Euge’s Ramblings

Haven’t had a chance to play it yet (thanks work!). But I came across a rather humorous chat thread about it @ shack.

Oh dear, what can I say… really had high hopes for this.

Where to start? Kinda liked the oldskool looking interface with the big font, but then when you try to configure your keyboard you have to go through like 4 menus just to find the configuration settings.

You do this for Marine, Alien or Predator seperately – so you’ll have fun setting all keys three times over if you are for example left handed like I am.

Ok, finally got that. Let’s go online!

Hmm, where’s the server browser? There’s none? This is madness!! Matchmaking only?? And they said it’s not going to be consolized. Oh well, it’s a demo – they might add that in later…

Ok, join a match, click, click…….wait……
wait…..
wait…..
wait…..
found match! (yeah!)
loading map
wait…..
wait…..
wait…..
wait…..

wait…..
wait…..
wait…..
wait…..

that map must be HUGE!!

wait…..
wait…..

Ok, it’s ON!!!!

…
Hearing gunfire, screams, evil hissing
And i’m IN!

….wtf? this is IT??? ??? That looks like arse… :/
What did they do to my graphics? UT99 looked better than THIS?? And what’s that map? Some corridors with cheap looking alien textures? I can go up and down some ramps? Yay… :/ Looks like one of those homemade maps from my 12 year old little cousin.

Ok, relax. It’s BETA.

The gameplay must be great.

Gleefully I climb some nearby wall and right underneath me see some Marine passing by. I’m ready to POUNCE baby!! Pressing jump………..CHAT WINDOWS OPENS UP?!?!? Marines turns around and fills my alien arse with lead.

What the hell.
Ok, going back into the menu. Damn, why did they have to hide that menu deep down? Jump=Y. Seems fine? Oh – there’s a message on top: “Some keys are duplicated” Cool right, I know know. Couldn’t you have said me that beforehand?? Why can I even use two commands with the same key???

But where is it? So I spend the next 2 minutes scrolling this huge abomination of a UI menu up and down finding the chat entry. Well, I can’t delete the key entry. I have to overwrite it. Aaalright. Back to the game. Hit ESC. Oh, that doesn’t go back into the running match. This only goes up one menu entry. So I have to hit ESC like 5 times just to go back for the game.

Whaaat the hell? Did they ever test this? Ever heard of usability?

So after an epic journey through the dephts of this genuinely horrific UI I went back the game, did some rollercoaster runs along some overbright lit lowres wall textures, searching for an enemy to strike. Hey, there’s a Pradator! I sneak up on him. Message pops up: “Hit ‘E’ to grab. I press ‘E’. My claws strike forward and turn the Pred into some blocky looking green mist.

Then i hit ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC. Go to Steam. Right click Aliens versus Predator Demo. Delete local content. Delete.