[Fineus]

If anyone is interested, as the topic so suggests, the demo is now live:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/34200/

I think the game looks pretty fantastic myself, and am getting the demo now to investigate...

[General Battuta]

Thanks for the heads-up. Downloading.

[StarSlayer]

Stay Frosty

[Scotty]

Check those corners.

[Fineus]

Initial Review Before Bedtime(tm). Also: Ask Me Anything.

1.     Graphics and audio seem very nice indeed. My system is a little older so I had to take a couple of things down a notch but overall the signs are promising. That lovely sound the Marines motion tracker uses is perfect.

2.     Menu system. A bit sketchy so far - it's all very clean and easy to understand but so far there aren't many configurations for searching for servers (you can't, it seems to be a matching system so it's entirely random). That said this is a demo so I'm anticipating improvements in the finished product.

3.     No single player in this demo. Sorry folks but it's online only. Not even any commands for hosting your own LAN map just to check things out. You have to go online with this or you won't get to play it.

4.     Right. Gameplay.

Initially I was outraged at how overpowered the Aliens / Preds seemed against a lone Marine. Then I had a little reality check and realised that this was just how it's supposed to be. I've only played as the Marine so far but if you're caught off-guard you are ****ed. The Marines best style of play ATM seems to be spray and pray - which is pretty true to the films. You stand a good chance of surviving if you simply chuck ordinance in the direction you're scared you might die from...

...the only problem being, Aliens and Preds are designed to leave you clueless in this respect. I found myself avoiding dark areas because my suit-torch gave me away and I was scared of what might be lurking in the shadows.

That said, and I don't mean to boast here, I played two rounds of Marine - came last in the first round and then top of the board by a considerable margin in the second so I guess I found my stride or got lucky. It can be done at least so there's hope for Marine players. I'll need to muck about with Pred and Alien tomorrow.

So far though? Well worth the 1.2GB download to get it. Really very atmospheric and I wish I had a beefier computer to play it in all its glory. Can't wait to see what the single player is like.

As I said before, now I've got it if anyone has any questions - please feel free to ask and I'll try and sort you out with an answer

[Pred the Penguin]

Some say the graphics are dated, not that I really care, but is there any truth to that?

Gameplay really does sound amazing so far...

[mxlm]

Goddammit, why is my computer still in the shop?

Do we know if the demo is going to take a cue from L4D and disappear after the game is released?

[NGTM-1R]

Kal: that's always how it's been for the series.

[mxlm]

I dunno, the sniper rifle in AvP2 let hypercompetent marines pwn the hell out of everything.

[Colonol Dekker]

Cloaked Predator and speargun zoom wins. I do hope they've made the preds target laser dots visible to the naked eye now though. . . On the Lan when I play AVP2 I fear I taught my younger brother to game TOO well.

[Bob-san]

I tried the demo as Alien and as Marine. I hate the mouse controls. It feels like a poor Console-to-PC port.

[Fineus]

Some say the graphics are dated, not that I really care, but is there any truth to that?
Gameplay really does sound amazing so far...

The demo is locked into DX9 mode but the full game apparently has DX11 features and my computer is DX9 only anyway. So I really couldn't say about its maximum potential. I'm quite happy with it though, although some of the animation of models is a bit suspect from afar. Up close though, everything happens too fast to really notice. Gameplay wise I think they have it spot on, I'm loving it.

Do we know if the demo is going to take a cue from L4D and disappear after the game is released?

I don't know for certain but the demo is MP only and only features one map. Games are arranged via a match-maker system so there's no dedicated server support or way of specifying precisely which game you want to play. It wouldn't surprise me if the demo servers were simply shut down and replaced with full game servers once the game launches, but that won't be for a couple of weeks yet.

I dunno, the sniper rifle in AvP2 let hypercompetent marines pwn the hell out of everything.

No sniper rifle that I've found - yet - but in the map I've played you'd be crazy to try and camp as a marine anyway - far too many ways to die.

Cloaked Predator and speargun zoom wins. I do hope they've made the preds target laser dots visible to the naked eye now though.

I think they have (though I haven't had much of a chance to check - action happens fast). I know you can throw spears while cloaked and that no red dots or anything appear when that happens, but it seems a hard weapon to aim. The shoulder canon is in there, makes a hell of a flash and bang when it goes off. It seems powerful but everyone will know where you are when you fire it.

[Colonol Dekker]

* Colonol Dekker is a Blooded yaut'Ja many fires have been extinguished by his hand.

[mxlm]

No sniper rifle that I've found - yet - but in the map I've played you'd be crazy to try and camp as a marine anyway - far too many ways to die.

The sniper rifle wasn't a camping weapon, it was an instakill railgun.

[General Battuta]

Sniper rifle's in. It's pretty good.

Alien is my favorite by far.

[Gortef]

I suffered a small case of ADHD yesterday and just couldn't wait any longer than 4mins for the game to find a server for me.

Gonna try again today and wait for that 5min at least.

[Fineus]

Eugh, it's a pain in the rear - finding a server I mean. Worth sticking with it, but they've done themselves no favours by doing it this way!

[General Battuta]

Seriously, the matchmaking is incredibly sluggish.

I miss servers.

[Galemp]

You mean the only mode is DEATHMATCH? Free For All Deathmatch?! In AvP?! Why in the nine hells of Baator would they do that?!

[General Battuta]

Uh, just in the demo, mate.