nicked on 6/2/2010 at 13:24

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Tried out the demo from Steam. Got into a game pretty quick - most of the multiplayer limitation seem to be demo-limitations, so hopefully the full game will have a slightly more flexible lobby UI.
The gameplay seems pretty fun, had a blast sneaking up on people, cloaked with my wristblades and removing vital parts.

I didn't do so well as a marine, kept getting instakilled by aliens. Probably just me being crap!

Haven't tried the alien yet.

However, the mechanics for all three seem to work well and I'm looking forward to seeing how the single player campaign shapes up.

catbarf on 6/2/2010 at 14:24

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You know the big room with two ramps leading up from the lower level? Not the small-ish infested room with one ramp that goes around to the sides, but a big, industrial-looking room fairly free of infestation, with some machinery and crates around. Well, the far side of that room has a ledge you can access via a ramp, and at one end of that ledge is the smartgun.

Volitions Advocate on 6/2/2010 at 16:43

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after finding the keybinds for the alien species I decided to give it another go now that I knew what all the buttons did.

I'd say this game is completely different than the first two in the way you play the alien and pred.

the attacks aren't just a constant barrage of claw wielding that you want stay out of the area of effect. You've got to have good aim with the alien or you'll miss,, which happened to me all the time. There is definitely an emphasis on stealth and quick kills. and I don't necessarily mean the scripted quick kills. if you manage to catch a pred by surprise, and you don't screw up your attacks. You'll probably kill him fairly quickly, if not instantly. I'm sure with the XP system that will change a bit depending on how well you're doing in a match, but as far as I can tell it isn't implemented in the demo.

also.. the way you drop down on people as an alien if you're wall walking is to press the transition key/button. you'll stop wall walking and drop. But you'll make this big hissy noise when you do it.

The marine is still my favorite to play. And I think it has less to do with it being a traditional FPS sontrol scheme so much as it is much funner to fight aliens and predators than to fight humans, which are basically the same in any fps. If you're gunning wildly, your muzzle flash obscures everything else in your vision, as posted previously. and your screen shakes a bit. But if you take Hicks' advice and use bursts, (i'd use maybe 3 or 4 rounds per burst in rapid succession like I was firing a Garand or something) you can still track your target and keep the spray pretty accurate. Made short work of some aliens regardless of what surface they're crawling around on.

I think the biggest flaw with the demo is that the only way you can play is to be matched and playing in a game with people constantly trying to kill you. If you could load the map on your own and just jump around and figure the controls out, it would be a much more interesting experience that wouldn't turn people off the game. They should've probably shelved this demo and Either given us a better one, or not bothered, I think it will probably hurt their sales a bit.

But who knows.. maybe I'm wrong.

Fafhrd on 6/2/2010 at 18:00

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Far as I can tell it's trying to force a weird refresh rate that my screen doesn't support. Which is stupid, because it shouldn't be trying anything other than 60hz at those resolutions.

catbarf on 6/2/2010 at 20:07

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Do you mean LAN or with a wireless network? I'm playing just fine on a wireless, no noticeable lag, and the demo is online-only so LAN doesn't work.