MarinesIn video games marines have an arsenal of weapons at their disposal, including Pistols, Pulse Rifles, Shotguns, Flame throwers, Grenades, Scoped Rifles and Smart Guns. Ammo and health stims can be collected during the game but not all weapons available in all maps, (more weapons can be found in the Armoury and at Weapons, which lists weapons and their abilities). Motion trackers are available as standard for all Marines with an effective range and response, these vary in colour and effectiveness. A new arsenal of weapons are available in the Aliens: Colonial Marines campaigns, these include M240 Flamethrowers, Ripley's Flame Thrower with Flame thrower attachments to the W-Y NSG 23 Assault Rifle and Armat M4RA Battle Rifle. An upgraded M56/A Smartgun, a deployable UA 571A Remote Sentry, a XM99A Phase Plasma Rifle, a S.H.A.R.P. Rifle, a M5 RPG and a M39 Submachine Gunn. Pistols and Shotguns have new upgrades with a Sawed-Off Double Barrel Shotgun available in the Extermination Edition. These weapons and others not listed are derived from weapons which have appeared in films but not always following film designs accurately.
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CharactersIn game a player can select a different character which might have slightly different traits, in Aliens v Predator 3 characters are known as 'skins'. There are different characters to choose from in multiplayer, Rookie, Van Zandt, Moss, Kaneko, Conner, Gibson, Johnson and Franco. In singleplayer a player is limited to the Rookie, with help from Tequila and Katya a synthetic. In Aliens: Colonial Marines Corporal Christopher Winter takes the lead role with O'Neal, J.Cruz and Bella joining him in singleplayer with the DLC characters playable in co-op including the addition of Short, Redding and Quintaro. With the addition of the level Stasis Interrupted, Hicks, Stone and Lisbeth are the characters in gameplay.
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U.S.C.M.sU.S.C.M.s have the same problems to contend in multiplayer as in the singleplayer namely Aliens and Predators, players can choose which weapons to carry for each different map played or choose to stick with the same weapons, these are collected through gameplay and selected on screen. If it's squad based like Aliens: Colonial Marines or singleplayer like Aliens v Predator games, tactics vary with dark and open areas being a problem for marines staying in groups meaning you could possibly survive for longer, long sealed corridors being the easiest to defend with set tasks carried out during gameplay sometimes leaving a player exposed and venerable.
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TacticsIn Aliens v Predator mines can be a problem, as Predators like to lay them on doors and in the undergrowth, these something sound and beep as a player approaches but mostly it is to late. A Predators ability of jumping from a distance into the actions means they sometimes won't appear on motion trackers meaning no time to prepare for the attack. Aliens can also pose a similiar danger, dark areas favouring the aliens, with an attack in number for an unprepared Marine will mean certain death in any game. A marines protection against such threats are sentry guns, smart guns and motion trackers.
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EquipmentWelders, Motion Tracker, Jet Packs, Armour, Space Suits, Flares, Flashlights, Image Intensifiers, Hacking Devices and Stims.
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Marine CorpU.N.M.C. Alien Horde U.S.M. Alien Resurrection U.S.C.M. I.P.C. Alien Breed Alien Defense Alien Hunter Survivor N.P.C. M.A.G.M.A. Corp
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Aliens: Colonial MarinesIn Aliens: Colonial Marines marines have a choice of weapons select, trait, armour and equipment upgrades gained by unlocking the achievement in game play and selecting one of each quality.
Primary: Secondary: Special: Tactical: Armour: Trait: Marines armour and camo upgrades; |
New AbilitiesRevive a fellow teammate and XP points are rewarded in single and multiplayer, upgradable equipment, armour and weapons. |
Deployable Sentry TurretsSentry Turrets (UA 571A) as featured in the film Aliens can be deployed and maneuvered in various locations in both single and multiplayer. |
Notable Marines in filmsDutch, Poncho, Hawkins, Mac, Billy, Blain and Phillips are the names of Marines appearing in Predator (film). Vasquez, Crowe, Dietrich, Apone, Hudson, Drake, Hicks, Ferro, Spunkmeyer, Frost, Wierzbowski are the names of Marines appearing in Aliens (film). DiStephano and Perez are the names of Marines appearing in Alien Resurrection (film).
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FilmsPredatorConceptAfter the success of Terminator, Silver and Gordon first approached Arnold Schwarzenegger for the lead role, due to Arnold disliking the idea of it just being him and the alien, the script was re-written and included a team of commandos.
On-setAfter a short delay by Arnold Schwarzenegger, principal photography eventually began in the jungles of Palenque, Mexico, near Villahermosa, Tabasco, during the second week of April 1986, but the film overall was filmed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After five weeks of filming Arnold was flown out so he could get married and honeymooned for two weeks in Antigua, filming then continued in May. Although Arnold lost weight during filming he and other cast members would weight train during the early hours, also stopping filming so Arnold could weight train in one scene as it required that the character Dutch would appear larger in a battle up against the Classic.
ProductionAccording to Schwarzenegger, filming was physically demanding as he had to swim in very cold leech infested water and spent three weeks covered in mud for the climactic battle against Classic. In addition, cast and crew endured very cold temperatures in the Mexican jungle which required heat lamps to be on all of the time, with the rough terrain also caused problems due to it uneven surfaces and dense vegetation.
Aliens vs. Predator: RequiemProductionA sizable force of the U.S.M.C. and home guard are deployed to the town of Gunnison after they are called because of an alien infestation. Once deployed in the town they are slowly picked off even though they are armed and in Humvees and M1126s.
Alien ResurrectionConceptThe USM Auriga a Medical Research Vessel run by General Perez under the United Systems Military (U.S.M.) are the commanding force in the 23rd century. The USM Auriga under military command is used for the scientist's experiments on Aliens using humans as hosts. Nigel Phelps initially designed a circular spaceship but Jean-Pierre Jeunet decided that it wouldn't be capable with the initial filming which required a pull back shot from the Auriga. So with only 3 days before final designs needed to be given in for produced, concept artists Jim Martin, Sylvain Despretz, Nigel Phelps and Bill Badalato designed 20-30 different designs before Jean-Pierre Jeunet decided on the final one.
ProductionSome of the filming was against green screens allowing for seemingly larger sets with visual effects added by VFI Effects 3D, LA, who created almost all the spacecrafts including the Auriga, the Betty and the Lifeboats using matte paintings and CGI. These were then filmed with the miniatures at 60 frames a second and when slowed in post production produced a feel of zero gravity.
Although it appeared that the cast spend most of the time wandering up and down endless spaceship corridors, in reality there were only two built for the film with a separate rail system as they unloaded the stasis units which was filmed with miniatures and against a green screen.
AliensConceptCameron opted to hire actors who had, or could imitate, American accents. After over 3,000 individuals in the United Kingdom were unsuccessfully auditioned, American actors were chosen instead, including three who had previously worked with Cameron on The Terminator: Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Michael Biehn. Actors who played Marines were asked to read Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers and undergo military training, which included running, lifting weights, learning salutes, marches, deployments, and maneuvers, for two weeks. Cameron wanted the Marines to train together so that they would form bonds that would show on-screen. Sigourney Weaver, William Hope, and Paul Reiser were absent from training because of other obligations, but Cameron felt that this suited their characters as "outsiders" in the film.
On-setJames Cameron and Doug Bush allowed the actors to develop their characters by decorating their lockers and painting their guns and armour. The armour for the film was built by English armourer Terry English, and painted using Humbrol paints. Terry English the armourers creator drew the images on to the armour from the designs drawn by the actors. For example Vasquez's gun has the word 'Adios' and her breast plate has a line from a poem she chose which means "The risk always lives", Drake added bones which hanged from his hat and Hudson had his girlfriend's name and a skull and dagger painted on. Cameron wanted the actors to resemble characters that were battle hardened so multiple designs were tried from different countries armed forces, the actors would then wear the armours around set when filming testing their durability and effectiveness.
ProductionIn production English armourer Terry English didn't bring the armours on set during the day of filming so was forced to quickly paint designs on unpainted armours, fortunately Cameron liked the ruff and quirky designs and so kept them in filming. Sets of the Narcissus were rebuilt from the designs of the film Alien in the opening sequences, a scanning drone was sent aboard from the salvage ship to find Ripley and her cat Jones. Later at the Gateway Station produced from matte paintings and backgrounds of the outside with model spacecraft orbiting around, she appears in front of a board of inquiring and her testimony is met with skepticism, later she is offered a reinstatement of flight privileges if she returns to LV426. In filming with the crew the full size APC was used as they board the Dropship, at the entrance as the squad first enter the installation and as Ripley takes the APC collecting the surviving crew. Here filming the Alien and the crew entering and as they run down the Aliens were produced using silicon models which could be positioned in set ways. During filming the roof of the APC was removed as built-up fumes were effecting the actors. A number of Dropships were produced in the filming of Aliens, these included a number of 2-3' models, a 7' model and a 12' model. In filming the large 12' Dropship can be seen on the cargo bay as the crew are first briefed by Gorman and then during prep, using a number of techniques to appear larger. A separate ramp, stairs, cockpit and underside for weapon loading and as the Queen emerges was constructed, loading, flight and landing used scaled miniatures.
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