UnDeaD

I only got to play regular deathmatch, and I wasn't feeling it. I hate matchmaking though. The graphics are really nice looking. Problem for me was, every time I'd go to execute someone, it took so long, that someone was actually waiting, and then executed me right afterward.

I'm still somewhat looking forward to this game, just not looking forward to regular deathmatch.

TheFatKidDeath

Do you mean when you attempted a trophy kill someone would kill you while your pulling off that kill? If yes, that's the downside of a trophy kill, your open to someone killing you easily.

Yeah, don't know why they opted for regular Deathmatch in the Demo. Deathmatch mode generally doesn't give a good first impression of a game.

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UnDeaD

Yeah, I've never been a fan of free for all anyway, however TDM, I'll check out.

Braidedheadman

Are you all playing the demo then?

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TheFatKidDeath

I've been playing the demo quite a bit.

Some brief points on the Demo:

+'s:

-If you are a fan you will be stoked. They nailed the feel, movement and look of the Alien and Predator universe. From the Pulse rifle, to the movement of the Aliens and all the arsenal of the Predator, it really feels like your in the world (minus the crappy movies in the series ) Happily or un, you cannot play as Danny Glover.

-Three classes seem balanced from the time I've played. Been playing most as a Marine, which if you get everyone to stick together (challenge on DM mode) your an Alien and Predator killing machine. Same goes for the Alien side.

-Demo looks fantastic and it runs smoothly. I haven't experienced any drop in frame rate. Make sure to turn down your settings a bit (Vsync,etc) and your good to go.


-'s:

-Demo is traditional death match and I hate traditional death match. If you are not a fan of death match, you probably will not want to play the demo. I'm sure Rebellion had their reasons for releasing the demo in this manner (without a tutorial, I might add) but it's was a poor choice.

-Yes, the match making sucks, I get disconnected for whatever reason, and the voip needs help but hopeully that will be ironed out by release. Hopefully.


I think with the release of the full game we will be getting alot more options for team play. The other modes sound alot more interesting.

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Sharingan

Any word on how the Predator plays?

Braidedheadman

^ Poorly. But where the predator fails, the other species feal equally also. In my opinion, it's a design flaw that is common to them all.

I checked out the demo tonight and as hardcore a fan of AvP2 as I was; this game is NOT living up to my expectations in the least. Granted, it's FFA DM and it is just a demo, but I spent more time cursing at my monitor than much of anything else. 4 out of 10 on my fun factor scale. +4 because of the name.

Things I greatly dislike are:
- Melee knockback / gunlock / stun with just about any hit. Yes, it's realistic, but it's also decidedly un-fun. AvP2 was plenty fun without it and this game is dark enough already such that melee works very well (ambushes alone, never mind stealth instakills), this feature serves no purpose other than to annoy.
- Weapon drops rather than class-based equipment loadouts like they had in AvP2. This game should not play like frikken Quake! There are few things that I hate more in FPS games than hunting down "the best weapons" only to find that someone already has it and is camping on its spawn location. Been there, done that. It's so 1993. It wasn't a good idea then and it's not a good idea in 2010, especially in my AvP.
- Shoulder lamp is little more than a matchstick and a dead give away. No IR vision mode for the 'rines.
- No previous/next vision mode for preds. Cycling through the vision modes in one direction during combat is a real bitch. You'd expect the preds to have smarter equipment.
- No Predator/Tech vision mode for preds spotting other preds, especially cloaked ones. WTF.
- No navigation vision mode for aliens.
- If the aliens have a pounce attack, I couldn't figure out how to make it work.
- No crouching. Seriously. WTF.
- Where are my flares?
- FFA DM.
- No tutorial. No option to explore and get familiar with the game before some jackass rips your head off your shoulders. (but trophy kills do look cool)
- Need to click through 5 screens and back to customize keyboard controls / return to the game. Pooly laid out GUI.

Likes:
- Predators.
- Aliens.
- USMC.
- Trophy kills. Stealth kills. The thrill of the hunt. The fear of being hunted.
- It's possible to block and counter melee attacks as a predator or alien. But see melee knockback / gunlock / stun in under "Dislikes". I like the idea of a defensive stance as a means of damage reduction. Granted, AvP2 allowed aliens to stun with a tail whip or a pounce and preds/marines could stun aliens with EMP grenades. But the pounce was easily dodged and easily punished, while the tail whip did no real damage in combat. Preds caught in their own EMP could stun themselves and 'rines could short out their lamps and motion tracker (not good!). Also, with practice, you could still attack while stunned and defend yourself, though the disorientating screen effects made it difficult. In this game, however, it seemed like just about every melee attack, regardless of species, resulted in some form of knockback disorientation and gunlock. This kind of loss of control really pisses me off and watching my screen get all woozy while my toon staggers around finally made me ragequit..
- Predators are MUCH more agile than they were in AvP2. I'm not exactly sure what to think about the slightly n00bed "focus mode" that allows the player to mark the location they wish their predator to jump to (within a certain radius), but it does give the predator class a degree of mobility that I thought was lacking from previous games. Now, if only they'd give the preds a limited wall climb, ability...

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TheFatKidDeath

Braidedheadman,

-Not sure I understand your melee knockback dislike. You said "AvP2 was plenty fun without it and this game is dark enough already such that MELEE WORKS VERY WELL (ambushes alone, never mind stealth instakills), this feature serves no purpose but to annoy." Does it work well or is it annoying? Or both?

-Not sure if random weapon spawns will be in final game or if they appear in certain game modes. Could not find any info.

-You can turn your shoulder lamp off/on by hitting "T". More difficult to spot with it off. I found the lamp to be able to enlighten the dark areas fine. Not sure if the IR vision for Marines will be in final game. Could not find any info on that as well.

-Cycling vision in one direction for the Predator is a pain. Not sure if there will be a bind for back and forth in the final game. There has to be though.

-Spotting for Predator to Predator is in the demo, I just don't know how to work it. This goes back to the bad decision not to release a tutorial with the demo.

-Same goes for navigation mode.

-Pounce attack is - Hold down 'Q' (or whatever you have bound to sprint) and run in a direction. Press 'Space Bar' (or whatever you have bound to jump). That I figured out.

-Crouching is in the final game from what I've read. No actual confirmation however.

-No flares in MP. Read somewhere Devs said it is a system slower. Or they wanted it out for balance. Maybe it might be in the final game.

-Yes, FFA DM sucks. Poor choice for a demo.

-No tutorial. Bad decision by Rebellion for not including one. Frustrating for sure.

-It's a demo. GUI will change on release.

I'm having fun playing the game despite the limited modes on the demo and lack of a tutorial. Never played the original AvP's back in the day so I don't have a measure for your melee critique. Hopefully some of your dislikes will be ironed out in the final release. We shall see.

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Braidedheadman

Ok, sorry, allow me to clarify.

Basically, I do find that the melee in AvP 2010 is powerful enough in CQC to make playing preds/aliens fun without it also feeling unbalanced or anything. Rines definitely have the upper had at medium to long range especially. In that regard, it works fine. Just like in AvP2, both preds and aliens should be able to ambush the marines effectively enough (and other preds also if they're not managing their different vision modes properly - the bugs kind of have a trump card for detecting ambushes) by using the cover of darkness, terrain features, and all the other tricks available to their species. They're doing plenty enough damage in combat as it is and have a massive advantage in both mobility and visibility up close. I don't feel they need the added benefit of staggering their target with every successful melee hit that they land.

My critique comes from what appears to game mechanic whereby successful melee hits will stagger one's opponent, briefly disorientating them and causing them to stop firing/attacking. It's especially apparent with the marines when fighting either preds or aliens in CQC. I just don't like having control of my toon taken away from me for the sake of eyecandy or unnecessary realism in a fantasy game.

I'll note that the stagger effect may or may not actually be triggered with every hit 100% of the time. I don't know for sure. But it does happen often enough that it got real old, real fast.

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Braidedheadman

Add to my dislikes:

Aliens that prefer to wallwalk at the edge of a drop rather than simply run/jump off like everyone else. Also, anytime the jump key is pressed and they collide with a wall-like surface (crates, vehicles, stairs, etc.). -EXTREMELY- irritating when pursuing a target and they get away/shoot you dead because a poorly thought out game mechanic handed them the upper hand while you scuttle around atop some stupid crate. Yes, autotransition is turned off.

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