Valve Injects Left 4 Dead Tech Into Alien Swarm
Have those waves of aliens become predictable and boring? Well, Valve has just what you need with a new, more dynamic, gameplay mode.
In response to player feedback and feature requests, Valve has added several new features to its free sci-fi shooter Alien Swarm. Chief among these is the new "Onslaught" mode, which uses an AI director - similar to the one found in Left 4 Dead - to make the experience different every time.
According to Valve [http://store.steampowered.com/news/4238/], there will be a number of factors that determine when and where the aliens will appear from, including the squad's stress level. Onslaught will work with any difficulty mode, including the new "Brutal" setting that Valve has added, which is pitched even harder than "Insane." As a cherry on the top of the difficulty sundae, Valve has added a new "friendly fire" mode for the truly hardcore, where friendly weapons do full damage, and squads can be gunned down by their own turrets if they're not careful.
This sounds like the ultimate Alien Swarm challenge: super-hard adversaries that come in unpredictable waves at a squad whose weapons are as deadly to each other as they are to the enemies. I have to admit it sounds a little exhilarating, although I doubt I'd last longer than a minute. If you're feeling a little more capable however, you can pick up the game from Steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/] for free.
Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-25-alien-swarm-adds-ai-director]
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Have those waves of aliens become predictable and boring? Well, Valve has just what you need with a new, more dynamic, gameplay mode.
In response to player feedback and feature requests, Valve has added several new features to its free sci-fi shooter Alien Swarm. Chief among these is the new "Onslaught" mode, which uses an AI director - similar to the one found in Left 4 Dead - to make the experience different every time.
According to Valve [http://store.steampowered.com/news/4238/], there will be a number of factors that determine when and where the aliens will appear from, including the squad's stress level. Onslaught will work with any difficulty mode, including the new "Brutal" setting that Valve has added, which is pitched even harder than "Insane." As a cherry on the top of the difficulty sundae, Valve has added a new "friendly fire" mode for the truly hardcore, where friendly weapons do full damage, and squads can be gunned down by their own turrets if they're not careful.
This sounds like the ultimate Alien Swarm challenge: super-hard adversaries that come in unpredictable waves at a squad whose weapons are as deadly to each other as they are to the enemies. I have to admit it sounds a little exhilarating, although I doubt I'd last longer than a minute. If you're feeling a little more capable however, you can pick up the game from Steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/] for free.
Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-25-alien-swarm-adds-ai-director]
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