Sound and Interface

Candy for your ears

Sound in Aliens vs. Predator is fantastic too. It's not quite as good as Thief, but Fox pulled all the stops by including the familiar sounds from the movies in the game. From the sharp blasts of pulse rifles to the guttural clicking of the Predator to the insect like chirping of the Aliens, the sounds are compelling enough for you to think you've been dropped into one of the movies! The Marine motion tracker's low, high rate thumping gets right into you as well, and does much to bring you to the brink of fear as you play. Whether you get a blip on the tracker or not, it's enough sometimes to make your heart skip! If that still doesn't impress you, every sound comes at you in 3D via Creative's EAX sound system. My SB Live! performed beautifully.

Navigation mode on

Don't throw that molotov!

Annoyances

Interface was one of the areas that AvP is weak in. The menu system they use for setting things up is a bit unwieldy, and the most annoying thing is when you forget to hit "use these settings" when mapping your keys. If you just hit escape to get out of that screen then your mapped keys don't stay. The "use these settings" button is all the way at the top of the screen, so when you scroll all the way through the dozens of commands and key bindings you have to remember to hit the up arrow and scroll all the way up and hit "use these settings." OK so it's a really nitpicky issue, but it's something that shows the game is a bit rough on the edges in certain areas. Another example is that every mission starts out with a short message saying "Rebellion developments 10/05/99." You'd think they would have removed the build notes before mastering the CD? OK I better move on to the next parts before I get flamed to hell for so much nitpicking =)

Cloak with flares

Don't lose your head!