Being a big fan of the Colonial Marines, and a big fan of Alien vs. Predator 2 on the Lithtech engine, a while ago I sprung for the latest AvP game.

I felt like they spent so much time making the game retardedly gory but at the same time the gameplay wasn't that interesting or new, and I also was not as scared by the graphics and atmosphere as I was in the old AvP 2.

When I say retardedly gory, I mean that for example as the Predator you can run up to a marine you knocked over and do a fully rendered and detailed Mortal Kombat-style head rip, where you pull the guy's head off and take the time to stroke the dangling spine, even though you might be taking damage while you stand there and do that. (At least they didn't make you invulnerable while doing that.) The truth is that is so over the top, and yet not particularly scary or atmospheric, so that I actually felt embarassed to be playing the game while others were in the room. It is analagous to if someone walked in on me while I were watching some bizarre Japanese fetish porn.

Of course each of the campaigns was pretty short and there wasn't too much added in terms of gameplay since the old Lith days. I wish that they had spent less time working out the graphics and animations for the SubZero head rip, and more on atmosphere, levels, and gameplay.

I remember playing the old AvP 2 how scary it was. I felt fear and loathing when I saw a bunch of eggs because the face huggers were all instant kills. I remember actually hesitating to enter the alien-textured cooridoors which in some spots were nearly pitch-dark. That game was amazing and I would love to play it again today. How different from the latest game.

To make matters worse, I recently watched a few minutes of Aliens on TV. Even today, the atmosphere from that movie is amazing. The characters are memorable, there are your socially significant parallels to the Vietnam War, and the Colonial Marines are badass. There is so much potential for a good game based on Aliens, if the game designer were to emphasize the atmosphere and really put a lot of care into getting the look and feel of the movie in a game.

Likewise, a game would do well to make the Xenomorphs scary again. In the movie, the Xenomorphs were scary because if they clawed you, you were pretty screwed. If you shot them at close range, you got splashed with acid and were screwed. If they dragged you off, they'd Freud-violate you. They moved quickly and were hard to kill.

Nowadays when you play these games the acid splash has no range and does no damage, you can withstand umpteen claw attacks, and Xenomorphs are throwaway enemies that swarm everywhere and at the same time have trouble killing you.

What the hell, in the latest game, getting hit with a FaceHugger is not an instant-kill, like it was in the first 2 games. So they're really not that scary anymore.

I wish someone would use all these graphic and animation abilities we have nowadays to just, you know, re-create the atmosphere from the film. Instead of making the game into Mortal Kombat.

I agree one thousand percent. I remember the creeping fear the grabbed me every time I watched aliens and it still does to this day. Not screaming horror, but just honestly, scared.
The video game industry has somehow gotten the impression that gore means scary, when it's not the case and I think the blame falls to hollywood. When's the last time a truly scary movie has done well in box offices? Now I'm stabbing into the dark here but I know it's been quite some time. Producers of both movies and games now are constantly equating gore with fear. And I can stare at heads being torn off all day and eviscerations all night and never get scared. We've just become used to this type of thing.
IMO fear comes from atmosphere waaaaaay more than any visual gory extravaganza. That feeling where you think somethings watching you, but then to play it off as you're just scared but you're always on the edge of your seat, waiting... and hoping that something will come attack you just so you won't be scared anymore.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand there goes those last few hours of sleep I was gonna get tonight.

Well, the AVP2 Movie was pretty fucking scary at times . .
But yeah, the new AVP Game sucks in that regard . .
I loved playing AVP2 and Primal Hunt, the AddOn though . .
There was NO WAY to be safe as a human.
And as an Alien, you were pretty much dead, if you had to cross open spaces.

The new AvP I borrowed it off a mate only play the perditor campine and a bit of the others as it SUCKED!. I'm a predator fanboy I had to play that one to the end. The gore factor made me openly laugh. Granted I'm not your average person in that regard. As for the gameplay it was weak though maybe it would have been better of a disiculty level higher than the ones open at first. I hate unlocking harder difficulty modes or a least to make a game better, I don't want to play a game 2/3 time just so it's a challenge and by then is not as I know all the god damn maps and such.

The AI was stupid. As a perdator you would get spoted for no reason in soem situations where in others seamilingly like it you could sing a dance and live. The xenomorphs sucked and the mairne campine felt too badass. Getting drag to a hive and surviving with a few pistol shots ect. Really don't make him out to be a demi-god having just gotten out of a scrape like that with easy really makes any thing else seam well routine.

All it allit was worth stealing off a mate a for a week but paying for that meh.

People always forget the best ever video game adaptation of Alien vs Predator.
Real (wo)men fight aliens bare-handed

Wow, that is worse than the Superman vs. Alien comic someone published.

I like how the player in that video game is a female Goku. They should have just gone all the way and called it DBZ vs. Alien.

Maybe she's related to River Tam.

I just watched Aliens again last night with the director's commentary, and watched a lot of the bonus materials.

I think that what someone really needs to do is make an Aliens game that focuses on the Marines has elements of squad commanding. It should still be a FPS in order to be scary and atmospheric, but it is also hard to make a single player Aliens level without the main character being some kind of badass. In the movie Aliens, a single acid splash was enough to incapacitate someone. In a single player FPS game your character can pick up first aid kits with his feet.

Maybe you could get more of the feeling of horror and vulnerability by having a squad at your command but also having a larger friendly body count. Make it like the early Rainbow Six games where you had a platoon and once your guys were dead they were gone forever. It would be up to you to pick your squad, complete the mission with a minimum amount of losses, and maybe you'd have a choice as to where and when you'd call for the APC to extract you after a mission, or something like that.

It's in the works,hopefully it won't suck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_%28Gearbox_Software%29

OH if Gearbox mess this up....

It would only spoil there name.

The Space Hulk video games were squad-commanding FPS with aliens (genestealers). The second is more or less a remake of the first, so you can just try this one.

Apparently the Gearbox game has been delayed for a long time. That's never a good sign...I'm still annoyed that Duke Nukem Forever was ultimately cancelled. It's like, c'mon guys, at least go the distance and release *something*. I'd personally still pay money for a good 3d sprite-based shooter.

I got the game when it came out too. Probably should have waited til it dropped 20 bucks or so.

It was ok, though all over the place.

Colonial Marine stuff was vanilla at times, interesting briefly at times, and CHEAAAAP at times. I think I had to reload the section with the two allies, the crashed dropship and the ruins map, like...a dozen times before I said screw it, changed the difficulty to easy, and just went through it. Marine weapons vs xenos seem ridiculously weak.

Predator. I always got a giggle pulling off heads, though the stealth kill is pretty much the only reason the Predator chapter doesn't take 1/3rd the time it otherwise would content wise.

Alien. Man, that was my favorite chapter, but damnit it went by so quickly and with a lame ending.

Dark Horse Comics. And it was totally rad! For 1996...

Well it was better than Aliens vs. Batman or Aliens vs. Green Lantern... but not as good as Aliens vs. Predator vs. Terminator vs. Robocop!

I think shes supposed to be the heroine from the novels. Which IMHO were slightly below average sci-fi fluff.

Nah. She could be loosely based on Machiko Noguchi from the graphic novels but she's most likely standard Capcom fighter-chick fare.

hehe, seems capcom basically took their final fight engine and applied some alien graphics.

anyways, it seems there is a rerelease of the original aliens vs predator pc game, under the name of aliens versus predator classic 2000 (ugh).

seems however that its only available via steam (ouch!).

imo, that was the best game, as the light could be knocked out (something a friend of mine used for great effect while playing both alien and predator vs the rest of us playing marines in multiplayer). And there was also the unforgettable survival mode, where each player is predator or marine vs never ending streams of aliens.

Last stands are always fun I recall a nod that was co-op survial agaiant a horde of alines only so much ammo and such on the map was fun hole ing up got you killed quicker than moving slightly as you gather a bit more ammo ect.