Battletech as a Franchise in 2020

I acknowledge I am a nobody. I'm not a huge contributor to this community or a game developer that can make a better game. I'm just a lifelong Battletech fan. I won't bore you with anecdotes about how much I love this franchise or how significant it has been to my life. Just know that I do love it, and it has been a big part of my life.

I don't care about the EGS exclusivity one iota. All I ever wanted was to play a Mechwarrior game, something I've been starved of since 2002. I never put much stock into the "politics" surrounding the game's release. I'm also not really into the tabletop world, so on Catalyst and everything there I have no opinion of value. I think many in the Battletech fandom are in the same boat.

I think my prevailing emotion nowadays when it comes to Mechwarrior 5 and the franchise at large, is sadness. I think the thing that makes me most sad is the calamitous series of events over the last 30 years that lead to companies like Harmony Gold and PGI being the stewards of this franchise, something we all love so much. I know that these two companies shouldn't necessarily be lumped together, but I think they're two different flavors of shame.

To me, Harmony Gold are just a bunch of faceless bureaucrats that don't give two shits about Battletech. Obviously I don't know anyone over there personally, this is just my opinion, I can't read minds. Battletech is just an IP they've invested in. It just has to be good enough to make money. They're just using the entertainment business as a moneymaking venture, they absolutely don't care about the actual art of entertainment and they certainly don't care about the fans of their IPs. I sincerely believe there aren't actual fans of Robotech, Macross, Battletech etc. working down there at Harmony Gold. This is all fair game, of course. You're totally allowed to be entrepreneurial, invest money, buy IP licenses and make money all without being actual fans. Fine. My point is... it just makes me sad.

I don't hate PGI, or anyone that works there. I really do believe that the rank-and-file developers down there are fans of Battletech. But some decision-maker(s) over there really disappoints me. I thought MWO was mechanically sound, and combat was fun, and it was gorgeous. But I thought the game was very shallow, it was essentially (not literally) TDM over and over and over. The maps weren't different enough, the game modes weren't different enough. For the most part, once you've played one match of MWO, you've played them all. I called it "an enormous puddle," tons of breadth, very little depth. I thought that the level of grind was absolutely shameful. Everything was so expensive and the rate at which you earned C-Bills was far too slow. It felt like a tactic to force players to spend real money. In a F2P game, that's fair. But there is a line. And I feel MWO not only crossed this line, but stomped all over it. And they knew how fans felt. There's no way they didn't know. This isn't a crime and it's been done many times in the gaming world, but it just felt like a game made by bean-counters, not gamers. This makes me sad. You can argue the success of MWO all day long, I'm sure it made a lot of money for PGI. But I believe, although I can never prove it, that it was because the fan base was so starved for Mechwarrior that they would take anything, and the fact is there's no real competition for Mechwarrior. You can't say "Well there aren't any new Mechwarrior games, but at least I can play XXXXXX instead!" So it was either MWO or nothing. Again, this makes me sad. I like to think if I were a developer, I wouldn't feel good about the fact that my game isn't really that good, doesn't really do justice to the franchise, but people play it because it's the only game in town. Fine, it makes money. But does it feel good that fans at large kinda hate your guts? That the general feeling is that your game is a cash grab? That if there were ANY alternatives out there, the fans would leave you high-and-dry in a heartbeat? That can't feel good. But money, I guess.

I don't remember where or when I heard the following, maybe I'm misremembering, maybe it was just a rumor. So along the way I heard that the plan all along was to make money with MWO, so they could fund making a true Mechwarrior sequel, the dream game, the game we all want. That's a little shady to me, almost like it's admitting the game was designed to generate money, not actually be a good game. OK, I'm not a big "ends justify the means" guy, but I like this goal. I'll be patient and wait. This could, in theory, vindicate all of the PGI's behavior up until this point, I thought. Again, I have no idea how true any of this is.

So, Mechwarrior 5. The launch was tumultuous. You all know. I've already stated my feelings about the EGS exclusivity (read: I don't care) and generally, I looked at the fans who were lamenting to the stars that "They're just putting out an incomplete product and hoping the modding community fixes it for them!" as a bunch of annoying, presumptuous assholes. Even though totally undeserved, I had faith PGI would fix the game, namely the enemy spawning issue and the abysmal Lancemate AI. After all, they're fans right? And making a good game is hard. And I'm a patient person and probably too forgiving to developers. I don't know.

Updates started to roll out. They put a bit of a band-aid on the spawning issue, explained that was the most they could do without extensive testing. OK, fair. But then they said "Don't expect regular patches and fixes, we're going to focus on content." OK, I don't like the sound of that. More time goes by, updates start to focus on mod support, and just recently the first DLC was announced. You're proving them right, PGI. You're proving the annoying assholes right. Now I'M the annoying asshole for having faith in you. As it stands today, the AI is still abysmal, the enemy spawning is OK-ish, still awful at times. The thing is, the community was/is SO loud about these issues. I just know PGI knows about them. It sincerely makes me feel like PGI doesn't care. Whether it's true or not I don't know. It feels like MW5 is starting to go the bean-counter route much like MWO before it, and completely relying on the fan based modding community to make it an actual gamer's game.

It's so sad that this is how it all turned out. From Big West to Tatsunoko to Harmony Gold to PGI, I wish they'd all feel just a tiny amount of shame for all this.

Nintend'oh!

Oh, bro. Come on.

Tsk, tsk, tsk Nintendo. What happened to you? You used to be cool. If someone were to tell me 15 years ago that Nintendo would be creating what is essentially the new Dreamcast, I'd say "You're out of your damned mind. Go home! You're drunk..." And here we are today. How the mighty have fallen. Let's go back about 30 years shall we?
Back in the 1983 we had the storied and now legendary "Video Game Industry Crash". There were approximately 60 gazillion consoles saturating the market. Grassroots developers were spewing out shoddy, hastily developed games like the infamous "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial". The entire ordeal left dozens of developers bankrupt and several consoles went the way of the dodo. Back then, video games weren't the staple of popular culture that they are now. It was a niche market, and it was completely feasible that it could disappear forever. Enter Nintendo.

Emerson Arcadia... wut...?

The Nintendo Entertainment System hit the scene in the U.S. in 1985 and things started to turn around. Not only was it a powerful system with impressive specs, but the quality of its games were unparalleled. Marios and Zeldas and Contras, oh my! Sega would challenge them shortly after by one-upping them with the Genesis, but Nintendo returned fire with the Super NES. While there were rivalries in the video game business in the past, none were as fierce and storied as the Genesis/SNES rivalry. Both of these consoles were true gamers' consoles, and they constantly fought for supremacy, making us, the gamers, all winners. The SNES's library of games was probably the greatest collection of games ever put together and made it the clear winner of that "war". Then things started to change... Enter Sony.
This time, the Playstation was the gamers' console. While Nintendo was clinging to old cartridge technology, Sony's Playstation was embracing these newfangled disky type thingies called "'CDs". Sony made it very easy for 3rd party developers to cheaply make games for their platform. Because of this, the PS1 has an enormous catalog of games, 1,238 games to Nintendo's 296! Admitedly it was all quantity over quality. But, like the shotgun effect, some were hits. And boy were those hits hits! Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil... new and edgy and in 3D!

oooOOOOoooooo, fancy! CDs and stuff!

Over in Nintendo's camp, the games for the new Nintendo 64 were churning out in much smaller volume, but they had a much higher percentage of hits. Along with the Nintendo staples Starfox, Mario and Donkey Kong, hits like GoldenEye, Perfect Dark and various professional wrestling games were taking the gaming world by storm. However, this is around the time Nintendo stopped playing nice with 3rd party developers
and still hadn't really loosened up regarding gore and language. N64 games are markedly more family friendly than the PS1's.
This only got worse in the next generation and this time it  really showed. The Gamecube was decimated by the Playstation 2 and Microsoft's new Xbox. This time, Nintendo had the technically weakest console in comparison to its competitors. And now that there were TWO options for developers besides Nintendo, it was much smarter financially to make games for the more developer-friendly consoles in the Xbox and PS2. Gamers often viewed the Gamecube as "for kids", which wasn't helped by Nintendo's line of games for the system. Gamers were getting older, the adult gamer was a large demographic now. They were starting to get a bit tired of another Mario game, another Zelda game and another Smash Bros. game.

Nintendo decided to do something different. For the next generation, Nintendo developed the Wii. Once again, Nintendo had the weakest hardware and lacked 3rd party hardware support, but this time they geared it towards a different fan. Nintendo made the genius move of appealing to the untapped casual gamer market. Now mothers, fathers, little sisters, great uncles and the family hamster could join in the fun. For a while this worked great. Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii This, Wii That. This, coupled with the Wii's lower price point, put Nintendo right back on top. Or did it?

Yeah, how'd that work out for you?

After a few years, the mothers, the great uncles and yes, even ol' Chip the hamster were losing interest. After all, they're casual gamers and their interests lie elsewhere. After a couple of years they migrated away to smartphones for games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush. To be fair, there was no way for Nintendo to predict that. So what was left for the rest of us "true" gamers? A weak system, lacking in high definition graphics and a library games made for kids. Gamers flocked to the competitors for edgy, hi-tech hits like Halo, Gears of War and Uncharted. Nintendo, meanwhile, was releasing yet another Mario game. Eventually, Nintendo tried to play catch up and released the Wii U. And here we are today.
Not much has changed; the Wii U is still the technically weakest system, it's still a nightmare for 3rd party developers to make games for them and they're still releasing yet ANOTHER Mario game and yet ANOTHER Zelda game. Don't misunderstand me, Nintendo still makes very high quality games, and there's nothing inherently wrong with the Wii or the Wii U. However, when is the last time Nintendo created a new IP? It seems that all they've made for the last 10 years is Marios and different Wii sports. By the end of the Wii's run, there was a pretty bad stigma surrounding the Wii name, so instead of distancing itself from that name, they call the next console the Wii U? Most people probably think it's just a Wii peripheral (of which there are many).
While the folks at Nintendo clearly love videos games, I think they're a bit detached from reality. They need to do something to compete. The Wii U is a flop, they admit that at least. They've lost vast amounts of dough for three years straight now. Luckily, they have a huge cash pile from the Wii's short heyday, but I can't imagine that will last much longer.

Yaawwwn.

Some are calling for Nintendo to either A) Let 3rd parts devs make games based on Nintendo IPs (Bethesda made Zelda?) or B) Allow Nintendo games to be released for other platforms (including mobile). While these might help, I can't realistically see Nintendo doing this... yet. One interesting idea that's been thrown in the mix is for Nintendo to make a Netflix for video games. Good idea! One low monthly fee and bam! Access to Nintendo's entire library. Personally though, I feel Nintendo should wipe its hands clean of the Wii U, cut their losses, and make a new exciting system. One that can compete. Overhaul your sorry excuse for 3rd party support and get back in there! This is shaping up to be an interesting generation.


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The AvP Conundrum Part III

In Part II, I discussed the gameplay for each species as well some other nuances. Here, we go into multiplayer and features and finally conclude this conundrum.


Multiplayer:
In a lot of ways, 2010's Aliens vs. Predator did it right. The game modes are certainly appropriate. Besides the traditional Deathmatch, Species Deathmatch, Domination and Survival modes, they brought us Infestation and Predator Hunt. I think the concept is good for all of these, but the execution was off. The problem with a game like this is that it's hard to design a level where no species has the advantage. The dark, claustrophobic tunnels level, for example, clearly gives the Xenomorph a huge advantage. Moreover, Rebellion, god bless 'em, gave both the Predator and the Alien the "Instakill" ability by hitting the E key at the right moment (ei. behind an enemy or in front of a stunned enemy). The problem with this is that it allows Xenomorph and Predator players to spam the E key. This wouldn't be a problem if the timing window was smaller or the ability had a cool down. This and level design need to be addressed. Larger, open areas where they can keep enemies at range are the Marines' playground. More levels like that perhaps?

Other must-haves: 

Gore
Both of these fantastic franchises have always been what those in the movie biz call a "hard R". That's Rated R. Language, sure. But mostly gore. Not gratuitous gore, but not restrained gore either. Again, 2010's AvP got this right. They pulled no punches, but didn't over do it. They were faithful to the source material. These are brutal creatures! They don't slit throats and strangle victims, they disembowel their prey! This needs to stay in an AvP game!
Original Music
The soundtrack for both of these franchises is iconic. James Horner's orchestral score to Aliens is perfect for the material and the setting. Alan Silvestri's suspenseful score to Predator, with the use of bongo-type percussion and jungle-type beats really captures not only the mood but the Predator itself. Both of these scores are laser etched into the fanbase's memory, invoking an almost Pavlovian response when heard, with or without accompanying visuals.This needs to be in-game, whether completely pulled from the films or somehow made into an amalgamation and it needs to be dynamic. Tone and mood is so important for this franchise.



This is the tone and mood setter, just the thought of trekking though the jungle with Predator's iconic score surrounding me bring goosebumps.
Original sound effects
As with the music, the sounds of these franchises are iconic. The Pulse Rifle's almost electronic bangs and the guttural animal-like growls of the Predator and everything in between. Why would you bother to change these, not only are these sounds perfect and loved by the fans, it seems like it would be less work to use these as opposed to making new ones.
Abilities portrayed in the movies 
While the games, over the years, have included many of the iconic abilities of all three species such as motion sensors and cloaking, some are missing or have no implementation in multiplayer. For example, the Predator can record sounds and essentially "throw" that sound somewhere to attached a prey to that location. I'd like to see this ability in multiplayer. I can see players falling right into the trap if you playback the sound of a Xenomorph or Marine being killed.
Additionally, how about being able to place sentry guns as a Marine or spit acid as an Alien? There are too many to discuss, really, but think this would add a lot to the asymmetrical warfare that is AvP multiplayer.
Mission Editor,
I realize this is asking a lot, but fact of the matter is, fans have been imagining and creating scenarios in their heads with these nightmare creatures for decades at this point. Let the players have the ability to create whatever scenario they want. An entire company of Marines with armor and air support assaulting a Xenomorph hive in an icy tundra or stalking a small Marine base in the middle of a desert as a Predator. You think or it, you create it, complete with scripts and triggers. Not only is this feature fun, but it adds to the lifespan of the game by giving unlimited replayability.

Co-op Mode
Need I say more?

Bro-Ops!

Conclusion:

I realize much of this is cautiously optimistic to say the least, but as I said in part I, if the game is to be huge, then a huge game needs to be made. These are big-time, AAA franchises and need a big-time, AAA budget and team. Aliens: Colonial Marines failed miserably. While many point the finger at Gearbox (the developer) I feel it's a cautionary tale against publishers (Sega in A: CM's case). This theoretical AvP game would have to be crowd funded and given an open deadline and developed by a team that are fans first. This is why we'll likely never see a truly "great" AvP game (or movie). It needs to be big... big enough to meet the insane standards made by fans that have been in love since day one. This is Game or Die, last surviving blog of this conundrum... signing off.

Forever locked in battle... through subpar games.

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The AvP Conundrum Part II

In part I, I discussed my personal history with the AvP franchise, as as what's right and wrong with it in my eyes. In part II, I'm going to discuss how I think the ideal AvP should be.


General gameplay: Instead of some specific incident seen from three different points of view, thestoryline should evolve organically, similar to GTA IV, with many "side quests". Initially, the playerwill start out with a specific task, then certains events will unfold which leads the player to see a grander scheme, if you will. The latest AvP has a good thing going with the specifics of how you control the three species and I would definitely keep the light attack/heavy attack system. However I think the insta-kill should be much harder to pull off and I would even utilize some quick-time events to give the prey a chance to escape. This way you actually need skill to insta-kill someone and even then, it might not work. Furthermore, you wouldn't be confined to a specific compound or spaceship, rather I would unleash the player onto an entire planet, with a map on the scale of Fallout 3 or Armed Assault. This will cast off the shackles that previous games put on the player. I would also adopt the "landmarks" or "point of interest" concept from Fallout, so you can basically "quick travel" from one place to another once they've been explored. Of course, in a game like this, the planet must be teeming with life, most of which will be hostile. This way, the player won't get bored by lengths of trekking. Speaking of life, AI will be absolutely vital. The game should generate random wildlife, which should interact with the environment and each other. Imagine playing as a Predator, you spot some nasty alien wildlife that is clearly a predator in itself. As you move in for the kill, you can see start to stalk prey of its own. You witness it take down said prey and start feeding. Now that its guard is down, you move in for the kill. Speaking of the Predator...

Predator gameplay: The general theme amongst all three species is they should all play like their movie

Was sneaking off to take a piss worth it? Hmmm?

countparts. For the Predator, imagine being able to stalk and eliminate a combat patrol one by one or
facing off with a large beast in a clash of titans. It hasn't exactly been established how much damage a
Predator can take, but you shouldn't be able to take a squad of guys in a toe-to-toe fight. Therefore you
will have to stalk them, wait for one to break off and take a piss or create a distraction, perhaps by recording their voices and playing it back to them like in the films, to divide and conquer them. To eliminate the urge to pick them off from a distance, there should be an "Honor System" (something similar was featured in the very first AvP for the Jaguar), where you get zero honor for a shoulder cannon attack and maximum honor for close quarters kill. This not only makes the game more interesting, but it is faithful to the source material; Predators don't attack unarmed or harmless prey and they will fight hand-to-hand instead of using their shoulder cannon whenever possible. While you might not get honor for a long range kill, you can still salvage some by sneaking in and stealing the body for a trophy. So you should get bonus honor for taking trophies and/or for performing the classic "skin-your-prey-and-hang-them-upside-down", which maybe you can use as a scare tactic for prey you're stalking. Speaking of scare tactic, human and other prey AI should have a level of "fear" and/or "panic" that varies depending on a range of circumstances. Furthermore, it shouldn't be uniform because, to put it bluntly, some people are braver than others, so they're far less likely to lose their cool. On top of that, human prey should be tricky. Very tricky. For example, after losing some members of their squad, the remaining Marines will realize what's going on, and perhaps set a trap for you. So let's say you're tracking their movement by switching to infrared and looking for warm footprints etc., you're lead into a tripmine booby trap if you're not paying attention, or you're lead into a bottleneck, open for an ambush. Or, perhaps like in the movie, they attempt to snare you, Boy Scouts style. When stalking, the game should be programmed to allow for the squad to escape, basically letting them disappear into the jungle. This way, when you make a kill, they run and disappear and  you'll have to hunt them down. Essentially, when you find a squad, hunting them becomes a "mission" and each kill is a "chapter" in that mission, possibly involving a cutscene between kills to setup their escape. In the end, all this creates a sense of accomplishment when you finally manage to wipe them out. To eliminate any kind of lull between kills, you can take time to hunt other wildlife, this is what would necessitate having an environment teeming with life. For healing, the Predator should have a healing kit just like the film and to heal, the player needs to play a mini-game. The amount you heal correlates to how well you played. In multiplayer, I would replace this with the more traditional means from previous games.
All that said, your overall "goal" would be as simple as "Perform the hunt, your goal is X amount of honor" then let the game unfold from there. The player will get a chance to clash with local fauna (hell, maybe even some nasty flora), humans that might be on the planet, maybe even stumble upon an Alien hive. Specific quests can be picked up which can lead you to other locale such as a military base, caves, a spaceship... anywhere really.

Alien gameplay: For the walking weapon that is the Alien, there should be a healthy mix of teamwork and lone wolf action. The cool thing about the Alien is that it can be realistic (relatively speaking) for one Alien to take out many opponents or for it to take many Aliens to take down one or few opponents. It all depends on the circumstances. Therefore, the Alien campaign should be very story driven. It might first start out as collecting hosts for the hive, then later you stumble onto a Marine base or camp, so the queen commands all Aliens to attack. At that point you'll be part of a swarm, which can play out like a large battle that can be somewhat random but also have some scripted events. So, for example, maybe there's a heavy gun emplacement, might be manned, might not. Maybe the Marines try to evacuate via dropship, maybe they make it, maybe you stop them in time. Maybe they have sentry guns, but, as a scripted event, one of your swarm mates is able destroy the control panel in one of the bunkers, or maybe not and they fend off the attack. Maybe the Marines are prepared and the queen orders a retreat and a new plan. There are dozen of variables in that scenario alone. Imagine dozens of Aliens attacking a Predator camp as seen in the 2010 film "Predators". Maybe you decide you have what it takes to take the camp by yourself, ninja style.

Who IS this poor bald guy!?

Another neat feature of the Alien is the fact that it takes on the features of its host. There is a lot of potential in this arena. Perhaps there can be a system where you can capture some local wildlife, bring it to the hive to be impregnated, then choose to "switch over" to the Alien that's born. New weapons, new opportunity. Now maybe you can attack that Marine camp again as some kind of giant rhino-esque Alien. How about a flying Alien? Wouldn't that be something? Oh, or a burrowing Alien! Additionally, this can add to teamplay by having the RPG-esque roles. Some hosts might birth a "tank" Alien, another a "DPS" Alien, another a "healer" Alien and perhaps another that births some kind of acid-spitting "ranged damage" Alien, as seen in the latest AvP game as well as both Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.

Marine gameplay: Squad-based, squad-based, squad-based! This is something previous games did completely wrong. The "lone wolf soldier" gimmick was fine in Wolfenstein 3D, but it doesn't work nowadays and it certainly doesn't work in the AvP universe. It's also somewhat of a dicotomy, because, other than the player, the humans are potrayed as fodder, for the most part. So how are we to suspend disbelief when a lone Marine has the ability to take down dozens or hundreds of Aliens and even some Predators when the source material has always indicated otherwise. Sure, one guy did kill the Predator in the films (after the Predator slaughtered many) but that's the exception more than the rule. Since 1986, thousands of fans have dreamt of being in a squad of Colonial Marines and not one game has ever delivered that. That is a crying shame, so it's time to deliver (that said, look out for Gearbox's "Aliens: Colonial Marines" in 2012!) The Marines will need to be in some kind of conflict to have the setting make sense. According to the "Colonial Marines Technical Manual", the US is at war with China. That can easily be worked in. That way, it makes a bit more sense to have Marines patrolling an enemy controlled planet looking for the Chinese as opposed to looking for alien killing machines. Missions can vary as much as they do in real life. So, imagine you're on a patrol and you and your squad are attacked by a pack of Aliens. Besides the usual "bang bang! boom boom!", there needs to be a squad leader screaming orders. Squadmates should be yelling confirmations as well as things like "There more coming this way!" and the like. The Aliens should be fairly easy to kill and should not charge in right away. Why? Because imagine if the Aliens were all running in at full speed, then all of the Marines would run backwards and fire (or die) and it would all turn into a clusterf*ck. They addressed this in the latest AvP game; they had it so the Alien would come at you at a decent pace, not too quick, then leap sideway when it took fire or stumbled back from direct hits. This impeded their progress towards you. I would keep this feature, but make the Aliens more numerous. So, what happens after the attack is over varies wildly depending on what happened. Maybe you one Marine died and you move on, maybe 5 Marines died and you try to head back to base. Maybe just the squad leader died or maybe one member of the squad has some kind of breakdown. There might be some heated dialogue between two or more members of the squad. All these things create a very cinematic experience. You can get emotionally attached  to the different personalities in the squad and be genuinely pissed/saddened when he/she dies.

Yeah! Bald guy gets some payback!

It might sound like you're going to be patrolling a lot, but that's one mission example. Missions can vary as much as they do in real life. You might go on a demolition mission, rescue mission or seek and destroy. What you run into along the way can be different everytime you play. Instead of picking up guns along the way, you can choose your role in the squad which in turn will determine your role in the mission.
Aliens vs. Predator 2's Marine campaign had a very interesting sequence towards the end where you're being stalked by a Predator. You see him pointing his target laser at you, then disappearing. Then a few seconds later, you see him leaping from one rooftop to another up ahead. This is the closest I've ever come to feeling hunted. That needs to replicated, then turned up to 10. As discussed in the Predator gameplay section, the Predator needs to stalk you. So again, you're on a mission. A squad member takes  piss and disappears. You try to contact him via radio... nothing. The Predator took him, so the patrol turns into a search party. At this point you might see the Predator watching you from a tree, performing the "disappearing eyes" then vanishing. Then later you'll see him leaping between two boulders, only for a second. Or is it your eyes playing tricks? Maybe you'll find your missing friend skinned, hanging upside down. This showcases why it's important to have a good AI. The Predator needs to have a sophisticated "stalking" mode. There also would/should be many scripted events, but the overall campaign will be sandbox in that you accomplish objectives however you want and no two playthroughs will be the same. You may encounter certain lifeforms or not, depending on many variables. So, if your squad is going down a hallway, then an Alien pops out of a vent and grabs the guy in the back and tries to pull him in, maybe you make it in time to rescue him via quick time event, or you don't and he's taken. You load your last saved game and try again and  this time, maybe the Alien doesn't pop out at all. The world is your sandbox.

That's it for part II, in part III I'll discuss mulitplayer and other game modes as well some other must-haves.


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The AvP Conundrum Part I

If you take two beloved sci-fi franchises, each one being an absolute brilliant example of science fiction, entertainment and overall a milestone in popular culture, and put them together, you would think that you have a sure fire hit, right? Get Aliens and Predators and put them together on paper, PC, console or a movie screen and it's surely destined for greatness, right?

I WISH.

What the f... weak!

Specifically in the video game world, nobody has really been able to really make an Aliens vs. Predator game that really became great, like to the level of household names like Halo or Gears of War. In fact, nobody has even made a very successful AvP game. Of course, the definition of "successful" is up for debate, but I would say that no AvP game has been able to break through that proverbial glass ceiling that only a handful of franchises have. I find this sad... and a bit pathetic. How can you put together two phenomena so popular and beloved and not be able to smash said ceiling to bits? Let's focus on the three games made from Rebellion (oddly enough, all three have virtually the same name), as they are considered the best ones.

Oh, s**t's goin' down!

In 1994 when I was 9 years old, I practically defecated myself when I saw the article for "Alien vs. Predator" in my "Game Players" magazine (which I still own). The article included screenshots that made me realize it's a first-person shooter, not some crappy side-scrolling beat 'em up like the first two games to carry the AvP moniker. Not only could you be Predators or Aliens, but you could be my heroes: The Colonial Marines! I jumped for joy! Then, my heart was torn to bits when I read it was an exculsive for the Atari Jaguar. I didn't own one and I didn't know anyone that owned one. In fact, nobody owned one, which is why it was such a complete failure. So, despite a good critical reception, this game was doomed to fail financially, just like every other Jaguar exclusive. I ended up playing it several years later in late 90's, when the emulation scene started to flourish. I remember the emulation being less than perfect, but good enough. Maybe from ages 9 to 13 I had mentally built up what Alien vs. Predator could be like, so unsurprisingly I was disappointed. Yeah, it was different and a solid FPS, but ultimately the poor presentation ruined the atmosphere which, in turn, ruined the game. The sprite animations were poor, the sound was terrible, the level design uninspired... it just felt bleh. Maybe I was spoiled by having just finished Half-Life, I don't know. Really, a good AvP game cannot be made with 1994's technology, but at least they tried.

Apparently, in 1994, infrared was a big
orange mess.

Luckily, not long after I found out "Aliens vs. Predator" for the PC was set to be released in 1999. I read any and all gaming magazines to find out as much about the game, that was surely to become my favorite of all time, as possible. At the time, the internet wasn't quite at the point where you could find a plethora of articles and features on any game you typed into Google. In fact, I had never heard of Google in 1999, I believe I was using Lycos. Then, in my issue of Computer Gaming World (notice all the name-dropping?), I read that Aliens vs. Predator will require a 3D accelerator. This was unheard of! Some games recommended them, sure, but required!? Luckily by this point in my life, I had a healthy PC game piracy ring going as I was the only kid that was both a PC gamer and an owner of this deviced called a "CD burner" Ah, simpler times. So, after selling several games at 10 bucks a pop I picked up my 3Dfx Voodoo3 3000 AGP, I was ready to go.

Kudos to you, Rebellion.

I still remember my amazement during my first playthrough. The atmosphere was spot-on; I was terrified to move forward, my heart thumped as I slowly made my way down ridiculously dark corridors, I freaked out at every blip on my motion tracker. The sounds were straight from the movies (mostly) and gameplay was unique. Being able to blow limbs off of aliens and have them come at you was groundbreaking. All three species' campaigns were a blast. The multiplayer was awesome, and although it was a bit unbalanced, it kept me going for years after release. It even had online co-op and was one of the first FPSs (if not the first) to do so. Online forums were getting big at this time, and I was a big participant on AvP forums and on MPlayer. Oh yeah, I was definitely one of those annoying 14 year old kids. Later on, mods would come out and would keep me going even longer. This game was amazing. Unfortunately, it was a bit overshadowed by other games of the day and really wasn't quite the success that it maybe could have been. Additionally, despite my massive fanboydom, I always felt this game wasn't quite "there". It was awesome, but not anywhere near its potential. At the time I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I just felt this tug in the back of my mind that really kept me (and apparently most gamers) from putting this game up there with Half-Life, Doom and other "name brand" FPSs. I now realize why, and I will get to that in a minute.

So, ten years (and one okay but disappointing non-Rebellion made AvP2) later, "Aliens vs. Predator" was released. Again, the atmosphere was captured pretty well and all three species' campaigns are a blast. The sites and sounds are wonderful. There is also a decent amount of multiplayer game modes. However, this time, the species of Alien, Predator and Colonial Marine are horribly unbalanced, even worse than before. The Aliens and Predators have the ability to "insta-kill" their prey if they can either stun them or get behind them. It's a very cool feature that really adds to the presentation of the game; instead of running up a clawing their opponent to death, for example, the Alien will pick them up and ram their secondary mouth through their skull. Very cool. However, the circumstances that enable the "Press E" command are extremely lenient; I can't tell you how many times I've turned around face to face with an Alien who then does his from-behind insta-kill. Basically, a Predator or Alien player can run around spam the E button and rack up kills fairly quick. The Alien can see players through walls and can run on any surface, so, thanks to level design amongst other factors, they have the greatest advantage. Playing as the Alien takes little to no skill whatsoever, so a skilled Marine player won't be able to outkill even a n00b Alien player. The Preds and Marines aren't just fodder by any means, and really the developers were probably sticking to being faithful to the source material, so it is what it is. Couple this with the fact that everyone spawns all over the map at random, multiplayer can be quite the clusterf*ck. Other multiplayer modes, like Infestation and Predator Hunt, aren't so bad, so I give kudos to Rebellion on their third attempt. Anyway, the game came out to mixed reviews and good sales. Cool, so there's still money in the franchise, which means more AvP games which always makes me a happy boy. Still, even the latest title is not quite "there", just like before. So, what is it? What is this missing attribute that been holding down the franchise?

AvP evolution

The thing that the boys at Rebellion and other dev studios don't seem to realize, is that the concept of both the Alien and the Predator are not conducive to linear gameplay. In other words, it must be free-form! Think along the lines of GTA IV or Crisis. To truely get your head around the experience of being one of these nightmare creatures, you must be free to do what you want and go where you want. You can't be restricted to certain small areas. Yes, it would be a grand undertaking but something as huge (or at least it used to be huge) as Aliens vs. Predator deserves no less. In fact, a great AvP game for the ages must be a grand undertaking because, despite the innumberable disappoints of the past, fans have built up in their minds what an AvP game should be like, just like myself some 17 years ago prior to the release of the first AvP. To meet these huge expectations, a huge game needs to be developed.

How can something like this be done?

In parts II and III, I will discuss general gameplay as well as species specific gameplay. Stay tuned.

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Retro Respawn: Tyrian 2000

It's possible to consider Tyrian the perfect game. It has a flawless mix of action and humor with excellent replay value. It's also quite possibly the best top-down airplane/spacecraft shooter of all time. Taking place in the distant future, you play as Trent Hawkins, an ace pilot working for a huge, evil corporation. Said corporation kills your best friend and parents, at which point you embark on a lengthy adventure featuring revenge, escapes, twists, backstabbing and stuff blowing up spanning 5 episodes. The plot itself unfolds through transmissions you receive between missions. Following the plot is entirely optional and doesn't affect the gameplay at all. So whether you're a "story guy" or not, you're set. If you DO follow the plot, you will really get an appreciation for this game's humor. Amongst the plot driven transmissions, you will run into ads for silly future products as well as reference to other games from Epic like One Must Fall 2097 and Jazz Jackrabbit.

*pew pew pewwwww*

Odd for this genre, you can actually take some heavy damage before you go down. Your shields, which recharge at a rate depending on the strength of your ship's power source, need to be depleted before you take hull damage. Your shields, power source and hull are upgradable, so later in the game you'll be able to weather some serious punishment. That said, don't expect to fly through (get it? FLY through? Eh? Ehhh??) this game with little effort. Enemies will be able to take (and dish out) heavy damage as well.

Feel free to browse.

Like others in the genre, you can upgrade your ship and its weapons. You have one forward weapon, one rear weapon and two "sidekicks". The sidekicks fly next to you and have limited ammo. They're not firing all the time, however, and have dedicated buttons for firing them (Q and E). They also don't have to be the same as each other; you can purchase left and right sidekicks separately. The weapons and sidekicks can range from mainstays like vulcan cannons and homing missiles to crazy omnidirectional star bursts and flamethrowers. Trying out every weapons combination in one playthrough is near impossible.

There are many game modes, including Arcade Mode which takes out the plot elements and shopping for upgrades with money turns into in-game instant powerups. There aren't as many weapons as story mode and you can't upgrade armor, shields or generator, but in this respect you're outfitted with a decent ship from the beginning. Additionally, the multiplayer (2-player co-op) is a fun, not to mention different, experience. Both players essentially control half of one ship, designated "Dragonwing" and "Dragonhead". Dragonhead is the small and maneuverable, yet fragile ship while Dragonwing is, naturally, the big, slow heavily armored ship. They also have abilities and power-up unique to each other. When joined together, they form "Steel Dragon", where player 1 controls the ship whilst player 2 controls the turret. It's a blast!



Many top-down shooters originated in the arcades, so they're inherently difficult; designed to eat up your coins. Tyrian isn't so hard that you want to rage quit, but it certainly isn't easy. You really feel a sense of accomplishment from completing a level. The fast paced gameplay prevents you from ever using the word "boring". Even by today's standards it's an action-pack title and there really are few things in life as pleasurable as having hoards of enemies mowed down before you by your awesome firepower.



Sure, the *bang bangs* and the *pew pews* are solid, but the music of Tyrian is a defining feature for the title. The effort and passion from the composer is blatantly evident. In most video games, the music nice, but forgettable. Then every once in a while a game comes along where the music becomes part of your life. I mean, who doesn't know the tune to Super Mario Bros? Can you imagine where Contra and Castlevania would be with mediocre music? Tyrian's music is brilliant; something you would listen to even without the game.

By 1995 standards, the visuals were good. By today's standards it's still pretty. The scrolling background is highly detailed, the enemies even more so. Weapons like lasers and flamethrowers look lasery and flamethrowery, respectively. Movement animations inherently don't apply to top-down air/spacecraft shooters and that axiom holds true for Tyrian. Ships move around, deadly things come from them, they have maybe 2 or 3 frames of animations, nothing fancy but not certainly not bad.  The visual style is timeless and the resolution is high enough that even on big, modern monitors it doesn't look too pixelated. 

Between the many game mode, the multiplayer and the plethora of hidden minigames, there is plenty to do. Nowadays, it's all fairly standard in a good game, but for its time, the developers really went out of their way to provide more game content than most titles of the day. You l33t hax0rz out there can even grab the art and source code, because that was made public near the end of the 2000s. Thus, Tyrian has been ported to many platforms.

Given the sheer amount of weaponry and other upgrades in the game, by the time you finish the story mode you usually want to play again just so you can try out more weapon combinations. Challenging yourself to play "Super Tyrian" mode will keep you going for a while and the 2-player co-op is still fun, even by today's' standards. In fact, you can play this classic with a friend over the Internet (although it will take a little research into how). I still find myself play Tyrian 16 years after I first experienced it.

Tyrian is very well rounded, especially for the genre. It's a PC gaming landmark and really, is a legend in its own right. I would recommend this game for any gamer and since it's now freeware you really have nothing to lose. The pick-up-and-play value is incalculable... in fact, I think I'm gonna go play me some Tyrian.

Scoring is done on a scale of 1 to 5, overall score is the average of the first 5 categories. Scores are defined as:
1: Completely horrible.
2: Below Average, doesn't even meet the bar.
3: Average, what you would expect, nothing more nothing less.
4: Above average, developers really went the extra mile.
5: Pretty flawless, little if anything can be improved,


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East Vs. West

Let's turn the clock back about 13 to 15 years. Back then, there were many now-legendary video game franchises that were involved in both hot competition and cold war. Street Fighter was the king of the fighting franchise, but there were many hardcore followers for SF's competition. The SNK titles like Art of Fighting, Samurai Showdown and the star-laden King of Fighters were huge. Midway's Mortal Kombat series was putting out best-seller after best-seller. Later on, Namco's Tekken series started to take the fighting game world by storm.
3D adventure games like like Crash Bandicoot and Banjo Kazooie were making a big splash with 3D Sonic and Mario titles as well.
Doom and Duke Nukem were the shooters of choice, later on Unreal would join the fray.

As a gamer in the 90's, you had a myriad of awesome franchises to choose from. The dorkier of us would get together in our parents' basements and, between gaming sessions despite the warm sun outside, possibly debate fantasy match-ups.
"Who's better, Mario or Sonic?"

The future...? *Sigh* If only.

"OK, if Doomguy and Duke Nukem fought in an arena, no weapons, who would win?"
"Alright now what if it were an urban setting and they both had their respective full arsenals?"
"Ryu vs. Kyo. Go."
Even today I can get together with any gamer and debate fantasy grudge matches between anything really. Comic book characters, athletes, video game characters, cartoon characters... it's all good.
Thankfully, it seems that some game developers like to do the same. Instead of doing it over a couple of beers, they actually go out and make the games to see our fantasies come true!
We received a small taste of this in the late 90's with X-Men vs. Street Fighter. While both SF and X-Men: Children of the Atom were games made by Capcom, X-Men is a Marvel intellectual property so it was really cool to see these two groups duke it out. Later on, we would get Street Fighter vs. Marvel then the enormously popular and successful Marvel vs. Capcom series.
Still, the series wasn't that much a fantasy match up; it was definitely cool, but not some of the first dream matches we'd want to see. That's why, in the year 2000, it happened. A clash of titans my four-eyed, pocket protecting friends and I had debated and dreamt about. A match up I thought I would never, ever see: Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000

Holy. &*^%ing. Crap.

*Drool*

Up until that point, you never really saw two companies collaborate on a game like of this magnitude, especially two companies that have been fierce rivals for the last decade. Finally, Terry Bogard vs. Ken Masters! Ryu vs. Kyo! Iori vs. Akuma! Yes, even Dan Hibiki vs. Joe Higashi! Well, the game didn't turn out GREAT, some characters were directly ported over and looked horrible and some key characters were missing. They made up for it a little buy releasing 2001's Capcom vs. SNK: Mark of the Millennium 2001. Much better, not the best, but still really good. SNK would develop a couple of their own "SNK vs. Capcom" (notice the name switch) titles which were actually superior in many ways, but still not where many of us geeky fantasy gamers were picturing such a title.
Since then, we've seen Capcom vs. pretty-much-every-freakin'-Japanese-game-company-out-there with more on the way. Which finally leads me to my point.

Whoever thought an Italian plumber and a hedgehog
could be rivals?

All these fantasy fights, all these crazy crossovers, seem to be an almost exclusively Japanese/Eastern thing to do. WHY? How come SNK and Capcom could put aside any possible differences and/or legal obstacles and decide, just this once, "Let's work together."? Sure, SNK was going out of business at the time, but that's completely besides the point.  Even long time rivals Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario from Sega and Nintendo respectively finally got a chance to proverbially throw-down, as it were. In fact, let's take third-party crossovers out of the picture. There are still a lot of first-party crossovers, which is exactly what King of Fighters is... oh, not to mention this little-known gem called Super Smash Brothers.
Now, how many of these do you see from western developers? Yeah okay, there are maybe one or two tongue-in-cheek crossovers like Quake III and Super Meat Boy and there are some crossover elements in games like Team Fortress 2 or cameos like Kratos in the newest Mortal Kombat. In terms of full blown crossovers, there probably aren't even enough to count on one hand. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe? Eh, they're both owned by Warner Bros. but for the sake of argument... okay that's one. Anymore?

Meh...

Thanks to titles like "Namco X Capcom", we gamers were able to see epic showdowns like Pac-Man vs. Megaman. So, why are we not seeing head-to-heads like:
Master Chief vs. Marcus Fenix
Sam Fisher vs. Max Payne
Duke Nukem vs. Gordon Freeman
Commander Shephard vs. Niko Bellic
I want to see the Team Fortress guys trying to survive in Left 4 Dead. In fact, let's break down barriers altogether and put together "Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter: East & West Collide" OK, maybe that's a little, let's say, incompatible, but you get the picture. Sadly, for now these are all confined to our imaginations. But what is really stopping developers from doing this?
Fans want it: Check.
Make boatloads of cash: Check.
They want to see it as bad as we do: Probably check.
This really makes Japanese developers look like gamers and western developers look like a bunch of bureaucrats.

Can't we all just get along?

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