Topic: New Aliens vs Predator game! (2000 original on steam now for $5)

[W7RE]

http://www.gametrailers.com/viewnews.php?id=340

Being developed by Rebellion, the creators of AvP1. I liked AvP2 a lot more, but I guess you could say Monolith had the advantage of being able to improve on the things that Rebellion did the first time around.

EDIT: Oops, the orignal AvP, as well as the new one, are from Rebellion, not Gearbox. Gearbox is doing Colonial Marines.

Unfortunately, they delayed Aliens: Colonial Marines so that AvP would be out first. An Aliens RPG from Obsidian (that I didn't even know about) was also delayed. My guess is they want AvP out before the second movie is forgotten, or in time for a 3rd movie (please no).

[PyroMenace]

I remember playing the first AvP as the alien and had a blast sneaking around silently taking out marines which gave me an idea for a cool coop game that would be similar to what L4D is.

Have players take on the role of a team of marines but instead of taking on hordes of aliens, the team would have to take on just a few, like 2 or 3. The aliens would be hard as hell to take down because of how quick they moved and half of the game would be finding and tracking it. Like have one player be some sort of sound specialist, have another have radar, another be support/medic, and a weapons specialist guy. Ultimately though I think you'd need some really impressive AI for the alien, like knowing when to be evasive and aggressive. 

[W7RE]

I played the first AvP a bit, but I never finished it. I think I had trouble getting into the marine and predator campaigns, but was really interested in the alien one. The problem was that it was really easy to get overwelmed by the marines early on, so I did a LOT of waiting in the darkness for the right time to rush in and kill one guy, then run my ass off to avoid the rest. Then if I lost too much HP and have no way to get it back, I reload my last save.

I think I may have actually finished the alien campaign, but can't remember hardly anything from the other two.

[iPPi]

The first AvP was a pretty good game.  Lots of technical issues upon launch though.  I still remember that the game required a defragmentation of your hard drive before you install the game otherwise it would be unplayable (1 frame per second).  A patch fixed that later on though.

AvP2 was a more polished game, but it wasn't as scary or atmospheric as the first game.  I believe it's because the engine they used.  If I'm not mistaken, AvP2 used the NOLF engine.  While it looked decent, it wasn't as atmospheric.

I've never finished either game, though I played the first AvP a great deal online.

[MysterD]

http://www.gametrailers.com/viewnews.php?id=340

An Aliens RPG from Obsidian (that I didn't even know about) was also delayed.

Idol mentioned the Aliens RPG in this thread, sometime back in 2006.

Also, word is b/c of this funding pull from Sega, Obsidian might be in trouble...
Rumor is 20 people got laid off at Obsidian.

Supposedly 20 people were laid off from Obsidian yesterday and more could soon lose their jobs. The layoffs also affected the team working on Alpha Protocol, another Obsidian-developed, Sega-published title. Without the Aliens RPG, Obsidian is apparently on the ropes our sources say.

Mentioned back in November 2008 was that AvP: Colonial might get shelved, as GearBox was also cutting back and laying people off back then

[gpw11]

I remember playing the first AvP as the alien and had a blast sneaking around silently taking out marines which gave me an idea for a cool coop game that would be similar to what L4D is.

Have players take on the role of a team of marines but instead of taking on hordes of aliens, the team would have to take on just a few, like 2 or 3. The aliens would be hard as hell to take down because of how quick they moved and half of the game would be finding and tracking it. Like have one player be some sort of sound specialist, have another have radar, another be support/medic, and a weapons specialist guy. Ultimately though I think you'd need some really impressive AI for the alien, like knowing when to be evasive and aggressive. 

Have you played the Hidden (I think that's what it's called).  It's not the same thing exactly, but kind of similar to what you're talking about.

[scottws]

I only played AvP2.  I beat the Predator campaign, but I couldn't finish the Marines campaign because the alien hives frightened me too much and I sucked bad at the alien campaign and had tons of trouble with the very beginning.

All I have personally experienced from Gearbox was Halo PC.  I thought it sucked.  Were the Brothers in Arms games any good?

[W7RE]

Well, Halo PC wasn't designed by Gearbox, just ported. You could really only blame them for technical issues I think, the design of the game was all Bungie.

[scottws]

Well, Halo PC wasn't designed by Gearbox, just ported. You could really only blame them for technical issues I think, the design of the game was all Bungie.

Well yeah the design stunk, but I thought it sucked moreso because of the ho-hum graphics and its unexplainable poor performance.

[W7RE]

I've never actually seen Halo PC in action, but I wonder how much of the lack of graphic prowess was due to it being a port. It's been a while, but I recall it looking pretty good on Xbox. That was before the days of HD consoles though, so going from a game designed for a standard television, to a high rez PC monitor, I can imagine you'd see a lot more detail (or lack thereof), and the loss of the natural blur associated with a TV's pixel orientations/resolution would reveal a lot of flaws.

Heres' a funny thought though. The reason I've never seen Halo PC in action was because I couldn't get the demo to run on my PC. I can't remember if the installer wouldn't work, or if I just couldn't get the game to launch.


The design I think is part of Halo being a console game. Halo did nothing new really, but it did some things really well for a consol FPS. It offered most of what you might expect from a console FPS, with controls that really worked. Yea, it was due to some hefty autoaim in the way of pulling your view toward an enemy (instead of the redirecting bullets that weren't on target method), but it just made teh game feel a lot more playable. I was in college at the time, so split screen multiplayer matches gave an experience you couldn't get with a PC unless people drag heavy equipment around. (I actually tried to have a few LANs in my tiny apartment, we spent as much time getting people there and setup as we did actually playing)

[W7RE]

Oops, I fucked up. The dev from AvP1 and for the new AvP game is not Gearbox, it's Rebellion. Gearbox is working on Colonial Marines. I was thinking the delay of CM was so they could work on AvP first, but it's actually just so AvP will be out first.

[Cools!]

I played both games. I remember having a lot of fun playing AvP1 online. It was just crazy, every character moved so fast and it was just chaos. AvP2 had a great single player mode. Decent plot, great gameplay, especially the marine campaign. Multiplayer was good as well, but got ruined by the horrible netcode.

[scottws]

I've never actually seen Halo PC in action, but I wonder how much of the lack of graphic prowess was due to it being a port. It's been a while, but I recall it looking pretty good on Xbox. That was before the days of HD consoles though, so going from a game designed for a standard television, to a high rez PC monitor, I can imagine you'd see a lot more detail (or lack thereof), and the loss of the natural blur associated with a TV's pixel orientations/resolution would reveal a lot of flaws.

Heres' a funny thought though. The reason I've never seen Halo PC in action was because I couldn't get the demo to run on my PC. I can't remember if the installer wouldn't work, or if I just couldn't get the game to launch.


The design I think is part of Halo being a console game. Halo did nothing new really, but it did some things really well for a consol FPS. It offered most of what you might expect from a console FPS, with controls that really worked. Yea, it was due to some hefty autoaim in the way of pulling your view toward an enemy (instead of the redirecting bullets that weren't on target method), but it just made teh game feel a lot more playable. I was in college at the time, so split screen multiplayer matches gave an experience you couldn't get with a PC unless people drag heavy equipment around. (I actually tried to have a few LANs in my tiny apartment, we spent as much time getting people there and setup as we did actually playing)

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not debating what Halo did or did not do as a console game.  I'm talking about it's merits as a PC game.  Sure, it was a port of a several year old game on the Xbox, but I don't think that means it gets a pass.  It's not like it was priced lower than other new games.

The lack of graphical prowess was due to it being a port of a three year old game, it being designed for a console where PCs had long since surpassed the power of the Xbox, and it originally being designed for 640x480 when most people ran PC games at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 at the time.  What was strange was that, despite its relative simplicity in comparison to other contemporary games, it performed very poorly.  I just figure it's because Gearbox is a talentless shop, but then again that's the only game I have to go on.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that.  I am glad to know that Gearbox isn't involved but I am still interested in the Brothers in Arms games.

[idolminds]

The BiA games are ok. Not really my cup of tea, but they seem pretty well made.

I think Gearbox got the short end of the stick on the Halo deal. The engine wasn't made with anything other than the Xbox in mind. The animations in the game were locked to framerate, so they put in this ugly hack where the FPS could be higher than 30, but the animations still ran at 30 so they looked all jittery.

Gearbox made Opposing Force, the HL1 expansion. Which as I recall was pretty cool.

[MysterD]

I do like BiA: Road to Hill 30. It's good.

I never started BiA: EiB, even though I have it.

Ain't got around to buying BiA: Hell's Highway.

[MysterD]

Rumor has it that Sega is not happy w/ Obsidian (for Aliens RPG) and Gearbox (for Aliens: Colonial Marines) with their (lack of) progress on their respective games, so the games probably won't be canceled - b/c they still want these games finished.

So, development for those games might be shifted to other companies.

[MysterD]

GameSpot reports that former Obsidian employee David Krondor has updated his LinkedIn Resume with on his credits of working on "a canceled third-person action Aliens RPG (Xbox 360, PS3, and PC)."

Sega is currently refusing to comment on this.

[W7RE]

Big surprise, AvP refused classification in Australia.

But reading the description of WHY has me all giddy with excitement:

The game contains first-person perspective, close-up depictions of human characters being subjected to various types of violence, including explicit decapitation and dismemberment as well as locational damage such as stabbing through the chest, throat, mouth or eyes. Characters can be stabbed with a Predator’s wrist blade or an Alien’s tail in depictions reminiscent of impalement. The Predator collects “trophies” by explicitly ripping off human heads, their spinal columns dangling from severed necks. Heads can be twisted completely around in order to break a character’s neck. Eyes can be stabbed through or gouged, leaving empty, bloodied eye sockets. It is noted that a player is able to combine manouvres together in quick succession, which further increases impact; for example, a Predator can stab a character through both eyes with its wrist blade and then rip off their head, with spinal column still attached. Extensive post mortem damage, including decapitation and dismemberment, is also possible.

Oh and I guess Rebellion/Sega is refusing to alter the game to meet Australia's limitations.

"The content of AVP is based on some of the most innovative and iconic horror movies, and as such we wanted to create a title that was true to the source material. It is for adults, and it is bloody and frightening, that was our intent. We will not be releasing a sanitized or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices."

[MysterD]

Australia just needs a 18+ rating and this whole problem would be solved easily. Australian gamers just been getting the short-end of the gaming stick for TOO long and its unfortunate for them that the rest of the world enjoys these violent bloody games pretty much uncut.

[Cools!]

I got half way through AvP and finished AvP2.

AvP was a pretty hard game. Multiplayer was surprisingly fun and chaotic though by the time I got it there weren't a lot of people playing it anymore.

AvP2 was lots of fun. The story was pretty good, the Marine campaign in particular was great. I spent a lot of time online as well but the netcode was horrible, which is too bad since it was lots of fun.

[W7RE]

I'm hearing that the refusal of classification has been reversed, and the game will release with an MA15+ rating in Australia. BTW I'm just going by a post on NeoGAF with no source linked.

[W7RE]

Rebellion's original 2000 Aliens vs Predator is now on Steam for $4.99, with some minor updates (I bolded stuff I think might be new/not included in the base game originally:

Three campaigns: Colonial Marine, Alien and Predator
Includes all the levels from the original AvP Gold Edition plus the Millennium Expansion Pack
Skirmish mode against infinite Alien hordes
Bonus Episodes
Unique abilities, weapons and equipment for each species
Scale walls and elevator shafts as an ALIEN with frightening speed as you attack and devour your victims
Stalk your prey as the deadly PREDATOR using wrist blades, shoulder cannons and stealth mode
Lock and load as a COLONIAL MARINE using motion trackers, grenade launchers and flame-throwers to exterminate your foes
Supports Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
Music from the original soundtrack CD

Also it supports widescreen. The options menu had 1680x1050 (my native rez).

[MysterD]

AVP - Classic 2000 Edition.

Alien Versus Predator Classic 2000 has been updated to run on modern PCs and laptops using DirectX 9.0c and includes support for Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, however, it does not currently support multi-player.

For $5 - even if MP is not supported - still sounds it's a better bang for your buck probably than those short 30-45 min DAO DLC's.

EDIT:
Oh, is AVP2 going to come to Steam?

[W7RE]

Oh, is AVP2 going to come to Steam?

Not that I know of. I think this was sort of a, "Check out our new AvP game! Oh, and here's the one we made 10 years ago."

[idolminds]

Aww, this would have been nice on GoG.

[MysterD]

Aww, this would have been nice on GoG.

I know, right?
Something about GOG's "NO DRM policy" really speaks to me....

[Quemaqua]

Yeah... I tend to jump on deals like this when they pop up on GoG.  Not Steam, though.

[Ghandi]

As much as Steam pisses me off sometimes (trying to get into offline mode pissed me off recently), I'm willing to look past most of it because of how cheap a lot of their games are. I would prefer another medium, but most of their deals are hard to beat.

[Quemaqua]

When I consider the fact that a few games I've gotten off Steam have never so much as actually worked or even installed correctly, I tend to consider that any deal is probably a bad one.  To this day I still can't play Killing Floor.

[Ghandi]

I'm not saying that the program is good, I'm just saying that I'm a cheap bastard.

[W7RE]

I guess it has a lot to do with individual experience, but I've never had problems with Steam so I like it. The other day I almost bought Unreal Gold off steam for $10. I had the disc in the next room, but I wasn't sure where. My CDROM drive doesn't work right, so I have to stick a pin or something into the hold on the front to force it open EVERY time I want to put a disc in. Once I get it in and install I have to find and install the latest patch.

Or I could just buy it on Steam and click install. I seriously considered it, but ended up grabbing my CD anyway (which was the gold version, so didn't need patching after all).

[scottws]

Dude, seriously.

[W7RE]

Dude, seriously.

The problem is laziness. I don't want to have to install it (yes, I know how easy it would be to isntall). I only use my the drive like once a month or so.

BTW it's a DVDROM drive, I didn't mean to make it sound ancient.

[scottws]

No, that wasn't my point.  My point was that it is ridiculously cheap to replace.  And yes, they are one of the easier upgrades/replacements you can do on a computer.

[Quemaqua]

He was considering spending $10 on something he already owned because he didn't want to go find the disk.  I don't think cheap or easy are going to sway him.

[scottws]

True...

[MysterD]

As much as Steam pisses me off sometimes (trying to get into offline mode pissed me off recently), I'm willing to look past most of it because of how cheap a lot of their games are. I would prefer another medium, but most of their deals are hard to beat.

I've luckily ain't had much issues w/ Steam. Just once, during the free weekend for Killing Floor and pre-loading for Borderlands was going on and everybody was downloading, I couldn't access my games for over like 20-30 mins. But, I did the BLOB file reset trick (rename BLOB file to something else; let Steam re-create the BLOB file) and it worked from then on.

Of course, anytime Steam's down for maintenance - well, that part sucks...

I luckily never had a problem for Offline Mode. I consider myself lucky, given how many have rightfully so complained about this issue.

But, I do agree on their pricing - Steam's prices are often very cheap on their sales. When their games are often the price of console game rentals at Hollywood Video ($6.00 or less), hard for me to say "no" to Steam.

I prefer GOG over Steam b/c of the NO DRM policy. So, if a game is on both Steam and GOG, unless the price difference is really a major difference (and it usually isn't), I normally go w/ GOG.

When I consider the fact that a few games I've gotten off Steam have never so much as actually worked or even installed correctly, I tend to consider that any deal is probably a bad one.  To this day I still can't play Killing Floor.

To get Killing Floor going, if I recall - I had to turn off all anti-virus, firewall, and mal-ware killer programs that like to run in the background - i.e. Ad-aware, Avira, and Online Armor.

Hopefully, it's as simple as that.

But given this thread and these boards littered w/ booting-up and loading issues, it probably isn't...

[W7RE]

[Ghandi]

Awesome.

[MysterD]

Awesome screen.