearbox that Sega asked for a "More call of duty- like experiance" Just like EA asked Dead space creators for a more "Mass effect- like experiance" Storyline-wise it doesn't make sense not to mention there are suppost to be ( By the collectors edition schematics of the Sulaco / Sephora ) 180 Fully armed Marines.

Now lets face it, most of the storyline doesn't make sense, for instance. Why would the USCM send in all 180 troops -without- securing the bridge so the Sulaco could just fire weapons on the Sephora, why would the Sephora not be able to detect anything abord the Sulaco and why the hell would Wayland-Yutani be so brasen to go up against the USCM knowing that they'd probebly start a war all over the xeno's when in every film the Wayland-Yutani corp has been devious and underhanded in trying to get ahold of the Specimines. More likely, the corporation would've secured the Xeno's on the Sulaco and High-tailed it with them to another planet / facility.

Sadly, as much as I'd like this to be a great game ( Storyline wise ) It just reads as nothing but Fanfiction. Some people sat around a desk and threw ideas at one another and say "Yeah, thats cool. Lets use that"

Agreed Plushie... which makes me a bit sad really. But from a marketing perspective of a company, it makes sense that Sega would ask for that.

The problem is, CoD sells, cod sells INSANELY well... to the point that I'm ashamed to have bought a few versions of the game myself. I however got out of the series at Black Ops. However I know tons of people who still buy and play every iteration.

That's money a company like Sega wants in on. so they try to push for that audiance. The problem is, those of us who are core fans, that maybe, wouldn't mind that exprience showing up a bit, but not the focus, get pushed to the side because, at this point, we're not the focus, we're not the aim... the CoD corrordor shooter crowd is the aim, not the Aliens fan.

That being said, I love the controls of A:CM, it controls like a CoD game, and I've always felt CoD's gunplay was very very tight... Unlike AVP 2010 that felt like every time I shot the pulse rifle I was always hitting infront of, or behind the target. And everything feels floaty or too "heavy" in AVP 2010... where as A:CM things are tight, responsive and honestly, perfect.

When it came to the Marines, Personally as someone steeped in Aliens lore, from the comics, to the novels, to the films and even owning a copy of "The Colonial Marines Techincal Manual" I can tell that there WAS a lot of detail put into the marines themselves, the protocall, the design and asthetic. And I was a little disappointed with the fact that I was fighting PMC's so damn much. BUT I also admitted to myself that in the Expanded Universe, and other source material, Colonial Marines fight other humans, they fight Androids, they fight Xeno's and other "Alien" threatss...

So I was able to put aside some of the sadness that the xeno's wern't the focus, because, In Universe, when thinking about it from a Colonial Marine perspective, It's not all that unlikely. In fact, if there is ONE major story fail... it's that they seem suprised at having to fight human opponents. Considering that taking down any threat is part of their job... They shouldn't have acted suprised at this.