Tell us about the game? What is the story and what can we expect?Brian: 'Aliens: Colonial Marines is the canonical video game sequel of the Aliens films which that takes place 17 weeks after the events of Aliens.
'The United States Colonial Marines are investigating a distress signal that was sent out from the Sulaco, the original ship from the film which was reported missing between the events of Aliens and Alien 3.
'They find it in orbit over LV-426, the last place it should be since it’s the very planet that it was supposed to have left at the end of Aliens. Something horrible is on that ship.
'The game starts here with Corporal Winter, one the last marines woken from hypersleep, boarding the Sulaco to find out what happened on the ship as well as what happened to the marines who had boarded the ship prior to him.
'At this point, all hell breaks loose and the player is faced with all the horrors and action seen in the Aliens films with some new twists.'
It’s obviously a first-person shooter, but have you incorporated many set-pieces? Are there any vehicles to drive?Brian: 'The Aliens universe is very rich with amazing sets, vehicles, weapons, and more. When we started working on ACM we talked about what would be the most exciting things to include from the universe and got to work.
'When you play the game you will fight through the iconic areas seen in Aliens such as the Sulaco, Hadley’s Hope, the surface of LV-426, the iconic Derelict, and more, as wells as explore parts of these locations you never got to see in the films.
'One of the designers we worked with who worked on the original Aliens, Syd Mead, helped us take the original set designs of the film and expand them out.
'When you start working on and Aliens game, and you want to do it right, you have to talk with the people who started it all!
'As far as vehicles go, you’ll have to play the game to see. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.'
What is your favourite moment from Aliens? Have you tried to incorporate this into the game?Brian: 'I have a lot of favorite moments. Mine has to be when the marines are in Hadley’s Hope’s Operations setting up the defenses and the power gets cut by the Xenomorphs. The suspense, horror and action of that scene is amazing. These three things pretty much sum up ACM.
Aliens boasted some strong female characters. Will we see this in Colonial Marines?
Brian: 'Most certainly. One of the characters in the player’s squad, Bella, is a pivotal character in the story of ACM. I don’t want to spoil too much, but when the player finds her, she is terminal. Where that goes from there and how she handles it is very much keeping with the strong female characters of the Aliens universe.
There are new aliens on show in the game. What steps did you take to ensure fans of the films were happy with the designs?
Brian: 'ACM does feature some new Xenomorphs that we haven’t seen before in the Aliens universe. Since ACM is canonical, we had to be very careful with how we handled that.
'Fans have always been very interested in knowing how Xenos work and how ours fit into the whole scheme of things. When we were creating them we stuck with Cameron’s view on the Aliens species, which is that of a hive hierarchy.
'In Aliens we saw the Queen, soldiers, praetorians, and in Alien we saw what we call a scout. These are the Xenomorphs we started with.
'So when gameplay dictated the need for a new type of combat challenge for the player, we designed the new Xenomorphs with the hive hierarchy in mind.
'When we look at ant hives, bee hives, or termite nests, they have a lot more roles than just these. Looking at nature, you realize how scary it can be, so we started there.
'When players play the game, they will learn how our Xenomorphs fit into this hive, but we don’t want to give away all the secrets of the Aliens universe. We have to leave some things a mystery.'