A modder discovered a typo in the code of the PC Version of Aliens: Colonial Marines, a game that was released to scathing reviews due to its horrible AI.
Fixing the typo made the Aliens: Colonial Marines stupid AI suck a bit less, but still not worth its full price of $30. Fortunately, there are other ways around it.
Typo Played Part in 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' Stupid AI
Aliens: Colonial Marines, which was released in 2013 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC was hyped up for transporting players into the Alien universe. However, reviews on the game agreed on one thing, and that was the horrible AI of the aliens. The aliens in Aliens: Colonial Marines would approach players, and then have no clue what to do next.
The much-maligned game reappeared in the headlines due to a 90 percent discount at Fanatical, dropping the Aliens: Colonial Marines prices from $30 to $3. The sale runs until the morning of July 14, and players who buy the game are recommended to also install the TemplarGFX's Aliens: Colonial Marines Overhaul, which is a fan-made mod that fixes most of the game's graphical and gameplay issues.
James Dickinson, the modder behind the patch, said some of the AI issues may have been caused by a typo in one of the game's files.
The typo was found in the PecanEngine.ini configuration file, which intended to tell the aliens where to spawn in the area, where they are tethered, and defines their space to attack players. However, due to "AttachPawnToTeather" used instead of "AttachPawnToTether," the alien AI turned out to be mindless zombies instead of ruthless killing machines.
Ars Technica's Sam Machkovech tried downloading Aliens: Colonial Marines and fixing that one typo in the game's code. He said that the difference was "night-and-day" after the typo had been fixed, with a significant difference in the alien AI. They started taking advantage of higher attack positions, hiding points, and multi-alien flanks.
Kotaku's Cameron Kunzelman, however, said that fixing the typo resulted in some differences, but that was not enough to solve all the issues with the game's horrible AI. Gamers who decide to buy Aliens: Colonial Marines are still recommended to install Dickinson's mod instead of just fixing the typo.
Video Game Discoveries
The typo in the Aliens: Colonial Marines code may not have panned out well, but another recent video game discovery may excite Nintendo fans.
A security researcher recently discovered that the in-game NES emulator in Animal Crossing for Nintendo GameCube is also capable of playing NES ROMs that are stored in the console's memory card.
