By Alec Meer on June 2nd, 2009 at 5:32 pm.
Wahey – proper footage at last of what looks to be an epic comback for Aliens, Predators and fallen-from-grace Britdevs Rebellion alike. Should we be concerned they’re trying to rescue their reputation by revisiting past glories? Nah, not when it looks as good as this. Only the Predator mode is shown off for now, but there’s nonetheless plenty of opportunity to ogle the sci-fi FPS’ other two species. In motion, it’s perhaps not quite as pretty as screenshots suggest, but that doesn’t stop it from being the FPS I’m currently most excited by, hapless little nerd that I am.
Personally, the Pred’s the least interesting of the three to me, but that’s at least partly because I found his fairly plodding nature in the original AvP less invigorating than the demonic scuttling of playing the Alien or the gravy-thick tension of donning the Marine’s frail human flesh. However, this video seems to hint at a more acrobatic Predator, more in line with ol’ fish-skin’s original movie appearance. Doing the Tarzan thing in large outdoor areas is what the character should be about – and it’s hopefully a bold statement that this isn’t going to simply be a retread of the AvP-the-first’s rather corridor-bound environments.
Oh, lordy-lord: I cannot wait to see the Alien-perspective stuff. Chomp!
02/06/2009 at 17:39 Baris says:
Ooh, I’m getting very excited for this one.
I never had the privelege of playing the original, but from all the good things I’ve heard about it, this has to be brilliant…right?
02/06/2009 at 17:40 Psychopomp says:
SQUEE
02/06/2009 at 17:41 Vinraith says:
Looks cool. The original hasn’t aged very well, but I really enjoyed it in its day.
02/06/2009 at 17:47 Spliter says:
…. ok, this video sucked. no, not because I don’t like AvP, because I love it, but because they show 0.5 seconds of action every flash instead of showing some solid fight and gameplay segment.
I hope the marine and alien movies turn out better, I too don’t like predator very much, I myself prefer alien and I hope it’s video won’t disappoint!
02/06/2009 at 18:02 Markoff Chaney says:
I have a feeling someone bungled the title on this one. I am really looking forward to this as well. I can only hope for Alien – Motion Sickness yet again though. So immersive and enjoyable AvP was.
02/06/2009 at 18:04 diebroken says:
Looks great, can’t wait to play for myself. I’m getting a Chronicles of Riddick and Mirror’s Edge kinda feel for the Predator’s agility/movement, interesting to see how it gets pulled off. :)
On a side note: anything about Cameron’s Avatar game yet?
02/06/2009 at 18:13 Tei says:
The predator in a PvP game is for these days you want to feel godlike. “Godlike with a Challenge” define the Predator class. The alien is much like a “Sneaky bastard, live Fast, make a Carnage”, and the marine, I dunno… “Play with Your Tools, because a Big Ugly Monster will soon play Soccer with your Head”. Other than … well… for 20 seconds, while theres still ammo for the smartgun… and anyway, if theres a predator nearby, the disc is probably already comming to cut your head…
02/06/2009 at 18:23 Chris R says:
I agree with Splinter… the video format was shit. There shouldn’t be more black frames than there is actual video… and especially not switching back and forth every half second like that. Point these fellows to the latest Old Republic trailer… THAT’s how to do a trailer.
But… AvP does look damn cool, and I can’t wait to be an alien scuttling around looking for marines to snack on. :)
02/06/2009 at 18:39 MacBeth says:
Now that’s what I call a reasonable gap before making a sequel. Valve take note! No-one wants a new game within a year, they want to wait a decade!
Oh and this looks quite good too. Pred was the least satisfying by far, and alien is going to be fun fun fun.
02/06/2009 at 18:41 The Sombrero Kid says:
don’t be too hard on the graphics, forests are much harder to do than space corridors.
there was someething about Avatar at the EA conferance but i’m so bored by james cameron (these days) and Avatar that i couldn’t tell you what was actually said.
02/06/2009 at 19:07 PeopleLikeFrank says:
Hard to tell regarding the graphics, what with the Youtube blur-o-vision. Don’t care though, chomping heads off should be good times.
squee indeed.
02/06/2009 at 19:10 Ging says:
It’s good to see that it seems they’ve moved away from the lumbering tank that the predator was in the previous games – though it’s tough to tell from this vid if that’s consistently true, or if they’re now lumbering tanks that can jump really high.
02/06/2009 at 19:15 Nallen says:
O LAWDY
02/06/2009 at 19:15 Koopa says:
I’m hoping for another marine campaign I’m too scared to play.
02/06/2009 at 19:17 DMJ says:
As nice as it looks, I don’t see how playing the Alien will be any good in a jungle. The key feature of the Alien was climbing walls and running along ceilings, and there are neither of those in a jungle. Leaping from tree to tree sounds like more of a Predator thing. And the human thing is, of course, cowering and dying. As it should be.
02/06/2009 at 19:28 JonFitt says:
I’m still very excited about this one.
I do agree with Spliter on the trailer though. I’m no film school buff, but as soon as it started I could tell it was going to be one of those hackneyed short-establishing-shots-fading-to-black climaxing with impossible-to-see-fast-cuts showing “intense action (TM)”.
Most game developers still have a long way to go before they get anywhere near good quality cinema action films. Valve’s shorts are good, but I see many FPS trailers which are strictly “Sci-Fi original movie” fair.
Again, very excited for the product.
02/06/2009 at 19:48 Erlam says:
“As nice as it looks, I don’t see how playing the Alien will be any good in a jungle. ”
Oh come on, are you serious? Leaping from tree to tree, way up in the canopy of the forest, or underneath a cave ledge?
I’m really psyched for this. I miss AVP :(
02/06/2009 at 19:57 JonFitt says:
Didn’t AvP2 have a forest MP level?
02/06/2009 at 19:57 Ian says:
I’m glad the Predator seems a bit more jumpy and slim than the behemoths in the AvP movie.
02/06/2009 at 19:59 lumpi says:
Hey, this is from the original team (Rebellion)? That’s so rare these days, it actually means a lot. AvP (long before the crappy movie) was probably the most nerve-wracking, intense and varied (you could play as Aliens, Predators or Marines) games I ever played.
Seriously, if you missed it, give it a try right now. Marine motion sensors will give you nightmares for days…
02/06/2009 at 20:43 teo says:
WHERE IS THE GORE?? Please don’t fuck this up Rebellion
02/06/2009 at 21:02 Demikaze says:
@Teo,
I wouldn’t be too worried – apparently, the trophy kills are extremely gruesome – to the extent where the CEO, I believe, justified it by saying that it wasn’t gratuitous simply for the hell of it, but because that’s just how these vicious beasts operate.
02/06/2009 at 21:23 Flint says:
I always felt that Predator was perfect for me stylistically (the whole hide in cloak and wait for prey sort of thing), but the previous AvP games kinda buggered it by having the Preddy run in tight corridors filled with aliens that see through the cloak after the first few levels. Let’s see how this one handles it.
02/06/2009 at 21:31 JonFitt says:
Does the cloak work against Aliens? I’m not big on the lore but I’d always assumed the Aliens ‘view’ was based on smell and sound as well as sight. The Predator definitely makes sounds (broooar, clackyclackyclick), and probably stinks from all the dried gore.
02/06/2009 at 21:56 phlebiac says:
i agree with all that bitching about this trailer but then i don’t … so far it’s the less is more thing i guess …
you all know you hate those kick ass trailers for games and movies where they cut in the best scenes of the game/movie and then when you buy play the game or watch the movie it’s like so yes, i’ve seen this in the trailer already, and that one too, as well as this one and that one … so what’s new … is it again a waste of money ?
and i am pretty sure we will all see more before it finally get’s released …
02/06/2009 at 22:05 ZIGS says:
Humm, this is coming from the same guys that just recently made Shellshock 2. Why should I be excited?
02/06/2009 at 22:09 Psychopomp says:
@people hating the format
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEVY_lonKf4&feature=related
02/06/2009 at 22:12 cHeal says:
Hate to shit on anyones parade but I think it is highly unlikely that the Alien campaign will be set in a forest. Jungles are the Predators thing, it’s where the original was set and it’s probably where people will feel most immersed playing the character. The Alien campaign will probably be set in either an Alien ship/homeworld/research institute, because such things are where people see the Aliens most naturally.
02/06/2009 at 22:19 wah says:
no the cloaking doesn’t work on aliens… it never has and it never will
02/06/2009 at 22:48 Arathain says:
I’m not sure the original AvP will ever really age- at least not the Marine levels, which are so dark you can’t see that the graphics are dated and so tense you don’t care.
I really enjoyed playing the Predator in the original. The feeling of power led me to make my own characterful challenges (wristblades only, high trophy count, how many can I pin to one wall). But it’s the other two that’ll always make or break the game.
02/06/2009 at 23:04 JonFitt says:
@phlebiac
I know. That’s all true.
It seems a petty thing seeing as the trailer is hardly the game.
But it just struck me as the equivalent of an announcement for a new book being done in the form of bad emo poetry: You know that the poetry won’t be in the book, but you hope that the fact that it’s bad is no reflection on the book and the author just isn’t good at poetry.
The design team will have produced this trailer, do they think this style is cutting edge wicked awesome, or did they chuck it together in a hurry? Bearing in mind these will be the people doing the cut scenes or equivalent.
On the plus side the brief bits of animation we saw did look good, and I do like self-view in games (legs) especially when you want to nail jumps.
I guess I’m just nervous. It’s been so long since the last AvP game, if this one turns out to be cheesy/forgettable will it be another few years before someone tries again?
02/06/2009 at 23:26 teo says:
@JonFitt a lot of things in AvP were terrible, but the gameplay wasn’t and that’s what mattered. Having seen their work I wouldn’t trust them to produce a good trailer but maybe they still know what made the game great.
02/06/2009 at 23:32 abigbat says:
I’m frothing at the mouth for this. And other places too.
02/06/2009 at 23:37 JonFitt says:
They sure can put together a delicious pre-rendered screenshot though. Mmmm.
03/06/2009 at 00:34 unique_identifier says:
WARNING: PROMOTIONAL VIDEO MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF ACTUAL GAME FOOTAGE
03/06/2009 at 00:40 Marcin says:
The music sounded familiar, too. Hopefully this won’t be butchered too badly.
03/06/2009 at 01:01 Cheshire P says:
They’d bettter use the facehugger sound effects from the first game. The seconds were pathetically non-threatening in comparison.
03/06/2009 at 01:41 lumpi says:
@ZIGS: They also made the original AvP (which is NOT a cheap cash-in game based on the much later movie, just to make this clear). Check out the demo. The marine intro level alone will eat your nerves faster than any other game in existence.
Then there’s the Predator with his gazillion vision modes and the Alien which can run on walls and ceilings. Basically, 3 games in one, 3 cleverly connected games. This was when games just delivered. You can be happy to see 1/10 of the originality, fun and content in any new game today.
PS: Wow, I didn’t know I’m such an AvP fanboy, but apparently, I am. :D I have to remember this game for my top reasons 1999 was the second best year for gaming after 1998 (Half-Life).
03/06/2009 at 04:21 DD says:
OH MY GOD YESSSSS
I am so, so, so, so, so ready for this game again. SO READY
03/06/2009 at 04:22 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Brilliant, loved the AvP games.
Why are there so many games coming out that I want. This is going to get expensive.
03/06/2009 at 04:35 Quests says:
Beaten the first AVP game, bored me out of my brains.
It was nothing but random shooting.
I hope this one is more than mouseclick-spam.
03/06/2009 at 05:51 DBeaver says:
YAY!!!!!!!!
But, why isn’t it called AvP 3?
03/06/2009 at 06:27 Mr.President says:
Ironically, Predator in the original was the worst character for long-term survival: you could rain sparkly death upon your enemies for 2 minutes, but if you wasted too much juice and flechettes, you were S.O.L.
It was the only campaign I couldn’t beat on Hard – they just kept throwing wave after wave of xenomorphs at me until I had nothing but wristblades.
03/06/2009 at 08:11 Shadowcat says:
ZIGS: Rebellion have made good games like AvP and Rogue Trooper, as well as bad ones. They’re a bit schizophrenic that way, but if they can somehow recapture or improve upon the original, this will be awesome.
Of course, this one will be designed for console controllers, so I have some definite reservations, but I’ll hope for the best.
03/06/2009 at 08:18 Jerykk says:
I saw this at E3. Looked pretty cool but there were some concerns. For one, the aliens move really, really slowly compared to the original AvP. The representative playing the game claimed that there’s no lead SKU but given that the game was being shown off on 360, I’ll venture a guess and say that PC isn’t the lead SKU. With that in mind, slowing down the aliens would be a necessary compromise to balance them for slower analog controls. Another issue was that it seemed like the predator could only jump to predefined spots. Finally, the AI was pretty retarded.
That said, there were some cool things in the demo. You could rip off a marine’s head and then use it to get past a retinal scanner. Personally, I’m much more interested in the alien gameplay. In the first two games, the alien fulfilled the stealth role but in this game, it seems that the Predator has taken that spot. I’m hoping they haven’t turned the alien into run-around-and-slash-like-crazy gameplay.
03/06/2009 at 08:26 ZIGS says:
I just recently finished Rogue Trooper and I had a great time playing it (game was only 5 hours long, WTF). Never played the original AVP but I hear it’s great. My problem is the OTHER DOZENS of games Rebellion made, which are forgettable
03/06/2009 at 09:02 jon_hill987 says:
@Cheshire P: Really? Thee facehugger sounds in the second game frickin’ terrified me.
03/06/2009 at 09:08 Babs says:
Regarding what someone said about the Alien not being good in the jungle, I think this could work out brilliantly myself if they mix the enviroments up a bit. Clearly the jungle is the Predators domain, but when the protagonists enter a more enclosed environment the Alien should get the upper hand. The Marine is equally puny in both naturally :)
This would add atmosphere, tension and variety. Looking forward to this one!
03/06/2009 at 09:29 TonyB says:
Jerykk: If there’s no lead SKU then suggesting the PC isn’t the lead SKU is a pretty safe bet.
03/06/2009 at 09:35 Dominic White says:
As I’ve said in other threads, Rebellion are a really weird studio. They swing wildly between bad (Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death) and good (Rogue Trooper). Still, if they keep up this pattern, then their last game was their absolute worst (the abominable Shellshock 2), so hopefully they can spring back and make AvP3 their best.
Or it could be another trainwreck. There’s really no way of knowing, sadly. Just flip a coin and cross your fingers.
Just browse through their Mobygames entry. The phrase ‘chequered history’ is a perfect match for them.
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/rebellion/developed-by/
03/06/2009 at 09:39 Bananaphone says:
If the tongue-grabbing bit was in-game, then we can expect QTEs. Wonderful.
03/06/2009 at 10:57 dOjo_Snake says:
I hope in my heart of hearts they live up to the breath-taking fantastical-ness of the original AvP.
Ahh the heady days of two Aliens wall jumping at each other, from either side of a giant room, attempting to time a charged Tail Snap attack to land mid air and leave one body falling lifeless to the floor whilst the other landed and gripped onto the opposing wall.
Please dont follow AvP2 it was a bomb comparatively, I await with baited breath.
03/06/2009 at 14:50 Freepower says:
Slow bugs? That gets a giant “meh” from me. I hate to say this so bluntly, but the sheer speed of the alien was its defining feature in the first game and it was terrifying to behold. When AvP2 scaled down the bug to the speed the marine used to run at it was painful. Let alone the fact that the lousy maps robbed the alien levels of their peculiar logic.
The first game stays in my heart forever. This one may be interesting. We’ll see, I spose.
03/06/2009 at 14:57 Psychopomp says:
WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE QTE’S?
Seriously, you act like it’s *impossible* for them to be done well.
RE4, Shenmue…
And uh…
That’s all I got.
03/06/2009 at 15:04 Nox says:
@Jerykk
The last scene in the trailer where ol’ Pred’s fighting the alien at close range gave me the impression that it was a QTE.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I despise QTEs. It’s why I never finished Jericho. Okay, it’s one of several reasons I never finished Jericho.
Any confirmation on this? Please tell me I’m just being paranoid.
EDIT:
@Bananaphone
Aw, nuts.
DOUBLE-EDIT:
@ Psychopomp
You forgot Mercenaries 2. Oh, wait. That was probably deliberate.
03/06/2009 at 16:18 Rei Onryou says:
I have no idea if I’ll play this, being the fraidy cat that I am, but it doesn’t stop me being filled with glee just by its mere existence.
03/06/2009 at 20:04 Jerykk says:
@TonyB
Except they’re lying when they say there’s no lead SKU because there is ALWAYS a lead SKU in multiplatform development. The game is designed for one platform and then ported to the others during development. The only way to have no lead SKU is to have a unique version of the game designed specifically for every platform and that simply doesn’t happen. Monolith claimed that FEAR2 had no lead SKU but it was oh so obvious that 360 was the lead.
@Nox
I don’t think it’s a QTE. I didn’t see any button prompts at least. You can see the playthrough at Gametrailers: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-aliens-vs/50381
04/06/2009 at 09:07 TonyB says:
I’m not sure I agree with the term “ported” – multiplatform engines mean you can be developing all versions at once, although I agree it’s unlikely you won’t be using one as the benchmark.
However, I was merely mocking your sentence construction, taken at face value it was a tautology.
04/06/2009 at 09:58 Hmm-Hmm. says:
I’m getting hyped by this. Well, not this but the promise I see in it.
05/06/2009 at 05:35 Dan says:
I _do_ hope everyone saying “original AvP” is talking about the Jaguar version… aren’t you?
05/06/2009 at 06:35 Jerykk says:
@Dan
No, not really. AvP on the PC was a whole lot better than AvP on the Jaguar.
06/06/2009 at 03:39 Digit says:
I pretend AvP 2 never happened, along with Alien Resurrection and the AvP films, that way I have fond memories of AvP on the PC and maybe, possibly, this one!
Goooooo Rebellion! :D
09/06/2009 at 16:14 Mr_Bacco says:
Call me a pedant, but I’m mildly irritated that they don’t appear to have used the original predator vision sounds from the first game (and indeed the first predator film). Early days yet though.
I’m still excited, mind.
18/10/2009 at 15:41 Geoff B says:
All of those jump cuts serve to make the gameplay look faster. I’d expect something a little less speedy than what you see here.