Gearbox Software fights a losing battle against the bugs in Aliens: Colonial Marines

By Anthony John Agnello March 8, 2013

Aliens-Colonial-Marines — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Part of the problem with Aliens: Colonial Marines is that, in addition to having some serious, fundamental flaws at a conceptual level, the product that actually released for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 is simply broken on a technical level. It is, pardon the pun, riddled with bugs. Spotty artificial intelligence, broken path finding, and terrible net code are just a few of the problems that players have taken to the Internet to complain about in the two weeks since Gearbox Software and Sega foisted their horrifying sequel on an unsuspecting public. It is a losing battle, and arguably a lost cause, but at least Gearbox and Sega are trying to fix the game.

Gearbox released a new Xbox 360 patch for Aliens: Colonial Marines that aims to repair some of the issues that plague the game. In the story mode, the biggest fix is repairing some of the non-player characters path finding abilities, keeping them from wandering off towards the wrong goal or spawning in the wrong places during certain story sections.

Other fixes to both the multiplayer and single-player games show just how broken Colonial Marines was when it shipped in February. One fix was built to repair “issues where multiplayer/co-op clients could see interactive objects displayed in different states.” This problem isn’t marked as “rare” in the patch notes either, meaning that two people playing the game online would regularly each see different parts of the environment.

PC and PlayStation 3 Aliens players will have to wait for this patch. Gearbox didn’t give an estimated release date for either platform.

Editors' Recommendations

Embracer Group finally sells Gearbox Software, but keeps Gearbox Publishing

Topics

Sci-Fi

Anthony John Agnello

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…

Gaming

Best PS5 SSD deals: Add more storage to your PS5 from $120

A 2TB WD Black

When the PlayStation 5 was originally released, it had the option to expand its internal memory, which was quite small at the time at a little under 900GBs. Of course, the issue is that there weren't any SSDs that worked on the new standard the PS5 was using, so even if you wanted to upgrade, you couldn't. Luckily, since then, there have been a lot of great SSDs for the PS5 that have been released, and upgrading its storage is pretty easy and can be done by pretty much anybody, provided they have a screwdriver. So, whether you picked up a PS5 from one of the PS5 deals or already have a PS5 and want to upgrade, be sure to check out the SSDs that will work great for your PS5 below.
Our favorite PS5 SSD deal

It wasn't that long ago that you'd have to pay well over $100 to get an SSD for your PS5, and often, it'd be slower than the pricier alternatives. These days, you can buy a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD with heatsink for just $120 from Best Buy, thereby saving $45 off the regular price of $165. The SSD offers speedy performance while also having its own nickel-coated high-end controller to help deliver effective thermal control. It means it won't overheat and performance won't be compromised. Being a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, you get twice the data transfer speed of PCIe Gen 3 which is useful. Offering maximum read speeds of 7,000 megabytes per second, it's a good upgrade to go alongside your existing hard drive with 1TB offering plenty of extra space at a shrewd price.

Gaming

The Sims 5: release date speculation, trailers, gameplay, and more

sims 4 for rent expansion pack shared living the 6

It's time to brush up on your Simlish if it's rusty because the long-awaited The Sims 5, aka Project Rene, is officially on the way. This has been the longest gap between main entries since the series began, and while we did get tons of expansions for The Sims 4 to hold us over, plus the change to it becoming free to play, we're more than ready for a new entry. Each time a new game in the franchise comes out, die-hard fans always need to have a bit of skepticism about what features will be there -- both new and returning.

We can't answer all your questions yet, but here's everything we know about The Sims 5.
Release date speculation

Gaming

VR headset deals: Meta Quest 2 and VIVE XR

htc vive vs pro headphones

While VR may not be as big as was predicted back in the early 2000s when the original Oculus Go was released, there is still a considerable market these days, and some great VR games like Half-Life: Alyx that you can have fun with. Of course, VR headsets remain expensive, and while options like the Meta Quest don't necessarily require a high-end gaming PC, they can still be a bit pricey for those who just want to put a foot in the hobby. Luckily, there are some good deals you can take advantage of, even on some of the best VR headsets, so be sure to check out all your options below.
Meta Quest 2 -- $199, was $200

Even though the Meta Quest 3 came out quite recently, the Meta Quest 2 is still a pretty powerful contender, especially since it has a wider library and app support than the Quest 3 currently has. Even more so, the Quest 2 is a lot cheaper than the Quest 3, and with the latest permanent discount down to just $200, that's a whole $300 or so difference from the Quest 3. Of course, the Quest 3 does have more advanced AR and slightly better performance with software and Wi-Fi, but that may not be worth the extra cost for some. Either way, be sure to check out the breakdown between Quest 2 and Quest 3 to get a better sense of what you should pick up.