WOW! :eek I am DEFINITELY buying this game the first day it comes out in 2009! This IS the ALIENS Colonial Marines game I have been waiting for! I knew about the one EA was making for the Playstation 2 a few years ago. But it got cancelled. This one looks incredible. I bought the Game Informer today. Here's some pictures from the article. I am going to buy my copy of the game on the Xbox 360. I won't post the pictures of the cover that I took since some of you have already posted a link to Game Informer showing the cover. Check out the pictures...
The first two pages of the article. It says "PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER" just like on Pvt. Frost's gray t-shirt he wore with the M41-A pulse rifle on it, above the title "ALIENS Colonial Marines".
The next two pages. It has a great shot of what I am assuming is planet LV-426. Since they say you revisit the same planet from ALIENS in the new game. You even explore the Sulaco too!
the next page that shows a dropship at the top of the page. It says the game will use the original dropship. Not some "re-imagined knock off" of it. Good. Also at the lower left are pictures of the hypersleep chambers in the Sulaco, and they say even though Ripley's is missing, there are others that your team can explore. At the bottom left is a picture of the A.P.C. we all know and love. It says that "there will be some driving segments, but the gameplay is focused primarily on squad shooting". On the lower-right is a section comparing "Concept To Reality" on the top is the shot of the loading bay on the Sulaco in the game. On the bottom is a shot of the loading bay in the movie. They look almost identical! Plus, the fact they consulted the the ALIENS conceptual designer, the great painter Syd Mead! Awesome!
Next is the page to the right of the last page. It shows your first-person view without any nagging "H.U.D.". You are looking at alien egg with a facehugger about to jump out of the top of it! For this picture they say, "Since your view is uncluttered by any sort of HUD, you will be able to fully appreciate terrifying moments like this".
At the bottom of that same page is a small picture of the A.P.C.
The next page has a shot of your marine shooting his pulse rifle at an oncoming facehugger. It says "If you are grabbed by a facehugger you will have to react quickly using the "close encounters" mechanics to avoid death". The "close encounters" mechanics they mention they said will be simple lighted hints something like what was done in "God Of War". You will see a green light to then do a button-press like maybe one of the shoulder buttons on the controller in a sequence to get the facehugger off of you and away from your face.
Next, is a great shot of the other three marines in your squad (all four marines right now are currently named Winter, Bella, O'Neal, and Monday. I'm not sure which one you will play as...they didnt' say). One is sealing a door with his hand-held blowtorch, another is covering him at the door with his shotgun just like Hicks, and one covering with a pulse rifle. Your marine is shown holding a motion detector, and you can see the display with aliens approaching, and they're about 7 meters away! It says "These placeholder squad members look the same. In the final version, their appearance will be just as different as their various abilities". In the article it says you can arm each marine with one main weapon, like a pulse rifle, flamethrower, or smartgun. Then they get a secondary weapon like the signature shotgun Hicks carried that will stay with them the entire game. They will also be able to have a pistol sidearm, and be able to each carry some of the familiar grenades from ALIENS too. Sweet! They also go on to say that you will be able to switch between the four marines at any time. Reminds me of that function in "Battlefield 2" that I played on the Xbox 360. Nice.
I will post the rest of the pictures in my next post so that I will have posted all of the pictures from the article.