Gameitall 
Gearbox’s Aliens: Colonial Marines is bad, so bad that we dubbed it Aliens: Colon Marines whenever we talk about it. It was a game that was hyped up, being “developed” by the studio that brought us Brother in Arms and Borderlands, and would serve as a true sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens. Only to be destroyed by a bad story, glitchy Aliens and bad AI.
While there is a lot to fix with the game, there is something that can be improved thanks to the modding community. A Thread on ResetEra discovered a post on ModDB from late Ocotber which a modder explains that changing one letter from the word “teather” to “tether” does wonders for the game.
Here is the code:
ClassRemapping=PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachXenoToTether -> PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachPawnToTeather
And here’s the explanation:
1) AttachXenoToTether doesn’t do anything. Its basically empty or stripped
2) AttachPawnToTether does ALOT. It controls tactical position adjustment, patrolling and target zoning
When a Xeno is spawned, it is attached to a zone tether. This zone tells the Xeno what area is its fighting space and where different exits are. In Combat, a Xeno will be forced to switch to a new tether (such as one behind you) so as to flank, or disperse so they aren’t so grouped up etc. (*disclaimer* this is inferred opinion, I cant see the actual code only bits)
Whenever the game tried to do this, nothing happened. Now it does!
ResetEra commenter JigglesBunny said they reinstalled the PC version of the game and followed these instructions.
The improvement is immediately recognizable in your first encounters with the Xenos. While they still charge you perched on their hind legs, they now crawl far more often, flank you using vents and holes in the environment and are generally far more engaged and aggressive. Five years after release, a single letter managed to overhaul the entirety of the enemy AI behavior in the game.
Aliens: Colonial Marines launched in 2013 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Gameplay was show in in a 2012 walkthrough that showed “Actual Gameplay” however what we got in 2013 had little resemblance and became the basis for a lawsuit that ended with Sega offering a $1.25 million settlement and blaming Gearbox for mismanaging the marketing.
It would be a year later when we finally received a good Alien game in the form of Alien Isolation.
