Alien Swarm

[Prospero]

It was a little choppy for me, but setting everything to medium made it smooth as silk and it still looks great.

[Hoax]

You can spam out invites to anyone on your list when you make a game. Can't tell how well it works yet, also if you have a chat window up with someone it will leave the soso has joined alien swarm - click here to join same as TF2 does.

[K9]

Is there any way to sort the games in the matchmaking lobby?

[bhodi]

I'm on fire oh god put me out put me out

Oh god I'm infected get it off get it off


Megrim, Vaiti, Gets and I went halfway through a campaign. Matchmaking was simple and effortless, fun was had by all. This is one free game I'd probably have payed a bit of money for.

[Megrim]

(tries to hide the flamethrower)

[Samwise]

Thanks, downloading now!

Seems that at least one of the achievements awards a hat for TF2

So help me god if it's a facehugger...

It is!

More like scalphugger.

[Ironwood]

This is fun as hell.

[Lounge]

Made it about 1/2 way through the campaign last night (stupid facehuggers shut us down cold).
This game is excellent.  I want pay DLC just to reward them for being awesome.

The charts at the end are easily one of the best features of the game.

[Prospero]

I could drag the little time slider all day to watch the dots. Way more entertaining than it has any right to be. Make sure to checkout out the pages they have on the Steam community site. They track and display and impressive number of stats.

[HaemishM]

This game should not be free. 

Played 3 games at lunch with some random guys who didn't seem that bad. Died twice to infection both times, and put a lot of friendly fire up. Don't run through the fire, you will go up in flames. Also, don't run in front of me, I WILL shoot you. Going to take some getting used to, but once I get aim down, I think this will be way too fun. They really should take advantage of the DLC channel to make some money off of this, because it's too good a game not to.

[Nightblade]

About the only thing I don't like about the game is the auto aim on certain weapons, and the fact that if your tech(s) die; FiSSION MAILED START OVER.

It reminds me a bit of my early days of online gaming with Infantry Online.

[NiX]

About the only thing I don't like about the game is the auto aim on certain weapons, and the fact that if your tech(s) die; FiSSION MAILED START OVER.

It reminds me a bit of my early days of online gaming with Infantry Online.

Eh, the tech thing doesn't bother me. It creates scenarios of "COVER HIS ASS OR FAIL!" Which, from what I experienced, are intense.

[Trippy]

Ah I was wondering why some missions kept ending even though not everybody was dead.

[Morfiend]

Does anyone know if its better practice to constantly push forward and fight as you move, or to try and completely kill the waves of aliens before moving forward?

[Quinton]

Does anyone know if its better practice to constantly push forward and fight as you move, or to try and completely kill the waves of aliens before moving forward?

Depends on the mission.  Some of them pretty much continuously spawn behind you, I think, in which case turtling up may be a losing strategy.  Of course rushing ahead faster than you can safely clear a path has risks too.

[Trippy]

Netcode needs a lot of work.

Also, what's the order of maps in the campaign? Landing Bay, Cargo Elevator, ... ?

[lesion]

Landing Bay, Cargo Elevator, Deima, Rydberg, Residential, Sewer Junction, Timor Station

[Malakili]

Does anyone know if its better practice to constantly push forward and fight as you move, or to try and completely kill the waves of aliens before moving forward?

I haven't seen a lot of people taking time to deliberately weld doors shut behind them yet, I'd like to see more of that, especially on hard difficulty.  You can really cut down the amount of enemies that you have to fight.

[Segoris]

I haven't seen a lot of people taking time to deliberately weld doors shut behind them yet, I'd like to see more of that, especially on hard difficulty.  You can really cut down the amount of enemies that you have to fight.

I only had time for a couple of offline practices (hoping to get in some regular games today) but I found welding doors to be fast and well worth it. It only takes 1 person to do it and the benefits of delaying enemies was worth it. Of course that may be different in coop, but I can't see it being much different.

[Typhon]

I also welded a door in my offline practice, was amused to see that they will eventually beat the door down (not quickly on the practice map though).

[Malakili]

I haven't seen a lot of people taking time to deliberately weld doors shut behind them yet, I'd like to see more of that, especially on hard difficulty.  You can really cut down the amount of enemies that you have to fight.

I only had time for a couple of offline practices (hoping to get in some regular games today) but I found welding doors to be fast and well worth it. It only takes 1 person to do it and the benefits of delaying enemies was worth it. Of course that may be different in coop, but I can't see it being much different.

I think part of the issue is that if you are playing with randoms people don't like to wait, and if you get left behind you can easily be killed if you are separated.   People are impatient, and while its worth it, it does require the group to pause for 10-15 seconds, which isn't always possible with an team of ADDs.

[Segoris]

Yeah, if it's 10-15 seconds then that is pretty different from offline mode which takes 3-5 seconds or so, iirc.

[Trippy]

How do you throw a grenade?

This game really needs a manual...took me a while to figure out how to hack the bomb, I was looking at the lights on the right side (just ignore them).

[Malakili]

How do you throw a grenade?

This game really needs a manual...took me a while to figure out how to hack the bomb, I was looking at the lights on the right side (just ignore them).

Default is middle mouse.

[Samwise]

If your weapon has a grenade alt-fire, it's mouse3 to use it.  I had to figure that one out by trial and error.

Press 1 to use the thing in your alternate inventory slot or whatever that's called.  I dunno if you can put grenades in there.

[Trippy]

Cool thanks I'll give it a try next game.

[lesion]

Yeah, if it's 10-15 seconds then that is pretty different from offline mode which takes 3-5 seconds or so, iirc.

Out of the two techs, Vegas is the fastest. Everyone else is painfully slow at welding.

[SurfD]

yeah, In my limited experience so far, I have found that changing up teammates from mission to mission can really improve your odds.  Having someone with Faith as teh medic really helps with infestors in the last  couple of missions for example.

[Trippy]

Oooh the Vindicator (shotgun) grenades are fun

[K9]

The rail gun is fun

Hard seems doable even with uncoordinated rushing. I haven't tried Insane yet. Getting levelled up so people have access to some of the more interesting unlocks makes for some nice combos. Turret + Freeze Turret + Damage Amp makes for a nice camp. So far though I do think adrenaline is the most useful addon, particularly for dealing with infestors in the tunnels.

Also, joining random games at the start and doing random missions was far inferior to doing a (mostly) complete campaign with some competent people. The story is actually pretty fun, and the commentary from the dropship guy is actually quite funny at times. It offers a lot of promise for future campaigns I think.

[koro]

Does anyone know if its better practice to constantly push forward and fight as you move, or to try and completely kill the waves of aliens before moving forward?

I haven't seen a lot of people taking time to deliberately weld doors shut behind them yet, I'd like to see more of that, especially on hard difficulty.  You can really cut down the amount of enemies that you have to fight.

I've only played on Insane (which is what all the Penny-Arcade forum group people play on, which is kinda frustrating), and welding doors shut on Insane is pretty much the difference between beating a mission with a comfortable wiggle room of health and ammo and beating a mission with two marines dead, two critically injured, and one guy reduced to smashing bugs over the head with a medkit.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Maybe my pc is dying but I can play tons of other games fine but this one constantly stutters on me and will freeze up.  Any ideas/suggestions?

[kildorn]

Does anyone know if its better practice to constantly push forward and fight as you move, or to try and completely kill the waves of aliens before moving forward?

I haven't seen a lot of people taking time to deliberately weld doors shut behind them yet, I'd like to see more of that, especially on hard difficulty.  You can really cut down the amount of enemies that you have to fight.

I've only played on Insane (which is what all the Penny-Arcade forum group people play on, which is kinda frustrating), and welding doors shut on Insane is pretty much the difference between beating a mission with a comfortable wiggle room of health and ammo and beating a mission with two marines dead, two critically injured, and one guy reduced to smashing bugs over the head with a medkit.

I wound up doing a mission on insane where my medic took only medical supplies (okay, I can see that..), and the other tech took two turrets he never put down.

So basically, insane with only two armed marines involved. >< It was messy, especially since the unarmed people insisted on charging ahead and gumming up the line of fire.

[Strazos]

Game is sweet. Do want to find folks to play with.

[Hoax]

I've just spammed invites out to people on my friendslist, right now EVERYONE is playing this game so I haven't had a problem finding games w/out random net dwellers.