The update brings better textures, many other improvements to the game

Mar 19, 2013 09:28 GMT  ·  By

A massive 3.8GB patch for Aliens: Colonial Marines has just been deployed for the PC version of the game via Steam, bringing better textures, lots of improvements and plenty of enhancements to the AI of enemies and allies.

Aliens: Colonial Marines was eagerly awaited by millions of fans from around the world, but the actual game was a severe disappointment as it failed to deliver the experience many fans were looking for.

Since then, main developer Gearbox Software has released several patches and the latest update, which occupies 3.8GB, is now being rolled out on the Steam digital distribution service.

The huge patch brings improved textures as well as an array of visual changes, like better looking effects, but also plenty of smaller improvements including ones for the AI of both enemies and allies.

The multiplayer mode has also been enhanced with balance changes and new additions to the core mechanics.

Check out the full list of changes below, via Gearbox.

General

- Improved texture resolution. - Various visual improvements. - Added mouse smoothing to options menu. - Fixed crashes tied to launch and motion tracker. - Added additional safeguards to better protect save data. - Resolved an issue where a player's level could sometimes appear incorrect when backing out of a party. - Addressed several scenarios under which players could spawn without a weapon. - Changes to better prevent audio from sometimes cutting out during end of mission cinematics. - Fixed issue where Xeno death animation was not properly calculating momentum of the killing blow. - Smart Gun animation now properly tracks targets. - Addressed some instances where Xenos would display erratic animations. - Increased light radius for player's shoulder lamp. - Adjusted aim assist to better reflect player input. - Addressed an issue that could sometimes cause co-op player revival to not work under certain circumstances. - Addressed issues with players not spawning into a level properly. - Fixed a marine player invincibility exploit. - Resolved several instances where players could walk or fall outside of maps. - Addressed an issue where Ripley's Flamethrower (bonus content) would sometimes fire continuously without player input. - Fixed an issue that could cause localized text to sometimes display incorrectly. - Addressed an issue where weapon ammunition was not always highlighted properly. - General user interface improvements. - Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Campaign

- Tweaked enemy and friendly AI to be more aggressive and responsive. - Modified campaign difficulty to account for improved AI responsiveness. - Improved enemy collision detection regarding doors and Power Loader. - Addressed some issues that could cause improper warping for co-op players. - Various tweaks to address instances where NPC characters would not always properly navigate to objectives. - Players will no longer bleed out immediately when downed in a Power Loader.

Versus

- Fixed issues that could cause clients to report inaccurate results and statistics. - Addressed instances where a map would appear to "pop in" when loading into a new match. - New Xeno appearance customization added. - Multiplayer teams should now correctly auto-balance between rounds. - Increased duration of Lurker Pounce Challenge "Cat-Like Reflexes" from 10 to 20 seconds. - Fixed issue where certain multiplayer challenges would not unlock properly for all characters. - Crusher pick-ups now correctly appear as highlighted for clients.

The new patch is already live on Steam and should be automatically downloaded the next time you start the service's client.