Fair enough point but at least give DigTw0Grav3s the courtesy of directing him to a more appropriate thread for his post.

My copy of the Colonial Marines Technical Manual arrived in the mail today. It's pretty dang cool. I especially like the little color blurbs between tech entries- they really add a lot of flavor to the otherwise fairly dry techical text. The multiple mentions of various OPFOR groups (Beebops, Bugboys, Slinkers) make me really curious about the conflicts that the USCMs engaged in outside of the Alien engagements committed to film, since very little additional context was given. It's clear that the Beebops are a nickname for Japanese forces, but the others are anyone's guess. Was the author just shooting from the hip or is there some more fleshed-out USCMs mythos* out there that I'm not aware of? Either way, he did a really convincing job.

On a T2K-related note, the USMC tanks ( including the M40 Ridgeway [sic]) look very much like the LAV-75 (with a dash of Merkava mixed in).

*I've seen covers from a comic book series based on the USCM but I haven't read or looked within.

D'aww, sure is nice to be bragged about. It's a damn shame that most of the party moved to the mainland, that was a good, fun game on a system that, I have to admit, I quite enjoyed.

Wow, a Tassie Dunny! I've never even been in one let alone met one. Cool. :D

I remember back in the day, even before filesharing became so rampant, having a (bad) scan of it and thinking the same thing about the M40. Also, I kinda prefer the whole USCM book as a stand-alone item with the xenos being nothing but background clutter. :) Which it works out they are!

If I recall correctly, when Ripley was being debriefed by the corporate suits, one of the suits said that there was no recorded contact with sentient aliens.

Hudson complains of a "bug hunt", which I always assumed that humans had to deal with non-sentient xenos on colony worlds.
Frost mentions of having relations with an alien.

Of course the Predators may just be waiting for the humans to become a bigger threat before picking a fight.

You know, I just had the thought that maybe Weyland-Yutani had such a hard on for getting an Alien specimen to develop weapons is because they know that Predators exist

I agree. From post #63 of this thread:

The RPG details a few other alien races, but nothing with anything like the intelligence displayed by the Aliens. There's Arcturians (Frost mentions them in the Sulaco mess hall), Blackbody Coral, Harvesters, Hyper Algae, Morphers, Panamar Plankton, and Brachous Slugs. Only the Arcturians and Harvesters pose any threat to humans, and the Arcturians no threat to anyone with rock to throw. The others are actually useful in one way or another.

The RPG also splits known space into sectors, each controlled by a different corporation, or syndicate of corporations. Earth is a cesspool which the corporations try to avoid as much as possible except when they need someone expendable.

Interesting. Thanks for the info, Leg. The CMTM seems to present a slightly different picture than the RPG, then. Although it implies that corporations are still very powerful, the basic economic-political unit seems to be international alliances in the vein of a more pumped-up EU type. The CMTM mentions the United Americas as being the "national" entity which the USCM serves. It specifically mentions that Panama and Argentina are both part of this organization, loosely implying that all of the Americas are members as well. Although it looks like big multinational corporations can sway these political entities, it looks like nation-states or confederations of said still have the final say.

Also, Earth in the CMTM doesn't sound too bad. The USCM has several major bases there still.

I'm thinking out loud now. I mean, if corporations totally ran the show, they would likely have their own organic military forces, right? Also, from the existence of the United Americas, one could extrapolate there are similar confederations for other regions. A new EU, an African Union, some East Asian union, SW Asia union, perhaps? I dunno. It's fun to think about.

I kind of like the "universe" as presented in the CMTM (what I recall, again, from the scan I'd seen years back), such as it was.

The CMTM was written with reference to the RPG as well as the movie, however it's very much from the viewpoint of the marines who've never encountered anything all that nasty besides other humans. Post "Aliens", provided the information got out, things might change somewhat.

In the RPG, yes, absolutely. The Corporations certainly do have their own armies, often filled with head hunted ex-colonial marines. Although they're more involved with security and corporate espionage, they do from time to time engage in "traditional" battles. The Corporate militaries are also much better equipped than the Colonial Marines.
Because of the costs involved in sending troops across space, the Corporations prefer to have the Colonial marines do much of the heavy lifting whenever they can, much like occurred in the second movie.

The CMTM also mentions the US Army in a couple of spots, IIRC, once in a throw away line and another time in the organizational section. But nothing that would really give an idea of what the Army is, what role it fills, etc.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/

The prequel???

Yeah, you didn't know about that one?

Looks fantastic, I can't wait to see it.

You know, this book plus Hero System 5e + Science Fiction supplement = some RPG goodness. I'd love to get a game going someday. Ignoring the Xenos, even, just using everything else.

You may now see where I got the inspiration for my article techniques...

Ah, yes. In the right hands, it definitely works.

Agreed. I find myself daydreaming scenarios for a platoon of Colonial Marines...

Remove the Xenomorphs almost entirely, throw everything else into the Hammers Slammers universe sans hovertanks and powerguns...MMM...delicious.

yeah I can't wait to see Prometheus either. Charlize Theron!

our friends across the atlantic already have a chance to see it. They released Prometheus early over in Europe because of some soccer tournament.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/releaseinfo

the wikipedia for Prometheus already has a plot synopsis.

The European Cup. Interestingly enough, the English team are based in Krakow.

Only arguably the second biggest football tournament in the World after the World Cup...

And Poland plays today. I have a soft spot for them due to all the time in spend in Poland (in my mind) thanks to T2K.

Actually it's the third largest watched televised sporting event after the World Cup (Football) and The Summer Olympics, if it isn't rained off this year...

I'm just settling down to watch the game.

I was going to ask you for a prediction - I seem to recall you did pretty well calling the World Cup...;)

FWIW my money (literally) is on Germany.

I'm trying to decide whether rain will enhance the beach volleyball or not...

I think the costumes are pretty rain proof, plus there's not much of tehm to get wet.

Saw Prometheus. I'll hold my peace until others can chime in.

Saw it, loved it, seeing it again tomorrow.
For anyone who knows the lore surrounding the Alien movies (not including number 4) and have a familiarity with the lore of BladeRunner, there's a lot to be seen in Prometheus.

Ignore the critics, ignore the haters, you have to see it for yourself and make up your own mind.

Keep in mind that Ridley Scott originally filmed it for an R rating and then trimmed it back to get an M rating (M ratings recoup their costs faster). The claim is that when the DVD gets released it will have his original "R rating" version so there will possibly be more to find out in that version.

My Vague Review (Contains Spoiler)
 

Saw it yesterday. I was pretty thoroughly entertained but left feeling a little unsatisfied. There were a couple of significant loose ends, I felt, and, IMHO, it was made a little too complicated at times. Alien and Aliens worked so well because they were pretty simple, plot-wise. Overall, though, I found it to be incredibly suspenseful and visually stunning to behold.


SPOILER ALERT:

My wife, who was 28 and pretty fit at the time, had an emergency C-section with our first child and there's no way someone who's just undergone that procedure is going to be running and jumping around just minutes afterwards. Even if she was all drugged up and pumped full of synthetic adrenaline or whatever, your abdominal muscles are shot for a few weeks, at least. Not happening. :rolleyes: