By John Walker on July 16th, 2010 at 7:21 pm.
So, well, Valve just rather nonchalantly announced a game. Yeah, exactly.
Remember Alien Swarm? A total conversion mod for UT 2004, with four-player co-op top-down action. The team behind it, we’ve just learned, were hired by Valve two years ago, and have since been working on L4D and now Portal 2. Except at the same time they’ve been making Alien Swarm all over again in Source. And it’s coming out on Monday. And it will be free. And it looks great.
The new version of top-down shooter Alien Swarm can be seen in action here. It looks pretty damned fantastic.
But it’s not the only thing that’s coming. Along with it the complete SDK and code base is being released, all available for free this Monday (19th).
If you don’t remember the first version, here’s Quintin’s feature on the game from 2008.
The game will also include updates to the Source engine (in the SDK), and has had some changes made to it in its Source incarnation. A third-person camera, depth of field effects, and “a wide variety of gameplay additions.” Although what those are isn’t clear yet. However, take a look at the screenshots below to see the difference in the game.
Valve lists the contents as follows:
Alien Swarm is a game and Source SDK release from a group of talented designers at Valve who were hired from the Mod community. Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes. Plan your attack using an unlockable arsenal of weapons with countless loadout configurations against a wide variety of aliens. Blaze your way through an overrun, off-world colony, eradicating the alien infestation in environments ranging from the icy planet’s surface, to a subterranean lava-flooded mining facility.
- Tactical, 4 player co-op action game with a top-down perspective
- Complete game code and mod tools
- Unlock persistent items by gaining levels
- Over 40 weapons and equipment with countless loadout configurations
- 4 unique classes and 8 unique characters
- Matchmaking, Steam Cloud, Steam Stats
- 64 achievements
- Tile-based map generation tool
- Powered by Source and Steam
Here’s how Alien Swarm looked two years ago:
And this is what the new version looks like (click on them for giant versions):
16/07/2010 at 19:11 kwyjibo says:
It’s a pleasant surprise, I thought Black Cat Games had just gone dead just like all those countless mod teams out there who never deliver.
I’m not really sure if releasing this game with an open code base will really accelerate Source adoption though. Surely, everyone’s already on board the Unreal train.
16/07/2010 at 19:18 Dodo says:
Yeah, this is certainly a pleasant surprise. Never knew they got hired by valve.
Anyway, I loved the original Alien Swarm, so this will be a sweet!
17/07/2010 at 07:44 Forch says:
The Unreal Train is a laggy, buggy train to Migrainesville.
16/07/2010 at 19:11 bergotronic says:
Free Game! Alright! this almost makes up for L4D2… ;)
16/07/2010 at 19:16 Warskull says:
Very good free game, Alien Swarm was probably the best game in the make something unreal contest. I’m glad to see Black Cat lives on, they were some talented guys.
16/07/2010 at 19:18 bergotronic says:
Indeed – I look forward to it. Perhaps this will make use of some L4Ds AI director techiques?
16/07/2010 at 19:34 westyfield says:
I read that at first as ‘AI dictator’, which I guess doesn’t change the sentence that much.
It’d be awesome if Alien Swarm: Subtitle Harder used the director though.
16/07/2010 at 19:42 dethtoll says:
Hey, L4D2 was way more worth the money than the first game was. Then again I only paid $30 for it as opposed to $50 for L4D1…
16/07/2010 at 20:04 Simon says:
Shh you, L4D2 is a great game!
16/07/2010 at 20:14 dadioflex says:
@westyfield Should have gone to specsavers.
16/07/2010 at 23:49 clovist says:
developer quote – “There are some console commands to make the game harder if Insane mode isn’t enough for you. Most notably there’s asw_horde 1 which activates a L4D style Director who spawns random hordes of Swarm drones periodically.” so yes, director if you want
16/07/2010 at 19:12 Mic2070 says:
Looks gorgeous. I predict that valve’s servers will be on heavy load on monday.
16/07/2010 at 19:12 Kid A says:
Wha… whu…
-explodes-
I’m cool with this.
16/07/2010 at 19:28 jonfitt says:
I’m JonFitt, and I approve this message.
17/07/2010 at 12:41 DJ Phantoon says:
You’re cool with exploding? Whoa.
16/07/2010 at 19:12 TCM says:
Whatta whatta whaaaaaaaah?
16/07/2010 at 19:14 RakeShark says:
Great, here I was hoping Moonbase Alpha would be the free space game to include setting disgusting alien weirdos on fire.
Ah well. There’s still time to add Asimov/Bova plot twists though.
16/07/2010 at 19:14 Arathain says:
Woah.
I feel… strange. Is this… is this… happiness?
16/07/2010 at 19:14 Simon Dufour says:
Alright.
16/07/2010 at 19:14 TimA says:
VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALVE!
But yes, this looks rather awesome. I just wish it was out on weekend rather than a monday.
16/07/2010 at 19:15 rebb says:
Holy Space Sh**
This was already a lot of fun as a mod.
16/07/2010 at 19:15 Vinraith says:
Well, that’s a pleasant surprise. I loved the original, I look forward to seeing what Valve’s done with it.
16/07/2010 at 19:21 Tei says:
Amazing news. The problem I see here is that this genre is very advanced. There are very very very good games based on this gameplay out here, so anything released will be compared to then. The World Don’t Need Another Space Siege Game.
Also, WTF vale? Is your mocking all other game developers going awesome just to make all other people looks bad? *me kising the “hairless head of a dude with a valve” logo*
16/07/2010 at 21:04 Jeremy says:
This thread has been officially Tei’d.
16/07/2010 at 21:45 neems says:
The World certainly didn’t need the actual Space Seige game.
17/07/2010 at 09:23 Heliosicle says:
I feel sorry for Team 17 for releasing Alien Breed too.
16/07/2010 at 19:22 Jimbo says:
They were working on this even before they got picked up by Valve iirc. I remember looking for a copy of UT just to play it, then giving up and deciding to wait for them to finish the Source version. It did go off the radar for a long time though.
I’m glad it survived. Looks cool and free is the best price there is.
16/07/2010 at 19:24 Bret says:
Well.
Valve continues the one game a year thing, then. Safe to say no-one was expecting this, though.
16/07/2010 at 19:25 Sunjumper says:
Brilliant news!
I do feel premtively a bit sorry for Team 17 though, in case this game is better at being a modern Alien Breed than their own effort.
16/07/2010 at 19:34 Alastayr says:
Judging by Team 17′s recent output, it probably is.
16/07/2010 at 21:33 ran93r says:
It is a shame for Team 17, I really wanted Alien Breed to be epic but it did fall a little short of the mark. I still enjoy playing it but if Swarm nails the four player co-op that just blows Breed out of the water. That’s me over there, pouring one out for my Amiga childhood.
16/07/2010 at 19:28 Pete says:
Must’ve missed that they got bought, nice little mod team, good for them and Valve! Should be great fun co-op.
16/07/2010 at 19:32 jonfitt says:
I heard some really good things about this as a UT2k4 mod but never played it. I was waiting to get the Source version, but never imagined it would be free after they were hired by Valve!
I think the stuff I heard was on an old GFW/CGW podcast and they made it sound very tactical and ‘Aliens’ like.
16/07/2010 at 20:35 LionsPhil says:
The UT2004 version was absolutely awesome, if dependent on good players. For LAN, private, or a rare sensible public server, it was an amazing experience.
The singleplayer was HORRID due to one-at-a-time squad control combined with AI squaddies always standing stock still, which made a level with a charging boss pretty much impossible, but wasn’t really the point of the thing.
16/07/2010 at 19:34 john says:
Yep, I periodically looked at their forums over the last few years, as the few hardcore posters were mocked by interlopers (including me) for their loyalty given the fact that the devs had basically ignored them over a period of years with no explanation why. A couple of the mods would occasionally pop up with a “they have future plans” comment that was immediately dismissed as bull.
Funnily I remember thinking to myself how unlucky their fortunes were in contrast to Turtle Rock ; the one snapped up by the premier PC developer in the world to polish their co-op shooter game to AAA standard, the other slowly fading into obscurity. I’m glad I was wrong and Valve saw the value in their idea.
16/07/2010 at 19:34 Schmung says:
Oh fuck not another SDK update.
Game looks sweet though.
16/07/2010 at 21:25 gerafin says:
This.
Make sure to make a copy of your SDK bin folder .exe’s now, they can replace the updated ones once the inevitable breaking begins. However: you have to replace the .exe’s AFTER you start up the SDK menu every time.
But, you probably already know the drill by now.
17/07/2010 at 12:16 Theory says:
It’s a new SDK, separate from the ‘mainline’ one.
16/07/2010 at 19:39 Cian says:
Woo and indeed yay! Alien Swarm is probably still my favourite coop experience, as a mod it was downright aces and with the time it has spent in development (even if that has been intermittent) I’m really quite excited to see it.
Having said that, the later missions Black Cat released were relentlessly demanding, which rather cut down on the jump-in chaos becomes order mileu of the earlier releases, so interested to see what the servers will be like come monday.
However, with this and Red Orchestra 2 soon, it really seems the Make Something Unreal contest has done wonders for the more original creations of the UT modding scene.
16/07/2010 at 19:42 Starky says:
I have to agree with Tei here, Valve are just now openly mocking all other developers with how awesome they are, and how other developers just fail.
TF2 updates, Free games, free DLC for all their games, long term support for all their games… a brilliant store, great support, insane sales and indie dev support – Steam is10 giant leaps ahead of every other competitor.
The only miss-step they made really was L4D2, and honestly for anyone with more than a thimble full of self control waited until the first (or second) sale price on it, and got a game that was better than L4D one in almost every way, for less them most expansions cost.
A slight wobble in their usual A+ in every way performance.
Valve are becoming the google of PC gaming, in the way google is the google of PC everything else.
16/07/2010 at 20:08 Simon says:
I agree, although I personally have no problem with L4D2 being released soonish after the original. I got my money’s worth out of both :)
16/07/2010 at 20:11 DJ Phantoon says:
No, the real misstep they made was the damn Golden Wrenches.
L4D2 was fine.
16/07/2010 at 22:18 Shih Tzu says:
I was actually thinking this was a very Google sort of move. Like when Google set up a wi-fi network for the entire city of Mountain View, for free, and everyone asked, “Why?” And Google shrugged and was like, “It sounded cool and we had the money.”
17/07/2010 at 14:20 battles_atlas says:
An excellent fuck you to the valve haters. If capitalism worked like this generally I’d totally suck Milton Friedman off right now, regardless of state of decomposition.
17/07/2010 at 16:00 TeeJay says:
@ Starky:
It is a bit unfair to say other developers are “failing”…
Valve (and Google) can treat free stuff as loss-leaders and make their money back on retailing games, licensing source (or selling advertising) to the people passing through their sites. Maintaining a healthy player-base means the game continues to sell, keeps people passing via the store regularly and prevents drifting off to a different game/location/community.
A developer who doesn’t also have a large digital-download / retailing operation or other ways of making money can’t afford to give stuff away as a loss-leader. Also while typical markets have room for a whole range of products and price-points there is a limit to how many ‘social networks’ can exist or whether certain products/services are still viable when a free (ie. subsidised) and high-quality option exists.
Rather than expect anyone else to attempt to become a Valve-stye integrated developer-publisher-retailer and say they “fail” if they don’t, maybe they are better off sticking to just developing or just retailing etc, and aiming to offer something a bit more niche and differentiated/specialised?
17/07/2010 at 19:43 Inno says:
@TeeJay :: All true. Of course, companies like Valve & Blizzard didn’t just magically get to the prime position they’re in now. From the very beginning they took calculated risks, spent money to make money, always looking for the next big, innovative thing. Can we really say most of the other players are doing something similar? I don’t think so. I can’t speak for Starky but I think this is what he meant with other developers failing.
They’re too busy throwing out one generic thing after the other, decent post-launch support doesn’t even seem to be in alot of their vocabularies. Sure, it probably doesn’t help alot of them have to deal with the board/shareholders always lurking over their shoulders. I can’t bring up much sympathy for that though. All in all I think it’s fair to say many of them are failing. There’s always choices available, they may not be easy or straightforward but they’re still there.
16/07/2010 at 19:42 The Dark One says:
Even if it doesn’t spur any new mods being made, helping modders with Steamworks integration is a great idea. Even when it’s something as simple as Shatter showing me the high-scores of the people already in my friends list, it sells the feeling that the community is all connected.
16/07/2010 at 19:53 Flint says:
Once again Valve shows its uncanny skill to release something co-opy on the week I go on a holiday somewhere where I’ll be without my gaming PC.
16/07/2010 at 19:55 Daniel Klein says:
It’s almost like they want us to like them.
16/07/2010 at 19:56 Schaulustiger says:
This is rather frightening. Does Valve ever do anything that is not absolutely super-duper-awesome?
16/07/2010 at 20:00 Navagon says:
Freeness! Yaaaays!
Don’t forget, guys: this is probably as much about increasing the number of Steam users as it is about Source. If not more so. But whatever the intentions, it’s free and odds are it’s going to be awesome.
16/07/2010 at 20:01 Meat Circus says:
…must…find…something…to….be…angry…about…
16/07/2010 at 20:42 Psychopomp says:
Those dirty, tricky Valve assholes. They’re refusing to allow a talented team the monetary compensation they deserve, just for a little PR. Despicable.
16/07/2010 at 22:20 Down Rodeo says:
Ah, well done Psychopomp. There had to be something! :)
17/07/2010 at 04:31 Lukasz says:
oh. it is simple to find something to be angry about…
a free game, even if awesome means less resources go to Episode 3…
rage begin now
16/07/2010 at 20:02 Flaringo says:
What’s the catch, Valve? DLC? What, god damnit!
16/07/2010 at 20:02 DMJ says:
Left 4 Alien?
16/07/2010 at 20:03 Jim Rossignol says:
Ah. Ha.
16/07/2010 at 20:03 Meat Circus says:
It’s a trap, isn’t it? You’ve found a trap.
TELL US.
16/07/2010 at 20:12 Sam says:
Jim IS a trap.
16/07/2010 at 20:04 Moses2k says:
Original was up-to-8-player.
Yeah, this is the raddest thing around. forums.blackcatgames.com if you’re interested.
16/07/2010 at 20:04 Derf says:
A FREE coop tactical shooter? Wow, i’m sooo getting this. Hopefully the tactical element will hold up.
16/07/2010 at 20:04 Mad Doc MacRae says:
Well, free is always good. Not sure I’m super interested in the game but I can’t complain.
16/07/2010 at 20:08 Sam says:
They should have made this their E3 announcement, would have been a lot less disappointing lol.
16/07/2010 at 20:14 DJ Phantoon says:
Yeah, I don’t think so. Valve doesn’t need E3 to build hype. They put out anything for TF2 and they get plenty of attention. Plus, Steam means they can slap something on the news if they feel like it.
If they completely ignore E3 I can’t say it would hurt them since they don’t have to spend ridiculous amounts of money on shit.
16/07/2010 at 20:09 AS says:
As awesome as all of this sounds, all I can think of is how all of the tools can be modified for use in Valve DotA. This means the game is not far away, in Valve Time…
16/07/2010 at 20:15 Tomski says:
I was thinking the same, perhaps this is a precurser to the DotA game so they can test out the engine in roughly the same format.
Also, does this bring them into line with UDK and Unity now being Free for All development kits?
16/07/2010 at 20:28 AS says:
It feels like they’ve been gobbling up all of these little mod teams that do what they do best to extend Source by porting over their games – and eventually joining the teams together to produce the bigger mods. I have no idea how someone such as Icefrog would be able to help on a game such as Portal 2 or L4D2 besides general coding, maybe they’re building up more teams leading to more projects being released.
Also, with the tile based map tool, source code and whatnot, it sounds like they have a general engine to port any SC*/WC* map they like, and there are a lot of underlooked maps still out there.
16/07/2010 at 20:13 yourgrandma says:
It’s great seeing these old mods turn up again with a fresh coat of paint. Was wondering what happened to these guys when they said they were making a source version and they seemed to pretty much drop off the map… who would of guessed this happening.
16/07/2010 at 20:15 jackflash says:
This is great, news!!! I heart Valve!!
16/07/2010 at 20:22 Brian Manahan says:
Now if they would just work on Half Life 2 Episode 3.
16/07/2010 at 20:30 MadTinkerer says:
Gosh darn it, you sniped my line! :)
17/07/2010 at 02:19 Web Cole says:
I can’t believe it took this long for someone to say it ;)
16/07/2010 at 20:24 Pmeie says:
This might well be the first game I play in which I like the depth of field. Looks great.
16/07/2010 at 20:25 Pmeie says:
*while not interfering with gameplay (that’s why i didnt like it in other games, ie borderlands)
16/07/2010 at 20:28 MrCookie says:
So, how long until someone mods this to be a top down left 4 dead? Seems perfect for it.
16/07/2010 at 20:28 MadTinkerer says:
What and Ep3 still isn’t done?
Just kidding. I too am excited about this. The part about “Tile-based map generation tool” is particularly intriguing. Are the tiles dynamically generated (like Diablo 2/Torchlight/etc.), or part of Hammer now (or both)? Because either way it means there’s a completely new way to do map geometry in Source besides direct brush editing in Hammer. And the implications of that… well maybe not as interesting if you’re not learning about Source modding right now, but I am.
16/07/2010 at 20:31 LionsPhil says:
Hebehebehdebdhebdhehbehebeehb.
FREE?! ALIEN SWARM?! It’s back, and it’s FREEEEE?!
16/07/2010 at 20:39 Psychopomp says:
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABE
16/07/2010 at 20:43 bleeters says:
Just stop it now. Seriously. I’m in danger of reaching my maximum capacity for love, here. First the wrangler, now this? At this rate I’ll have nothing left for when portal 2 comes out.
Oh, sod it. SqueeeeeeeeeeeeealienswarmanditsfreeeeeeeeeeandohgodmylungsIveburstmylungs
16/07/2010 at 20:46 Choca says:
This looks a billion times better than that crappy Alien Breed remake from Team 17 and it’s free ? I might be playing that till the end of times ! (or till something better shows us, which might actually coincide with the end of times)
16/07/2010 at 20:47 fabamatic says:
It’s great to get a free game!. Will it be turn based? The tactical squad thing and the setting makes it much more X-Com than Xcom.
16/07/2010 at 20:52 Redford says:
Alien swarm is not turn based. Imagine Left4Dead, except brutally unforgiving to the point of impossibility at high difficulty levels with xenomorphs. Also, instead of being an FPS all the combat takes place in a top down mode ALA Smash TV.
Remember guys, if you’re a noob, don’t take the shotgun.
16/07/2010 at 21:49 Meat Circus says:
I wish somebody had told me that before my first day at school.
16/07/2010 at 21:26 Heliocentric says:
*Monicle pops out*
16/07/2010 at 21:29 gerafin says:
Don’t forget to remove your top hat slowly, jaw agape.
16/07/2010 at 21:37 vader says:
Free is my favorite price in the whole world. If more games cost free I’d buy games all the time.
16/07/2010 at 21:37 Sparvy says:
Hmm, I wonder if this tech update for the source engine has something to do with whatever Icefrog is working on as well?
16/07/2010 at 21:37 TheApologist says:
That is so great. Yay!
And to think I nearly bought Alien Breed
16/07/2010 at 21:40 Veret says:
What, seriously? No one’s said it yet? Okay, I’ll do the honors:
“And in other news, Valve announces Alien Swarm delayed until Tuesday.”
Seriously though, looks awesome. As long as I get my goddamn Episode 3 sometime this decade.
16/07/2010 at 21:45 mod the world says:
I accept this free game as apology for Left4Dead 2 and the CSS update. I hope you learned your lesson Valve!
16/07/2010 at 23:20 Starky says:
The CSS update, while having teething issues is bloody awesome – Finally my 3Ghz quad core can get more than 40-50 FPS when stood in smoke, all those lovely cores getting used (well 3 of em).
16/07/2010 at 23:34 Simon says:
Whats wrong with L4D2? :(
17/07/2010 at 03:09 SamuraiPie says:
@ Simon – mod the world is pointing to the fact that Left 4 Dead 2′s release was covered in delicious controversy because it was released so quickly.
It was a different time, a strange era – Back in mid 2009, gamers were just getting used to Valve Time as a concept, expectations for Valve releases were appropriately lowered and any release dates were devoured with a large pinch of salt. Then all of a sudden, they went and turned around a sequel to a huge title in under a year!
It blew a lot of people’s minds, freaked out a lot of squares, man; some were shocked, some were impressed, many really didn’t care… but others still became incensed by this disruption in the Valve Time continuum and joined up with this weird digital crusade-against-Valve-type-thing in protest. The crusade was unceremoniously crushed when Gabe Newell, Emperor and Overlord of Valve, invited its leaders to come to their office for a coffee and some sugar buns… The crusaders emerged as changed men – they declared Valve were in fact not massive bastards and were instead made entirely of win sauce, they just wanted to give them hugs and nice things.
Many have theorised what really went on in the Valve office that fateful day, but top scientists believe the leaders of the anti-Valve faction were surgically implanted with Source-based mind control consoles, and that Gabe controls their thoughts and actions even to this very day.
So if by chance you see a guy in your local game shop dumping 612 copies of the Orange box at the counter, frothing at the mouth screaming about some Engineer update and waving a rusty crowbar around – you’ll know why.
16/07/2010 at 21:45 Vitamin Powered says:
Awesome.
I loved the first one, and will definitely be grabbing this. Of course, that’s not saying much, given that it’s free, but still.
Also, gotta say I love the “here, have a surprise game!” element. I wonder if we’ll end up getting more surprise games in this age of easily downloadable games/entertainment.
16/07/2010 at 22:03 mbp says:
This Free Games business has gotten me all confused. Don’t game devs have to eat? Things were so much simpler back when a single game cost about half a weeks wages so you could only afford to buy about two games a year.
16/07/2010 at 22:16 Baka says:
RPS: I have a friend (an idiot) who is determined that in six months Valve will be owned by either Microsoft or EA…
Gabe: Tell him that I’m not interested in buying either one of them.
16/07/2010 at 23:33 LionsPhil says:
@mbp: Presumably their publisher status as Steam overlords combined with the lack of parasitic shareholders or business executives is keeping them in takeaway pizza and carbonated caffine, allowing them to make games more or less for the love of it.
Ordinarily I’d at least put a cynical eye towards beneficial side-effects, like free Portal bootstrapping Steam-on-Mac, or Steam features themselves sugar-coating the bitter pill of DRM, but in this case I’m finding it hard to really see what they gain here other than a resource they already have in abundance—fanboys.
…um. And perhaps it’s also acting as a public beta for the new tech and a feedback/learning experience for the new-ish team?
16/07/2010 at 23:43 Simon says:
Steam is a private company, they cannot be bought out unless Gabe gives in.
16/07/2010 at 23:43 Starky says:
Here I’ll break it down for you…
Valve made great games.
Valve (owned mainly by Gabe) wanted a digital download service.
No one they went to would make one (Microsoft, EA etc…) So they made their own.
Everyone hated it (It was forced upon CS players), it was the worst thing to EVER happen.
Valve made HL2 – everyone suddenly HAD to have steam, they hated it but it was worth it for the glorious HL2.
Fast forward 6 years…
Everyone loves steam, Valve own steam, Valve take 30-40% of every game sold on steam (85% if it is their game).
Steam has 25 million accounts, and probably sells upwards of 250 million dollars worth of games a year (each user spending $10 a year – given I’ve personally spent something like $200 (or £120) so far this year…
Out of that Valve maybe get 60-70 million (from their own sales).
So they don’t need to make games to make money, just get people using and buying games on steam.
17/07/2010 at 17:49 TeeJay says:
@ Starky:
You’ve done an estimate of how much income Valve get… do you feel like having a go at estimating how much money they spend every year (eg number of staff/average salaries, offices, equipment, server costs, buying-in IP and/or licences, legal fees etc)? For example they have 100 people listed as direct employees: http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/people.html
$60-70 million revenue does sounds like a big number [nb. revenue of $600,000 per employee is roughly in the right ball-park for a market-leading mid-sized high-skills IT/software company]
However comparing that with the annual sales of some of the big publishers (some with 7000+ employees) puts things into perspective slightly:
$4280m Activision Blizzard
$4200m EA
$1400m Ubisoft
$968m Take Two
$830m THQ
$400m Atari
(also leaving aside Microsft / Sony / Nintendo / Nokia / Apple / etc)
The good-will Valve generate and their closeness to PC gamers means that what they are doing is not easily replicable by any of these big players however much money they throw at it. However if Valve ever start behaving like some of these companies they will lose a unique advantage.
If Valve *have* to get even bigger for some reason, let’s hope they get in bed with Google.
16/07/2010 at 22:06 Azadeth says:
What’s this? A game about space marines fighting an infestation of insect-like aliens in an off-world colony? OMG HOW AMAZINGLY ORIGINAL!
Seriously, game designers need some new ideas. And James Cameron should be allowed to sue at this point.
16/07/2010 at 22:52 Kid A says:
I need a triple facepalm and 50ccs of Not Giving A Damn, stat!
17/07/2010 at 01:06 Nobody Important says:
If reading Linux message boards have taught me anything, it’s that people suddenly become hyper critical of free stuff. Make it $5 and they’re all like “SQUEEEEEE SO CHEAP!”
17/07/2010 at 03:58 Bret says:
Wouldn’t Cameron be a bit busy fending off suit from Robert Heinlein if that was the case?
16/07/2010 at 22:10 Durns says:
Valve are, and have been for a long while, simply a honey-trap for Steam.
Steam has a key weakness — getting people on the platform. It doesn’t come bundled with new PCs and isn’t extensively marketed outside the (relatively) hardcore gaming press and communities. It also acts as a form of DRM (albeit one of the least intrusive options) and games are ‘loaned’ rather than bought.
To play any Valve games, you require Steam. The moment Steam is installed, you are hooked (in a good way) – I personally have only bought Steam (and GOG) games for the last two years after decrying it for many before.
Valve know this, and know that the better and more community-oriented the game is, the better their sales (steam installs) and returning players (steam returners) will be. They also know that if people like and identify with Valve, they are more likely to reflect positively on Steam (as the two are closely associated in the popular consciousness) and recommend it to others. Therefore Valve have an extremely strong incentive to release amazing games, and on a slow schedule which ramps up the interest and visits to their sites, ramps up the amount of times Steam gets mentioned, etc.
Clever girl…..
16/07/2010 at 23:35 LionsPhil says:
I’d agree with you if you were talking about free Portal, but I think AS is a little too niche/hardcore for that. I doubt many people who are excited about this don’t already have Steam accounts and a high opinion of Valve.
16/07/2010 at 22:27 Daniel says:
I think the most appropriate phrase here is: WTF? I mean, this is awesome, but seriously:
What the fuck?
17/07/2010 at 04:37 Neut says:
Yeh seriously, what?
They should put the announcement for this on Steam next to the big ad for the $15 Modern Warfare 2 DLC for 5 new maps. With a big Valve and Activision logo for each. Just to nail the point home.
16/07/2010 at 22:33 Barman1942 says:
Valve, don’t stop being awesome.
16/07/2010 at 23:09 V. Tchitcherine. says:
Oh dear, I just bought Bad Company 2 as it was on special at my local Electronics Boutique, nevermind that I’m wholly engrossed in the engineer update whilst salivating at the upcoming polycount update… now this piece of brilliance? Oh wait and Mafia II comes out in one month…
Too many incredible games at once!
Also, the updates to the Source Engine look fucking godly.
16/07/2010 at 23:19 Juror #9 says:
umm maybe you guys checked this out but here’s some gameplay for those who haven’t. Looks rather hectic, in a good way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15wJKM9iOe0
16/07/2010 at 23:19 indeed says:
Source has the benefit of not needing as many models…which unreal basically requires. Because the bsp in the source engine is so versatile, while unreal reallyreally wants static meshes source is better for indie developers in that it allows more flexibility…
But I mean you can get unreal to act the same way, if you really want to.
I personally am currently working in source because I’m unwilling to learn to model or purchase a modeler. And that’s it. Unreal’s UI is vastly superior…and…pretty much everything about it is.
The only real problem I have with unreal is its plasticine lighting, but that, again, can be negated if you want to.
But anyway…source has it’s reasons to be used, though I hope they’re working on the next generation of the engine while doing everything else. And hopefully they’ll hardcode less this time…
16/07/2010 at 23:20 indeed says:
Did I forget to push reply? Yes I did.
Welp. Anyway.
16/07/2010 at 23:36 Daniel Carvalho says:
I’d say AlienBreed looks better screenshot-wise. Looks less camp and more serious.
17/07/2010 at 00:37 indeed says:
I’d say serious isn’t the goal in a game with a story theme this generic.
17/07/2010 at 10:30 Nick says:
Unfortunatly Alien Breed is a bit arse. No idea if this will be any good but Alien Swarm certainly was.
17/07/2010 at 00:00 Out Reach says:
Please let there be a “For Science!” battle-cry…
17/07/2010 at 00:25 internisus says:
I actually bought that version of Unreal just for Alien Swarm, but I haven’t yet gotten around to it; now I don’t need to. This is extremely cool and exciting news for me. Also, I choose to see it was a kind of L4D0, and since I have over 300 hours logged between the two zombie games…
I rather think I prefer the old graphics, though.
17/07/2010 at 00:33 LionsPhil says:
Unfortunately, the old graphics included player models (even if they tweaked and retextured the heads) and a lot of scenery objects from base UT.
17/07/2010 at 01:10 Thiefsie says:
I can’t afford it.. they should be paying me to play this game…
*rage*
17/07/2010 at 01:38 malkav11 says:
I probably would have bought this. Now I can’t. Damn you, Valve!
;)
17/07/2010 at 02:05 bildo says:
valve hired guys doing BM:S. guaranteed after reading this. its gonna release with the new HLEP3. Mark my words
17/07/2010 at 08:34 Urthman says:
You are soooooo absolutely right. Maybe the timing will be different, but otherwise, yes.
They make all that progress, give every indication of being close to finishing, and then completely disappear? Only one explanation.
Also, I can see Valve taking a hands-off approach when the Black Mesa folks were starting out — who knew if they’d finish, or if it would be good? But for someone to release a very-high quality remake of the game that put Valve on the map? No way that Valve would not want to take that under their wing and help make it awesome.
17/07/2010 at 02:22 markcocjin says:
All I could think of right now is this game is coming with an SDK and code base.
Does anyone out there realize what this means for a Source Engine powered RTS?
Will we see a better Half-Life Wars?
Is this what Ice Frog from DotA is working on?
17/07/2010 at 02:50 markcocjin says:
Oh and might I add a potential for a Baldur’s Gate style RPG with easy modding capability?
Oh and this is Source Engine right? I believe it wouldn’t be a problem to make a “Switch to FPS” mode.
17/07/2010 at 04:47 Kid A says:
A first-person mode in Alien Swarm would be akin to modding a third person view into the original Doom. You just don’t need it.
17/07/2010 at 03:46 Jayt says:
swooonnn
17/07/2010 at 03:51 Al3xand3r says:
Hearing the developers of this worked on L4D and the like is a “doh, of course!” moment. Warning voices for reloads, swarms of enemies, melee hit, campaign play, etc, it’s all like a more mainstream, less tough version of Alien Swarm, but in first person. I think I prefer the original Alien Swarm to L4D, excluding the amount of content, though with a few fan campaigns on top of the “official” and different difficulties there were quite enough to go through. Anyway, it’s incredible this is free. That probably means it’s not quite as developed as other Valve games (not many alien types? not many levels? etc) as long as the base of the game is as polished as it seems to be in the videos, then with the offered SDK the community will fix the lack of content in time. I just hope they have kept the setup very similar to the first game, ie, leveling up your marines, choosing which mission of the campaign to tackle next, having branching paths, all the different tools and functions like welding doors shut, hacking turrets and the like. Either way, I can’t wait for Monday!
I wonder if this means we will see Valve releasing a Source based Thief-like multiplayer experience since that’s another project Black Cat Games were working on when they disappeared, first for UT2004 and then, I think, for UT3 perhaps. They’re the same people who made Thievery for UT99 after all. That would be a pretty awesome experience to have for sure, just like Alien Swarm.
17/07/2010 at 04:00 spork says:
Anybody think there will be a single player campaign? Or is it just co-op?
17/07/2010 at 04:02 Orteko says:
Wow, i’d given up all hope of ever seeing infested come out :)
The original was brilliant if you had the right-minded group of friends.
Sadly it looks like they’ve done away with the characters from the original so those nice high-res renders that were close to the last thing announced bear no resemblance to the new game.
Not that i’m complaining however, this announcement makes my day :)
The fact that they have all been working at valve on l4d and other titles gives me high hopes that this is going to be very nicely polished.
17/07/2010 at 05:38 SLeigher says:
Yeah when i saw mw2 dlc for $15 I was like surely there must be more than just 5 new maps, but no… activision and most other game developers should be embarrassed by how much better valve is. A free game is just sweet but free updates often with a hell of a lot more than 5 new maps is just awesome.
17/07/2010 at 06:13 Davie says:
GomxoawijlzkansWHAT? Wow. That’s really, completely awesome. I never played the original mod, but I’ll be sure to grab this. I love Valve.
17/07/2010 at 08:30 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
OH JESUS OH FUCK YES
19/07/2010 at 16:29 Lilliput King says:
This.
Jesus fuck, ladies and gentlemen. Jesus fuck.
17/07/2010 at 10:36 Chaz says:
Well I just hope the community has improved with the graphics, as Alien Swarm’s suffered from having some major dickheads among its ranks.
17/07/2010 at 14:24 Dominic White says:
Well, the Alien Swam original community numbered a couple hundred at best. This is a high-profile freeware release by Valve. For each dickhead veteran, there’s going to be a thousand newbies.
17/07/2010 at 10:51 Setanga says:
Dickheads like you? I have to say I didn’t meet more on alien swarm than the average online game but whatever, maybe it was your first time playing online so it made a lasting impression. I mean, lol, this will be played by the same people who play pretty much any of the popular Source games, duh.
17/07/2010 at 11:09 john_silence says:
Black Cat’s forums looked so dead and angry – ugly as a zombie, I say!
And then swoosh, out of the blue IT is released. Yay! I had no idea these guys had been hired by Valve – they’re the secretive type, those black cats. Ksst ksst meeeaw meeeeaw.
17/07/2010 at 23:02 Heliocentric says:
I checked it every month. It was really sad :(
17/07/2010 at 14:58 Kieron Gillen says:
I know everyone’s clearly excited about this and don’t need convincing, but to throw in my coins, this is one of my favourite mods ever. Just hilariously punishing co-op game. Brilliant.
KG
17/07/2010 at 17:03 Dominic White says:
Word is that the new version is somewhat easier than the original, though. Although there’s several options available to make it harder if you want it to be more hardcore.
One developer note mentioned that there’s a (disabled by default) L4D style ‘director’ mode that’ll send swarms after you if you’re doing particularly well.
18/07/2010 at 10:38 -Spooky- says:
And now .. We need Natural Selection 2. Don´t forget folks – Only one week left to buy the NS2 Spec. Edt. :D
17/07/2010 at 15:34 Clavus says:
Why do people keep saying L4D2 was a mistake? It was more of a sequel to L4D than every new Call of Duty game is to the last.
17/07/2010 at 17:56 Brian says:
I played this game when it was a ut2004 mod so so so many hours. One of the best games I have ever played. Period. Cannot wait for this.
17/07/2010 at 19:11 Inno says:
Looks great, can’t wait to try it out.
17/07/2010 at 22:53 Dave says:
You are a dick. or are being sarcastic badly.
It costs nothing.
shit on the floor costs nothing and I presume you ignore it every day? or maybe you make some sort of online comment about it…?
Dave.
17/07/2010 at 23:04 Bowlby says:
Wow, Team 17 must be feeling pretty pissed off right now.
Looking forward to trying this very much. I played the original by chance and thought it was brilliant – especially the way you could lock down doors to quarantine areas, blocking off the aliens’ path.
18/07/2010 at 01:40 anonymouse says:
Valve is on right way to replace blizzard as the best game dev ever. That is if they are not there already…
18/07/2010 at 03:59 Nosferatu says:
ummmm, interesting… but it sounds more like a l4d mod than a UT mod. hmmm
18/07/2010 at 11:45 J. Alberto says:
The new XCOM evolution
18/07/2010 at 15:54 Pockets says:
Obviously its good news. The one thing I’m unsure about is the change to 4 player instead of 8 – a good part of the best Alien Swarm games I played before often included situations where people started dropping one by one. Eventually you’d get to the big set piece ending with just a few people left alive, which really upped the tension. The extra players helped it get away with being punishing in a way that post-L4D people might not be after from their co-op, but it was a big part of the Alien Swarm experience for me.
Hopefully they’ve kept that feel in the gameplay, because every other aspect of it looks brilliant.
18/07/2010 at 19:10 Papageno says:
I fooled around with this when it was a UT2K4 mod and found it incredibly atmospheric. It reminded me so much of the scenes in the film Aliens, in which they’re first entering the defunct colony. So glad that the project wasn’t abandoned. I don’t suppose they got to keep the motion detector sound from the movie, though, alas.
19/07/2010 at 00:05 Ricotta says:
I LOVED AS1! Especially lighting the person on fire with the ammo pack
19/07/2010 at 03:44 cheap prom gowns says:
very good,thx for sharing!
19/07/2010 at 04:28 Kevbo says:
Glad to see the mod getting attention again and reborn as a free game. I’ll see everyone online tomorrow :)
19/07/2010 at 04:33 Jackson Grant says:
I never knew the original Alien Swarm plagiarised weapon icons from AvP2.
19/07/2010 at 14:07 itsallcrap says:
Gah! I did so well resisting buying a game over the weekend so as to do something productive with my evenings.
Now I have no choice but to fritter them away blasting alien scum. Curse you, Valve.
22/07/2010 at 00:09 donkeykong says:
Looks awesome, I used to play UT2004 all the time :)
07/08/2010 at 18:37 Destroye says:
I hope they add more campaigns.
09/08/2010 at 08:37 party gowns says:
I think that you know how to make people listen to what you have to say
23/08/2010 at 14:41 doctor_oz says:
how to speak in alien swarm
10/03/2012 at 04:48 Darcangelo says:
Alien Swarm is a game and Source SDK release from a group of talented designers at Valve who were hired from the Mod community.
Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes. Plan your attack using an unlockable arsenal of weapons with countless loadout configurations against a wide variety of aliens. Blaze your way through an overrun, off-world colony, eradicating the alien infestation in environments ranging from the icy planet’s surface, to a subterranean lava-flooded mining facility.