Aliens: Colonial Marines

18 cert, Sega/Gearbox, PS3 (also Xbox 360) **

A troubled project, weighed down by enormous expectations and competing with some fine sci-fi shooters: these poor Colonial Marines were doomed from the start.In theory this should have been wonderful, a first-person shooter set straight after Aliens (with some of the movie’s cast members on board too). Not only is the setting perfect for a shooter, but the Alien films have been a huge influence on countless modern game franchise. Aliens: Colonial Marines could generously be described as functional, but a harsher critic might say it is generic, repetitive, contaminated with bugs (the programming kind) and surprisingly unattractive. There are occasional glimpses of what could have been, and the co-operative play is welcome. But poor animation, bad combat mechanics and stingy save points let it down. “Game over, man, game over!”