What I'm playing - Alien Swarm

The original Alien Swarm was a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, a top down co-op shooter conversion that skirted as close to the Aliens license as not wanting to be sued would allow. The mod group then announced that they would be making a full fledged game release of the mod. Silence followed.

Well, today that silence is filled with gunfire, screams for help and the shrieks of aliens as they explode in a torrent of greenish fluid. Alien Swarm, the full game, has been released on Steam. It’s primarily a multiplayer game, so the only single player component is a one level ‘learn how to play the game and not look like a retard’ option. 7 multiplayer maps are available, but more are on the way. Also, with a full set of mod tools being released (as well as the latest Source engine SDK), expect a lot more from the community, and probably some stand-alone game mods as well.

How much is it? The grand price of FREE. Why is it that people like Valve, again? Just load up your Steam client and install this bad boy (it may take awhile…not surprisingly, the servers are straining under the load of other cheap bastards).

I would definitely suggest playing the tutorial first to get a feel for it. It’s a 3/4 view co-op shooter where you’re one member of a 4 man team. Before each mission, your team will assemble itself, and off you go. You can choose your 2 weapons and any extra gear, with more guns and gear becoming available the more you play.

It is most definitely a co-op game! You need a tech who can hack in to consoles and door controls. You need a dude with ammo reload packages. You need a medic who will throw down ‘healing aura’ type things. Scrounge up hand welders and seal doors and hatches. Assemble sentry turrets if you find them.

And for fuck’s sake, remember fields of fire! You CAN demolish your teammates, so please watch where you’re blasting those incendiary grenades, thanks.

Definitely fun so far. And as is the benefit with pretty much all Source engine games, you don’t need a supercomputer to run it. No Mac version as of yet, but with Valve really pushing forward with Steamplay versions (one buy gets you permanent access to PC and Mac versions) of all of their first party titles, I’d imagine it’s coming.

Incidentally, for those with Steam accounts, feel free to add me to your friends list (arcticblaster76).