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[luka]

That was a good interview and a lot more enjoyable than the staged talking head trailers. Also he's got a great accent.
"He's the ultimate biological weapon and you're a meatbag."

 

[Combine]

That was a good interview and a lot more enjoyable than the staged talking head trailers. Also he's got a great accent.
"He's the ultimate biological weapon and you're a meatbag."

I also loved the way he talked about the Predator and how they had to give him all these great gadgets and agility to be able to take on a dozen marines at once and I was thinking "ah, so they made the Predator into Batman"

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

I noticed in the interview at the 6 minute mark when he's talking about Predator hunt, he mentions that a single Predator has to take on up to 17 marines. I think he just messed up but the notion of fighting 17 guys at once is awesome.

 

[luka]

New alien demo video.

Also an awesome old commercial for avp extinction that I found posted on the steam forums.

 

[plagiarize]

I noticed in the interview at the 6 minute mark when he's talking about Predator hunt, he mentions that a single Predator has to take on up to 17 marines. I think he just messed up but the notion of fighting 17 guys at once is awesome.

i don't think he messed up. 18 player multiplayer is what the adverts in gamestop have been playing, and predator hunt is one player is the predator, everyone else is a marine. you only score points as the predator and to become the predator you have to kill the predator.

that'd be one predator vs seventeen marines.

 

[Pete Rock]

Tomorrow would be two weeks from release, so I'd be disappointed if they don't drop the demo then. Something about the lack of marketing, no word on the demo and the few puff pieces here and there lead me to believe it's not what I would hope for. I'm glad they kept the Aliens mobility intact, but I think it's unfortunate that they removed the corpse harvesting in multiplayer and moved onto the generic health regeneration model instead.

I also remember reading a quote from Rebellion talking about MP modes and how they were fans of "natural selection" and I actually found it kind of offensive at the time. It promises so much more than they could ever deliver, and the list of finalized games modes proves that they had no realistic ambition of the sort.

Ideally I would have liked to see a Species DM with NS:Combat mechanics, in the sense that as you individually score points, you can spend them on weapon or life form upgrades. It would seem substantially more interesting to me to set out match conditions with a rag tag beat up squad of marines, a few face huggers and a basic predator or two and watch it evolve to see who ends up with the Queen, the smartguns or the disc blade by the end of the match.

Did anyone here play Aliens Online? It was fairly awful but had its own charms, one of which being that level 99 Alien player characters could transfer their control through the hive mind to the Queen, take it out of the hive and rush the Marine Spawn on most maps, ending the games within 3 minutes :lol

 

[plagiarize]

Tomorrow would be two weeks from release, so I'd be disappointed if they don't drop the demo then. Something about the lack of marketing, no word on the demo and the few puff pieces here and there lead me to believe it's not what I would hope for.

I don't know about SEGA's end of things, but Rebellion have been doing a lot to publicise their game, doing the rounds on the various webshows showing off the game etc.

I'm glad they kept the Aliens mobility intact, but I think it's unfortunate that they removed the corpse harvesting in multiplayer and moved onto the generic health regeneration model instead.

Unfortunate on what grounds? If doing it resolved balance issues with their game as it stood (rather than them just delivering AvP 1 or 2 multilplayer with prettier graphics which is unnescessary if you ask me), then I'm all for it. If doing it resolved the kind of friendly fire issues of the past two where you'd regularly get hacked to death by someone else on your team in the feeding frenzy... I'll reserve judgement obviously, but being able to regroup when wounded rather than expose myself while I feed... it makes sense to me from a gameplay angle... but basically if it's balanced I'm good with it.

I also remember reading a quote from Rebellion talking about MP modes and how they were fans of "natural selection" and I actually found it kind of offensive at the time. It promises so much more than they could ever deliver, and the list of finalized games modes proves that they had no realistic ambition of the sort.

I don't get why it was ever offensive but whatever. The list of finalized game modes is much more diverse and amibitious than most games, espescially when you consider the three campaigns. They may have had no realistic ambition to make something like 'natural selection', but they certainly had a lot of ambition and I think that's apparent from the diversity of modes we're getting.

Ideally I would have liked to see a Species DM with NS:Combat mechanics, in the sense that as you individually score points, you can spend them on weapon or life form upgrades. It would seem substantially more interesting to me to set out match conditions with a rag tag beat up squad of marines, a few face huggers and a basic predator or two and watch it evolve to see who ends up with the Queen, the smartguns or the disc blade by the end of the match.

and it would be a very different multiplayer game to previous games in the series. I appreciate things being changed up. I'd have no problems with it being a stand alone mode, but it'd clearly be a lot of work. For me I'm a little disapointed that life cycle didn't make the grade this time, but Infestation is an improved version of my favourite mode, and Survivor is essentially old school AvP single player or multiplayer with all it's unpredictability and ridiculously bad odds. there's a good chunk of variety here like I said, and if the modes that are in the game are polished and fun, i'll be happy they got the required time and care spent on them, than on trying to put in even more.

Did anyone here play Aliens Online? It was fairly awful but had its own charms, one of which being that level 99 Alien player characters could transfer their control through the hive mind to the Queen, take it out of the hive and rush the Marine Spawn on most maps, ending the games within 3 minutes :lol

I missed the boat on that one and wish I hadn't... but you don't make it sound particularly well balanced!

 

[Mr. Luchador]

The only thing I'm a bit disappointed with seems to be the watered down Alien Blood

 

[plagiarize]

The only thing I'm a bit disappointed with seems to be the watered down Alien Blood

i'm very interested to see how different difficulties in single player effect that. in multiplayer, i hope rebellion are prepared to continue balancing the game post launch.

but yeah, i think the really dangerous acid blood makes playing as a marine MORE fun not less. it used to tear through armour so quickly.

 

[todahawk]

any more news on issues with the possibility/rumor of PS3 issues?

I was gonna be day 1 but I'm a bit nervous. What's Rebellion's track record with other multiplatform releases?

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Any word on system requirements yet?

 

[BlueScrote]

I also loved the way he talked about the Predator and how they had to give him all these great gadgets and agility to be able to take on a dozen marines at once and I was thinking "ah, so they made the Predator into Batman"

I've been meaning to get around to replaying the AvP2. I have such great memories from that game. The Marine section was really well done.

 

[Pete Rock]

Unfortunate on what grounds?

On the grounds that literally every major fps franchise on the console platform uses some form of automatic health regeneration after a damage cooldown period, and it should be avoided for that reason alone. I also found the Alien model in the past games to be uniquely appealing in the sense that it dovetailed nicely with the franchise, much like how the character had the speed and agility you would expect, you regenerated health by sucking the brains out of a marines skull - while not being entirely "alien" in the sense that you needed no health whatsoever.

I fully expect all 3 races to feature the same auto-regenerating health and I actually find that more bizarre in the context of the science fiction universe than if they would have relied on their own unique methods.

Obviously balancing issues trump bad ideas, it just seems like sacrificing a uniquely appealing treatment for more of the same because it is easy to do.

The list of finalized game modes is much more diverse and amibitious than most games, espescially when you consider the three campaigns.

I really hope it plays out that way, because at first blush it seems particularly easy to make analogies to the Juggernaut & Infection modes from Halo. Aside from that we have Species DM & Domination, so again I don't perceive that statement as ringing particularly true, at least in the context of every other fps game I've played in the last ten years.

For me I'm a little disapointed that life cycle didn't make the grade this time, but Infestation is an improved version of my favourite mode, and Survivor is essentially old school AvP single player or multiplayer with all it's unpredictability and ridiculously bad odds.

I'm sure I'll have my fun with them, it's just that I was doing that a decade ago on PC as well, and I expected more from them than "...just delivering AvP 1 or 2 multilplayer with prettier graphics" which is all I feel like I will be purchasing. I'm perfectly thrilled to have the opportunity and I could only hope it translates so well, I will just always wish for more when it comes to this franchise and that sort of multiplayer game design.

I missed the boat on that one and wish I hadn't... but you don't make it sound particularly well balanced!

It certainly had its charms aside from the licensing and quirky exploits, and I would actually love to see it recreated in a similar fashion with contemporary tech. After you created your Alien or Marine character they would record your battle stats and xp earned which you could then spend on pursuing various tech trees depending on your plastyle (smartgun, flame, pulse, etc - of course Alien only had 1 tree to pursue). Aliens at lv1 would spawn as face huggers and I remember it taking me at least 3 excrucating hours to kill a single fucking marine :lol This was mitigated by being able to warp to any able bodied drone in the level, so if you spawned too far away or in a bad pipe section you could just flip through to a closer Alien and get back to your old tactics.

This was all under the umbrella of a Battle.net style chat/lobby system where you organized squads of 4 marines to perform a specific mission, similar to the tactical insertion scenario in Aliens. As you exited the LZ and secured the facility the "live" Alien players would be running out of the hive trying to attack you with very aggressive tactics, while the majority of the actual aliens were mindless AI that you systematically cleared through the level with pulse rifle & tracker work. This basically meant that the 4 Alien players had to kill your marine squad before you erased all of their "tickets" (usually around 100) by destroying the drones, eggs and eventually the queen. Marines each had 1 life and most of these "instances" lasted upwards of an hour, so the games were surprisingly drawn out and intense considering it was on dialup, required a monthly subscription fee and looked only slightly better than Doom.

 

[ArjanN]

I fully expect all 3 races to feature the same auto-regenerating health and I actually find that more bizarre in the context of the science fiction universe than if they would have relied on their own unique methods.

Wrong.

Only the aliens have regenerating health and they can also gain health by corpse-feeding.

 

[EagleEyes]

I just saw the ad on Xbox live and it says the demo drops this thursday the 4th. Can't wait to try this sucka out.

 

[Weenerz]

New alien demo video.

Also an awesome old commercial for avp extinction that I found posted on the steam forums.

Wow, the interviewer just didn't seem interested in discussing the game at all. No excitement in his voice.

 

[Pete Rock]

Wrong.

Only the aliens have regenerating health and they can also gain health by corpse-feeding.

Apologies, I'd love to be incorrect if that is the case, I read this information at the AVP fan site based on their recent time with a multiplayer preview build.

They also mention the marine having a stock of 3 regenerating stimpacks that need to be used manually, but mention nothing about the Predator. Assuming their Alien information is indeed incorrect, who knows about the rest. I suppose we'll have to save our discussions on these gameplay mechanics until the demo or retail drops, either way I'm curious.

 

[MMaRsu]

I just saw the ad on Xbox live and it says the demo drops this thursday the 4th. Can't wait to try this sucka out.

WOOHOOOOOO

 

[Pctx]

Looking forward to this game as Aliens is my favorite film to date.

It's weird too... I think I'm looking forward to the single player more than the multiplayer.... which is usually rare.

 

[plagiarize]

On the grounds that literally every major fps franchise on the console platform uses some form of automatic health regeneration after a damage cooldown period, and it should be avoided for that reason alone. I also found the Alien model in the past games to be uniquely appealing in the sense that it dovetailed nicely with the franchise, much like how the character had the speed and agility you would expect, you regenerated health by sucking the brains out of a marines skull - while not being entirely "alien" in the sense that you needed no health whatsoever.

I fully expect all 3 races to feature the same auto-regenerating health and I actually find that more bizarre in the context of the science fiction universe than if they would have relied on their own unique methods.

Obviously balancing issues trump bad ideas, it just seems like sacrificing a uniquely appealing treatment for more of the same because it is easy to do.

here's what i know here... and i don't know that much yet. Marine's health system is sort of Riddick-esque in that you have three main bits of your health bar. each one does regenerate, but once you've completely lost one, that one won't regenerate.

marines do have something called stim packs, which i presume they can use to heal a piece of their bar, but i don't know how those work exactly.

I don't know how Predator health works. I do know that being cloaked doesn't require pred energy, and that preds have to recharge their energy at set points rather than having an energy sifter they can use anywhere. i'd guess they have to stick themselves to heal, but that it uses energy.

I really hope it plays out that way, because at first blush it seems particularly easy to make analogies to the Juggernaut & Infection modes from Halo.

clearly though the differences between the infected and the juggernaut are much smaller than those between human and alien/predator. plus you have an improved end game in Infestation where the last human has to try and reach a random point on the map to escape.

also, i think it's fair to say that when you have to compare a game to Halo 3 as far as it's multiplayer options go, it's probably got more than most games. I'm not saying AvP has more diversity than any other game, just more than most.

I'm sure I'll have my fun with them, it's just that I was doing that a decade ago on PC as well, and I expected more from them than "...just delivering AvP 1 or 2 multilplayer with prettier graphics" which is all I feel like I will be purchasing. I'm perfectly thrilled to have the opportunity and I could only hope it translates so well, I will just always wish for more when it comes to this franchise and that sort of multiplayer game design.

see, i think what i'm getting (i hope i'm right in this) is a better version of AvP 1 or 2 that goes beyond prettier graphics. it's hopefully better balanced, and i honestly feel that the modes included look to give it a good amount of variety, while for the most part offering multiplayer versions of scenes we saw in the films. but that ultimately the core essence is the same one that made the last two so good.

making each species fun, unique, authentic to the ip and balanced is a tall order. i'm not convinced they'll have managed that at launch, in part because i see how giant a task that is. i understand that more thought (and work) has to go into making the maps than for a normal game, and i think the same is true of the various modes. you've got to allow for the strengths and weaknesses of each species. you have to consider the go anywhere nature of aliens and the higher agility of predators.

other games like Team Fortress 2 run into these kind of things too and shipped with only a handful of maps as a result.

it's a very tall order. when i consider survival and single player... that more than anything else makes me nervous about how the final game may turn out. it seems like if anything they've tried to do too much.

hopefully not.

 

[ArjanN]

Apologies, I'd love to be incorrect if that is the case, I read this information at the AVP fan site based on their recent time with a multiplayer preview build.

They also mention the marine having a stock of 3 regenerating stimpacks that need to be used manually, but mention nothing about the Predator. Assuming their Alien information is indeed incorrect, who knows about the rest. I suppose we'll have to save our discussions on these gameplay mechanics until the demo or retail drops, either way I'm curious.

The predator's health works like the marines, except he has 'health-shards'. They work like the marine stimpacks.

Marines and predator need to find stimpacks/health shards in the world. Both in single and multiplayer. The alien regenerates.

Wow, the interviewer just didn't seem interested in discussing the game at all. No excitement in his voice.

In his defense, he's being interviewed by gamespot.


Oh, and a new 'Hunt' trailer:

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/...-2009/videos/avp_trl_predatorhunt_012910.html

 

[TheVisualizer]

Found this today, some stuff is new to me, not sure if its been posted

http://blogs.sega.com/europe/2010/02/01/aliens-vs-predator-multiplayer-modes-dissected/

Monday Feb 01, 2010
Aliens vs. Predator multiplayer modes dissected

In preparation of Aliens vs. Predator being released on the 19th of February (not long game fans), here’s a little bit of info on the seven different multiplayer modes. Which one are you most looking forward to?


DEATH MATCH:
If you love a game with frantic, brutal chaos then Death Match in AVP multiplayer is for you. It’s all about getting the most kills in the time limit set. Players can also win the match by hitting the target score before anyone else.

INFESTATION:
For total over-whelming mayhem, nothing comes close to the tension and potential for pant-wetting scenarios than INFESTATION. One player starts the match as an Alien Hunter and their task is to kill the Marine prey. When a Marine player is killed they will join the Alien Hunter team and help to kill off any remaining Marines.


MIXED SPECIES DEATH MATCH:
just like Death Match, but with mixed species. Two teams, made up from all three species fight to get the most kills in the set time limit or to reach the target score before the other team.


SURVIVOR:
For the ultimate test of stamina, play Survivor Mode. Survivor allows for up to four players to enter an arena to fight waves of progressively stronger aliens. Each arena will be set up with two main areas. One will be a platform which is relatively easy to defend; the other will be an area where ambush by aliens is more likely. Supplies of health and ammo will re-spawn in this second area.


PREDATOR HUNT:
If you’re after a more stealthy multiplayer game go for Predator Hunt. In this mode one player is selected to become the Predator Hunter, the rest of the players take the role of the Marine prey. The Hunter must use the Predator’s stealth abilities and advanced equipment to pick off the prey and score points. The Marines will need to defend themselves from this threat and if possible, to kill the Hunter.


SPECIES DEATH MATCH:
Species Death Match pits a Marine team, Alien team and Predator team against each other in a race to get the most kills within the set time limit or to reach the target score before any of the other teams.


DOMINATION:
Take capture the flag to a whole new level with Domination. In Domination two teams fight for ownership of Control Points around the level. Owning a Control Point gives the team a small and steady, stream of points. The more Control Points owned, the more that team scores. A team will win when their score has reached 100 points.

 

[Keikoku]

meh

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

Found this today, some stuff is new to me, not sure if its been posted

Most of that multiplayer info has already been known. Make sure you skim the last couple pages, there's been a bunch of good multiplayer interviews and gameplay videos posted.

meh

Thanks for your contribution.

 

[LowParry]

meh

Yeah I know. Meh the console versions indeed.

 

[luka]

meh

 

[Apharmd Battler]

My feelings exactly! But to each his/her own.....

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Riflebutting charging xenomorphs is duuuuuumb.

 

[Neuromancer]

About the Survivor mode, I am hoping it is not an endless stream of aliens and that you can set how long it is.

It's always kind of depressing I think to know you can't win, it's just a matter of how long you can hold out for.

 

[Sullen]

People are always going to bitch about the same things when it comes to avp games and this one will be no exception.

It'll be: I get too disoriented with the alien, cant tell what is up or down! / The predator is too strong omg invisibility! And I'm predicting the new wave of bitching about this particular avp will be the fatality kills being too easy to perform or some similar shit.

Frankly I'm glad they wont be handicapping the game, or at least it doesn't appear that way so far. I'm also happy to hear the way that one dev with the awesome accent was talking about game balance. The different races SHOULD be balanced differently and in different ways. Forcing them all to play the same way with the same limitations gimps the unique feel of every race and makes this into every other shit FPS that is flooding the market right now.

 

[Raide]

About the Survivor mode, I am hoping it is not an endless stream of aliens and that you can set how long it is.

It's always kind of depressing I think to know you can't win, it's just a matter of how long you can hold out for.

It was a classic mode for AvP, so I doubt anything will change. You just keep killing and don't die. :lol

It captures the feeling of Aliens, not everyone was getting out alive.

 

[panda21]

they made that rogue warrior game right?

they should totally use this as the ending rap if they have the film rights:

http://www.youtube.com/user/robomayhem#p/a/u/0/xcLTaMpRl2o

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

they made that rogue warrior game right?

they should totally use this as the ending rap if they have the film rights:

http://www.youtube.com/user/robomayhem#p/a/u/0/xcLTaMpRl2o

I prefer they use this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgXd6Npj4ZY

 

[Tedesco!]

Riflebutting charging xenomorphs is duuuuuumb.

Then don't do it. Problem solved.

 

[ArjanN]

Then don't do it. Problem solved.

It only knocks them back anyway. You still need to shoot them.

 

[hteng]

People are always going to bitch about the same things when it comes to avp games and this one will be no exception.

It'll be: I get too disoriented with the alien, cant tell what is up or down! / The predator is too strong omg invisibility! And I'm predicting the new wave of bitching about this particular avp will be the fatality kills being too easy to perform or some similar shit.

Frankly I'm glad they wont be handicapping the game, or at least it doesn't appear that way so far. I'm also happy to hear the way that one dev with the awesome accent was talking about game balance. The different races SHOULD be balanced differently and in different ways. Forcing them all to play the same way with the same limitations gimps the unique feel of every race and makes this into every other shit FPS that is flooding the market right now.

i think fatality only happens from behind? which is not easy since the Marine has the sonar detecting thing. While the predator has multi colored visions, i think the predator will be pretty hard to play since he can't stick to the walls but with high jumps

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

The demo will be out this Thursday, Feb 4th.

 

[GWX]

The demo will be out this Thursday, Feb 4th.

PC demo, please...

 

[Combine]

PC demo, please...

Some more info from AvPgalaxy on that:

Update 01/02/10: It was an open secret, but now the date for the upcoming AvP demo has finally been unveiled. Xbox Live Spotlight channel featured an advertisement claiming the date for the AvP demo. It seems like the ad is no longer available online but we can confirm that it’s true. The demo will be released this week, Thursday Feb 4th as featured on the channel. We can also reveal that the demo will feature the multiplayer part of the game and will be available on PSN and Steam on the same date.

Also, here's a cool video of the Predator Hunt multiplayer mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8CAxruEjI (You can very quickly see the Pred's spinning disc at the 1:00 mark )

 

[LowParry]

Please let it be survival mode. Pleeeeease.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

Sucks if it's only multiplayer demo.

Multiplayer is bound to look shittier then main portion of the game. I want to see if they reused even a single code line from Rouge Warrior. Fucking thing had ragdolls animated at low framerate , which is the first sign of shit coding.

 

[Truant]

Sucks if it's only multiplayer demo.

Multiplayer is bound to look shittier then main portion of the game. I want to see if they reused even a single code line from Rouge Warrior. Fucking thing had ragdolls animated at low framerate , which is the first sign of shit coding.

Not even the same team, man. Those guys got shut down.

That was UE3. This is their own engine. It has actual lighting and shadows.

 

[AstroMan]

Not even the same team, man. Those guys got shut down.

That was UE3. This is their own engine. It has actual lighting and shadows.

Rouge Warrior ran on the Asura engine (which is what AvP is using). When Zombie Studios was working on it, it ran on UE3 (and was bound to be a better game).

Oh and I'm pretty sure UE3 has lighting and shadows. In fact, I believe Epic did a pretty substantial upgrade to the lighting system as seen in the freely available UDK.

 

[Bluemercury]

I thought this game was using unreal 3.0 engine.

 

[brain_stew]

I thought this game was using unreal 3.0 engine.

Nope.

 

[Bluemercury]

Nope.

Well then good for Rebellion, hate that engine. Anyway been playing multiplayer of their classic version on steam. pretty fun, but pple always put the game at 100% fast....:lol looks like im playing Descent or something....lol

 

[Truant]

Rouge Warrior ran on the Asura engine (which is what AvP is using). When Zombie Studios was working on it, it ran on UE3 (and was bound to be a better game).

Oh and I'm pretty sure UE3 has lighting and shadows. In fact, I believe Epic did a pretty substantial upgrade to the lighting system as seen in the freely available UDK.

Oh, my bad. I remember it being on UE3, didn't know they changed it. The last part was about how primitive most UE games look in terms of lighting. If they improved that, good for them.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

Rouge Warrior ran on the Asura engine (which is what AvP is using). When Zombie Studios was working on it, it ran on UE3 (and was bound to be a better game).

Oh and I'm pretty sure UE3 has lighting and shadows. In fact, I believe Epic did a pretty substantial upgrade to the lighting system as seen in the freely available UDK.

It's the same engine? Now this will be interesting. I'll wait for the demo, but I'm not trusting Rebellion one bit before release. No hype, just doubts.

 

[randomwab]

I wonder how they'll handle the demo, considering the game features three very different campaigns with what I assume will be three very different play styles.

 

[EatChildren]

I wonder how they'll handle the demo, considering the game features three very different campaigns with what I assume will be three very different play styles.

Its a multiplayer demo.