New AVP game

[Trunks]

(I realize this has already been covered but I don't think it was covered all that well. No offense, Stig.)

I only got it yesterday and I have to admit that being the marine has some jumpy parts. In fact I distinctly remember yelling at the screen 'no, you go to the club you lazy b*tch! I know there's aliens in there... DID YOU NOT HEAR THE SCREAMING!?'

The game came with a certain amount of hype and excitement in the XBOX magazine community. It was the front cover of several magazines, several times. The general plot of the game is as follows:

Set on planet BG-386; a human colonist mining group discovers an ancient pyramid containing a dark and horrible secret. Across the galaxy, a race of warriors is alerted to the discovery of their pyramid and a hunting party is dispatched to ensure that it remains sealed at all costs. Deep inside the ruined pyramid meanwhile, nature’s deadliest species awakes from centuries of hibernation intent on finding new prey.

The Colonial Marine’s story is an incredible fight against all odds from horrors lurking in the dark. Surrounded on all sides yet armed to the teeth, the Colonial Marine represents humanity’s last stand with the firepower to fight back.

As the Alien, players will discover what it’s like to be the scariest, most murderous creature in the universe, with the ability to traverse any surface at lightning speed in order to get close enough to unleash its deadly claws, tail and teeth.

A master of the hunt, the Predator grants the player an arsenal of exotic weaponry with which to stalk from the shadows. Earn the greatest honor by ambushing prey up-close, before butchering them for a gory trophy kill.

The game has been deemed one of the goriest games of all time. In fact it was banned in both Australia and Germany based on these grounds. Both countries refusing to release the game in its original state.

Any game that has so much gore that it's banned in two countries sparks my curiosity. In fact it forces me to buy it. (The ban was recently overturned in Australia but the cool factor still remains.)

The Australian Classification Board has refused classification to SEGA and Rebellion's Aliens vs. Predator, barring it from sale in Australia in its current version.

The sci-fi FPS was struck off for "first-person perspective, close-up depictions of human characters being subjected to various types of violence, including explicit decapitation and dismemberment as well as locational damage such as stabbing through the chest, mouth, throat, or eyes," according to the ruling, as seen by GameSpot.

SEGA Australia told GameSpot in a statement: "We will continue to investigate all options available to us, including the possibility of appeal."

Another option would be to produce a censored version of the game, the route taken by EA and Valve recently with Left 4 Dead 2. SEGA may decide against this, since as GameInformer reported last month, the company's European arm has opted not to release AVP in Germany rather than subject it to "significant cuts that would harm the gameplay experience" to get it past the German censor.

The ACB's decision on Aliens Vs. Predator comes in the same week that it banned MMO CrimeCraft for its supposedly positive depiction of drug use.

Aliens vs. Predator is due for release in countries other than Germany and Australia in February, on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

So far I've only played through the first two parts as both Marine and Alien, just to get a feel for the difficulty and such. Whilst playing as these two species I have discovered a few flaws already.

The first being just how hard it is to play as the Marine. It involves a lot of random fire as your flashlight only actually covers an area as big as an ball on my 32" t.v screen. That can lead to some very uneven and, at times, unfair fights. Granted I began the game on the second hardest difficulty but the torch isn't affected by this, I would assume.

The second flaw I encountered was how disorientating playing as the Alien can be. I tried to climb up onto the ceiling in order to sneak attack an armed foe just to find myself wondering which way up I was and which way I was now facing. That can also lead to some uneven and unfair battles. Hell, I had to rely on the other Aliens to protect me whilst I got my bearings.

Never-the-less this still proved to be a great game, so far. It's lived up to my own estimation, anyway. I quite like to be on edge whilst I play games and this certainly puts me in that position. The first time I heard the Predator laugh (In teh same way he does in the original Predator film) I had to pause the game. I found myself searching the screen frantically for those slight imperfections in the air that show the Predators invisible outline.

Anyway, for fans of the Alien films there are the added bonus' of familiar gunfire sound effects. The return of the tracking device is also great. In fact it sticks quite well with the overall look of the colonial marines from Aliens. All the way up to actually having Lance Henriksen (Bishop from Aliens/ Alien 3 and Weyland from AVP) making an appearance as an important human character.

I can only expect good things from the rest of the time I spend playing this game. If not then I'll post and let you know. Possibly by just writing the word 'CRAP' for all to see.

Does anybody else have this game? Let me know your thoughts.