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Aliens vs Predator Devs Apologise for PC Demo Problems

Post by trog @ 12:36pm 08/02/10 | 30 Comments

SEGA have sent through the following announcement from Rebellion, the developer of Aliens vs Predator, the recent demo of which caused some grief for many gamers who had problems getting into an online game.

Unprecedented demand for Aliens vs Predator following the release of the cross-platform demo yesterday morning brought to light matchmaking issues on the PC platform resulting in players having to wait to join games, or even not find games at all.

We�re pleased to say later in the day the issue was corrected and a small patch to the PC executable next time you launch it from Steam will have you finding and playing games using Quick Match as it was intended.

While this issue did not affect the Xbox 360, we are with SEGA�s assistance investigating reports of a similar nature on the PlayStation 3 and working flat out on a solution.

The full game features the ability to browse for and create games but for the purposes of simplicity the demo was limited to matchmaking, alongside the ability to set up groups with friends which mitigated yesterday�s issues for many.

We�re really sorry that this issue tainted a day in which we saw many people get hands on with AvP for the first time and we�re hugely gratified by the positive feedback to the game.

While it's good to see they've acknowledged the problem and (hopefully?) provided a resolution, it might be too little, too late - many gamers have indicated that they've canceled their pre-orders based on the poor multiplayer performance of the demo, which was especially disappointing given that the game was always said to have dedicated server support.

Dedicated servers aren't a solution to everything, but when you're releasing a demo for your multiplayer game - and you've touted dedicated servers as being a feature - it seems like it would be madness not to include that functionality in the demo. If you haven't tried the demo yet, maybe give it a go now that this fix is in and check it out.

A new trailer has also been released to showcase the gameplay of the Colonial Marines - check it out below:

Aliens vs Predator is due February 18 2010 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

dedicated servers aliens vs predator

Buy now from Green Man Gaming for only GBP£9.99 (USD$29.99 on Steam)!

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Khel
Posted 12:51pm 08/2/10

we�re hugely gratified by the positive feedback to the game.

What positive feedback? The vast majority of feedback I've seen is rather negative...

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grrts
Posted 01:04pm 08/2/10

that marine gameplay trailer didn't wow me at all

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ctd
Posted 01:04pm 08/2/10

This wasn't even the major issue with the demo. Gameplay sucked. The boring choice of MP mode to come with the demo didn't help.

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Any
Posted 01:08pm 08/2/10

that marine gameplay trailer was terrible. seems a marine can run backwards quicker than an alien can run forwards. Aliens seemed to like running along the ground for some reason, but then again they seemed really confused about the whole thing & didn't really bother to attack the lone marine much at all.
looked pretty damn bad to me.

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Crash
Posted 01:10pm 08/2/10

i had some issues on the first night but it seemed to be better yesterday when i gave it a bash.

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gamer
Posted 01:28pm 08/2/10

we�re hugely gratified by the positive feedback from xbox users.

Fixed.

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Methz
Posted 01:51pm 08/2/10

^^ win

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Eorl
Posted 03:06pm 08/2/10

His right though, and that's what I'm doing. When they tout that their MP is going to be over awesome and make you go goo goo ga, and yet it doesn't when they "showcase" a part of it? Hit that cancel button.

Also, usually when a "DEMO" is released, it is a part of the current, up-to-date code and gameplay. Not 6 weeks ago code that we decided to stick in cause we didn't want anyone to know that we hadn't done anything else since. Even BFBC2's beta has better MP then this piece of shit

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Eorl
Posted 03:08pm 08/2/10

And also, is that trailer depicting gameplay for the Xbox 360?

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Any
Posted 03:13pm 08/2/10

Yeah, I remember playing the Hellgate "beta" and being told that it was beta & would obviously be super-mega-better in the release code. Never gonna get bitten by that kind of thing again, and this was a demo, not a beta.
meh.

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Fuzzy
Posted 04:33pm 08/2/10

Even after a shakey demo I'm still looking at getting this game for PC

Looks like I'll be the only one though :(

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Reverend
Posted 05:24pm 08/2/10

Yep that Demo is all console , looks like i will be cancelling my pre order.

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shadowdanc3r
Posted 06:52pm 08/2/10

I'm certainly looking forward to it, I get the feeling there designing it as a Single Player game first then adding multi later. From the other trailers I'd say there focusing on scripting for all the single player missions and leaving multi player for later. When you get right down to it MP functionality can be easily patched later where as single player is much less likley to be. Although I'd prefer it if more companies took Blizzards philosophy of it's ready when it's ready and allowing comunity feadback during development.

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Khel
Posted 07:55pm 08/2/10

Not 6 weeks ago code that we decided to stick in cause we didn't want anyone to know that we hadn't done anything else since.

Realistically, at this point in its development, I wouldn't imagine there'd be a huge difference between code from now and code from 6 weeks ago, just maybe some bug fixes and optimisations would be about it.

Someone in another thread said the demo code was 10 months old though? If thats true, then thats pretty fucked up.

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Eorl
Posted 08:46pm 08/2/10

Fuck, if that is true, 10 months is just stupid. Also, @shadowdanc3r, Blizzard are able to do the "when it's ready we'll release it" because they own the IP and have their own funding. Most game companies get 1-2 years to make a game because investors want products and they want them quick. Look what happened to AoC, the investors couldn't wait any longer and wanted some form of profit, so they told Funcom to get their shit together and plop it out.

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Dazhel
Posted 09:07pm 08/2/10

so they told Funcom to get their shit together and plop it out

This is an appropriate analogy for the turd that Age of Conan was.

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deadlyf
Posted 10:07pm 08/2/10

Well at least they released a demo, seems to be much more popular these days to simply throw in a bunch of pre-order bonuses to entice people to buy up early then it is to offer them a look at the game play.

They will learn from this and next time just give pre-orders a bonus weapon or a pretty new skin for a character instead of putting themselves at risk of people finding out their game is shit before they make bucket loads of cash from it.

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L33tBix
Posted 10:11pm 08/2/10

ctd said:
This wasn't even the major issue with the demo. Gameplay sucked. The boring choice of MP mode to come with the demo didn't help.

Totally agree, death match sucked ass... Got boring after 3 gameplay sessions (which wasn't really fun due to extreme lag)

If it were me, I would put atleast 2 gameplay modes and 2 maps in.

On a positive note, I really like the stealth and finishing moves (grabs). My favourite being were the predator gouges the marines eyes and rips of his head with the spine still attached.

But one of the alien finishing moves againts the marine was pretty slapped together audio wise. The alien would stab a marine through the stomach, pausing and then driving its tail deeper into his gut. The screems and maons from the marine sounded like a pethetic school kid getting shoved by bullies really, I would have liked to hear more pain in those screams and moans rather than OHH THATS HORRILE! screams and such.

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Twisted
Posted 10:21pm 08/2/10

that marine gameplay trailer didn't wow me at all

Wow....that looked terrible didn't it :| I'm rethinking this game after that shit, I think I'll hold off until some reviews are in.

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Eorl
Posted 10:31pm 08/2/10

It was a review on console, and that's why it felt like a jerky camera

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Blue
Posted 11:30am 09/2/10

Good looking game, it has a lot of potential.

At the moment I'm finding the control response time unbearable. There is a noticeable lag whenever I try move my mouse around, I think this game is sticking to xbox 360/ps3.

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dazedandconfused
Posted 12:16pm 09/2/10

I'd say they have simplified the shit out of the game relative to AvP2 to cater to the near impossibility of getting a bead on aliens with an analog stick if it were still as fast paced as the previous titles. As usual, PC gamers suffer because of the console market.

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Scooter
Posted 01:14pm 09/2/10

I was always looking forward to the single player story line, as I loved the Story/gameplay in AvP Gold.

I dont like the 'auto-aim' type setup they have, maybe (hopefully!?) there will be a way to turn it off in the settings... a few other things mentioned also annoyed me.

Demo did a lot of damage... I dont know if it can all be undone.
I'm going to wait for after the full release and see what people are saying then.

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Donny
Posted 07:49pm 13/2/10

Scooter pretty much summed it up. Loved AVP 2 in terms of single player story gameplay, hopefully the SP in this new one can withstand the hype.

Nevertheless, i'll be checking it out when the full version is released, as i was severely disapointed with the demo and the lag fest i copped when i played it.

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groganus
Posted 06:55pm 14/2/10

The auto aim when playing marine vs alien is fucking lol in this game.

Story is pretty much exactly like AVP2... and AVP1... (the games not the movies).. disappointing.. but at the same time its a formula that works and its not like the game sucks.

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Douche
Posted 07:27pm 14/2/10

relax..

One of the key new features of DirectX 11 that Rebellion has incorporated into their new game is support for Direct Compute. Direct Compute lets developers harness the massive parallel processing power of modern GPUs to speed up advanced post processing effects like Depth of Field and tone mapping. It�s these subtle effects that are applied to images after they�re rendered that can make the characters and scenes look more realistic and in turn, make the game more immersive and enjoyable.

The Rebellion team has also used the tessellation support under DirectX 11 to create more detailed characters. That, combined with the more realistic shadows created with DirectX 11�s High-Definition Ambient Occlusion, creates exhilaratingly tense scenes � and an Alien that looks suitably terrifying

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sLaps_Forehead
Posted 07:32pm 14/2/10

Yeah AvP Gold is 10 yrs old now. It had pretty clunky graphics even back then but it did get one right and that is the dynamic of the Aliens from the movies.

I remember many sweaty nights filling my brown undies playing AvP Gold. I still reckon they made the Aliens one of the toughest and relentless enemies of fps games from that era. It was rather awesome how you could blast the legs off an Alien and it would still drag itself towards you whilst you fumbled with your near empty Pulse Rifle Clip.
It wasn't uncommon for the Aliens to charge down out you leaping off walls and ceilings being blasted to pieces by you pulse rifle only for you to die after you get hit by a flying piece of acid drenched Alien gib!
Really top stuff!

AvP2 naturally took it one step further but basically it was the same game.

My opinion is the Aliens from these demo vids, attack like drunken poofters. Maybe the vids are showing the game running on 'easy' mode?

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Reverend
Posted 09:40pm 14/2/10