By: Rachel Shatto

We’ve made no secret of our deep and passionate love affair with the Aliens franchise here at Zombie Grrlz HQ. Alien blasting, chest-tearing, space horror with a kickass female lead — that paved the way for the modern female action hero — is pretty much definition of “up our alley.”

So, it’s with bloodthirsty and bated breath that we’ve awaited the long in development (hell) release of Aliens: Colonial Marines and finally today we got our first look! Gearbox released the footage originally shown at E3 for us lowly non-convention-attending folks to dig on — and from the looks of this demo footage, we are going to be handsomely rewarded with all manner of fan service and hot, bloody xenomorph perforating action! So yeah, we’re totally there day one.

However, there is one thing that’s got us worried, that hand wrapped around the pulse rifle is looking awfully… well… dude-like, leading us to wonder if the greatest female led action franchise of all time has been has been butched up in the game. Yes, we realize it’s a new story, not a remake of the movies.. but come on, not only does the hand looking manly, but there is nary a lady marine to be seen so we may be down a Ripley and a Vasquez — unacceptable! With female action heroes of this caliber being so few and far between, excising the action heroine role is huge bummer and a blatantly missed opportunity to balance some of the massive gender inequality in video games.

On the upside, how about those power loaders? And the sounds of pulse rifles mingling with the screams of marines half down an alien gullet. Ahhh, it gives this ZG the tingles!

So here’s hoping that when Aliens: Colonial Marines hit’s shelves in Spring 2012 that we ladies can get in on the fun of what looks to be a seriously kickass title! Viva Ripley!

Dig on the footage below: