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Neo Rasa posted:AvP1 man, that had a multiplayer mode called Skirmish. It was the first "horde mode" and it owned. Some human and Predator pals against an endless horde of Aliens. With that game's speed it was amazing. And not a single game made since manages to hold a candle to AvP1's single player Marine campaign as far as the sheer terror goes. I still have the game, and I'm still afraid to play through it again.
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May 6, 2012 09:35
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So I've just finished A:CM. It was OK, I enjoyed most of it. I could even overlook the relatively dated graphics and a bullshit story with a lovely non-ending and many, many holes. What really disappointed me the most was that this game has none of the tension that was so present in AVP99 and even in the Lithtech engine AVP2. Marine campaigns in those games scared you - they horrified the ever-living gently caress out of you. I expected A:CM to give me the same experience of fear, but it didn't. Previously you were always alone, running through the dark corridors, running out of ammo, imagining the alien in every ceiling vent or dark corner. It also helped that AVP99 had destructible light sources, great dynamic lighting, and flares that fizzled out after a short while - so you always knew you had to keep going, to keep putting down new flares, because you were alone in almost total darkness with loving monsters in that darkness intent on eating your face off or raping it. The number of aliens was not limited and the spawns were random - you couldn't kill everything on the map and relax, they would keep coming until you ran out of ammo, and then you would be dead, so you had to go forward even if you were scared. Every sudden new blip on the motion tracker would make you freak out, and I really didn't want to leave the APC to begin with, or then go out into the night outside of the complex for the first time. And the guy who came up with the idea for the facehugger-on-your-face screen and sound effects deserves a big bonus (and a punch in the face). AVP99 was the game that I actually had to take a few breaks from, to have a cigarette and wait for adrenaline to subside because it was that scary. There was a great sense of urgency and terror. AVP2 gave you almost the same feeling when playing as a marine. You had a flashlight this time, though, and it wasn't as dark, Lithtech engine had cartoonish graphics, you couldn't blow out any lights by accident like before, and the numbers and spawns of aliens were set. But it was still you on your own against the monsters in the dark. There was one moment when you get out of the complex to get new orders from your CO, and there are several of your fellow Marines on patrol around the drop ship on a landing pad where you are - and that was the safest you felt in the whole campaign, you really really didn't want to have to go back in. I think the biggest problem with A:CM that you are always with at least one of your Marine bros - and they are unkillable, they have unlimited ammo, and they can deal with anything themselves. Once you become aware of that fact, it pulls you out of the game so much. You are just there along for the ride, to walk forward while they shoot everything that moves and to occasionally push some buttons. In some masochistic way I actually enjoyed the few times when O'Neil would get stuck on some piece of geometry or a door frame and not continue forward, because I had to go in on my own and that would present more of a challenge. Add to that the fact that you are not the fragile human from the previous games, the acid shower doesn't kill you, face hugger on your face doesn't equal death, you can pistol whip an alien or kick it away. You don't feel the fear or tension at all. Ammo is more than plentiful, you can kill everything and backtrack with no surprises. After a while the aliens were more of an annoyance and an interruption to me as I was hunting for tags and audio logs. And finally, because the story is so freaking bad, you are fighting against human enemies most of the time. Human enemies aren't scary. I haven't watched any interviews or have read any previews for this before I got this, although the name "Gearbox" attached to it gave me pause. Maybe I was mistakenly expecting a different type of a game, based on what the previous ones were. Maybe the intention of the developers WAS Marines vs. mercs, with some aliens caught in between, - your standard template shooter nowadays, good Marines hoorah guys vs. bad PMC conspiracy guys. Or Vietnam in space, as someone described "Aliens" the movie. The problem is, A:CM definitely fails as a horror shooter, and it's not even exciting as the standard shooter either, it's just boring.
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Feb 17, 2013 00:41
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blackguy32 posted:Has anyone noticed Hudson's corpse in this game? I thought I had taken a screenshot of it, but I guess it didn't work.
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Feb 21, 2013 04:05
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Witchfinder General posted:The only thing I wanted out of Prometheus was a scene approaching the tension of Dallas in the vents or Brett in the chain room. Personally I liked "Prometheus", a lot, even though every single one of my friends who saw it hated it. I've seen it in 3D in cinemas, and then a couple of times more on Blu-ray. I just didn't like how utterly STUPID some things & decisions are that are done and made by characters in that movie, to the point of cringing. On a game-related note, I'm replaying Marine campaign in AvP2010, and this poo poo's seriously SCARY. Very noticeable how the ambient sound effects and the music tracks add so much to the atmosphere (yet another thing A:CM failed to do).
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Feb 22, 2013 12:22
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Xenomrph posted:Keep in mind you're seeing the Predator equivalent of Sunday hunters using duck calls and a .30-06 and store-bought camouflage to go out and shoot stuff in the woods, and literally laugh at the prospect of getting killed while out hunting. Xenomrph posted:Incidentally one of the better Aliens comics is exactly this. It's a short black-and-white story called 'Aliens: Elder Gods'. I still got a big stack of Alien, Predator, and AvP novels - pretty much everything that was released back in the 90s. Never read a single comic book, though, - the only one I've leafed through once was the "Berserker" one. I never realized that a lot of the novels were novelizations of the comics.
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Feb 22, 2013 14:07
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Tecman posted:Hah! I knew I bookmarked this thread for a reason. Let's see what happens next....
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May 1, 2013 12:57
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ChickenHeart posted:Okay, so I've managed to get through the first part of the DLC campaign, and I can safely say that it's leagues ahead of the original campaign merely for the lack of utterly-stupid dialogue and "OOHRAH-TO-ASHES SEMPER FI military sentiments. Also, more Lance Henrikson.
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Jul 24, 2013 11:02
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