Are you in or around London and want to check out Aliens Colonial Marines? The London MCM Expo has got you covered! Running from May 25th to May 27th, the expo features a huge floor of games, comics, movies, and will include a PLAYABLE Aliens Colonial Marines! That’s right, much like our Penny Arcade East showing, we’ll have a mix of some Gearbox folks and Sega friends in attendance showing off the game and fighting against you in the multiplayer all weekend long!

Where is it and how can I attend?

We’re looking forward to seeing you at the event, but you’ll have to get there and grab a ticket to get in – easy stuff!

Where: Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1XL – Check the website for more info!
Tickets & Attendance: Tickets are still available, check the website for more info!

Hope to see you there!

Free Stuff Friday! That’s today and after a busy busy week here at the SEGA HQ we are just now posting the giveaways that will be headed to our twitter page in just a few short hours! In honor of the fantastic weather here in the SF bay area, we’re giving out 3 of our very popular and very limited SEGA hoodies – just in time for Summer!

On the Block

1. The Dreamcast hoodie – XL ONLY – we only have 3 of these left in our merch room and we only have them in Extra Large.

2. SEGA Controller hoodie – S, L, XL, and 2XL - Another favorite for SEGA fans, this blue and white hoodie matches comes with 4 embroidered SEGA controllers across the front. Extremely limited, only 300 were produced in this batch.

3. Aliens: Colonial Marines hoodie – M and L - Our most recent hoodie, created for a recent press event and our official team colors for the PAX East show. Only 200 have been produced.

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)

2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, a word or phrase, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!) We only accept one direct message per person per prize!

Example:

We tweet “GIVEAWAY: Sonic T-shirt, size L. Be the 15th person to DM “Sonic Adventure” to win!”

You see this, and want to win it, so you send us a direct message that says “Sonic Adventure”. If you are the 15th person to do so, you are the winner!

Quotation marks do not matter, capitalization does not matter, but spelling does matter!

3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.

4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Other Assorted Information:

• Free Stuff Friday duties alternate between the London and San Francisco offices and are done during business hours (usually mid-morning) in our respective time zones.
• No, you can’t know what number message you were – so please don’t ask! We will tell you that the information is classified!
• If you have questions during the giveaway, please contact us with an @reply. As you can imagine, we get a whole lot of direct messages during the contests and there is a very good chance we will miss your question if it is sent as a DM.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

Due to a change in our account status with Twitter, you should be able to send us direct messages without us following you. However, third-party applications may not allow you to.

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is:

1. Log in to your Twitter account.
2. Click on the person icon and select Direct messages from the drop down menu.
3. You’ll see a pop up showing your Direct message history. Click the New message button, highlighted below.
4. In the address box, type the name or username (SEGA) of the person you wish to send a message to.
5. Enter your message and click Send message.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you. If you still have questions on sending direct messages, please visit Twitter’s Help Section.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not. Please make sure your message says “test” somewhere.

Check out the box you’ll be picking up when Colonial Marines releases this fall!

We love it and hope you do too – let us know in the comments!

Aliens Infestation has been out for a few days now, but we’ve still got glorious content to share with you! Today’s exclusive trailer is a bit different format than what we’ve published so far. It starts slow and builds, much like the game, and includes some awesomeness for Aliens fans – Facehugging, chest bursting, power loaders, and a special secret at the very end! Enjoy…

Today we have our final Aliens Infestation blog from the Wayforward development team. This weeks’ topic is all about the challenging, and unique, death mechanics in the game. Just like in the movies, a Colonial Marine can meet his end at moment’s notice… Our final blog is a two parter, with part 1 below and part 2 featured on the Gearboxity community site.

Death and Rescue

Adam Tierney (Director, Wayforward):

One of the really standout features of the game is the notion of true death. Unlike most action games, where death means (at worst) a brief wait to respawn, or getting kicked back to the previous checkpoint, we decided that this game would feature a true death mechanic, rarely seen in modern games (and most notably in Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series). As mentioned previously, James Cameron’s formula for success in the 1986 film was essentially:

1) Make the viewer become attached to a group of memorable, funny, endearing badasses
2) Then kill them off one-by-one

Doing this crafted a tremendously-impactful experience for the viewer, and made them root that much harder for Ripley and Bishop during the film’s climactic battle. Following suit, we knew we could create a group of memorable Marines by giving them individual names, faces, dialogue, and backstories. But that wouldn’t really mean anything if players could hold onto their favorite characters indefinitely. We needed to make it tough so that players would have to really WORK at keeping their favorite Marines alive. And ultimately, we the developers don’t WANT them to be kept alive, because the game is structured to encourage losing Marines and recruiting new ones to replace them. That’s right, gamers: the developers are trying to kill your favorite soldiers. Bwahahahaha…

Players start the game with four initial marines: Cameron (the hero), Whistler (the hopeless new recruit), Paulson (the walking mountain), and Johnston (our tough-as-nails chick – our ‘Vasquez’). After the opening story sequence, the player selects who to begin playing as, and can swap control to any of the other marines inside one of the game’s Save Rooms. Players begin the game with a xeno-free, slow build intro, navigating the ship, picking off minor enemies, and generally just getting acquainted to the setting (as in the films).

Then the carnage begins. As the player’s character takes damage, their HP Meter will drain (which can be replenished by grabbing health packs). Outside of Save Rooms (which aren’t plentiful), there’s no way to switch between Marines. So if your character is on the verge of death, you’d better find some health packs or start playing very cautiously to keep them out of the grave.

When the HP Meter is drained, that character is dead (sort of). Say goodbye, because you’re never going to see their portrait, or hear their voice again. You even get a big, fat, red X over their portrait in the Marines Roster, and their status is changed from “Active” to “Deceased”. Once they’ve died, their radio screen cuts to static (as in the film), and the player is asked to select from their remaining soldiers. This is potentially a very tough choice; you want to select the characters you enjoy playing as, but at the same time you know that using them could result in losing them. So there’s an interesting ‘play vs. save’ dynamic that we noticed as people played the game. We purposefully made the first Queen battle a rough one, to get players used to the idea that it’s okay to lose a Marine or two. Sure, it’s possible that players will kill her without losing a life. But more commonly, they’re gonna lose a few good men in battling that initial beast.

If that character dies, you select the next one, on and on until your last Marine dies and it’s Game Over, Man! At this point, you’re returned to your last Save Point, with whatever Marines were alive at that moment. And this created an interesting dilemma for us: if losing all lives brings back your dead marines, what’s to keep players from just powering off their system and hopping back to when their favorite characters were alive? Aside from the obvious (a loss of any progress made since the last save), the answer was in the ‘tease’ of new soldiers.

Head over for Part 2 on Gearboxity!

Go go go! The final part of the final developer diary is just a click away – do it now! Also be sure to head to our flickr page for updated images and full resolution marine bios. We hope you’ve enjoyed these blogs and now we want to hear back from you! Tell us your Aliens Infestation experiences in the comments below!

Aliens Infestation, the newest from SEGA and WayForward is now available worldwide! Developed for the Nintendo DS, Aliens Infestation is a 2D sprite based side scroller that returns gamers to a familiar world within the Aliens franchise, where you’ll encounter chest bursting, face hugging, and mini-mouth face stabbing, among many other epic Aliens moments. It’s not all Colonial Marine death scenes though, there’s plenty of key finding, blowtorch using, smartgun blasting, power loader driving, and more!

The reviews have been coming in since the recent European launch of the game on September 30th. Lots of good stuff too, which we’ve combed over the net to deliver to you, saving you the painstaking googling – Read on!

1Up.com – 91%! – read the full review!

Infestation is a game that any fan of Metroid, Aliens, or classic action games in general should grab. It’s a wonderful verse in the DS’s swan song. I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Official Nintendo Magazine UK – 82%! – read the full review here!

Warrior aliens, facehuggers and chestbursters roam around each area’s corridors, with only a small beeping dot on your motion tracker telling you there’s something nearby. There’s a real feeling of suspense when you’re wandering around an area that you know to be infested with aliens, especially when your ammo is running low and you realise you’re going to have to resort to your useless pistol.

Joystiq.com – 4/5 Stars! – read the full review!

The tension in pretty much any room in this game is effective; you’ll find yourself taking a minute in a clear room to load shotgun shells individually, and slowly; you’ll hide behind crates to fire at robots from cover. While you do find more weapons, unlike other games in the genre, you never become an overpowered super-soldier capable of blasting through earlier areas with abandon. There’s no Screw Attack equivalent. From beginning to end, you risk death from almost any random enemy, unless you move carefully and conserve ammo.

Eurogamer – 80%! – read the full review here

WayForward wastes no time in creating an imposing atmosphere about the USS Sulaco, where your adventure begins. Metallic clanks and hisses are accompanied by an ominous synth-led soundtrack, creating a slow-burn tension through the early stages that is released by one of the cheapest scares in the book. (One which I, playing in the dark with headphones turned up to full volume, was completely suckered by.)

Today is Thursday, but tomorrow is Friday and Friday is our big giveaway day with Free Stuff Friday. This week’s group of prizes are all related to a single theme – Aliens Infestation! The WayForward / Gearbox developed, SEGA published, Aliens amazing-ness that’s been getting a ton of high marks from around the web! It’s going to be a good one …

On the Block

This week we have six identical packs, each with one of the following prizes included. Good luck!

1. Aliens Infestation - the Nintendo DS Game! The game is completely region free and can be enjoyed across any Nintendo DS, or 3DS system.

2. Aliens Infestation Buttons – four buttons displaying different Colonial Marines meeting their end from various Alien life forms. Facehugger, chestburster, and full on Alien with mini-through-head-death. These were originally given away at our PAX 2011 booth and were quite the hit!

3. Aliens Infestation Animated Lenticular – This framed art piece features a fully animated Alien stalking and attacking a Colonial Marine. The animation is pulled directly from the in-game sprites and is, in essence, a moving picture in a static format. In the image above you can catch the last frame when the Marine is pushing the Alien back with a burst of gunfire from the Pulse Rifle. We’re really happy with how these turned out and cannot wait to get them out to 6 lucky winners! **Only 200 of these were created, they are extremely limited!**

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)

2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, a word or phrase, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!)

Example:

We tweet “GIVEAWAY: Sonic T-shirt, size L. Be the 15th person to DM “Sonic Adventure” to win!”

You see this, and want to win it, so you send us a direct message that says “Sonic Adventure”. If you are the 15th person to do so, you are the winner!

Quotation marks do not matter, capitalization does not matter, but spelling does matter!

3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.

4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

Due to a change in our account status with Twitter, you should be able to send us direct messages without us following you.

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is to go to our Twitter page and select “message” under the “Actions” heading in the side bar. If you do not see “message”, this means that we are not following you. Please send a message to @sega to let us know, and we will follow you. When you click “message” you will be taken to a window where you can type a message and press send.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not.

Alien Infestation is nearly here, launching in European territories on September 30th and arriving in North America on October 11th! With only a few days a way, we’ve got another developer diary from the good folks at WayForward to help ease the pain of waiting. This week’s blog features the development of the characters, the Colonial Marines, the folks you’ll be guiding through the sidescroller Alien Infestation.

We’ve got a small preview of the blog here, with the full text appearing on AvPGalaxy.net, fansite for all things Aliens, Predator and an excellent reference for all things in between, enjoy!

Adam Tierney (Director, Wayforward):

So we’ve talked a lot about developing our tiny Marines. But what exactly went into that? Just how fleshed out are these soldiers, and why should players care when they die if there’s always another one right around the corner, waiting to take their place?

The game features 20 Marines: 19 of which are playable, and one which is your Commanding Officer, Patrick “Stainless” Steele. Steele contacts you via radio throughout the adventure to offer intel, and to give the playable character someone to chat with (in what would otherwise be a pretty quiet game).

Because of the tremendous amount of animations required for our Marines (multiplied by every type of firearm), it wasn’t feasible to actually animate 19 different character sets. If we’d attempted that, we’d still be animating the game right now. So instead, we decided to differentiate characters in the following four ways…

(continued…)

To be Continued – Right Now!

If the above has you interested, you’ll want to catch the rest over at AvpGalaxy.net. Read up on the rest of the character’s developer diary and also check out individual character bios detailing backstory on a few of the marines you’ll be playing as!