Post by zero7159 on Feb 11, 2013 16:32:49 GMT -8
1) 2/11/13 - Pre-Release Hype
I pre-ordered this from Steam over the weekend, and have it ready to rock. I will be blowing apart a bunch of aliens tonight, as soon as my copy unlocks and will post some thoughts ASAP. In the meantime, here are some classic quotes from Aliens to tide us over:
Hudson: "Good idea, Bishop can go."
Hudson: "What the fuck are we supposed to use, harsh language?"
Ripley: "Get away from me you bitch."
Vasquez: "Lets rock."
Vasquez: "Hey Mira, who's snow white?"
2) Initial Impressions - 2/12/13
The game is getting blasted by the review sites, including IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, PC World and PC Gamer. That being said, I spent about 30 minutes with it this morning and overall, I can tell you that I like it.
First, the game runs silky smooth out of the box at 5760 X 1200 triple screen resolution, with all eye candy maxed. I am getting 50-70 FPS without a hiccup. Its curious to me that professional game reviewers fail to talk about this, but its nice to see that Gearbox paid attention to us PC triple screen gamers. Far Cry 3, on the other hand, which got much better reviews, runs like shit on my system, even at 1920 X 1200. Keep in mind I have a 4 GB EVGA 670 and an overclocked Core i5 2500K CPU.
Second, this game is textbook Aliens, which you will recall, was a 1980s sci-fi flick that sits as one of my favorite movies of all time. If, like me, you can recite one liners from Aliens, then by all means, buy this game and bathe yourself in the nostalgia. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a top end shooter than can compete with the newest from the Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield franchises, look elsewhere. The marines look just like the marines from the movie, no better, no worse. The pulse rifle functions and sounds just like the one in the movie. The motion tracker is in there, again, just like the movie. The aliens themselves look just like the aliens from the movie, including the greenish acid blood that oozes all over after you drop a couple of rounds into them. Yes, there is a lot of corridor hopping, which is to be expected, particularly early on when you are searching the Sulaco, the ship that Ripley, Hicks and Bishop escaped to. Speaking of Hicks and Bishop, Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen, the actors that played those guys in the movie, provide the voice overs for their characters in the game. Very cool.
There are a couple of problems with the game. The biggest one is that it uses a checkpoint save system, which obviously has to do with its "console-centric" (to quote OldSlowFred) design philosophy. Is it really so hard to implement a "save anywhere" system, ala Half Life 2, Doom 3 and Skyrim? The other side of this issue is that you cannot tell when the checkpoint has been reached. Also, once you start the campaign on a particular skill level, you cannot change it without starting over. Whats up with that?
Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. More to come later, once I have killed a few dozen more aliens.
I pre-ordered this from Steam over the weekend, and have it ready to rock. I will be blowing apart a bunch of aliens tonight, as soon as my copy unlocks and will post some thoughts ASAP. In the meantime, here are some classic quotes from Aliens to tide us over:
Hudson: "Good idea, Bishop can go."
Hudson: "What the fuck are we supposed to use, harsh language?"
Ripley: "Get away from me you bitch."
Vasquez: "Lets rock."
Vasquez: "Hey Mira, who's snow white?"
2) Initial Impressions - 2/12/13
The game is getting blasted by the review sites, including IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, PC World and PC Gamer. That being said, I spent about 30 minutes with it this morning and overall, I can tell you that I like it.
First, the game runs silky smooth out of the box at 5760 X 1200 triple screen resolution, with all eye candy maxed. I am getting 50-70 FPS without a hiccup. Its curious to me that professional game reviewers fail to talk about this, but its nice to see that Gearbox paid attention to us PC triple screen gamers. Far Cry 3, on the other hand, which got much better reviews, runs like shit on my system, even at 1920 X 1200. Keep in mind I have a 4 GB EVGA 670 and an overclocked Core i5 2500K CPU.
Second, this game is textbook Aliens, which you will recall, was a 1980s sci-fi flick that sits as one of my favorite movies of all time. If, like me, you can recite one liners from Aliens, then by all means, buy this game and bathe yourself in the nostalgia. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a top end shooter than can compete with the newest from the Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield franchises, look elsewhere. The marines look just like the marines from the movie, no better, no worse. The pulse rifle functions and sounds just like the one in the movie. The motion tracker is in there, again, just like the movie. The aliens themselves look just like the aliens from the movie, including the greenish acid blood that oozes all over after you drop a couple of rounds into them. Yes, there is a lot of corridor hopping, which is to be expected, particularly early on when you are searching the Sulaco, the ship that Ripley, Hicks and Bishop escaped to. Speaking of Hicks and Bishop, Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen, the actors that played those guys in the movie, provide the voice overs for their characters in the game. Very cool.
There are a couple of problems with the game. The biggest one is that it uses a checkpoint save system, which obviously has to do with its "console-centric" (to quote OldSlowFred) design philosophy. Is it really so hard to implement a "save anywhere" system, ala Half Life 2, Doom 3 and Skyrim? The other side of this issue is that you cannot tell when the checkpoint has been reached. Also, once you start the campaign on a particular skill level, you cannot change it without starting over. Whats up with that?
Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. More to come later, once I have killed a few dozen more aliens.
