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Valve Releases Updated Alien Swarm For Free With Code Base
baronvoncarson tips news that today Valve released an updated version of Alien Swarm, a popular Unreal Tournament 2004 total conversion mod. The creators of the mod were hired by Valve, and they've helped turn it into a stand-alone game running on the Source engine. Valve is also releasing the code base for Alien Swarm and an SDK. The game is available for free on Steam.
If only the summary mentioned how they ported it to the source engine...
Does this mean Nightblade is officially canceled?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
If by crapware you mean the most excellent social gaming platform in existence?
The stated purpose of steam is to distribute game content; it's a digital distribution network. If you have a game in your library, it will serve you the entire download at high speed any number of times you please, to any computer in the world that you please, at any time. No, it won't serve you the content if you don't have it on your account. Call that DRM if you want.
Hmmm, am I the only one who is disappointed that there is no Mac version?
No. Tremulous uses the Quake 3 engine from iD, which is now open source.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
I just realized there is no way to moderate you as "-1 wrong", so I'll comment.
In addition to be wrong about Alien Swarm (if you can't RTFA, at least read the summary), you're wrong about Tremulous too. It's based the GPL Quake 3 source code.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Strictly speaking it is DRM, but it's in a form that isn't about punishing the end user to make some high-rent manager with delusions of IP feel better.
They get a lot of crap for the 'evil' DRM that is Steam, but seriously: they're giving away free stuff here. Incidentally, they gave Portal away for a time when they launched Steam for Mac. Their mod tools are free as well. AND they didn't require anyone to re-buy Valve apps for Mac when they ported them if you already bought 'em for Windows. I don't know of any of the other major software publishing houses that would do that. I'll be giving this mod a try as soon as I get home tonight.
not reading the posts you are responding too is just too far.
Psh, I don't even read the posts I quote. Were you talking about puppies or something up there?
Absolutely. I understand why certain people rag on Steam, it is DRM in the most literal sense. But it's DRM done right. It isn't engineered to be as obtrusive as possible. It does exactly what it's built to and compensates for it's shortcomings by providing a lot of free services as an incentive to use it. Couple that with it's excellent prices, and I don't see any reason to complain.
Furthermore, if there's any company that's going to make damn sure to unlock it's games if it goes under, it's Valve.
If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.
Yeah, poor Black Cat. They got offered and accepted a hiring from one of the most successful development houses in the world and then got paid to finish their free volunteer project and release it for free anyway. Life's a bitch.
If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.
I'm not actually sure I'd call Steam's prices "excellent" aside from their frequent sales. Sales are nice, of course, but overall I've found Steam to typically be a little bit above what I can find from online retailers, and occasionally above what I can find on a physical shelf. I very rarely buy Steam games at more than half their list price; it's just not worth it. They also charge just as much for new titles as anywhere else, which is to say they charge a hell of a lot for new releases (over $60 for a single game with under 50 hours of unique playthrough seems really, really lame to me).
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Sorry, but "All DRM is evil, period" is just plain wrong, and speaks to your prejudices more than anything else. Of course, it's perfectly understandable why you have those prejudices in the first place, considering how abusively the technology has been used by the entertainment industry, but still.
The issues with the first sale doctrine are valid - but honestly, the real reason people want to sell these items second-hand is to recover some of the punishing prices that the games are being sold for new. Valve goes some way to address this with the deep discounts they offer on a lot of their products. I don't buy a game unless a) I want it badly enough to justify swallowing the initial high price, or b) it gets discounted to where it's undeniably good value. Considering the ridiculously low prices Valve sells games for on a regular basis, I think this is perfectly acceptable.
The games that charge an obscene amount for little other reason than they can (*cough*MW2*cough*) don't find their way onto my account.
And "Steam is the most onerous DRM out there today" - hyperbole much? Not to mention it's just outright wrong. *cough*Ubisoft*cough*
Even though I agree with you on the most parts, I think it's worth noting that it is extremely difficult to return items on Steam (if at all possible). Also, keep in mind the price differences Valve places upon customers. A game can cost $35 in the US and costs 35EUR in the EU. I have also personally purchased a game online which required activation on Steam. When trying that, Steam told me I was not allowed to own/use that game where I live and that I should return it. Steam in general refuses to sell me any games that aren't watered down to the lowest "violence" levels. Even though I can buy the original versions right at the store.
Also, "high speed" is kind of a debatable term in this context. I guess 2MB/s is a high speed (I hardly ever get beyond that). But downloading a game from my library still takes longer than installing it from a disc. And the connection issues are even worse for the dedicated servers I run. Installing/updating server installations have always suffered from low speeds for me. This can be very frustrating at times.
I still agree that Steam is most likely the best platform of it's kind around and I appreciate a lot of the benefits compared to retail games. Yet the above mentioned experiences leave at least a bitter aftertaste.
Bah, I don't even read the posts I write!
...ooh look... something shiny...
If only someone would invent some sort of "secure hash algorithm"...
daemonc (145175)
I just realized there is no way to moderate you as "-1 wrong"
Greetings! Welcome to Slashdot!
A bit of belated advice, if you're going to buy a user ID on eBay you really shouldn't waste your money on anything with more than 4 digits.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I was about to tell him to RTFA when I realized that it was actually in the summary. What is the world coming to when slashdotters don't even read the summary, much less RTFA?
Actually, the .torrent popped up on a couple of private forums. Not a haxxored cracked copy, but the basic game file, simply because the Steam servers couldn't keep up. I know a couple of people ended up sharing it via sneakernet on 4GB flash drives, too :) Once the download starts, you can close steam, copy the full game into the specific folder, restart steam, and resume the download, and the game will install normally on your steam account, assuming your account is authorized to play that game. Works great. We did something similar last year at Quakecon (2000+ person lan party) when Valve released a major TF2 update the afternoon the event started. Had to update about 100 people via sneakernet, and then tether them to an iphone to get steam to verify the data and go into offline mode. What a farking PITA, but it worked!
moox. for a new generation.
All DRM is evil, period, because DRM inherently violates the doctrine of first sale. QED.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Wow, 149 comments and not a single one modded up about actual gameplay?
I'll go first - it's a pretty fun game. It's a squad based top-down shooter based on the Source engine. Multiplayer using either shared or dedicated servers. You choose one of 4 roles - Commander, Special Weapons, Tech, or Medic. There can be more than one Medic for example, but most missions require at least one Tech to hack open doors.
You choose your weapon load-outs and characters/roles and enter the mission. You can carry two main weapons and one off-hand weapon. Some of the main weapons are unique to the character type - for example only Special Weapons can carry an auto-gun, and only a Medic can carry a medic gun, and some are available to all players. As you complete missions you gain XP and levels, which unlocks additional weapons. The levels are account specific, not character specific - for example I can get to level 9 playing as Special Weapons, which unlocks the Medic gun, and then I can switch to Medic so I can actually use it.
The controls are fairly simple - W,A,S,D for up/down/left/right, and the mouse controls aim/firing, but since it's top-down you do have to aim in 3d space - you can aim close or far away. Friendly fire does happen with all but a couple weapons so you need to be careful not to hurt your teammates.
Aliens swarm from almost everywhere - I guess that's how it got the name. They do come from creative places - climbing up from hatches in the floor, jumping down from the ceiling up above, climbing walls and tunnels. You can never be sure where they will come from. The missions seem to be mostly linear objectives, like gain access to this area, go here, destroy the alien biomass, escape, etc. and are filled with choreographed sequences of alien battles to keep you on your toes. If you stay too long in one area you will start to get random alien attacks as well, so it's not 100% choreographed/scripted.
There are only about 7 or 8 missions in the game, and a group of friends and I were able to complete all of them on Normal mode in a few hours last night. We got to level 10 or so and unlocked a lot of weapons in doing so. I guess now the only thing to do is play it on Hard modes or wait until they release more maps/content.
Some standouts: Your off-hand weapons are very unique and can be used for tactical advantage. For example, you can get combat flares that increase auto-aim effectiveness when dropped, hornet swarm missiles that are heat seeking, even adrenaline that makes the game go into slow motion - which has to be the coolest effect. In slow motion everything goes into The Matrix-like mode where you have tons of time to aim and line up your shots. The game also does it at certain times on it's own just for dramatic effect.
Conclusion: A fun but short game - it will be interesting to see what type of content the mod-community creates for it. The squad-based tactics can be surprisingly deep if you have a good group of players on voice communication. Definitely worth a download for at least an afternoon or evening of fun with 3 friends.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
So.. it's basically gauntlet?
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