Game Informer Doesn't Like Aliens vs Predator

[modeps]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/avp3.png

In case you were hoping for a great triple-team bit of awesomeness with Aliens vs Predator from Rebellion, keep hoping. The first review is out from the latest Game Informer magazine and it's a paltry 5.75 out of 10.

If the first Aliens Vs Predator review’s a sign of things to come, Rebellion had best be dug in like an Alabama tick for the next few weeks.

Game Informer’s given the shooter a tooth-sucking 5.75/10, saying, “We have a title trying to live off the fumes of two dormant franchises.”

VG247 (http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/08/gi-nukes-avp-with-5-7510-just-to-be-sure/) has the scans, but I'd recommend just buying the magazine to read the text. We don't have many paper mags left anymore for reading on the loo.

Shellshock 2 and Rogue Warrior, folks.
lost stealth edit: Fuck. Ing. Told you so.

[spdiscus]

I may give the Steam demo a shot. I'll start the download before I leave work tonight (can't use too much bandwidth during the day).

[randir14]

After the demo was patched so it didn't take forever to find games, I thought it was fun for awhile. Maybe 8 player deathmatch wasn't the best choice to show off the game though.

[TeeCakes]

Well, 5.75/10 is above average (the average being "5"). I guess if it was totally irredeemable it'd be towards the low 2.0-3.0/10.0 scale.

[Demo_Boy]

There is nothing more deadly than for the first review of your game to be sub 7.

Sega should consider holding off releasing the title for 6 months - if they can?

[Evil Avatar]

Well, 5.75/10 is above average (the average being "5"). I guess if it was totally irredeemable it'd be towards the low 2.0-3.0/10.0 scale.

These days anything below 7 means the game is pretty much a stinker.

[automaton]

Anyone who has read video game reviews over the past 10 years knows that a 7 is average. 5.75 is irredeemable. 2-3 on a 10 point scale = broken and unplayable.

Also, how can they call the Alien and Predator series "dormant?" The last Aliens vs Predator movie was released 2 years ago and the 3rd Predator movie (Predators) is currently in development.

[Mantooth]

Rebellion isn't going to be around much longer if they keep pooping out these turds.

[Conner Dain]

Too bad. I was looking forward to this one. Wasn't blown away by the demo though.

[yutt]

I've been playing the demo lately and the game itself is extremely fun. The demo only supports FFA DM but team deathmatch, horde, or predator vs all modes would be amazing. The interface, matchmaking and communication systems are atrocious though. My friends and I were all kind of hoping that would be cleaned up for release.

I'm still hoping for that.

[pwnophobia]

Anyone who has read video game reviews over the past 10 years knows that a 7 is average. 5.75 is irredeemable. 2-3 on a 10 point scale = broken and unplayable.

I see anything below a 5 irredeemable, 5 - 6 being it'd take someone who loves the series (or subject material) to really enjoy it; This seems to be the case with Aliens vs Predator.

[Fizzl]

Someone made a rather good move with releasing AvP Classic... the guys I LAN with all looked at £3 for Classic thought back to the good ol' days and bought it, been having lots of fun. :)

I wonder what classic vs new sales will be like if it is a stinker? :P

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

I see anything below a 5 irredeemable, 5 - 6 being it'd take someone who loves the series (or subject material) to really enjoy it; This seems to be the case with Aliens vs Predator.

Ultra hardcore fans who do cosplay in their backyard at night pretending to be a predator with a kids aisle night vision set and have never played a video game before... Maybe.

This is one of the worst games Ive played in a while. Its one of those games thats so bad it bothers me to even have it installed.

[sgtslappy]

I liked some of the demo. I like the Alien, but being the marine feels so clunky.

[Silverbaine]

I enjoyed the Demo, once i got over the learning curve. I agree, That DM was a bad choice to demo the game out to the public. But I never played AVP for the Multi-player, and I might still pick it up for the single player. its not going to be right away, maybe when the price drops a bit.

[Phokal]

I had fun with the demo. I'm cautiously optimistic, since some people also really hated the demo.

The damming words in the article was not anything mentioned above, it was that the scientists take multiple hits from Alien melee before dying.

Scientists are always one hit, and rarely two. That's the rule, dammit! Marine's are pushing it at 3 hits in multiplayer (but I can understand, due to race balancing for an FFA match).

[Kragg]

After the demo was patched so it didn't take forever to find games, I thought it was fun for awhile. Maybe 8 player deathmatch wasn't the best choice to show off the game though.

On the latest episode of the podcast I babble on for a bit about how this is what killed it for me.

They should have showed off the team-based versus modes they were touting.

[Kapinator]

Having been one of three engineers on AvP2 at Monolith, this saddens me greatly. It's a fantastic property and can make for a great gaming experience if done well.

[jameskond]

Yeah you can hear on the Game Informer Podcast some thoughts about the game

[yutt]

I'm curious if any of those complaining about this ever played the original multiplayer. It was brutally fast paced, even moreso than this new one. The new team seems to have preserved and even improved many of the gameplay mechanics.

What are some specific multiplayer gameplay complaints people (who enjoyed the original) have? Other than FFA DM obviously not being the best example of the joy of AvP.

[Ruff_Daimont]

A friend of mine and I have a long lasting history with AVP games. We even formed a clan back in the days of AVP 1.... I remember how my friend tried to play it on his parents (incredibly slow) machine... hehe, good times good times...

We will both buy this day one even if it is a bad game... We had a lot of fun with the demo. I never played AVP for the FFA MP. We already teamed up together in the demo as marines and that was a lot of fun...

What is going to attract us most to the game is going to be the survivor mode...

[saulob]

So, no Single Player campaign?

I think I will pass.

[CSargeP]

So, no Single Player campaign?

I think I will pass.
Were did you read that?
It has single player campaigns for all three races.

I'm having fun with the demo, and that's supposedly 10 month old code. I don't see how they could make it any worse. Of course since gameinformer listed it as an PS3 & 360 game they probably played it on a console.
I get the feeling the PC is going to be the system to get this game for.

[Nilych]

I enjoyed the PC demo quite a bit, once I figured out the controls. I'd have enjoyed it quite a bit more if I could've muted all voice chat - listening to whining teenagers about how they can't figure out the game and keep dying in no way enhances my playing experience.

[Meusli]

Well I thought the demo was pants.

[vherub]

didn't know the demo was patched, dl'd on ps3, played the waiting game, followed by the uninstall game

[Booda]

I had a collector’s edition of AvP for the 360 ordered from Gamestop and after reading that review I logged on to the site to cancel it. When I clicked the ‘cancel shipment’ button it gave me some bullshit about how they were unable to complete my request due to the fact that the product was already packaged for shipment and I may have already received pre-order bonus codes (which I have not btw). The game doesn’t ship for another eight fucking days!

I went ahead and tried to cancel again only to get the same message. For shits & giggles I tried it one more time and by the grace of God I got a new pop-up window that asked me if I would like to cancel the order this time. I clicked ‘yes’ and according to my order history on their website it shows my AvP pre-order as being canceled.

Pretty fucking shady business practicing on Gamestop’s end but that’s about par I suppose for a chain of stores that are little more than glorified pawn shops. If I wasn’t such a pre-order bonus whore I would never use the place.:rolleyes: Just a heads up that if you do order from them online and you happen to decide to cancel, it might take a bit of persistence on your part.

[lost]

Read that stealth edit bitches :)

[HALO 32]

Well, 5.75/10 is above average (the average being "5"). I guess if it was totally irredeemable it'd be towards the low 2.0-3.0/10.0 scale.

It doesn't matter how many coats of sugar you put on a turd...it's still a turd.

[drakkarim]

I had a collector’s edition of AvP for the 360 ordered from Gamestop and after reading that review I logged on to the site to cancel it. When I clicked the ‘cancel shipment’ button it gave me some bullshit about how they were unable to complete my request due to the fact that the product was already packaged for shipment and I may have already received pre-order bonus codes (which I have not btw). The game doesn’t ship for another eight fucking days!

I went ahead and tried to cancel again only to get the same message. For shits & giggles I tried it one more time and by the grace of God I got a new pop-up window that asked me if I would like to cancel the order this time. I clicked ‘yes’ and according to my order history on their website it shows my AvP pre-order as being canceled.

Pretty fucking shady business practicing on Gamestop’s end but that’s about par I suppose for a chain of stores that are little more than glorified pawn shops. If I wasn’t such a pre-order bonus whore I would never use the place.:rolleyes: Just a heads up that if you do order from them online and you happen to decide to cancel, it might take a bit of persistence on your part.

interesting, would never buy from them myself, but good to know, just in case.

[Valkyrist]

The demo did not impress me. There were some parts I really dug, specificly the aliens. But most was fairly mediocre, and some just downright bad.

The wall-climbing for aliens needs some real work. Transitioning from a floor to wall, or wall to ceiling is not smooth, and often requires a special button press or downright just jimmying the controlls till it works.

Marine guns feel very bland, as opposed to the visceral feelings of predator and alien attacks. Though their motion-tracking is really awesome and well-done.

Predator needs to start with at least one weapon other than wrist blades. And the cloaking needs a bit of tweeking, because unless they're in a dark corner, completely motionless, they're dead-easy to spot.

1-hit kills, while awesome to watch, are annoying as hell in real play. I distictly remember Star Wars: Jedi Knight II being ruined by 1-hit kill moves. I'm just of the opinion that they don't belong in multiplayer mode.

And biggest complaint of all:
WTF is up with the recoil from being hit?! You take one melee hit and you're just done. It takes all controll away from the player, and just does this rediculously long hit animation. You can't attack back, guard, anything. And the camera gets tossed around, so that even if you had your target on your screen before, you've now been spun around and have no clue what is going on. Other than that you're getting your ass kicked.

[see colon]

Game Informer doesn't tell me what to buy. I enjoyed the demo enough to warrant a purchase. This game has good art, solid tech, and the combat feels pretty good (I don't like how the marine's gun feels like a rapid fire bb gun, but it did in the movies too, so I guess that's appropriate).

[modeps]

The demo did not impress me. There were some parts I really dug, specificly the aliens. But most was fairly mediocre, and some just downright bad.

The wall-climbing for aliens needs some real work. Transitioning from a floor to wall, or wall to ceiling is not smooth, and often requires a special button press or downright just jimmying the controlls till it works.

I haven't played the demo yet, put this point in particular worries me greatly. Why? Because the game they released 10 years ago had the EXACT same problem although back then it was forgivable because the game was fairly groundbreaking so you put up with it. You're telling me that they still haven't figured out a good system for crawling up walls? Forget it Rebellion.

[Steve_Erhardt]

Count me as on the fence at the moment. I was all ready to pull the trigger on this because I loved both the first installment and the second, but the demo for this one... so very "bleh".

In this day and age of class-based, teamwork oriented, multiplayer, putting out a by-the-numbers, utterly vanilla FFA deathmatch demo was absolutely fucking retarded. At the very least, they should done what Monolith did on the second installment and given you a section of single-player to whet the appetite and give you something to chew on.

As others have already commented, getting melee'd is bullshit. If a single melee hit is going utterly incapacitate me so that all I can do is wait for the next blow, just fucking kill me on the first hit, assholes. Don't waste my goddamn time.

The Pulse Rifle has been severely pussified. Against Predators? Okay, I can see it being much less effective, but against aliens? Even the standard pulse rifle should rip the living shit out of them. The only time I've killed an alien in the demo so far is when I finish one off after a Predator mauled the fuck out of it.

The wall crawling is horribly cumbersome. Why can't we just NOT press any extra keys... just keep traveling in a direction and if that direction takes us up a wall and/or ceiling, just assume that's what we want (because, jesus, that's what makes the aliens so fucking freaky, why wouldn't they want to do that as default behavior?), and if we want to let go of said wall or ceiling, make that require an additional control input?

I haven't played the Predator yet, so I can't really comment there.

I have a feeling I'm still going to buy this, to be perfectly honest, in the hope that the single player will be as good as the last two, and the other multiplayer modes will be as fun as I'd hoped.

Deathmatch is fine. A requirement, I'd even say. But it's not the bright shiney thing that'll make a demo stand out anymore; and it worries me that somebody at Rebellion thought it would be. With everything fighting for my money that's coming out in the next few days/weeks, you can't afford to show me anything lest than your absolute best effort. Tired old Deathmatch ain't it.

[Kooch]

The wall crawling is horribly cumbersome. Why can't we just NOT press any extra keys... just keep traveling in a direction and if that direction takes us up a wall and/or ceiling, just assume that's what we want (because, jesus, that's what makes the aliens so fucking freaky, why wouldn't they want to do that as default behavior?), and if we want to let go of said wall or ceiling, make that require an additional control input?



i'm playing it on xbox, and thats pretty much how it works... I jump onto walls and stick to em, and run straight from walls to ceilings. and when i wanna drop off, i hit the trigger for surface transition.
Maybe the reason the wall crawling seems akward is because people don't crawl on the ceiling and its disorienting.

[KeeBaud]

I weep for the loss of Aliens: Colonial Marines. I've never been a fan of the AvP franchise.

[blackzc]

I can see getting into this game, i just didnt care for it. I usually like sega stuff.

[lockwoodx]

5 - 6 being it'd take someone who loves the series (or subject material) to really enjoy it

It's also the case with Star Trek Online.

[Mozain]

The wall crawling is horribly cumbersome. Why can't we just NOT press any extra keys... just keep traveling in a direction and if that direction takes us up a wall and/or ceiling, just assume that's what we want (because, jesus, that's what makes the aliens so fucking freaky, why wouldn't they want to do that as default behavior?), and if we want to let go of said wall or ceiling, make that require an additional control input?

I don't know what system you played it on, but as Kooch said it pretty much works like that for the 360, I am playing it on PC and under the options there is a feature for "Auto Transition" so you don't have to press anything, you just keep going in the direction you want... So unless it is different on the consoles, well... I just wouldn't buy this for the consoles.

Despite it's flaws however, my brother and I are committed to buying it because we played the shit out of the first two. Even if it is crap, if enough sales go through they may think about doing another one (Hopefully not also crap, but that may be asking too much hehe).

Also, even though the demo was DM, I think alot of people either thought it was Team Death Match, or just realized the fun was in making it team death match, because that is what alot of people were doing (on the PC at least). There are few things more satisfying than taking down 4 aliens at once as a predator... Why they never just come behind me and auto kill me, I will never know ^_^.

[AversionFX]

Played the demo; it was a steaming pile of shit.

This game might have been "passable" 4 years ago. Game mechanics are dated, the game looks like shit, it plays even worse.

When you need to patch a demo, it's pretty bad. Way to completely fail at making an impression. The people who made this game pretty much fucked it up before the game is even available.

I feel bad for any of the dumb fuckers who waste their money on this. Go get yourself an 8-ball instead, it'll be more memorable.

This is one of the worst games Ive played in a while. Its one of those games thats so bad it bothers me to even have it installed.

This basically sums up how I felt. Spent 15 minutes waiting to find a game on my own because, despite a game lobby being entirely empty with my party of 3, two of us got booted out. And then you can't join games in progress. I finally just got so frustrated with the whole experience, that I uninstalled it.

[drakkarim]

Even if it is crap, if enough sales go through they may think about doing another one (Hopefully not also crap, but that may be asking too much hehe).


sorry, but i don't understand this logic, reward (alleged) crap in hopes of it bearing a distant reward?

i would think that if anything, rewarding crap would give the impression that it wasn't crap and they should make more of it resembling the initially rewarded crap.

[Johan]

i would think that if anything, rewarding crap would give the impression that it wasn't crap and they should make more of it resembling the initially rewarded crap.

Yes, but crap makes great fertilizer, and fertilizer helps things grow, and perhaps if we put enough crap in the landfill something will grow out of it!!

:runs to check the ET landfill:

"Nothing yet!"

[Mozain]

sorry, but i don't understand this logic, reward (alleged) crap in hopes of it bearing a distant reward?

i would think that if anything, rewarding crap would give the impression that it wasn't crap and they should make more of it resembling the initially rewarded crap.

Ah, well I never said about "rewarding" them... I would consider doing that meaning the game would be a huge success... And while I hope the final product is, based on the demo my hopes are now only for enough sales so that the IP does not die. If the games bombs, I'm sure it will be a long long time before we see another AvP game, and I do not want that to be the case. Pass it off to someone else and give them a shot, but the idea behind this game deserves to be kept around.

[drakkarim]

Yes, but crap makes great fertilizer, and fertilizer helps things grow, and perhaps if we put enough crap in the landfill something will grow out of it!!

:runs to check the ET landfill:

"Nothing yet!"

heheh, i thing the ET landfill bred this game, according to that review. single cute alien mutated to many angry ones.