Ancient Aliens vs Predator game briefly resurrected by Steam player thirst for Six Packs

Rebelling against obsolescence

Deep beneath the smog of a plausibly denied planetoid, determination lurks a abstraction hulk afloat of dessicated manus monsters, shorn dreadlocks and long-emptied Pulse Rifles. The vas mostly lies silent, but each truthful often, an past server heavy wrong the halfway crackles awake, beaming an ominous awesome acold retired into the void, and the chitinous corridors travel live with flamethrowers and squelchy stabbing noises and oh, truthful overmuch screaming. Also, the coveted chirping of Steam achievements.

The vas successful question is Alien Vs Predator. Not Rebellion's archetypal three-way FPS from 1999, mind, but the 2010 threequel which radical derided astatine the time, but which is intelligibly immoderate gradation of Good Video Game successful that a fewer of those radical are inactive playing it, 15 years later.

This weekend, the supposedly dormant crippled enjoyed a abrupt Steam playercount bounce to astir 5 1000 concurrent players, attraction of a community-run server. Many were motivated by the tendency to gain 1 of the game's rarest Steam achievements, The Six Pack, which requires you to play a ranked lucifer with six Steam friends. That a whopping 2.2% of players person earned this to day suggests (out of context) that the archetypal AVP multiplayer country died connected its arse alternatively quickly. So it's bully that somebody's coordinating efforts to boost the numbers. We'll marque it to 3.0 someday. Perhaps successful different 15 years.

I'm penning this up partially due to the fact that it's grounds of the bully that tin hap erstwhile publishers instrumentality steps to guarantee that their online games tin beryllium played aft the cessation of authoritative support. And partly, I'm penning it up due to the fact that it's bully to revisit Rebellion's Alien games. The 1999 crippled was a frantic pressure-cooker shooter with fantabulous lighting, successful that you mostly couldn't spot the Aliens until you flash-bulbed them with muzzle fire. It besides featured galore beauteous adaptations of the movie sets, which you could clamber each implicit arsenic a sticky-fingered xenomorph. It didn't bash astir arsenic bully a occupation with the Predators, but past again, determination has ne'er been a bully Predator game. You cognize I talk truth, Yautja lovers. Fight me.

The 2010 crippled has been overmuch shat-upon. In our review, Alec Meer (RPS successful peace) witheringly summed it up arsenic "not a unspeakable singleplayer shooter", "just a precise mean one", adding that the multiplayer astir saves it: "when a mates of adept players are stalking random panickers similar myself, this truly threatens to beryllium the crippled we hoped it would be." I was likewise unenamored erstwhile I reviewed the crippled for immoderate mag oregon other, but the assemblage thrust for Six Pack achievements has maine yearning for the dropship.

The Six Pack inaugural seems to person prompted a question of Overwhelmingly Positive Steam reviews. I was tickled by the 1 that objects that the crippled should much decently beryllium called "Marines vs Aliens vs Predator". I similar the accusation that quality players of Aliens vs Predator - which I estimation covers astir about 70% of you, based connected the wording and tenor of the mean RPS remark - are successful information of feeling near out. Also, Marines aren't a species, but don't fto that halt you launching a Change.org petition. While you're astatine it, spot if you tin get Godzilla vs Kong retitled Godzilla vs Kong vs Commuters.