Aliens: Colonial Marines co-op team revealed, female characters are go

Aliens: Colonial Marines will have and was always planned to have female characters, Gearbox has revealed, including one of four choices for co-operative play.

At its PAX Prime 2012 panel, Gearbox said there had been a misunderstanding over Colonial Marines inclusion of female characters. When producer Brian Burleson said at E3 2012 that the game didn't have female characters, sparking a ferocious outcry from fans, he apparently meant in the playable E3 demo, not the whole game. Whoops!

Studio boss Randy Pitchford told Kotaku that the developer wasn't ready to announce details of the female character, but wanted to quash the misinformation as quickly as possible. Pitchford said having female characters adds to visual and gameplay diversity, because the two genders have different skeletons and move slightly differently. Players will be able to create female characters for competitive multiplayer. These characters will be as customisable as their male counterparts, with players able to modify armour and write slogans on their equipment, as well as attach a choice of accessories to weapons.

One of the co-op characters is female, too. Players can choose to take on the role of the campaign protagonist, Cpl. Christopher Winters, Pvt. Demarcus Short, Pvt. Jennifer Redding Quintaro or Pvt . Guillermo Quintaro. As noted above, Gearbox has brought its announcement forward, so these designs aren't final.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is due on PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 in February 2013.

During the rest of the panel, Gearbox revealed that the game announced as Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 will drop the franchise title and release as a brand new IP.