Haven't seen too much Aliens vs Predator news posted on Dtoid the last couple weeks, guess Jim's been taking a break from dropping his self-obligated nuggets of AvP info. So, for any interested Dtoiders who don't Google AvP news 6 times a day like me, I'll summarize some of the newer info that I've scrounged up from the interwebs over the last 2 weeks...or whatever.

Gamepro and IGN actually had decent hands-on multiplayer previews posted recently. In terms of how the three different species stack up in multiplayer, you'd think the Pred (with his one-hit kill melee and projectile weapons, cloaking, leap, high-defense, etc.) would be hugely overpowered, but when I read the Gamepro preview, the Alien player dominated the Marine and Pred players. How? Hmm, well I did hear that the Alien is fast as shit, despite Rebellion's mention that the Alien's speed would be nerfed from that of the 1999 AvP game. Plus, the Alien's (and Predator's) stealth kills are apparently pretty easy to get off once you get anywhere close to a guy's back, so that's another thing that probably accounted for alot the Alien's dominance in multiplayer, or maybe the Alien player was just the shit...I dunno.

In terms of multiplayer modes I was psyched as hell to find out that Pred Tag (or Predator Hunt as it's now known) is making a return. Thank f*cking God. For those who don't know, it's a mode where a bunch of marines play against a single pred player where only the pred can score points. If a marine player kills the pred, they get to play as him and get the opportunity to start racking up a score themselves. At the start of each run, the Predator is given a set time limit to find his weapons. After getting geared up, he'll start staking the marines and pick out a good spot from which to get some killing in. Even though marines are sort of considered the the game's walking side of beef, a platoon of heavily armed marines are nothing to scoff at, so it serves the predator to make himself scarce after a fresh kill, lest he wants to be on the receiving end of this. It was also announced that preds need to de-cloak before attacking, so their position is given away pretty fast after they commit to a kill. Cautious Preds will stick to the classic plasma casters and discs to take on the Marines in this mode, but if the Predator player is packing a bowling ball bag sack, he could take out the occasional Marine with a trophy-kill, which is allegedly extreemly satisfying (shocker) but leaves you vulnerable to be shot by another player as you rip the first guy's head off, so it's more of a special occasion type thing. Aside from Predator having to find his weapons at the beginning of Pred Hunt, the whole scenario seems to sync-up pretty well with the happenings of the original Predator flick. I can't f*cking wait.



Infestation Mode, another sweet-ass multiplayer mode, is the Alien's answer to Pred Hunt...sort of. Infestation is essentially a last man standing style game with Aliens and Marines. There's a bunch of Marine players against one alien player at first, but then killed Marines will respawn as Aliens who then attack the remaining Marines. Sick...very Aliens-esq. In this mode in particular, Aliens will be working together to bring down remaining Marines, not unlike the special infected in L4D versus mode. Pretty much every game will end with a pair of Marines huddled up in a corner somewhere as waves of Xenomorphs try to bite through their heads--this immediately reminds me of the scene from Aliens where a desperate Vasquez and Hudson (I think Hudson), while being overrun by Aliens as their ammo runs out, pull the pin on and clutch a grenade so as to go out like men (the only way Vasquez could go out, obviously). It seems that both Infestation and Predator Hunt modes will act as proper tributes to their respective source films.

And although pretty much everything I've read about AvP has been overwhelmingly optimistic, I did hear some things that are mildly disconcerting. One preview mentioned that the graphics (particularly the environments, some textures, edges, and blood/fire effects) don't seem on par with those of similar timed releases (like MW2). Take this with a grain of salt though, the game still has a few months to clean up any rough edges.

Hmm, I probably shouldn't end on a semi-down note, so remember, this game's gonna be sick, just look at these last couple of new-ish multiplayer screenshots, they speak for themselves (perceptive readers may be able to guess which site I borrowed them from).

Ellis: "Do you know what 'suck the heads' means? Cause I came down here with Keith once, and he didn't know. And...I mean, it ain't nothin' bad; it's about eatin'..."

Coach: "We ain't got time for this, Ellis! Tell us your story about how you raped your friend when zombies aren't chewing out my eyeball."

Yeah Ellis, f*ck you. There's nothing like hearing your moronic story for the 69th time to remind me how much time I've toiled away replaying the same campaign. Now admittedly, I'm hearing this Ellis line so frequently because I'm just playing the demo, and am thus forced to repeat the same 2 acts over and over, but my question to any Dtoid readers that are willing to respond is this:

"How long do you guys think it'll be before about 90% of the lines uttered by the 4 survivors begin to really grate on your nerves, and, when this happens, does this significantly hamper the experience of playing a game with such enormous replay value?"

I only ask because the banter between survivors is one of my favorite things about the first game, and the repetition of said banter never really hit annoyance-critical mass for me; I just Game Fly-ed L4D and sent it back after a few weeks, well before most of the dialogue had a chance to go stale on me. But for you guys who own the first one, did you ever reach a point where you wanted the idle chat between survivors to just altogether stop?



I'll be buying the game no matter what, but I do want to be prepared for the likely scenario that the novelty of one of the games best features might die off and turn on me like the reanimated corpse of a once-beloved friend. The game mixes up some of the conversations, and there's lots of different rare, situational lines you'll hear (e.g., if you accidentally shoot Nick, and then get helped up by him, he'll say something like "Now if I help you up, are you just gonna shoot me again?"), but I wonder how much this will really extend (heh) the life of the in-game dialogue.

Input appreciated, and a fap would brighten up my day, fye.

"Now, let's go play, together... Together under the clearest of blue skies."

The rush of just barely clearing away a monster block, the satisfaction of hearing the metallic clanking as you grind out a massive chain...speaking completely honestly here, Tetris Attack (Panel de Pon in Japan) might be the greatest multiplayer game ever conceived. But alas, this game's adaptation to a truly accessible form on a modern platform still eludes us 13 years after its release. Those who were down with the sickness back in the SNES's heyday can attest to just how important it is for this game to appear with online multiplayer capabilities in a form that can be brought to the mass gamer market (i.e., big consoles). Do I really need to spell out just how amazing this would be, and how glaring/baffling this game's continued omission on the Virtual Console is?

For those unfortunate few who haven't experienced it, Tetris Attack tasks players with clearing away a continually rising stack of colored blocks (by matching 3 or more like blocks) to prevent the pile from ascending to the top of the screen and ending the game. While the overarching premiss I just described might not be enough to blow anyone's mind, it's the inclusion of a Vs. Mode, where players perform elaborate combos and chains to dump garbage on your opponent's screen, that really puts this game in a class of its own. While the basics are simple enough to learn, performing the big chains requires quick thinking and execution like you wouldn't f*cking believe.



There is NOTHING (coitus) more satisfying than grinding together a tremendous combo, hearing that melody play, and watching your friend schitz out as he scrambles to clean-up that enormous, angry-looking block you just dumped on his screen. This is one of only two games in my entire life (the other being Civilization 3) that I have played all through the night and well into the next day. It has that kind of power.

So why the hell isn't this game available as DLC on the Wii? The truth is, it already is...but in Japan...and the United States and Japan are different countries unfortunately. Japan's actually been sitting on the original Panel de Pon since it was released on Nintendo's Virtual Console back in November 2007, while we Americans continue to suffer with a sans-Tetris Attack Virtual Console! It's 2009, I finally live in an age where I can go online and school 7 year olds in Bomberman and Street Fighter, but remain unable to attack anyone Tetris-weis from the comfort of my own Wii. Plus the popularity of Tetris Friends on the Wii demonstrates a healthy consumer market for competitive online puzzle games, Tetris Attack is a no-brainer.

I've never known any competitive puzzle game to be as thrilling, deep, or all around fun as Tetris Attack, and I want to play it online right now--who knows, maybe I'm the best in the world, I'll never find out since I don't really get to play other serious players. I've waited long enough Nintendo--Tetris Attack, Panel De Pon, I don't care what you call it, just get your shit together and put it on my Wii...f*cking assholes.

For any Dtoiders that haven't been hounding the SSF4 Arcade Release Petition thread at Shoryuken.com, I think it's worth mentioning that an Arcade release has not been completely ruled out as of yet. SRK member Askia pointed out a post on Capcom's japanese Street Fighter IV Blog that (according to...特別な外人) apparently translates to something to the effect of this...

"Right now, it isn't 100% certain that SSF4 will not get an arcade release. I'd first like to let you know, we've decided not to abandon the [Super] Street Fighter 4 for Arcade. Because we don't want to quench the enormous flame people have for the game, I think we'd like to continue it, but everyone, we need your assistance!'...I know it was written in such a rare, serious way, but we want to make sure everyone (Everyone who plays SSF4 in Arcades, and everyone who plays SSF4 at home) knows that we're putting the finishing touches on something that is fun for everyone! Similar to SF4, because the development staff is working as hard as possible without any compromise creating this game, please wait with hope!"



So it seems that there are some brave souls over at Capcom who are still fighting to have an arcade release of the newest SFIV iteration, and an eventual arcade release is still very possible. People deeply immersed in the fighting-game community understand just how much the exclusion of this game from arcades would effect Street Fighter IV's relevance in the competitive fighting-game scene. Even if you're not a petition guy, I implore anyone who cares about this matter to take 20 seconds to sign the petition--it can't hurt, and Capcom seems to be still on the fence about this, so outcry from customers might knock them off that fence and onto the right side, the arcade side.

If news of the upcoming Riddley Scott-directed Alien prequel and Robert Rodriguez-produced Predator sequel is any indication, Aliens and Predators will be taking some time off from appearing together on the silver screen. Luckily, in the videogame world, the Alien v Predator formula is dug in like an Alabama tick, and the two species still appear plenty mad at each other in previews of Rebellion’s face-hugging, triangle-laser...pointing FPS. The February 2010 slated Aliens vs. Predator is by all indications shaping up to be incredible, but for those few who remain skeptical about it’s inevitable awesomeness, I’ll list five reasons why this game has at least me sexually excited.






1. Rebellion is incapable of making a bad AvP game. To quote Jesus, “The only reason anyone had to own a PC 10 years ago was to play AvP.” I’d personally go so far as to say it was the best adaptation either franchise has had to a videogame. So why should we expect anything different from Rebellion’s latest endeavor? They’re also throwing in a lot of never-before-implemented ideas that couldn’t be used in the original games due to hardware limitations of the time. And although the plot does involve a Predator-built pyramid stuffed with Aliens (ala the first AVP movie), Rebellion insists that the game is not based on the smelly AvP films and is instead inspired by the classic Alien, Aliens, and Predator movies in addition to the Dark Horse comic books. So chill, Predator won’t be falling in love with any strong, female protagonists. The guys from Rebellion are swimming in their element here; we should expect a game that’s respectable at worst.






2. Over here…turn around. We all know that Preds can rip out the spinal columns and skulls of marines now, but let’s put that on the back burner and discuss the feature that, upon learning of it’s existence, made me squeal like I was auditioning for Ned Beatty’s role in Deliverance. The Predator’s helmet zoom apparently doubles as a directional mic that lets you eavesdrop on marine conversations and even record them so that they can be later replayed to provide distractions. I think it’s better that I get my hopes down and assume such an amazing mechanic will be restricted to the canned dialog from the single player campaign (which is still cool), but I can’t help but imagine how huge this would be if it were implemented in multiplayer. Imagine recording the angry tirade of some marine player calling his squad mate a “f*cking noob” over XBL, sneaking up on him all invisible-like, then replaying a distorted version of his own mumbley nerd voice back at him before stabbing him in the eye. Holy Jeez, I’m gonna have me some fun…gonna have me some fun.






3. It's Safe To Assume The New AvP Multiplayer Will Fix the Economy. Now, I love Call of Duty and Battlefield, but something tells me that by 2010 I’ll have had my fill of the same old military-themed competitive FPS scene. After spending all last year trying to land headshots on Nazis with my M1 Garant, leaping from a shadowy ceiling onto some unsuspecting Marine and chewing his face off sounds pretty dang refreshing. And if the assortment of match options from AvP1 and 2 are any indication, we should see some good variety of online modes to keep things from growing stale. So far, they’ve confirmed that they’re bringing back the co-operative, 4-man survivor mode (basically horde mode) and will have 18-person multiplayer with two-way and three-way species battles. I haven’t heard anything about the return of Alien or Predator-Tag yet…crossing my fingers pretty damn hard.






4. Welcome to the MF-ing Jungle. I’ve waited my whole life for a game to capture the feel of the first Predator movie. And although Rebellion’s game probably won’t boast the genius one-liners or the governor-studded cast that helped make the original film so ludicrously amazing, it’s the first videogame I know of, save for Predator on the NES, to put that ugly mother f*cker back in the environment where we all fell in love with him.

Shown off in the video at E3 was, yes, a jungley-looking level. So get ready for the muf*ckin’ jungle to come to life and take him ("him" being whoever isn’t playing as the Predator character at that particular moment). Seeing as this game will place so much emphasis on stealth, having an outdoor environment where you can hide behind brush or above in the trees will be nice change from the dank, Alien-movie inspired corridors we're sure to see. When I start my first game of Pred Tag in this level (please have Pred-Tag), I’ll be spitting Predator quotes like Blaine with a lip packed full of Big Chief. "There's something out there waiting for us, and it ain't no man. We're all gonna die."






5. I think someone need a hug. Let’s face it, the facehugger to chestbuster birth-cycle is probably the most horrifying/intriguing feature of the xenomorph species, and when this is properly implemented in a game, it can add gameplay depth and a real feeling of source material authenticity. In the Alien campaign demo shown off at gamescon 2009, it was established that players would be tasked with harvesting (via-facehugger) live human civilians to produce more xenomorphs. I’m hoping we’ll see some AvP2-style first-person alien life-cycle stuff, or even some AvP: Extinction-style mechanic allowing you to build up your horde. But catching humans alive might prove difficult according to this blurb from videogamer.com, “In a graphic scene during our gameplay presentation, a civilian locked himself in a room, found a gun and shot himself in the head just as the Alien had managed to pry the door open.” God damn! I’m guessing the game will include a couple of moments that are meant to recapture those unforgettably disturbing movie scenes, like the one in Aliens where the cocooned survivor asks the marines to kill her right before the chestbuster shreds through her abdomen…that scene gave me serious nightmares when I was little. "What's the matter man, the food ain't THAT bad?!"






The years 2010 and 2011 are shaping up to be a renaissance for fans of the Aliens and Predator franchises. In addition to Rebellion’s new game and two promising looking movies, we’ll be seeing Aliens: Colonial Marines likely within a year of AvP’s release, and SEGA still plans to make good on their pledge to make three games based in the Aliens license, i.e., the death of the Aliens RPG begets a new, still-unannounced Aliens title.

I recommend that you all rewatch the original Alien and Predator flicks sometime before February. Aliens vs. Predator is shaping up to be tremendous, and I don’t care if you bleed molecular acid, green Glow-Stick juice, or you ain’t got time to bleed, if you're a fan of the original movies or FPSs, you need to keep this game on your radar; it’s scurrying its way through the vents and will be raping your face before you know it.

Well, last night I waltzed out of Gamestop with a 1600 Point Xbox Live card, a SFIV Madcatz Tournament Edition Fightstick, and trepidation that the $170 I just let go of to play a decade old game that I already owned was ill spent. I crossed my fingers.

When you first open the multiplayer menu, you'll immediately notice how the options of online play modes are scant when compared to that of Street Fighter IV. Don't expect to find any "Championship Mode" or see any post-fight displays tallying gained or lost points after ranked matches. Instead Capcom opted to go with a structure seemingly identical to that of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Maybe I should have expected this considering that both MvC2 and HD Remix are XBLA games, but it doesn't change the fact that I find myself longing for the more logical, fleshed out points system used by SFIV. As with HD Remix, results of ranked matches affect your standing in the online leaderboard, although not always accurately. Expect to find many of the same glitches that plague HD Remix's leaderboard--it's not uncommon for your wins and losses to be archived incorrectly and you may occasionally find people with blatantly worse records ranked higher than you (other factors are obviously considered in your rank).

After getting the opportunity to play a few ranked matches, I decided that I was generally happy with my purchase. You might notice occasional frame skipping or hiccups in speed, but I've found them to not really effect gameplay for me. In fact, considering that this is MvC2, I'm pretty much baffled by how little lag interfered with my combos. I was comfortably pulling off Cable's Triple Air Hyper Viper Beam and Cammy's air combo into Killer Bee Assault. But maybe I should withhold judgment until I see someone pull off Iron Man's infinity (something I didn't test due to my lack of experience with him).





At first, I found the level of online competition to be below my expectations. But after my 11th game or so, I fought a Magneto, Storm, Sentinel combo that annihilated me. So expect to wade through plenty of scrubs before stumbling upon the stronger opponents. And fans of being boner-licking buttplugs will be happy to know that rage quitting is still...all the rage lolzz!!! Two of my initial 5 opponents, on the verge of defeat, decided to rage quit and then sodomized themselves with their own controllers (probably).

The game was just released, so many of the issues I've mentioned have ample opportunity to still get patched; but considering how long it took Capcom to address similar problems with HD Remix, gamers might end up having to wait a while before all serious bugs are ironed out. And there are some annoying bugs . For instance, if someone tries to join your created game and disconnects before the game starts, you get treated to a frozen screen that requires you to escape to dashboard and reload the game. Hopefully the game creation and freezing issues reported will be ironed out before the game reaches full stride.

I'm ultimately excited about having the capacity to play this game over the series of tubes that is the internet. The online play so far seems pretty damn respectable, and more than that, the diversity of players that XBL provides combined with MvC2's vast cast of characters is sure to serve me up some intriguing opponents implementing character combinations and techniques that I've never seen before. Although I'm not sure if I'd recommend buying this game if you don't intend to buy or already own an arcade stick, fans of the game will be happy to know that it seems to hold up well to online play and would be wise to pick it up for $15.