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PurpleXVI posted:Firstly, loving this thread! I never played Primal Hunt, or all of AvP1, so it's nice to see what I missed out on! Though, my main impression of both AvP1 and 2 is that the marine sections are the ones that are the most... appropriate, I guess? From what we've seen in the movies, a lone Predator or Alien isn't a berserker charging through hallways, it's a sneaky hunter and stalker(even against essentially unarmed civilians like the Nostromo's crew), so... it just feels like both those campaigns, in both games, would have benefited more from playing like Hitman, and less from playing like, well, another FPS. PurpleXVI posted:Secondly, on the subject of aliens breaking poo poo and whether they do so intelligently. It occurs to me that 99% of the things we see and hear aliens break are electronics. In Aliens they cut the power, in AvP 2 you're mostly breaking electric panels and sentry guns. Considering that aliens show up on the electric view, and at least potentially have some sort of "EMP sense," perhaps high-powered electronics just give them a screaming headache and they claw them apart on instinct? Sorry if anyone's brought that up already, it's just what occurs to me.
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| # ? Mar 16, 2012 10:24 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 14:31 |
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Is the latest AvP game the one that's simply named "AvP" and has "finishing movies" and all that? Because, well, personally I found that to be a pretty bad game. At least as an Alien, which was most of what I played. Incredibly linear, spotty mechanics, the "killing moves" were dumb as hell since they played on basically EVERY kill and there were a grand total of three or so. When I talk about "spotty mechanics," I'm specifically talking about the stupidity of needing a special move to enter vents, and how this somehow makes you immune to physics while executing it, and how there's one "puzzle" based around that. Stealth did feel a bit more vital, but ultimately I can't really say I enjoyed that game much, it's gone back on the shelf unfinished. Also, speaking of Alien comics, one that I didn't hear mentioned much/at all in the commentary or what thread chatter I read, but which I really enjoyed, was the Judge Dredd crossover. The aliens felt appropriately dangerous, even to trained Judges, thanks to their ability to swarm over and through just about everything with pure numbers, or when they had the element of stealth. Plus I think someone was keeping a count of people who had survived getting facehugged, you can add Dredd and his junior judge for the comic to that count.
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| # ? Mar 16, 2012 17:58 |
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Plus the alien campaign in that game lasts a grand total of an hour, across three or four levels, if I remember right. That sucked because I liked playing as the Alien, and I wanted more.
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| # ? Mar 17, 2012 03:01 |
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Xenomrph, since we have you here. Are there any more videos in the pipeline?
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| # ? Mar 17, 2012 04:05 |
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PurpleXVI posted:Also, speaking of Alien comics, one that I didn't hear mentioned much/at all in the commentary or what thread chatter I read, but which I really enjoyed, was the Judge Dredd crossover. The aliens felt appropriately dangerous, even to trained Judges, thanks to their ability to swarm over and through just about everything with pure numbers, or when they had the element of stealth. Plus I think someone was keeping a count of people who had survived getting facehugged, you can add Dredd and his junior judge for the comic to that count. Interestingly every Judge Dredd crossover is actually "canon" to the main Judge Dredd universe - characters and ideas introduced in the crossovers have shown up again later in other non-crossover Dredd comics, and the crossovers were originally published within the main Dredd "prog" publishing scheme. Hell, I have a Judge Death graphic novel that name-drops "that insane costumed vigilante from Gotham", a callback to the Judge Dredd/Batman crossover. Other inter-company crossovers that aren't total dogshit: - Batman vs Predator - Batman vs Aliens - Aliens/Predator/Witchblade/Darkness: Overkill by Top Cow Comics (steer clear of the "Mindhunter" one by Dark Horse, that one is godawful). Major_JF posted:Xenomrph, since we have you here. Are there any more videos in the pipeline?  ).
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| # ? Mar 17, 2012 04:14 |
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You forgot WildC.A.T.S/Aliens, which would be only okay except that the ridiculous character death rate (For a superbook crossover) was canon, and let Warren Ellis start up The Authority. Everybody needs to read Ellis's Authority.
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| # ? Mar 17, 2012 04:19 |
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Xenomrph posted:Yes. Time permitting I'd like to get one posted this weekend (finally Thanks for the update's update. I will keep my eye out for it.
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| # ? Mar 17, 2012 06:13 |
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 This is rumor control; here are the facts.Remember how I said my life was chock-full of drama and poo poo that gets in the way of my ability to make new videos? Well it's seemingly never-ending. I have a younger sister. She's an unending source of drama and chaos. She's got bipolar disorder and she's also got an eating disorder, which is a bad combination. She's great at picking the worst possible boyfriends, and it always turns into a huge shitstorm and the rest of the family has to pick up the pieces. Over the weekend she tried to kill herself (again. This is literally like the 5th or 6th time she's tried) and this time she nearly succeeded. She's in the hospital, my parents are out there with her right now trying to make sure she recovers and then pack up her stuff and bring her back home to stay with them until she can un-gently caress her life. So that's what's happening right now. Video will be posted when I get a chance to post it. I said it before, but I could probably do a whole E/N thread about my sister trying to destroy her life and drag down the whole family with her in her self-destructive spiral. One of these days maybe I will.
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| # ? Mar 22, 2012 18:36 |
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Wow, I am sorry to hear that. I sympathize I hope she gets better. I know what it is like to lose a sister. I want to say there is no pressure from me for more videos. Do what you need to do and believe that she can get better.
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| # ? Mar 22, 2012 18:45 |
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The fact you still keep up with the thread is more than enough. Nobody here would blame you for walking away and focusing on family. Hope things get better for you and yours.
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| # ? Mar 22, 2012 20:00 |
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Christ, Xeno, that sounds miserable for everyone involved. Good luck clawing your way out of the drama vortex of doom.
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| # ? Mar 22, 2012 20:18 |
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Xeno, I was in a similar boat this summer, only it being my older sister. I really really hope she's ok, and you are doing ok as well.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 02:10 |
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As a dude who also has an absolute disaster of a little sister I sympathize and just hope you and your family are okay.
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| # ? Mar 29, 2012 23:22 |
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GOOD NEWS: my sister is recovering, she's now back in Phoenix with my parents. Things aren't quite back to "normal" yet, but they're getting there. Which means I'll hopefully be able to do some sort of video this weekend, drama permitting.
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| # ? Mar 29, 2012 23:37 |
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IGN preview of Colonial Marines multiplayer: http://youtu.be/HvgOgKx79QY I dunno what to think since I'm not big on multiplayer. I did just fondly remember the kill move conga-lines that would quickly form in AvP2010's death matches though.
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| # ? Apr 8, 2012 03:58 |
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So uh, I guess this thing is going back into cryogenic suspension?
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 05:05 |
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Looks like it, sadly enough. All the awesome ones I tend to really enjoy always do... 
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| # ? Apr 20, 2012 07:31 |
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These things take time.Xenomrph posted:Welcome to the Aliens vs Predator Let's Play Megathread! This fall will be the thread's four-year anniversary. We can wait a bit and let things get sorted out.
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| # ? Apr 22, 2012 22:27 |
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The latest trailer for Prometheus is making me look forward to it even more. Fassbender's android in particular is looking spectacularly creepy.
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| # ? May 1, 2012 19:35 |
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Fil5000 posted:The latest trailer for Prometheus is making me look forward to it even more. Fassbender's android in particular is looking spectacularly creepy. Is that the one where it's just talking about/with the Android the whole time? That was fantastic.
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| # ? May 2, 2012 23:59 |
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Pops posted:These things take time.
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| # ? May 3, 2012 00:40 |
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New Aliens: Colonial marines trailer: http://www.g4tv.com/videos/58585/al...ler/?quality=hd
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| # ? May 21, 2012 18:28 |
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kwokkie posted:New Aliens: Colonial marines trailer: This looks outstanding 
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| # ? May 21, 2012 18:34 |
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S.J. posted:This looks outstanding This loving fandom. 
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| # ? May 22, 2012 03:35 |
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kwokkie posted:New Aliens: Colonial marines trailer: I'll have to wait until I can actually play it, because it looks a lot like every other AVP game since 2. Except this time there will be even more NPCs shouting at your silent self to do stuff the entire game. The last video they released of the marine fighting aliens on the planet looked really uninteresting. I hope it's better than what I'm picking up, I'm just worried it'll turn out to be an overly scripted and dark hallway shooter. The above and below camera shots of the player in the docking bridge made me laugh. The model's pointing up and down and they're just filming an odd third person. Why they didn't just use a floating camera, I've no idea.
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| # ? May 22, 2012 04:20 |
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Well you don't have to worry about your character being silent - Winter (the player character) definitely talks, and he's actually got some lines in that trailer during gameplay so it's not like he only talks during cutscenes (like Harrison did in AvP2).
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| # ? May 22, 2012 08:04 |
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The tracker noises, the alien screeches, the pulse rifle...I started feeling anxious just watching that trailer. I can't wait until this comes out!!
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| # ? May 23, 2012 03:03 |
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I was happy with AVP 2, so even if it was an updated version of that (different characters, levels, and such, you know what I mean) I'd be fine with it. This looks much better than that, so I'm holding out hope. It certainly looks better than the last trailer, which I was ambivalent about. That one wasn't 'tactical shooter' so much as it seemed 'co-op campaign'. Not bad in and of itself, but a far cry from having an actual team of specialists, which is how it billed itself. This looks encouraging, and the changes (for the better, looks like) may explain the repeated delays. Looking forward to this! Hell, I dropped cash on the counter for ME3 and Raccoon City; my luck in preordering games and having them not suck surely has to change one of these days.
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| # ? May 23, 2012 04:06 |
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In other news, the Colonial Marines Technical Manual, which has been out-of-print for something like 15 years now, is getting reprinted next week. You all have no excuse not to buy a copy. 
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| # ? May 23, 2012 07:14 |
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Xenomrph posted:In other news, the Colonial Marines Technical Manual, which has been out-of-print for something like 15 years now, is getting reprinted next week. You all have no excuse not to buy a copy. Holy poo poo. At that price, I really don't.
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| # ? May 23, 2012 07:47 |
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Pre-ordered, if only so I can give my friend his copy back that I 'borrowed' about six years ago...
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| # ? May 23, 2012 17:53 |
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S.J. posted:Holy poo poo. At that price, I really don't. No kidding! ...And, done. The preorder price is still available, and B&N.com has it going for the same price as well if Amazon isn't your thing.
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| # ? May 28, 2012 20:45 |
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Amazon DOTD - Alien Anthology Blu-ray set for $29.99 Spotted in Coupons this morning, here's 30 more bucks you can part with! And with the ridiculous amount of time this boxed set will keep you on your couch, that's a drat bargain.
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| # ? May 30, 2012 14:23 |
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I had to share this with the thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2YKo22QLM Points that stand out for me: 1. Looks like they couldn't get Martin Sheen so they got his brother. No, really. 2. Not content with ripping off Alien/s they nicked the music from the "Ripley rescues the marines in the APC" bit for the trailer and also: 3. They used the mixed version of the film footage for the trailer so you can hear the Aliens score overlapping with their own score. 4. Boobs. This really does look rotten. I'd absolutely love to see it.
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| # ? May 30, 2012 20:46 |
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I picked up Aliens: Infestation a couple days ago, and finished it completely just a few minutes ago. I'm about to go through it again. I really enjoy it, I think they captured the feel of the way an Aliens game is supposed to be. I do have a few problems though, like the lack of a second save file, New Game+, or at least a way to explore places other than the Sulaco once you are done with them. I kept feeling like I was missing something when I left the areas and went back to the main hub for a contrived reason. Another gripe I have is the flamethrower. I like it as a weapon, and I enjoy seeing the aliens blacken to a crisp as I use it on them. My problem is when they ALSO make it a means of opening doors covered in alien resin. We already have the welder, but they want us to swap out our primary weapon as a means to open a locked door. Granted the doors don't stay locked so if you don't like the flamethrower you could just get to all the resin-sealed doors you can and switching out. But maybe I wanted to keep using my shotgun instead of having to trek way back to a supply room to switch out to the flamethrower and then back to the door, then back to the supply room. I don't see why they couldn't have just given us a handheld one for unlocking the doors, maybe as a swap out for the useless sidearm. My last problem is sort of a small one, there's varying degrees of feedback regarding how much damage you take from the enemies. I can get shot in the shoulder and fall over while fighting a human or robot enemy, or trip when I get tail swiped by an alien, but when I kill said alien, I'll sometimes lose an 1/8 of my health bar to the alien's acid without even noticing. I don't want to be stunned by that or anything, because that would cause a lot of problems, but some indication that I'm being splashed with concentrated acid would be nice. Also: Space Jockey Alien
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| # ? Jun 5, 2012 23:23 |
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The flamethrower is an amazingly broken weapon - it's got infinite ammo, and it kills Aliens dead. Once I got it I didn't use any other weapon unless I was fighting a boss or something. Also I wish you'd been able to swap out your Marines for any Marines you'd rescued - having to get one of your Marines killed just so you could get someone new was pretty lame.
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| # ? Jun 5, 2012 23:29 |
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Xenomrph posted:The flamethrower is an amazingly broken weapon - it's got infinite ammo, and it kills Aliens dead. Once I got it I didn't use any other weapon unless I was fighting a boss or something. I found the flamethrower fun to use, and functional. but more often than not I'd get backed into a corner and swiped in a small room because the flamethrower does a horrid job of pushing Aliens back unless you stunlock them. That and I just loves me a shotgun, so in my mind, there is no reason for anything else. I wisened up towards the end of the game... after the final boss kicked my rear end... I thought it was pretty bad too, I don't understand why they couldn't just make the storage room larger and give you the option to swap out to any marine you've come across there, because frankly, I didn't really find the first four marines you find all that interesting. (By-the-book leader, wimpy newbie, obligatory Vasquez ripoff, and token black guy. Come on THAT was the best they could do for a starting squad? Didn't exactly make me shed any tears when they died.)
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| # ? Jun 6, 2012 00:00 |
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Does it have an extra arm hanging off its forehead? That looks goofy as gently caress.
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| # ? Jul 1, 2012 11:37 |
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PurpleXVI posted:Does it have an extra arm hanging off its forehead? That looks goofy as gently caress. Also, I'm going to copy-paste a big honking effortpost I just made in CineD: So I'm finally getting around to doing the writeup/comparison between 'Prometheus', and one of the 'Aliens' comics that has a good amount in common with it: Aliens: Apocalypse. You'd better believe there's spoilers for both Apocalypse and Prometheus.  Anyway, 'Aliens: Apocalypse' was a comic series that came out in 1999. Set between 'Alien' and 'Aliens', it was meant as a sort of "backstory" to the Alien creature, but ultimately raised more questions than it answered, similar in a sense to 'Prometheus'. I'll get back to that in a bit. I'll start with a cliffs-notes version of the plot, supplemented with some scans from the comic. The story opens with this cryptic scene:  We learn that a shadowy organization that calls itself the Gehelgod Institute, a group dedicated to the furthering of human knowledge at any cost, free from constraints of politics, profits, and other hindrances. They had learned of Weyland-Yutani's discovery of the Derelict ship (seen in 'Alien') and sought to explore that avenue to its fullest potential, so they dispatched their own research team headed by Dr. Lucien Keitel, who discovered a second derelict adrift in space in another star system. Keitel's reports became sporadic and ultimately ceased altogether, so the Gehelgod Institute hires a search-and-rescue company to attempt to retrieve Keitel and his team, consisting of the 3 search-and-rescue employees, the ship's captain and first mate, and a team of synthetics. They manage to locate and board the drifting derelict, but find no sign of Keitel or his men.  After barely escape, but not before learning that Keitel's team had left the drifting derelict for a nearby planet. They land on the planet, and learn that Keitel has not only survived, but that he's made a startling discovery about the "giants" and the hostile organisms seemingly associated with them.  And the search-and-rescue team sees what lengths Keitel was willing to go in the name of science.  Keitel divulges that through his research, he thinks he's stumbled across a sort of "plan" in motion for the universe, with the Aliens being a kind of cosmic "balance".  The Space Jockey in stasis (seen earlier) ends up getting facehugged, leading to a big fan-service moment and starting the story's final confrontation.  The survivors barely manage to escape with Keitel's notes, Keitel having instructed them to take his work back to Earth and warn humanity about the coming apocalypse. Feeling remorse for the death and destruction he caused, Keitel opts to stay behind as the entire Space Jockey city collapses around him. The story ends with the survivors wondering how, or if, they should warn humanity about what they've learned from Keitel. There's a bit more in the full story, some important character moments and unexpected double-crosses and the like, but it would take too long to spell out everything. For those interested, I linked the Amazon.com page up at the top where you can buy the complete series. -- Apocalypse certainly has a lot in common with 'Prometheus', especially in terms of expanding the scope of the Alien story. 'Alien' is a very personal story - it's how a small group of people deal with the threat of a killer monster they can neither predict nor control, and the philosophical elements, while present, are largely left in the background. Likewise, 'Aliens' continues this trend - while there's plenty of food for thought, the focus is much more on the immediate story of the characters and their survival. With both 'Apocalypse' and 'Prometheus', the story expands to a wider scope of universal events, but they approach it differently. In 'Apocalypse', humanity is treated in a similar Lovecraftian "we exist, but aren't necessarily important", with the Aliens acting as a buffer meant to keep any spacefaring species in check if they overstep their "bounds", with the implication being that humanity is on the verge of doing exactly that. The story is focused more on where humanity is going and why it's going there, and if that's the route it should be taking. 'Prometheus' instead looks at humanity's origins, showing us as having been created by an (apparently) vastly superior race. And of course, with the origin of our species comes the topic of what our "place" within the universe is, or if we even have one. Both stories somewhat skirt around what our "place" is, but they touch upon it from different directions. 'Prometheus' takes the approach that we may have been created for a reason, even if we are unaware of what that reason is, while 'Apocalypse' shows humanity as largely being in control of its own destiny, although we run the risk of inadvertently opening "Pandora's Box" through our own actions. In 'Apocalypse' this "Pandora's Box" is the Aliens themselves, creatures seemingly intended to be a galactic "reset button" if certain conditions are met, conditions the story largely leaves undisclosed. in 'Prometheus', the "black goo" is a more literal Pandora's Box. Both stories also explore the topic of scientific inquiry and knowledge for its own sake. Interestingly, 'Apocalypse' starts by showing the Gehelgod institute in a very benevolent light, explaining how they seek to freely spread knowledge among mankind and allow the chips to fall as they may, letting humanity decide what to do with disseminated knowledge rather than letting it be decided by governments or corporations. However, Keitel demonstrates what happens when this sort of thinking is left to go unchecked - he openly admits to having brainwashed his crew and then tricking them into being facehugged in order to better study how the Alien operates. Not to control it, not to weaponize it, but to merely learn what it is, what it does, and why. By the story's end he shows remorse for having gotten his team killed, even if he feels that what he's learned was worth the sacrifice - he leaves it to the reader to decide if he was correct in that regard. Furthermore, left with Keitel's revelation that there may be an apocalypse coming in the form of the Aliens, the other characters are left to decide whether or not to share this knowledge with the rest of humanity - is it their place to attempt to stop humanity's expansion? Is it even something that anyone could accomplish? In a way it's even at odds with Keitel's own initial beliefs of knowledge for knowledge's sake. Are some things just not worth knowing? This is paralleled in 'Prometheus', with Shaw and Holloway's boundless enthusiasm for discovering humanity's origins, embarking on an interstellar voyage, completely heedless of the possibility that they might not like what they find. At the end of 'Prometheus', after all the death and destruction, was it worth it? Beyond that, is that knowledge worth sharing with the rest of humanity? In a way that ties back into the religious aspect - even when faced with "the truth", many people fall back on, in the words of Shaw's father, "What they choose to believe." David's actions in 'Prometheus' also echo Keitel's in 'Apocalypse', albeit somewhat differently. Keitel is willing to sacrifice the lives of his crewmembers in the pursuit of pure knowledge and understanding, and David is seemingly willing to do the same, such as when he asks Holloway how far he would be willing to go to find the answers he seeks. However, one could argue that David's actions in infecting Holloway were because of his orders from his "father", rather than a pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. As others have mentioned David is pretty unreadable, and it's largely unknown whether or not he's truly experiencing emotions (such as scientific curiosity, in this case), and whether he was following Weyland's instructions because he was mandated to, or some other, personal reason. I hope you found this stuff interesting - I really enjoyed this comic series when it first came out, and it's a massive step up (both in terms of art, storytelling, and intellectual content) from the vast majority of other 'Aliens' comics. As the plot for 'Prometheus' started to be revealed I almost immediately picked up on similarities to this comic series, and I was surprised how much the final movie and the comic had in common - although the two do differ in many important regards. I like them both, but for different reasons - I prefer 'Apocalypse' being closer to the "Lovecraftian" depiction of humanity being an unimportant speck in a large, incomprehensible galaxy, rather than having been "created" as in 'Prometheus'. I also happen to prefer the "Space Jockey as a skeleton (and thus an actual extraterrestrial)" approach to the "human-like Engineers" approach from 'Prometheus', but one could argue that the two interpretations aren't entirely incompatible. I think that's a topic a bit outside the scope of what I was trying to accomplish here, though. I do appreciate that both stories drastically expand the scope of the movies while still focusing on very personal stories, and both stories also introduce a lot more questions than they answer. Also for those wondering, I don't know what "Gehelgod" means - the Internet tells me it's the past-tense of the Old English verb "helgon" dating back to the 11th century AD, but doesn't tell me what that means. 
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| # ? Jul 3, 2012 05:11 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 14:31 |
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After a quick search through the internet apparently helgon is swedish for saint or saints.
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| # ? Jul 3, 2012 05:54 |
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