Aliens vs Predator PC Launches Without Dedicated Servers

Post by Dan @ 11:51am 17/02/10 | 44 Comments

It's not available in Australia until tomorrow, but Aliens vs Predator has now shipped in North America for PC (including Steam), Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Unfortunately however, despite the pre-release promise that the PC version would include support for dedicated servers and not just the sloppy peer to peer play we all experienced in the lacklustre demo, the software required to run dedicated servers has yet to be released by developer Rebellion Entertainment.

A post by Rebellion over on the Steam Forums explains:

Rebellion are busy preparing the dedicated server for the Aliens vs. Predator community. We hope to have a beta release with reduced functionality out in the next few days and further updates to improve functionality and fix bugs over the next few weeks.

The files will be available to download from the �Tools� tab in the Steam client and will be a free download.

Very disappointing news that doesn't paint a bright future for this game as a lasting multiplayer PC title.

To rub it in a little more, here's another trailer promoting the game's multiplayer component, showing the "species deathmatch" game mode.

aliens vs predator trailer

Latest Comments

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DM
Posted 11:56am 17/2/10

Oh how nice of them. They hope to have a BETA CLIENT out for dedicated servers with demo like restrictions. Way to go

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ravn0s
Posted 11:59am 17/2/10

guess they were too busy trying to get that peer to peer matchmaking working.

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StopShootingMe
Posted 12:05pm 17/2/10

Heh, based on the demo's performance there's absolutely no way I'd pay for AvP. Lack of dedicated servers aside, I'm not sure the game would be that much fun anyway. The only MP mode that looked very good was the Survivor mode, which, now that I think about is like L4D without zombies, and thus lame.

Maybe I'll turn out to be wrong, though... Oh, the other gripe is the price on Steam, USD$64.99? It's AUS$39-ish off CDWOW. Steam really need to stop this whole Australian markup bs...

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MARLINBLADE
Posted 12:12pm 17/2/10

Another case of Console first before the PC.... pathetic

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Viper
Posted 12:31pm 17/2/10

Agreed why the hell did they waste time with s***** peer to peer for the demo instead of working on a proper dedicated server system.

Seriously dedicated servers have been in games for bonkers years it cannot be that hard a thing to implement.

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LOTUK
Posted 12:44pm 17/2/10

Disgraceful! I don't see how they can promise dedicated servers and act all high and mighty on how they're supporting it then yank it out at the last minute. Surely they were aware that they werentt going to make release date with DS support if they're only now promising a freaking Beta in an unknown couple of days!

This is freaking terrible. I was hoping to have the game tomorrow, setup dedicated server on my server and play it that night without all the bull s*** of the peer to peer crap. I have no faith whatsoever that the full game's multiplayer peer to peer setup will work ANY better than the demo. As much as I hated (and still hate) the MW2 matchmaking, at least it works (most the time).

My excitement for this game just keeps on sinking lower and lower. I think I'll be dragging my feet and giving a half hearted thanks when I buy it tomorrow (if it weren't for the face hugger and my laziness in seeking another way to get it, I'd cancel my pre-order and wait for an Ausgamers review before buying)

Oh (end of rant), StopShootingMe, try buying from a US store for steam. Works great, and that way you don't need to me F'd up the ass by steam.

/me returns to seething

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Sc00bs
Posted 12:47pm 17/2/10

this game just keeps gettin better and better

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trog
Posted 12:51pm 17/2/10

If there's anything I've learned in running game servers for 10 years for, it's that a game that doesn't have multiplayer nailed directly out of the box almost never hits critical mass and dies a slow, painful death.

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Sc00bs
Posted 12:58pm 17/2/10

how could u not have dedicated servers in this day and age. what a huge f***** fail

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BoneyD
Posted 01:00pm 17/2/10

Agreed why the hell did they waste time with s***** peer to peer for the demo instead of working on a proper dedicated server system.Seriously dedicated servers have been in games for bonkers years it cannot be that hard a thing to implement.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's got nothing to do with how easy it is to do. They prefer centrally controlled peer2peer services because they can control what you play and for how long (see Xbox Live shut down coming http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/52909/Original-Xbox-Live-To-Shut-Down). Map lists and mods can be controlled because "Hey, these are ranked servers. We can't have people using things which might give them an unfair advantage". Ofcourse in reality maps, weapons, etc. do get released... but you have to pay.

Follow the money.

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StopShootingMe
Posted 01:21pm 17/2/10

I can use a proxy to help buy Steam content at US prices, yes? And to buy stuff from some US stores. A rented US proxy looks like a better and better idea...

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Trauma
Posted 01:48pm 17/2/10

If there's anything I've learned in running game servers for 10 years for, it's that a game that doesn't have multiplayer nailed directly out of the box almost never hits critical mass and dies a slow, painful death.

Last game to do this was Dragon Rising I think... see how that worked out...

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Khel
Posted 02:24pm 17/2/10

Hah, so they pretty much just blatantly lied about the dedicated server support, nice move. Way to completely alienate the PC community!

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bulldog
Posted 02:26pm 17/2/10

Has there been a more disappointing launch of such an anticipated title in recent times?

Very poor effort IMO.

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LOTUK
Posted 02:39pm 17/2/10

They made the mistake of releasing the demo first. So they can no longer sell based on hype alone as we've all had a taste of it now, and I'm still trying to get the sour taste out of my mouth... despite the fact I'm still buying the full version on release :-\

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BoneyD
Posted 02:43pm 17/2/10

I can use a proxy to help buy Steam content at US prices, yes? And to buy stuff from some US stores. A rented US proxy looks like a better and better idea...

No, you just need to add a country code to the Steam URL and not use your Steam client to purchase games.
e.g.
US store
http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=us
UK store
http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=uk

Then at the payment screen, set your country to 'United States' (or 'United Kingdom') and change your postcode to something from their country.

PS. I believe the UK price for AvP is the best atm, at �24.99. That's about $45AU.

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bulldog
Posted 02:52pm 17/2/10

I've tried the UK and US CC trick across 5 different cards and I get errors every time, something about the card not matching the country I selected.

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DM
Posted 03:03pm 17/2/10

I think it checks the data your trying to input, against your account details. So best bet is to make a new account set to the US (find some random address) to gift the items from to your real account

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Decepticon
Posted 03:22pm 17/2/10

I agree with you all this is unacceptable. Developers are getting lazier and lazier. I think Blizzard and ID are the only companies now that release a game when it's actually done.
I actually thought the people making this game knew what they were doing....I guess not.
I'm not buying this game now cause you can just download a cracked version that has no cdkey required which means it will probably even work online.

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LOTUK
Posted 03:29pm 17/2/10

Hey Bulldog, I bought L4D2 through the above link way, but it would only work on 1 of my 3 cards (Virgin Credit Card). So it can be done, but you will need a card that will allow it.

I checked with the commonwealth and they told me that I could use the card on overseas websites and nothing should be blocking it, but it still won't work. So not sure what part of the process fails :(

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Methz
Posted 03:34pm 17/2/10

Meh, back to the new S.T.A.L.K.E.R

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Dazhel
Posted 03:58pm 17/2/10

how are you finding it Methz?
I'm hearing good things.

I'm considering picking it up because Steam has it for $30 USD, but $10 discount if you already have Shadow of Chernobyl or Clear Sky purchased and in your games list. The cool thing is that Clear Sky is only $10 USD so they're basically giving it away.

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L33tBix
Posted 05:58pm 17/2/10

Well, thats a fail... For the multiplayer. I'm still getting it to play solo.

Oh yes, FAQ here. I'v pre ordered the game via steam, It says at store page 'Now Available' but I can't install it from my games list. It says 'Not released yet'!

WTF?! Please help me, I want to play ASAP!

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Viper
Posted 06:19pm 17/2/10

doesn't release till the 20th feb, it might be released in the US or something not sure but for us Aussies its 20th Feb even though its out in stores now.

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Yapa
Posted 07:17pm 17/2/10

Seems Steam is starting to block Australian cards and users trying to cheat the Steam store buy putting in US post codes such as 90210!

A friend of mine reported last night that his credit card had been blocked after purchasing a few games in this way... so be careful unless you have many credit cards!

Also, forget about AVP... the game is a big let down, check out Gamespot score of 5.5 which I think is very accurate, the demo stunk and the full game will not be much better.

Get stalker instead for half the price and enjoy a true PC game!

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DM
Posted 07:28pm 17/2/10

Get stalker instead for half the price and enjoy a true PC game!

My PC runs stalker like utter s***. We're talking single numbers in fps when i'm outside. Second I walk indoors (without a load screen) the game goes back up to like 60+. Never liked the first one either so hardly worth calling good.

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Methz
Posted 07:34pm 17/2/10

@ Dazhel

It's great so far, has a sandbox feel to it although its just 3 massive levels.
The atmosphere is even better than the first 2 and also the most stable of the lot,although it still pushes the system.
I picked it up on steam as I'm pretty sure retail wont have it till the 25th. (and yeah,so much cheaper :D)

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DM
Posted 08:34pm 17/2/10

Well so far after about 15 min playing marine on hard, it's pretty bloody good so far I feel. Graphics are great, the aliens actual act like you would expect. they crawl along the roof, hide on the walls and while your franticly swinging the camera around to find them they are lurking in shadows. When they know they have been seen they run but when they are trying to sneak up on you they smoothly walk around the walls and stuff like a cat would. You can shoot them in the legs and they crawl toward you (rather speedly I might add) and they aren't made of tissue paper.

Aim seems a bit wierd since it takes lots of bullets to actually hit anything but eh oh well. Sound is nice but for some reason my back speakers are like 2x the volume of anything else which is a bit wierd. I'm not trying alien or predator yet as i'm going through the missions first. At least for now single player is pretty sweet. I'm finding myself panicing and finding the nearest corner whenever I hear my motion detector go off.

Only real issue is with the marine jump. Talk about pathetic. i've gotten more air when I fart into my seat. May as well not of even had a jump button since you have to hold space to climb over things anyway ala gears of war style.

last edited by DM at 20:34:26 17/Feb/10

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Trin
Posted 08:36pm 17/2/10

i've gotten more air when I fart into my seat.

Lols

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Winston
Posted 08:40pm 17/2/10

No Dedi, No Purchase-i...

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Fuzzy
Posted 09:25pm 17/2/10

Hey DM, how is the multiplayer, is matchmaking enough to hold out till the dedicated server support is available?

I used to play the demo with some americans from a steam group I'm joined up to, it wasn't too bad.

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eightyeight
Posted 09:47pm 17/2/10

im so f***ed deciding if i should buy this or not.

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Obes
Posted 10:33pm 17/2/10

Any game with regionalised online pricing just gets ignored ... wish the aussie review sites would take a similar stand.

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Python
Posted 08:53am 18/2/10

Is there co-op play?

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bulldog
Posted 08:57am 18/2/10

Cheers Lotuk, figured I was just unlucky with the cards, I've passed up buying Bioshock 2 and AVP due to the regionalized pricing, plenty of good stuff to keep me busy and neither of those seem to be setting the world on fire.

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Khel
Posted 09:31am 18/2/10

I just bought bioshock 2 the other day using the cc=uk thing, and it worked fine, didn't even have to change my address (just the country).

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taggs
Posted 09:36am 18/2/10

If there's anything I've learned in running game servers for 10 years for, it's that a game that doesn't have multiplayer nailed directly out of the box almost never hits critical mass and dies a slow, painful death.

so true. massive props to AG for fighting the (possibly losing?) battle to bring dedicated servers back into the forefront of developers' minds.

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DM
Posted 11:03am 18/2/10

MW2 lasted me around 5 hours. I finished the marine campaign on hard (2nd hardest difficulty) in around 2 1/2, and would of finished it in 2 easy had it not been for 3 sections that were just bulls*** hard. Predator is about 50% done in only 2 levels and been playing around 30 min. Alien i've done 1 level in about 20 min so all up this is looking like a game that lasts even less time than MW2. Pathetic. And it's over 15gb. WTF. What the f*** is it with games requiring massive amounts of space and only lasting single number time lengths?

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trog
Posted 11:45am 18/2/10

Any game with regionalised online pricing just gets ignored ... wish the aussie review sites would take a similar stand.

Obes, I decided last night that on our "Buy" pages we should also include (at least) the US Steam prices so that gamers are aware of the huge differences.

This will probably annoy the aussie publishers, but I think the time has come to end this behaviour and I'm prepared to put us on the front lines of this issue.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:53am 18/2/10

It should also be reflected in the scores. -1 point for every $10 in price difference. Or something like that.

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bulldog
Posted 11:54am 18/2/10

Good stuff trog, it's something I check by default. Pointing it out to everyone might help make some noise about it.

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Peeka
Posted 12:13pm 18/2/10

i for one am not buying this game unless the dedicated server software has been released ill pirate it to play single player but ill buy it if there is dedicated servers thats the only reason i buy games is to get the cd key that comes with it

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DM
Posted 02:27pm 18/2/10

After a stupidly annoying section on the predator campaign about 70% in, I got the combi stick and FINALLY things are getting better. having a ranged attack that doesn't decloak you is awesome.

EDIT - Finished marine and predator in around 3 hours 45 min. Alien I got to 2nd level. Not even gonna bother anymore with this game I think. Pathetic. Just f*****g pathetic. Marine campaign was great but was all downhill after that. They should just make an Aliens game where it's the marine like in the movies. Screw the whole predator part and even the alien campaign too.

last edited by DM at 14:27:40 18/Feb/10

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Methz
Posted 11:41pm 18/2/10

^^ I wish Colonial Marines was given the go ahead instead of this crap.

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