The Reviews/interviews Thread

[Hiryu02]

The issue that people are having with his review isn't that he finds fault with the game, it's that he's complaining about things that are central to the Alien vs Predator mythos.

His complaint about the motion tracker constantly beeping and breaking his immersion for example. Most alien fans know that it is precisely this that builds fear/anticipation in someone who's seen the movies. This is how it's supposed to work. Yet he singles it out as worthy of complaint. This alone points to the fact that he doesn't understand the point of the game.

This is not a typical fps. This is AvP. If you understand that, and try to utilize the canonical strengths and abilities of the species, then you'll find it's a good, solid game.

I hate to repeat myself, but that guy reads like a non-fighting game fan reviewing Street Fighter 4 and then complaining that the game has too many buttons, too many special moves, and too many characters to learn.

[Robotchicken]

this probably should be in the interviews/reviews thread, but this is how I feel about the review.


Yeah its a pretty crap score, and I'm fine if that's how the guy feels, but you can't tell me that the review he wrote doesn't come off as strange in some parts. The things he complains about seem like odd complaints for an AVP game.

There are a few good scares in these corridors, but after getting locked in a room and having to fight of a horde of aliens for the 100th time the repetition drowns the experience

listening to aliens crawl through vents and jump out at you would be scary if your motion sensor wasn't constantly bleeping in your ear the whole time

Damn I hope this guy doesn't review any further Aliens games then...

I have fun using the predators iconic arsenal, but the heavy focus on stealth limited melee combat
Uh this is Aliens vs Predator, not Aliens vs Chuck Norris. The predator kind of uses stealth cloak to be you know... stealthy.

Worst of all the aliens ability to walk on walls makes it a disorienting affair, your biggest battle in this campaign will be fighting off motion sickness

Ok so fine he got sick playing the game, but can you really count that as a negative against the game? Are aliens suppose to stroll down hallways or better yet maybe they should hold on to guardrails...

He does mention things that do worry me, like the lack of Marine AI in the alien campaign (though not a lot of people complained when the thugs in Arkham didn't look up), but bitching about elements that were both used in the previous games and more importantly elements that were used in the films themselves just doesn't seem like things worth complaining about.

Again its his professional opinion, and he has played the game while I haven't, but some of his comments are just confusing.

What an ignorant bastard. "the aliens would be more scary if the motion sensor wasnt constantly going off" WTF. has this dude never seen aliens before? The aliens wall walk and pouncing is disorienting at first, but after 20 minutes of working on it i basically mastered it...though i am a vet of the two previous games. its so much more exhilarating making your escape by jumping wall to wall. as for the predator chuck norris thing...wow

[OiScout]

listening to aliens crawl through vents and jump out at you would be scary if your motion sensor wasn't constantly bleeping in your ear the whole time

Worst of all the aliens ability to walk on walls makes it a disorienting affair, your biggest battle in this campaign will be fighting off motion sickness

Wow ... just wow.  Those two clear out show me that he's not into Aliens or Predator univers, or games that aren't all carbon copies of each other.

[Eidotemit]

The fact that he praises the movies and the '99 game, then bashes this one for things that are incredibly iconic to either one or both of them.

Aliens wall walking, marines fighting hordes of aliens and the motion tacker, the pred being stealthy. It reads like a bad joke, and as if written by someone who is not only unfamiliar with the franchise, but doesn't like or have any interest in it.

[ikarop]

SOA's Q&A with Tim Jones.

http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2010/02/09/aliens-vs-predator-community-qa-2/

Not sure if this review has been posted yet. Seems like a reasonable review.

http://seraphicgaming.com/news.php?item.102

Thanks Shataan at AVPNews forums.

T4P, we had it posted on the 1st page as well.

[PsychoticMarik]

His explanation for not including LC seems like a lazy excuse to me.
They already modeled the facehugger and such...cant seriously have taken much more work.
Heres hoping it appears in a sequel.

No Predalien MP skin also feels lazy.
They could have just reworked the model for MP and applied it. Really a disappointment.

My only true complaints : P

[l3awl3ag]

I think what he said about the predalien and facehugger is fair enough. It wouldn't be all that good if they were just reskinned aliens.

[E80LA]

No Predalien MP skin also feels lazy.
They could have just reworked the model for MP and applied it. Really a disappointment.

My only true complaints : P

I know if you cycle through skins in the demo (x360) it lists a Predalien...

[l3awl3ag]

It lists "Alien" under the predator skins, which is one of the skins you get with the special edition. It's a predator wearing an alien styled mask. There's no predalien in multiplayer.

[E80LA]

I had only glanced at it before, but looking at it again it says: Praetorian not Predalien.

Wishful thinking, I guess.

[PsychoticMarik]

I think what he said about the predalien and facehugger is fair enough. It wouldn't be all that good if they were just reskinned aliens.

I dont think its fair honestly.
I know they had to spend alot of time with each race considering how different each one is, but I cant help but feel like they deliberately held back. Perhaps they need things like LC left out so the next game feels like it has more.

Still...the facehugger is already modeled and animated...all it needs is a single attack anyway.
As for the predalien...this game doesn't have classes, so excluding the predalien as a MP skin is just lazy.
We don't know how it behaves in the story, but it doesn't matter. They could have simply taken a little extra time to rescale the model(if needed)and apply it to the regular alien animations.

I feel a bit cheated that they didn't do these things, and I don't think that's unfair.
Overall I'm satisfied tho, and I can always hope to see these added later.

[Hive Tyrant]

As for the predalien...this game doesn't have classes, so excluding the predalien as a MP skin is just lazy.
We don't know how it behaves in the story, but it doesn't matter. They could have simply taken a little extra time to rescale the model(if needed)and apply it to the regular alien animations.

Maybe you've missed something, but on the whole Predaliens are much stronger than regular Aliens. It would feel weird -- and wrong -- playing a Predalien without it being any stronger or faster at all.

[Bug Hunt]

As for the predalien...this game doesn't have classes, so excluding the predalien as a MP skin is just lazy.
We don't know how it behaves in the story, but it doesn't matter. They could have simply taken a little extra time to rescale the model(if needed)and apply it to the regular alien animations.

Maybe you've missed something, but on the whole Predaliens are much stronger than regular Aliens. It would feel weird -- and wrong -- playing a Predalien without it being any stronger or faster at all.

Perhaps some DLC will come out where you can play as the Predalien in its own particular multiplayer mode.

[PsychoticMarik]

As for the predalien...this game doesn't have classes, so excluding the predalien as a MP skin is just lazy.
We don't know how it behaves in the story, but it doesn't matter. They could have simply taken a little extra time to rescale the model(if needed)and apply it to the regular alien animations.

Maybe you've missed something, but on the whole Predaliens are much stronger than regular Aliens. It would feel weird -- and wrong -- playing a Predalien without it being any stronger or faster at all.

No it wouldn't...this is MP. Its doesn't have to follow canon point by point.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a praetorian stronger as well, and isn't that alien not even considered canon?
What about Grid? Isn't it weird that a alien character from the movies is running around in MP?
You cant use power to argue against it in MP. Its exclusion in that aspect doesn't make sense.

This is why I feel rather cheated out of a skin that you would have thought would have been a no brainier.

[Hive Tyrant]

As for the predalien...this game doesn't have classes, so excluding the predalien as a MP skin is just lazy.
We don't know how it behaves in the story, but it doesn't matter. They could have simply taken a little extra time to rescale the model(if needed)and apply it to the regular alien animations.

Maybe you've missed something, but on the whole Predaliens are much stronger than regular Aliens. It would feel weird -- and wrong -- playing a Predalien without it being any stronger or faster at all.

No it wouldn't...this is MP. Its doesn't have to follow canon point by point.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a praetorian stronger as well, and isn't that alien not even considered canon?
What about Grid? Isn't it weird that a alien character from the movies is running around in MP?
You cant use power to argue against it in MP. Its exclusion in that aspect doesn't make sense.

This is why I feel rather cheated out of a skin that you would have thought would have been a no brainier.

Dunno anything about the Praetorian.  Grid is just another ordinary Alien who happens to kick ass. I understand it doesn't have to fit canon, but it still feels absurd playing something I know should be 10x stronger.