SEGA details Aliens: Colonial Marines

While EA pumps out endless Need for Speed, Medal of Honor and Burnout titles, and most new IPs seem almost guaranteed a resulting series if they score well at retail, one videogame franchise has been crying out for some next-gen love for far, far too long -- Alien.

Existing as a genuinely scary FPS addition to the original PlayStation’s software catalogue, 1996’s Alien Trilogy stands as perhaps the only decent spin-off to emerge from the inspiration of 20th Century Fox’s heart pounding movies.That said, at the tail end of 2006 third-party publisher SEGA quickened the pulses of Aliens fans the world over when it revealed that developer Gearbox Software had been tasked to helm a brand new first-person shooter based on the Alien series. That game has now been officially named as Aliens: Colonial Marines. Be still my beating heart.

Set for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Games for Windows before the close of 2008, Aliens: Colonial Marines will arrive as a next-gen squad-based FPS where the player will become a member of a United States Colonial Marine squad facing an alien assault more intense and horrific than has ever been seen before.Powered by an original story penned by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle (both credited on Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), SEGA outlines that Aliens: Colonial Marines will “retain the atmospheric look and feel of the original films while leveraging next-generation technology to create an entirely new interactive Aliens experience.”The game will also include trademark Aliens weaponry such as the Pulse Rife and Flamethrower through to brand new equipment and character skills created specifically for the core squad-based combat system.

With SEGA warning of a brooding soundtrack, claustrophobic environments (including an abandoned Sulaco from 1986 classic Aliens), along with plenty of shocks and surprises, Aliens fans should now be feeling that familiar gameplay tension that creeps across the shoulders when facing the prospect of being torn to pieces by Hollywood’s favourite parasitic xenomorph. Beyond the narrative single player, Aliens: Colonial Marines will also include an all-new four player cooperative mode, with yet more multiplayer modes (online?) expected to be revealed closer to the game’s release.Don’t know about you, but we’ll be bringing along an antiquated pump-action shotgun to the fight when Aliens: Colonial Marines finally hits retail, “…for close encounters.”To further whet gaming appetites, developer Gearbox Software has the acclaimed (squad-based) Brothers in Arms series to its name. The studio is also currently developing next-gen title Borderlands. Safe hands? We think so.