In four-player co-op, it was four Terminators in the Doom world. It didn't have a name, it was just something I put on one of the very big illegal gaming Bulletin Boards.

'Using Imagine, I created 3D models of a Terminator from Space Hulk and I replaced all of the weapons with Terminator ones. One of James' earliest mods is still one of his fondest: a total conversion from the demon-infested world of the UAC facilities to a dreaded warship of Warhammer 40,000. TemplarGFX started with sprite swaps and maps, but he steadily delivered more advanced efforts. Combining his newfound graphical skills and his childish adoration for the Knights Templar, James' online moniker was born. His first sandbox was Doom 2, a popular modder's target. This is not, it seems, a recent behaviour ever since discovering the 3D modelling program Imagine in a 90s PC Format magazine demo disc, James has viewed games as sandboxes for his own playful ideas. James displays a primordial need to add, to tinker, to improve. 'It didn't change the gameplay, but it looked better than what most people would have been playing.' 'I had already modded the ini file for the game before I played it,' James says. Colonial Marines might be broken, but it does feature some cool-looking Xenos. James was content with doing what he loved most - tweaking, fixing and improving - and, over five years later, he's still doing it to Gearbox's failed FPS. So, James set about tinkering with Aliens Colonial Marines' secrets while others, such as myself, were busy being angry. As he tells me numerous times over the course of our conversations, he doesn't play games, he mods them. In James' eyes, playing comes second to modding. He bought it, downloaded it and installed it, but he wasn't playing it.

Meanwhile, down under, Australian modder James 'TemplarGFX' Dickinson wasn't playing Colonial Marines. The AI was broken, the gunplay was unreliable, and the 'perfect organism' - the Aliens themselves - couldn't even run at the player properly. Gearbox's first-person shooter was an infestation worthy of being nuked from orbit. But then, in February 2013, Aliens Colonial Marines came out and the horror of its truth became reality. After witnessing a gorgeous, atmospheric engine showcase back in 2011, fans of the series were hungrily awaiting a true sequel to the iconic 1986 film. 2013's Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of the most memorable gaming disappointments we've ever seen.

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