Alien Swarm

[heathen]

PS that term really is awfully over used.

 

Yes.

 

On topic: I'm mildly amused by the fact that the first new Valve release after the much-vaunted Mac version of Steam is not available on Mac. I realise that this is due to the nature of the project, and Portal 2 is indeed supposed to be the first winmac game, but still. I intentionally keep my windows partitions tiny + the pain of rebooting to it, so I'll skip this for now, no matter how much fun it looks.

 

You're surprised they didn't port the free, mod based niche game that they'll get no profit from to a platform that has a tiny playerbase? Right...

 

Mac users sense of entitlement is only rivaled by their smugness

Edited July 21, 2010 by heathen

[Gorgon]

Alien Swarm and Portal were both free, and didn't give me permission to add friends. Oh well, I'll just wait until I can buy FO:NV on Steam.

 

You can preorder it already if you really want to

If I buy it retail do I still have to register it on Steam?

 

Because that would be perfect, really. I don,t want to download a whole game.

 

Yeah people who buy retail have to use Steam, too.

But you wouldn't get stuck in the release day download madness as steam only needs to verify and add the game to the games list. So really the smart move is retail if you can't wait a day or two for things to simmer down.

[Nepenthe]

PS that term really is awfully over used.

 

Yes.

 

On topic: I'm mildly amused by the fact that the first new Valve release after the much-vaunted Mac version of Steam is not available on Mac. I realise that this is due to the nature of the project, and Portal 2 is indeed supposed to be the first winmac game, but still. I intentionally keep my windows partitions tiny + the pain of rebooting to it, so I'll skip this for now, no matter how much fun it looks.

 

You're surprised they didn't port the free, mod based niche game that they'll get no profit from to a platform that has a tiny playerbase? Right...

 

Mac users sense of entitlement is only rivaled by their smugness

 

1) Where did I say I was surprised? "mildly amused" was the expression I used. I even said I understood why.

 

2) The thing is they have rebuilt the engine so no "porting" is required. So if this free project had been built with the Portal 2 version of Source, instead of a previous build, no extra effort would have been required. Now it is, so we might/might not see it in the future. *shrug*

 

3) I thank you for sharing your personal grievances with mac users with us. Now go back and read what I wrote without an axe to grind.

[Gfted1]

So, got to level 5 last night and am having a good time with the game. Took a few practice missions to get used to the controls and I definately should have RTFM before I joined public games. During my first public game I still hadnt figured out how to switch to my backup weapon so I erroniously thought I had to click on the weapon icon and wound up killing our technician. Then, while listening to everyone ask me why I did that and not knowing how to reply, I accidentally killed another team member. I then shamequit that round, lol. Next round went much better and completed all 6-7 maps on the first area.

 

So far so good wrt Steam. Ease of use and working right out of the box are two super important things to me and it did both with flying colors. Very fast download speeds were also a pleasant surprise.

[Humodour]

PS that term really is awfully over used.

 

Yes.

 

On topic: I'm mildly amused by the fact that the first new Valve release after the much-vaunted Mac version of Steam is not available on Mac. I realise that this is due to the nature of the project, and Portal 2 is indeed supposed to be the first winmac game, but still. I intentionally keep my windows partitions tiny + the pain of rebooting to it, so I'll skip this for now, no matter how much fun it looks.

 

You're surprised they didn't port the free, mod based niche game that they'll get no profit from to a platform that has a tiny playerbase? Right...

 

Mac users sense of entitlement is only rivaled by their smugness

 

There was nothing smug about his post. Yours on the other hand man... was just a tad off.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Krezack

[Gfted1]

Ok, n00b question, how do I send out a friend invite? Ive already received and accepted one, but I dont see any option to send out invites myself. I was logged in and under the "community" tab so if anyone could point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I must be having the same issue as others in this thread. I looked up one of you guys that had provided your Steam handle and it seems Im not able to add or invite a friend (that option is greyed out), only accept invitations. Weird.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Ok, n00b question, how do I send out a friend invite? Ive already received and accepted one, but I dont see any option to send out invites myself. I was logged in and under the "community" tab so if anyone could point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I must be having the same issue as others in this thread. I looked up one of you guys that had provided your Steam handle and it seems Im not able to add or invite a friend (that option is greyed out), only accept invitations. Weird.

 

You search the guy you want to invite and then there should be a little 'send friend invite' tab/something.

Though, as far as I know, you can't send them yourself if you don't have at least one game registered to your account.

[Gorgon]

Adding 'Gifted1' to the list took all of two seconds. Must be because they want everyone to break out their credit card nr. before they can use the function.

 

Try adding portal, it's another free game. Maybe that will make you a 100% user.

[Gfted1]

You search the guy you want to invite and then there should be a little 'send friend invite' tab/something.

Though, as far as I know, you can't send them yourself if you don't have at least one game registered to your account.

 

As an experiment, I searched up WILLTHEALMIGHTY and as you stated there is a "Add to your friends list" choice, but it wont allow me to click it. Clicking on my "Games" tab reveals Alien Swarm but it probably doesnt count because it was free.

 

 

Adding 'Gifted1' to the list took all of two seconds. Must be because they want everyone to break out their credit card nr. before they can use the function.

 

Try adding portal, it's another free game. Maybe that will make you a 100% user.

 

Thanks for the invite, accepted. Ill see if Portal does anything once I get to my home computer.

[Serrano]

I don't think Portal is free anymore. Valve were giving it away for one day (or a weekend I don't remember) for it's anniversary but now it's listed as costing

Edited July 21, 2010 by Serrano

[heathen]

PS that term really is awfully over used.

 

Yes.

 

On topic: I'm mildly amused by the fact that the first new Valve release after the much-vaunted Mac version of Steam is not available on Mac. I realise that this is due to the nature of the project, and Portal 2 is indeed supposed to be the first winmac game, but still. I intentionally keep my windows partitions tiny + the pain of rebooting to it, so I'll skip this for now, no matter how much fun it looks.

 

You're surprised they didn't port the free, mod based niche game that they'll get no profit from to a platform that has a tiny playerbase? Right...

 

Mac users sense of entitlement is only rivaled by their smugness

 

There was nothing smug about his post. Yours on the other hand man... was just a tad off.

 

 

**** that, was just being a ****. Sorry dude. Bad day.

Edited July 21, 2010 by heathen

[sorophx]

just logged in to say that I was able to DL Portal for free 2 days ago. prior to this I only had Left 4 Dead installed on my steam account. maybe that's the reason. Portal actually was in my games library prompting me to DL it, when I logged in to look for Alien Swarm. go figure

[Serrano]

Odd. When I checked a few hours ago, and then again just a second ago, it's listed as costing

Edited July 21, 2010 by Serrano

[Nemo0071]

just logged in to say that I was able to DL Portal for free 2 days ago. prior to this I only had Left 4 Dead installed on my steam account. maybe that's the reason. Portal actually was in my games library prompting me to DL it, when I logged in to look for Alien Swarm. go figure

You must have "bought" it (i.e. added it to your Steam account) during the free period. After that, you own the game; doesn't really matter when you DL the data.

 

Either that, or you're looking up the wrong Portal, the demo. It was called Portal: The First Slice, or something.

[Nemo0071]

Didn't have much time to play Alien Swarm yet, just the tutorial thing. Might try it out more seriously with a few friends when we have the time.

 

What I especially like is the supposedly easy moddability* of it. This game could be my chance to start modding in Source Engine. I like the idea.

 

 

* Probably not an actual word.

[sorophx]

In my library it's just "Portal", looks like a full game to me, already left the testing grounds, "there is no cake", all that jazz. anyway, Steam seems to add games to the library on it's own. I only used steam once 2 years ago to play L4D, and I'm sure I hadn't bought anything back then. my guess is it was a giveaway complimentary to L4D retail.

 

to get back to the thread and the game in question, have been playing Alien Swarm for 2 days now, pretty addictive. only 7 missions in the official campaign. 4 levels of difficulty. every time you hit lvl 27 you can get a promotion. each promotion resets your lvl to 1 (and all unlockables get locked again). but with every promotion you get power-ups (like bigger ammo capacity, heavier damage etc.). all in all it's a pretty fun game (maybe because it relies so heavily on the "Aliens" plot), depending on your team every mission can be a unique experience, blah blah blah. the only downfall is (are) unstable servers. I get kicked out of games very often, sometimes the game freezes at the title screen. It could really use a patch

Edited July 23, 2010 by sorophx

[Gorgon]

Finally managed to complete the training mission. Took me 6 tries.

[Gorgon]

The biggest thing seems to be ammo. Don't stay in the same place as the aliens are in unlimited supply. Race to the objectives.

[sorophx]

you could always bring a bunch of ammo crates. besides, there are ways to conserve ammo. moving constantly, using turrets, welding doors, my favorite is melee combos, can take out up to three bugs simultaneously if done right.

[Humodour]

Looks like Valve have a keeper on their hands with this game.

 

Not only does it present them with a viable IP which they can later sell (likely Alien Swarm 2), it provides a big boost to the number of people who use Steam, all while making existing customers even happier due to being free.

 

From Valve's perspective, they've made money off this free game.

[Walsingham]

I got it for free today...

[sorophx]

you mean Portal?

[Walsingham]

Nope. Alien Swarm.

 

I tried it a bit. I think it could be fun, but only with you chaps. When is the Society OF Dangerous Obsidianites going on its next bug hunt?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Nope. Alien Swarm.

 

I tried it a bit. I think it could be fun, but only with you chaps. When is the Society OF Dangerous Obsidianites going on its next bug hunt?

 

Steam username?

[Oner]

Or maybe make an Obsidian group on Steam.