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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...
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?
Yes Nightblade has been cancelled.
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.
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.
Someone who's capable of discerning the topic at hand.
You must be a thrilling conversationalist.
"How are you doing?"
"Fine."
"Hey, have you seen that new movie?"
"Sorry, this isn't about movies. The topic at hand is about how I'm doing."
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
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.
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