A couple of weeks ago Illfonic took Predator: Hunting Grounds to GamesCom and some journalists had the pleasure of getting hands-on with an early pre-alpha build of the game. The general public had the opportunity to try the same build last weekend at PAX West in Seatle and we’re now starting to see some more impressions of the early build!
Jonathon Dornbush, an editor for IGN, was one such man. Though there’s not really any new information in the article, he does say he enjoyed his time as both Predator and Fireteam.
Having only played two matches, I’m curious to see how much repetition could set in to possibly make battles eventually feel stale, and I’m also looking forward to seeing how Illfonic shapes the experience to protect its longevity. But even just for a couple of runs, I had a blast with Predator: Hunting Grounds, and am looking forward to playing more.
Primal Target also uploaded videos of their impressions.
The Spawn On Me Podcast has also shared a video interview with Illfonic CEO Charles Brungardt which includes a few bits of new gameplay footage. While talking about the similarities between Hunting Grounds and Friday the 13th, Brungardt talked about how the biggest difference in formats was how the Predator is killable in Hunting Grounds.
Other attendees have been uploading recordings of the game to Twitter and YouTube which you can check out below!
Day 2 of #PAXWest2019 and #PredatorHuntingGrounds killing it! Thank you everyone at @IllFonic for all the hard work. pic.twitter.com/r5vf3y5vyJ
— Jared (@Gerritzen) August 31, 2019
Illfonic and several of the game developers were also sharing pictures of the Predator: Hunting Grounds booth at PAX West over the weekend!
Yup. #PREDATORHuntingGrounds pic.twitter.com/Nzu4aDw7Oy
— Jared (@Gerritzen) August 30, 2019
We're at #PAXWest2019! #IllFonic #PredatorHuntingGrounds #Predator #Yautja pic.twitter.com/aOjzRjsK6H
— IllFonic (@IllFonic) August 30, 2019
Just hanging with fellow employee / skull enthusiast. #PREDATORHuntingGrounds #PAXWest2019 pic.twitter.com/t38P9thZKT
— Apocalypse in the Sheets, Christopher Means (@Christoph_Means) August 30, 2019
Can you beat the #Predator at his own game? Come find out at #PAXWest2019!#PredatorHuntingGrounds #IllFonic #Yautja pic.twitter.com/2hFkuJ9xPG
— IllFonic (@IllFonic) August 30, 2019
At #PredatorHuntingGrounds my girl @B_BoyMalfoy didn't make it out of the exhibit. pic.twitter.com/uNyMjW2oVH
— Apocalypse in the Sheets, Christopher Means (@Christoph_Means) August 31, 2019
Being able to watch people play #PredatorHuntingGrounds for the first has been so awesome! The @IllFonic crew have been doing such a great job at the booth. Come by and play if you are around this weekend #PAXWest2019 pic.twitter.com/xhV8ZcptLV
— Jordan (@Kootra) September 1, 2019
He's hunting you.
Play #PredatorHuntingGrounds at the PlayStation Booth this weekend at @PAX. pic.twitter.com/NH7E63pBqW
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) August 31, 2019
We’ll also continue to keep this forum thread updated with more tweets or videos as they come in.
Make sure you stick with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest news on Predator: Hunting Grounds! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!
Ah! Yes, I grok ya, water brother.
Thinking something isn't feasible simply means one thinks it's not likely nor probable. So we're actually saying the same thing here.
Unlikely I'll grant you, but there's nothing unfeasible there, capture the flag is capture the flag, regardless of what graphical skin you've got in your world. All this is imaginary speculation of course, but assuming one created a common world or two, all you would have to do is have some common rules. GTA for example is the same game regardless of which perspective your camera is in, be it first person, third person, or whatever. It could be argued the this is exactly the way reality is, each of us as players with totally different comprehensions and perceptions of the common world around us.
This is a totally different sort of thing, mind you, but conceptually and presentationlly it was a brilliant. When Sega first came out with Sonic & Knuckles, hot on the heels of Sonic 3, it had the unprecedented capability to plug one game cartridge into the other and play them simultaneously, in the parlance of 1994 technology. But the remarkable thing is that suddenly you could replay an entire previous game with a new character who had new and different capabilities in a common world. You could still play either game separately but together was a totally different experience. It was a feature of course that drove sales for the purchase of both games.
That was all planned ahead of time of course and by a common developer, unlike this situation, so yes, unlikely, but conceptually totally feasible. It brings to mind what they were trying to conceptualize with Ready Player One. Or this awesome attraction StarWars had many years back (pre-LAN-party days) where guests would line up to choose sides in a series of flight simulators, either Tie Fighters or X-Wings for a massive networked battle over common Death Star trench kinda situation. As I recall, the people waiting in line to play next had little kiosks where they could control fixed position Death Star Laser turrets and try to shoot down whomever was playing the current round.
I wish I could find a reference to the article, it was probably in an old Game Pro magazine or something, does that sound familiar to anyone else out there?
Bartender, I'll have what he's having!
Unfortunately in all seriousness, although cool, I don't think that's feasible.
The real wild card here is what's coming out of Cold Iron (Now Hiring!) which we've heard nothing about. Historically this is not a great sign, especially when one factors in the Colonial Marines curse. But As Hunting Grounds appears and as Alien Blackout proved to be there's always potential for pleasant surprises.
Here's a wishful thought, how cool would it be if, in the delightful fashion of Sonic & Knuckles, the Cold Iron Studios finally came out and it featured some capability to interface with Hunting Grounds maps and or players, they would need to have compatible mechanics, but how rad would it be, perhaps even only in a dlc option or something, to have two totally different games have the ability to interact in shared settings?
Perhaps I'm just having fever dream remembrances of old crossovers between the animated X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons in the mid 90's/early 2000's. But where there's a will, there's a way.
I say why not! I mean there's no debating AVP is already canon!
Right?
https://quirkygrasshopper.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/tenor.gif
They would have to make sure, that a full on assault on the humans would be ill advised for the alien. On the other hand it has to be powerful enought to be a threat.
Kinda have to keep that in balance until one party makes mistake. Not sure if you can balance a game that well.
You'd have to be very clever with your level design to negate a human players tenacity.
If a flamethrower only holds the Alien in place like it does in Isolation for instance, you know that human player isn't going to flee, he's going to wait for the other player to run out of fuel and simply bumrush when it is over.
You'd have to have levels set up in a way where a human player could use the flamethrower, hold the alien, and then close a door, and then design the level where the Alien had to backtrack through the air ducts or subflooring to have his next shot at the human.
Any other way and you have a broke ass game where the human playing the Alien just mauls everyone to death because they can't stop it otherwise.
I'd have the Alien killable personally, but maybe have the Alien having the respawn ability after capturing other players for host.
Just makeshift weapons like in Isolation to drive it off to regenerate or just a small pistol with limited ammo if you want the keep some real guns in. But so that you can't really kill the alien reliable with it if not special circumstances like top teamwork or an ambush work in your favor.
So yes, the original F13 framwork pretty much.
I guess the original F13 framework would work, yeah, not action horror but all horror. Where the humans are all unarmed and it's all about survival. Yeah that would fit nicely.
Ship or space station, very limited weapons and ressources, different objectives for the crew to fullfill so they can leave the ship or call for help, an alien stalking them.
No way, no way. Tried it once, it doesn't work. You get four guys all fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black, but they don't know each other, so nobody wants to back down. No way. I pick. You're Mr. Pink. Be thankful you're not Mr. Yellow!
No doubt that's their reasoning, but it's never been a problem in Dead by Daylight, and that's a very similar type of game which has a bunch of licensed killers in it too (Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface etc.).
There are lots of people out there who prefer to go up against the killer rather than being the one playing them themselves, especially if and when they're playing with friends where that's their only option for playing together, so it's going to be rather annoying if it's just a crapshoot whether or not you get to play as the Predator in any given match in this.
The only upside over Friday the 13th is that at least here it's only 5 players per match instead of 8, so your chances of playing as the Predator will be a little better than the odds of playing Jason, but it's still less than ideal if they're going with that same system again.
Problem with that is everyone will likely want to play the Predator.
I had the same idea a while back. Great minds...
But I prefer anyone has the ability to kill the Predator with teamwork, maximum effort and a bit of luck.
When an IGN Senior News Editor types a last sentence discussing pre-alpha gameplay that reads "But even just for a couple of runs, I had a blast with Predator: Hunting Grounds, and am looking forward to playing more.".... it is a very, very good sign.