How do you update one of the best PC shooters of all time, take it to the stupid console audience and keep everybody happy? That's what we got to ask Rebellion's assistant producer, Eric Miller, and senior producer David Brickley at a recent event in London.
Read our full Aliens vs. Predator hands-on preview to see what we thought of the game too.
How have you maintained the winning formula of the '99 AvP game while modernising it for today's audience?
Brickley: Well I guess the original was predominantly a multiplayer game with a single-player component built around the same material. For the tech that was available at the time it was very innovative, but frankly things have moved on since then.
I suppose that was issue number one, to make sure that as a single-player component it brought all the best bits of this IP into one, but let players chose who they want to play and experience things from different angles.
Alien vs. Predator
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Do you guys still play the original?
Brickley: Yes, it's always being played in the office along with the movies, books and comics and everything else.
One of more interesting game modes you've come up with for the new game is Predator Hunt. Can you run us through that?
Brickley: Basically you are the Predator against a team of marines. Someone will be chosen to play as the Predator and he has to keep killing to keep his honour up. Then you have a set time limit within which you have to find your weapons, find a good spot to kill from and then retreat without being killed yourself.
As a marine if you manage to kill the Predator, you become the Predator. You remember the bit in the movie when Dutch goes mental and basically starts firing everything into the undergrowth? You get these moments when the marines are just lurking through the trees looking for the Predator. It's like watching an ad-hoc version of the movie.
Miller: It's about staying alive as long as possible. You can only score points as the Predator... it's a pretty advanced game mode in a sense. You get the most out of it once you know what you're doing with the species.
Brickley: It's been the biggest challenge of all because you don't want any of them to be seen as the lesser. You can see the marine as the meat if you like, but he's got pretty powerful stuff at his disposal. But the great thing is that the guy who makes the kill in Predator Hunt becomes the Predator, and in Infestation your team mate is suddenly an alien. There's always this co-operative-horror switch going on.
Miller: It's also a tactical switch in a sense because you're on the same team as the marines in both game modes, but in some sense they're not your friends.
That guy who you're sticking with just killed the Predator - you didn't want that, you wanted to kill the Predator. So what do you do? Do you hit him in the back just as he's about to get killed by the Predator to help things along? Or do you try and work together and accept the consequences?
Comments
14 comments so far...
wombateer on 27 Oct '09 said:
Please Rebellion make this game awesome.
In fact make it mega awesome with a thick lashing of super sauce. Just the sound of the motion tracker pinging away makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Happy days next year, AVP and Colonial Marines.
bevoboro on 27 Oct '09 said:
This game is #1 on my want list. I cant fecking wait till February
amazingdweezo on 27 Oct '09 said:
played the ps3 version of this (multiplayer) at eurogamer expo today it was impressive!
distinct different style of play for each class
agile but weaker alien
tactical and strong pred
and peeking round every corner whilst crying marines
really looking froward to the finished game
starsail on 28 Oct '09 said:
"How do you update one of the best PC shooters of all time, take it to the stupid console audience and keep everybody happy?"
Ha ha, love what you did there.
Strange thing is, as an upstanding member of the stupid console audience, I owned most PC gamers when playing against them in Unreal Tournament online, after playing the PS3 version using my keyboard and mouse, guess that makes them professional idiots.
Looking to do the same after AVP 3 lol
I hope they release AVP and AVP 2 on the consoles as a special edition though, that would be nice.
richm74 on 28 Oct '09 said:
Thank you CVG for not letting him give some glib, politico answer to the Dedi Server question. You should do Paxos job on Newsnight.
He still didn't answer the question really but it probably made him sweat. I can bet he won't get that type of awkward question in other interviews from so-called *ahem* independant gaming mags/webbies.
Vyvrtka on 28 Oct '09 said:
For me AvP is all about the single player but I gotta say, I love you CVG for pressing him at the end about dedicated servers.
sonic_uk on 28 Oct '09 said:
Stupid console audience? Way to go Cvg. Alienate half your readers with a single narrow minded comment that I would expect to hear from an immature fanboy troll, not a leading videogame website read by thousands of the very people you just slated.
richm74 on 28 Oct '09 said:
Errrr, where in Satans left nut does it say that Sonic? Hmmm? I'm sorry if CVG happen to have the balls to stand up for the so-called minority of gamers out there.
Trust me Chuckles if there was an issue with console gamers being ripped off that they didn't agree with i'm sure they'd back you lot to the hilt as well.
Quercus on 29 Oct '09 said:
Still no answer about dedicated servers though I see.
Just to be clear, nobody is expecting them to provide dedicated servers to host the game on (cool though that would be) - just having a dedicated server program released so other people can provide the resources is cool.
Whether dedicated servers are needed really depends upon the game being played and the number of people playing it. You don't really need dedi servers for a 4-player co-op game, but you do for a 12 player (or more) PVP type game.
I hope they make the right decision.
Quercus on 29 Oct '09 said:
Just to confirm what I said below, Brickley says that "running an operation like that is monumentally expensive."
What operation? Nobody is asking them to host all the dedicated servers and that is what comes across about his answer.
We just want the code to allow third-parties to run the dedicated servers.
The_KFD_Case on 29 Oct '09 said:
I see. So you are saying that you were able to beat the PC gamers you encountered using the PC methods of control - way to prove the point. I take it you then concede that PC controls for FPS games are in fact superior to control pads then?
The_KFD_Case on 29 Oct '09 said:
Hear, hear!
The_KFD_Case on 29 Oct '09 said:
Precisely, and while creating the programming to allow third parties to do such, will cost some time and effort, I imagine it should amount to but a fraction of the overall development costs of the game itself and it would be a major selling point in the PC gaming market.
sonic_uk on 29 Oct '09 said:
Err, in the very first paragraph - please dont ask me to quote it as well, read the damm article...chuckles(?). As I already stated in my previous post I would have thought more of good ol impartial Cvg than to see such a comment in one of their articles.
Not sure where you get the idea console gamers are ripped off? They pay far less for their hardware and dont have to constantly update it to play the latest games properly. If Pc owners are happy to do that to play at the very highest level of detail possible thats up to them, just like console gamers are happy to play their games in the living room infront of the plamsa. Its called choice.