14 DAY TRIAL // What we know:
Aliens: Colonial Marines is another game that is supposed to arrive during 2012 and has been in development for a long time and the pedigree of Gearbox suggests that Aliens fans might finally have a serious game to cut their teeth with, after the first Aliens vs. Predator title.
The concept of the Aliens: Colonial Marines video game is set to mix traditional first person shooter mechanics with squad elements, with four characters working together to escape the rather unwanted attention of the aliens, both in their already known forms and in a few mutated characters that the developers have not yet revealed.
Players will not have an actual Heads Up Display and all information will be gleaned from weapons and the environment, with the commands to other characters delivered via content sensitive menus.
When it comes to multiplayer Aliens: Colonial Marines will allow two gamers to play using split-screen, while four can work together in order to inhabit all members of the squad over the PSN, Net or Xbox Live.
Gearbox has also said that it will offer a variety of weapons, abilities and tactical situations for the player, making sure that no two encounters with the aliens are the same.
At the moment Aliens: Colonial Marines is set to arrive this year on the PC, the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, the Wii U from Nintendo, and a 3DS version of the game will also be launched.
Why it matters: Squad based games usually don’t get along well with the first person perspective and Gearbox gets extra courage points for the fact that they will also eliminate the familiar HUD and will use context based menus, which can be somewhat confusing.
The long development cycle raises a lot of questions about whether the game can be launched this year, especially given that Gearbox is also working on a sequel to an established hit, Borderlands.
The full Incoming 2012 series of articles can be read on Softpedia right here.