The first downloadable content for Aliens vs Predator will shortly be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms. Featuring 4 new maps for different multiplayer modes, previously only available in the Special Editions, this downloadable content will challenge all three species for the fight of their existence.

Two new Multiplayer maps for six different online modes (Deathmatch, Predator Hunt, Infestation, Species Deathmatch, Mixed Species Deathmatch and Domination) :

• Docks: The caustic alkali waters of BG-386 put an end to Weyland-Yutani’s planned shipping activities.
• Machine: As well as processing exotic ores, the BG-386 Refinery provided electrical power to the colonists at Freya’s Prospect.

Two new Survivor maps in which up to four Marines battle to stay alive against increasing swarms of Aliens:

• Outpost: The site of the original Weyland-Yutani colony on BG-386 was abandoned, and soon reclaimed by the planet’s voracious jungle plant life.

• Hive: Deep in the heart of the Freya’s Prospect Refinery lays the Xenomorph Hive.

The “Swarm Map Pack” will be available on 18 March for €5.99/ £4.79/ 560 Microsoft Points.

Hey guys, did you know that the multiplayer demo for Aliens vs Predator has been the most successful download demo in SEGA’s history. Available on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace, PlayStation® Store, and STEAM for the PC, the Aliens vs Predator demo hit an impressive 4.1 million downloads.

The Multiplayer Demo allowed fans to choose between playing as an Alien, Predator or Colonial Marine and was available from February 5th until February 26th. The full game launched on 19th February 2010 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, as well as the PC.

I’m very pleased to announce that from tomorrow, and for a limited time only, full outfits from Aliens vs Predator will be available in the European PlayStation Home Thread Store on the PlayStation 3. These costumes, a male and female version for each species in the game, are offered as complete packages, but also available to download separately. These downloads are accessible for a limited time, and will be taken out of the Thread Store on the 31st of March.

Go to the Home Thread Store to get your hands on these costumes:
• €2.99 for a complete costume
• €1.99 for a pair of trousers and a top
• €0.99 for a helmet or mask

Want to know what they look like? Here’s some pics.

Check out our Flickr feed for more images.

We’ve been hard at work listening to and addressing your concerns and are pleased to announce that Monday will see the release of an update to Aliens vs Predator, see below for detail on what will be included.

We will also have news on an additional feature we know many of you have been waiting for which is now ready for a closed Beta test!

Please remember and check the revised Readme file when the update becomes available for additional information on the following.

General:
- Stability improvements to address rare and infrequent hangs
- Implemented a workaround for missing audio issues with certain hardware (SoundBlaster X-Fi, Realtek onboard, etc.)
- Fixed save games being lost or corrupted if connection to Steam is lost or if user switches to offline play

Multiplayer:
- Fixed XP being incorrectly affected by offline play (though only in the local stats; this will be corrected next time you connect to multiplayer)
- Fixed other players sometimes appearing to have the wrong weapon or continuing to fire indefinitely after dying
- Fixed rare issue where players would be temporarily invisible
- Fixed some selection of servers and players in menus sometimes being incorrect

We are currently investigating reports that some PC users are experiencing ‘stuttering’ when playing Aliens vs. Predator with DX10/DX10. This issue unfortunately wasn’t found during extensive compatibility testing and we believe a few things may be contributing to this:

1) A combination of driver issues and the video memory manager that’s used in Vista and Windows 7 under DX10 and 11. We’re talking to Nvidia and ATI about this. This may also be responsible for the extreme memory usage that some people are seeing.

2) People using settings that are too high for the amount of VRAM in their video cards. Please note that if you adjust the texture detail settings then you must restart the game for this to take effect. There should be a dialog that advises you of this. Please try using the default Normal setting and seeing if that solves or reduces the problem.

3) The V-Sync and/or Reduce Mouse Lag options. The latter is found under the Controls options menu, not Video. Turning both of these off may help on Nvidia cards. This may be related to the problem described in point 4.xiv in the ReadMe.

Playing the DX9 version instead should also solve this stuttering in the mean time.

With regards to the low process priority that some people have noticed, this is intentional when you Alt-Tab out of the game, unless you are playing multiplayer. When you Alt-Tab back in, the process priority should return to normal.

With today’s release of Aliens vs. Predator (available from all good retailers on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), some retailers are pulling out all the stops and getting into the spirit of all things AvP. One shop in particular has done something rather amazing; GAMINGALORE in Melksham, UK have created a full-size Predator costume with detachable mask and I must say looks rather good

Here are a couple of photos of the suit behind the counter.

Well done guys! If any stores near you have done anything AvPish, do let us know and we’ll give them some internet KUDOS too.

Prepare for pant-wetting excitement with the Aliens Vs Predator launch trailer ahead of tomorrow’s release!

SEGA and Rebellion can confirm that a new updated version of the Aliens vs Predator demo is available now on PlayStation Network. The first iteration of the Aliens vs Predator multiplayer demo has now been taken down from PlayStation Network and replaced with this new version.

The first iteration of the demo suffered matchmaking problems resulting in some players experiencing difficulties getting into matches. SEGA and Rebellion have worked closely with Sony to investigate and resolve the issue with this new demo. The new demo also features additional functionality to allow PlayStation 3 users to create their own matches and browse for any available ones to join.

“We are confident that the matchmaking issue has been fixed with this new demo and we will be monitoring community activity closely over the coming days to ensure that it has been fully resolved. We would like to thank the community for all of their valuable feedback and continued patience,” said Gary Knight, European Marketing Director of SEGA Europe.

Rebellion would also like to clarify the reasoning behind the choice of a Deathmatch multiplayer demo for Aliens vs Predator.

“We chose Deathmatch as the mode for the demo as it’s very familiar to all FPS gamers and minimizes restrictions on players while they are getting to grips with the controls of each of the three playable species” said Jason Kingsley, CEO and co-founder of Rebellion. “We have plenty of new modes in the game and players only have to wait a matter of days before they can play them when the game launches.”

For advice on how to discern if you are playing on the old demo please visit http://www.sega.co.uk/news/?n=3939.

Aliens vs Predator is set for release on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC Games For Windows on February 16th in America and February 19th in Europe.

Orlando was our destination for the Major League Gaming event and our chance to run a competition of our own for Aliens vs Predator. The event was a blast and we had a great time showing off a newer, sleeker version of Aliens vs Predator the MLG community as well as the AvP community.

Speaking of Aliens community, I have to give a nod to our friends at AliensLegacy.com for being awesome sending over some movie perfect Colonial Marines. This site hosts costumed Aliens, Predators and Marines and were on hand to help us spread the word at the MLG event. The Colonial Marine group looked absolutely pro with some movie authentic gear including an actual Smartgun, complete with chestplate attachment. Very big thanks to Angie, Chris and Sean for coming out and making Aliens vs Predator a great experience for everyone (especially us!).

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

Major League Gaming plays host to some of the best competitive players in all of gaming, so we thought it was an ideal spot to debut Aliens vs Predator in a competitive format. We opted to hold a tournament with a classic Deathmatch gametype. We had 8 rounds and 8 winners, all of whom returned for second round with one winner walking away with an Astro A40 headset. Rounds started with a five minute preview to give everyone a chance to learn controls, learn the maps, and form a strategy followed by a 15 minute final round with a single winner.

The classic deathmatch format was absolutely the way to go, while we did think it a bit weird to see aliens hunting aliens or marines gunning down marines, the format allowed anyone to jump in and get comfortable with their preferred species and playstyle. Being a shooter focused event, not surprisingly there were a lot of Marines showing up to prove their worth. Given the prize, I think a lot of players didn’t stray to far from their comfort zones and we had a lot of really strong Marines in the matches two of whom walked away with the Astros.

In an effort to mix things up we had our last tournament play with only Aliens and Predators, still within Deathmatch rules, but in a more vertical map that was not only bigger, but also allowed for stronger stalking and ambushing opportunities. This was the most interesting of all the tournaments we ran, with all players performing in a new space and environment. Pretty quickly we weeded out some very power players with both Aliens and Predators and had a final showdown that drew some pretty amazing kills and tense moments. Our final winner won as a Predator with some beautifully executed kills with the spear and disc.

A special congratulations to our winners! We hope you enjoy the Astro’s and look forward to facing you online when the game hits this February!

1st Tournament Winner: Carroll W. aka Taur1ne

2nd Tournament Winner: Jeff A. aka Killjoy

3rd Tournament Winner: Scott P. aka Bobo the Great

After all was said and done, we had to pack up and head out. I met a lot of great people at the event and had a lot of fun showing off Aliens vs Predator to the competitive world of gaming. Please enjoy the photos (especially of the Marines) and feel free to ask away if anyone has any questions on anything I missed!

Now that we have a demo of Aliens vs. Predator to play, and will soon have a full game, it’s time to take a look at actually playing as the wall-crawling, face-eating xenomorph.

Paging Number Six

So what goes into playing as an Alien? As a xenomorph you’re part of the hive-mind; it’s your duty to serve the Queen — kind of like being a warrior ant in a big, really scary ant colony. The Aliens are a kind of biological force, a seething mass of destruction that moves through a cold & unforgiving universe as a literal hive-mind. So how does this translate to a single-player story-based campaign? Well, if you’ve seen Alien: Resurrection you’ll have a hint at the story from the Alien’s perspective. It plays magnificently off the hubris and greed of humans, which has been a cornerstone of the series since the original Alien.

You play as Number Six — you will have to wait to play to see just what your purpose and the reason for the number is, but you are introduced into the story in such a way that makes it incredibly satisfying once you finally have a chance to chase down some weak, squishy humans.

Aliens vs. Predator is refreshing in that you need to really play to the mindset of your chosen class. Predators need to be master of stealth & Marines need to work together — and Aliens need to be masters of sneaking around in dark, wet places, hunting down isolated members and killing them quickly & silently. In multiplayer this requires both teamwork (especially in the non-deathmatch modes) and a lot of patience. You can’t just charge a marine and you can’t leave yourself open to a Predator’s stealth attack — keep on the move against Predators and find a good dark spot to lurk, preferably on the other side of a ledge where they can’t sneak up and kill you from stealth.

Taking out lights actually helps you, too — Aliens can use heavy attacks to knock out all kinds of light sources, and it really will make you harder to spot, at least to Marines. Predators really are a different breed and in my multiplayer experience, the best thing you can do is wait for them to expose themselves while going after someone else. You can’t overpower them, and you can’t knock them out of stealth the way the Marines can.

Above all — in the single player campaign and especially in multiplayer — learn to use ceilings and learn to use ledges. Retreat to them often — other players will give chase, and once you’ve drawn them from your cover is the best time to go after them. I’ve already mentioned staying still to avoid and vanish from the Marine’s motion tracker; the flip side to this is that if you’re holding still you better not be in a spot that’s easy for the Predator to sneak up on you.

Abilities

Other classes have the clumsy duty of picking up and using weapons. This is what you have to do when your entire exoskeleton is not itself a lethal weapon. And while Aliens don’t get any kind of ranged attack, AvP relies on a lot of melee combat, and aliens are incredibly fast and agile — and it is worth noting that claws and teeth don’t run out of ammo.

Heavy Attack: Uses your tail to out-and-out clobber your prey. Marines are squishy and this will bring them down quickly. The tail has a slower windup but exceptional reach for a melee weapon; enough that if you’re on a ceiling low enough over an enemy it will reach them. Heavy attack also will give you a brief stun on your opponent. Depending on your situation, you can either try to follow it up with another heavy attack (if you think you’ll have time), or follow it up with a flurry of light attacks.

Light Attack: You’re more maneuverable than Marines or Predators, and I’ve actually found the light attack useful in a situation where I can out-maneuver my opponent — dash around something, get behind your enemy, and let out a flurry of quick attacks. Following up a successful block with a flurry of light attacks is a great way to handle a close-encounter melee threat.

Focus Mode: Enter focus mode to zero in on a particular foe — especially one that’s fleeing you. This will lock you on, and even better, if you tap “light attack” while in focus mode you will leap towards your opponent; you can either attack unsuspecting prey from above in this way, or quickly close the gap on a fleeing opponent.

Stealth Kill: If you’re good at what you’re doing, this will be the norm for you. Aliens are not designed to be caught in toe-to-toe melee. On the other hand, this is nothing more satisfying than sneaking up behind another player and delivering a brutal and gory stealth kill — especially if you’ve just managed to pick someone off from the group, and are able to slip back into the shadows. Some things to note: You can’t get the kill while you’re sprinting, even if you’re right behind your target. Just position yourself, stop moving for a split second, and hit the stealth kill button. Be careful doing this, too — it takes a few seconds to execute the move, and during this time you are vulnerable. Conversely, this was my favorite way to take out Predators: Wait for them to execute a special kill and then dash up behind them. You will be able to execute your own stealth kill before they even turn around. For good measure, eat their head before retreating back to the shadows, which will restore any lost health. Now you’re thinking like an Alien!