AVP thoughts and impressions

I picked it up and only played the first mission of marine and pred.

The Marine first mission goes suspense with the radar ticking, low lighting, and flashlight route. If you don't like dark, flashlight games (you can throw flares too), the pred campaign seems to be completely different and maybe for you.

It's out in the open, full lighting on treetops and swamps. "Distracting" marines seems to be a bit cheesy (basically can distract a marine to go where u want him/her to go), it's definitely a different feel than marine. One thing tho, I don't even use the preds weapons because I find jumping through trees and trophy killing more fun.

There's some drawbacks. In heavy close quartered combat, it can be difficult to discern where the enemies are and where to swing. The lack of crouch and iron sights is annoying but I don't feel I need them, just used to them.

haven''t tried the alien. Even though I think chronologically, the alien campaign is first. Haven't gone online either.
 
Dan_D said:
AvP certainly doesn't deserve the bad reputation it gets from the reviews. The game isn't perfect, but the more I play it the more I'm enjoying it. The Marine Campaign is overall OK, but nothing special. The Predator campaign has been serious fun for me. I'm about halfway through that or roughly 60% of the total single player story. As I said last night I barely touched MP but I found the infestation mode kicks ass.
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Good deal. I'm not looking for perfect.

I'm looking for "doesn't suck", "fun", and maybe even "worth $50." ;)
 
Well I've found it fun and so far I'd say its worth $50. Especially after the fun I had with the Infestation mode in multiplayer. That means replay value as far as I am concerned.
 
Dan_D said:
Well I've found it fun and so far I'd say its worth $50. Especially after the fun I had with the Infestation mode in multiplayer. That means replay value as far as I am concerned.
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Nice! :)
 
Well, the reviews are not being too kind to this game. With all the other releases going on I think I'll be waiting for a Steam sale on this one. A bummer really.
 
I enjoyed the demo because it was FUN. I think a lot of the reviewers aren't getting this. even when it was just me(marine), 1 pred, and one alien. it was a blast stalking one while being hunted by the other. I liked the different styles, and it ran great on my system while still looking good.

also I think the netcode is top-notch because this is the first game FPS I have been able to play online with NO LAG wile using a tethered 3g verizon phone. Just watching 3-4 aliens rushing towards me, and climbing up to get me was incredible. definitly getting this game.
 
Alright! I'm on board. Downloading at 1.5mb/s from Steam.

I don't know who I was kidding. It's damn near impossible for me not to own something attached to the Alien/Predator IP. I'm that one guy who actually bought and enjoyed Predator: Concrete Jungle on the Xbox.

I'm somewhat proud I resisted the pre-order and waited for trustworthy confirmation but I'm also a little pissed I've missed out on the skins. Oh well. Such is life.
 
Deeky said:
I'm somewhat proud I resisted the pre-order and waited for trustworthy confirmation but I'm also a little pissed I've missed out on the skins. Oh well. Such is life.
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You'll still be able to get the skins in a future DLC, at least according to one article I read.
 
is anyone else getting issues with long pauses (10-20 seconds at a time?). I really love this game but the pausing/freezing is killing it for me...
 
I'm actually really interested in how you got this running Dan_D, because so far the game is nothing but crashes with my 5850 in DirectX11 mode. Tried 9.12, 10.1 and 10.2. DX9 works but it does look like shit (same as demo really). Friend of mine with a 5870 can't get it to run either.

Also couldn't see any AA settings, only option I could enable for DX11 was Tessellation.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Based on the reviews, I was going to hold off. Now I have to buy it.

Didn't realize that so many of the reviews only reviewed the shitty console version.
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The game is at its core fun in most respects, but the visuals in DX9 mode aren't very good. The texturing is just bad. With DX11 mode enabled, its like a completely different game. I think that normally people are used to the small differences that DirectX 10 had over Direct X 9, and the difference we saw between SM2.0 and SM3.0. You could see it but the difference wasn't night and day. Well at least in this game, DirectX 11 makes a massive difference over the DirectX 9 visuals. Also this game probably wouldn't play all that well on a console as it is at its core a FPS shooter that is fast paced. I couldn't imagine trying to play this with a game pad. No wonder the reviewers hated it. With shitty controls and the DX9 mode visuals, I would have too.

bladeiai said:
is anyone else getting issues with long pauses (10-20 seconds at a time?). I really love this game but the pausing/freezing is killing it for me...
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Not exactly. The frame rate for me drops to about 10FPS or less for brief intervals. It happens without warning and I'm not even sure why it happens. On my system the problem lasts for about 3 to 5 seconds here and there. I encounter this once or twice per section, or level of the game. When I ran the 10.1 drivers, the time interval lasted twice as long and it seemed to happen a little more than it does running the 10.2 drivers. I guess I don't have much to complain about here as I remember the terrible HL2 stuttering problem that made the game unplayable on some hardware. That was way worse than this. :D

AceCR42 said:
I'm actually really interested in how you got this running Dan_D, because so far the game is nothing but crashes with my 5850 in DirectX11 mode. Tried 9.12, 10.1 and 10.2. DX9 works but it does look like shit (same as demo really). Friend of mine with a 5870 can't get it to run either.

Also couldn't see any AA settings, only option I could enable for DX11 was Tessellation.
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I didn't do anything special to get the game running. I just installed it through Steam and started playing. In all the hours I've played the game I've never experienced a crash. For me it has been very stable. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate with all the latest updates, the latest drivers for all hardware, and I bought the game through Steam. Its the latest Steam client, etc. I am also running a fresh install, but that's only because I rebuilt my machine this last weekend. I actually did the format and reload with my 3-Way SLI Geforce GTX 280 OC setup, and only installed the Radeon HD 5970 on Monday. So I've been through 3 video driver changes this week alone. System specifications are above for more information.
 
bladeiai said:
is anyone else getting issues with long pauses (10-20 seconds at a time?). I really love this game but the pausing/freezing is killing it for me...
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Yup. I'm getting pauses, maybe 5-10 seconds at random intervals. So far it hasn't occurred during action, it hasn't gotten me killed. It's almost like a portion of the level is loading or something.

AceCR42 said:
Also couldn't see any AA settings, only option I could enable for DX11 was Tessellation.
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I was wondering the same thing. I haven't tried forcing AA via the Nvidia control panel yet, nor have I attempted to create a profile with nHancer. I'll be attempting both at the first opportunity. The game doesn't look bad under DX10 but it REALLY needs some AA.
 
Got it working finally, was a sound sampling rate issue.

But yeah, gonna echo Dan's feelings here. The difference between DX9 and DX11 is staggering to say the least. It's definitely one of the better looking PC games out there.

Also, fuck the reviewers, playing the Alien is so much fun :)
 
I gotta admit, I'm having tons of fun playing the most basic single player Survival mode, fighting to stay alive facing wave after wave of Aliens. It's awesome. My first time out I lasted just shy of 11 minutes before they sent in the Praetorians to drag me down. If I'm this easily enthralled I have a feeling the more complex MP modes are gonna blow my mind.
 
I'm not getting any of the stuttering/pausing whatever or crashes. The game runs above 30+ fps nearly all the time in DX11 (advanced shadows and tessellation on) at 1680 x 1050, all settings on the highest, AA 2x and AF 8x. Rig is in the sig.
 
|Tch0rT| said:
I'm not getting any of the stuttering/pausing whatever or crashes. The game runs above 30+ fps nearly all the time in DX11 (advanced shadows and tessellation on) at 1680 x 1050, all settings on the highest, AA 2x and AF 8x. Rig is in the sig.
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Should be noted, I'm rockin' a craptastic temp rig until the gear for my i7 build arrives. I'm shocked the game as well as it does under DX10 with a stock e6600 and 2GB of 667 value ram. The 285 GTX obviously helps.
 
AceCR42 said:
Got it working finally, was a sound sampling rate issue.

But yeah, gonna echo Dan's feelings here. The difference between DX9 and DX11 is staggering to say the least. It's definitely one of the better looking PC games out there.

Also, fuck the reviewers, playing the Alien is so much fun :)
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Yes it is. I'm enjoying the hell out of it. I'd say that the Marine Campaign is the worst of the three in this game. It isn't terrible mind you, and it does have its moments, but it is just very bland compared to the other two. I still enjoyed it but not nearly as much as the other two. In contrast with AvP2, I found the Marine and Predator campaigns to rock, and the Aliens campaign to be the worst of the three. Though again, it was still pretty awesome. I just didn't enjoy it as much as the other two.
 
Dan_D said:
I need to take some. What image hosts won't resize them? I know Photobucket will unless you get their paid membership.
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Photobucket didn't resize mine but I ran out of the 10gb bandwidth for the month due to the pics I posted in the hi-res screenshot thread.
 
Just finished the Alien campaign. Awesome, simply awesome. You know, one thing I'll say for this game is that you get real endings to it. Most FPS games, and games in general don't give you much in regard to an ending for all your trouble to complete the story.

Now its time to really dive into the multiplayer aspect of the game.
 
I'm on-board.. I feel compelled to support a game that features DX 11 and Eyefinity.. especially from a franchise I like and a genre I enjoy.
 
Dan_D said:
I need to take some. What image hosts won't resize them? I know Photobucket will unless you get their paid membership.
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www.fileden.com, they're the only ones I know of that allow large file hotlinking. 50MB size limit with 1GB total space and 5GB/mo bandwidth free, so you can post basically as high res images as you want and be sure that they won't mess with them.
 
Andrmgic said:
I'm on-board.. I feel compelled to support a game that features DX 11 and Eyefinity.. especially from a franchise I like and a genre I enjoy.
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I think most fans of AvP2 will be pleased with this AvP game. Like I said the story isn't quite as strong, but the game play elements are there. Oh, and for anyone interested, from what I can tell the correct play order story-wise is Alien, Marine, Predator.
 
Decided to give it a shot anyway. Now that I'm on an nvidia card and can actually play the game in 1080p it doesn't look half bad. If DX11 looks as good as some people are making it out to be...

One thing I noticed is that it makes my GPU run hotter than any other game I've played but my CPU doesn't run any warmer than simple stuff like watching youtube videos.
 
mas said:
www.fileden.com, they're the only ones I know of that allow large file hotlinking. 50MB size limit with 1GB total space and 5GB/mo bandwidth free, so you can post basically as high res images as you want and be sure that they won't mess with them.
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I'll give it a shot and take some screenshots for posting.
 
Couple of eyefinity 5760x1200, everything on high, 1xAA, DX11 features all on, running on a 5870. I get 30-50 frames with rare dips into 20s. Setting to 2xAA kills my framerate. I'll do some tweaking later, maybe lower textures from very high to high. I might play this in portrait tho, the claustrophobic maps don't lend themselves well to landscape (at least from what I've seen the half hour I've played).

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/4025/avpdx112010021800313676.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1186/avpdx112010021800295970.jpg

O ya, sorry for stretching your screen :D

-Please don't post pictures that gigantic with image tags. -Oldie
 
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teenk said:
Couple of eyefinity 5760x1200...

<pics>

O ya, sorry for stretching your screen :D
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FFS Teenk. Use thumbnails.:rolleyes:

What you just did was the equivalent of stretching out a tiny asian pussy with a 4 foot black dildo.;)
 
teenk said:
Couple of eyefinity 5760x1200, everything on high, 1xAA, DX11 features all on, running on a 5870. I get 30-50 frames with rare dips into 20s. Setting to 2xAA kills my framerate. I'll do some tweaking later, maybe lower textures from very high to high. I might play this in portrait tho, the claustrophobic maps don't lend themselves well to landscape (at least from what I've seen the half hour I've played).

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/4025/avpdx112010021800313676.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1186/avpdx112010021800295970.jpg

O ya, sorry for stretching your screen :D

-Please don't post pictures that gigantic with image tags. -Oldie
Click to expand...

Portrait mode would probably be best for most of this game. Some of the areas are claustrophobic and wouldn't benefit from a field of view that wide. As for the texturing, I'm not sure if turning them down would be advised. It should give you a huge boost in performance, but if the DX9 mode is any indication, the games visuals are highly dependent on those higher resolution textures. Without them it looks like ass. You might try adjusting your antisotropic filtering. This does effect how your textures look, but in some games this settings leads to fairly subtle changes, and huge performance gains or hits depending on which way you go with it. 12x or 8x AF may offer a substantial performance benefit, without compromising visual quality too much. I haven't tried it myself in AvP, but in some other games I've done this on some machines and have been pretty happy with the results in a few specific games.
 
I can confirm that the difference between texture quality levels is ENORMOUS. Moving from High to Very High is a massive improvement.

On the downside, the Pred campaign is damn near unplayable for me. :( I guess it's full of win compared to the Marine missions and my poor e6600 can't handle it. Constant pausing and jitter. I could probably knock myself back to DX9 and low rez textures but I'd rather wait for my parts to arrive and play with all the candy.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
FFS Teenk. Use thumbnails.:rolleyes:

What you just did was the equivalent of stretching out a tiny asian pussy with a 4 foot black dildo.;)
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Hehe sorry guys, got carried away.

Dan_D said:
Portrait mode would probably be best for most of this game. Some of the areas are claustrophobic and wouldn't benefit from a field of view that wide. As for the texturing, I'm not sure if turning them down would be advised. It should give you a huge boost in performance, but if the DX9 mode is any indication, the games visuals are highly dependent on those higher resolution textures. Without them it looks like ass. You might try adjusting your antisotropic filtering. This does effect how your textures look, but in some games this settings leads to fairly subtle changes, and huge performance gains or hits depending on which way you go with it. 12x or 8x AF may offer a substantial performance benefit, without compromising visual quality too much. I haven't tried it myself in AvP, but in some other games I've done this on some machines and have been pretty happy with the results in a few specific games.
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I'll try that. I usually just leave AF at 16, I'll set it to 8x and see how that works out. I guess I'm fine with 1xAA tho, I rarely notice any jaggies since I'm mostly running around anyway, specially with Marine campaign.

Do you have eyefinity setup yet? I'd like to hear how well xFire handles AvP in eyefinity.
 
teenk said:
Couple of eyefinity 5760x1200, everything on high, 1xAA, DX11 features all on, running on a 5870. I get 30-50 frames with rare dips into 20s. Setting to 2xAA kills my framerate. I'll do some tweaking later, maybe lower textures from very high to high. I might play this in portrait tho, the claustrophobic maps don't lend themselves well to landscape (at least from what I've seen the half hour I've played).

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/4025/avpdx112010021800313676.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1186/avpdx112010021800295970.jpg
Click to expand...

nice!...graphics look MUCH better then the DX9 demo...although the outside environment doesn't look as good...an Alien game is best suited for dark, indoor settings
 
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teenk said:
Hehe sorry guys, got carried away.



I'll try that. I usually just leave AF at 16, I'll set it to 8x and see how that works out. I guess I'm fine with 1xAA tho, I rarely notice any jaggies since I'm mostly running around anyway, specially with Marine campaign.

Do you have eyefinity setup yet? I'd like to hear how well xFire handles AvP in eyefinity.
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I do not. I'm not going back to a smaller center monitor from a 30". I'm currently looking for some good used 3007WFP's to match the one I have. The HC models are more common, but they'll look different image wise. So I'm not looking for those unless I found a deal on 3 of them. Then I could move the 3007WFP to another machine. I'd also be willing to wager that with three 30" panels and Eyefinity I'd need the power of another Radeon HD 5970 for a little CrossfireX action.
 
At first the game runs fine at constant 60fps and dips to 40's. 45 minutes later into the game I'm crawling to the teens and single digits.

At first I thought it was ambient occlusion in some heavy scenes which I took out but the game has serious performance issues.
 
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