But given the circumstances, perhaps it's hardly surprising.ДЇor five days before this all started, I'd been living a hermit's existence, devoid of human company, encamped in a darkened room playing Monolith's new FPS, AvP2. There I sit, rocking in the corner, iribbfing on my chest and flinching at the sound of the churnings of my own gastro fluids. So I've been sealing myself into my room, welding the door shut every night with steel bolts. What's more, I've recently acquired a strange phobia of curved black pipes, attacking them with the intensity of a rutting badger at every given opportunity, convinced they're about to jump out at me and carve out my throat.ДЄnd they are you know, mark my words. I think something might be wrong with me. A confused old woman with a wheely bag looks back at me and wets herself where she stands, while I throw myself at her feet and beg her not to rip out my spinal column. I wheel around in terror, shouting, 'Die, you Alien bastard!' and mimic firing a gun while bellowing a war cry. Sweat breaks out across my forehead and my lower lip quivers in panicked desperation. I hear footsteps behind me, and heavy, laboured breathing. There's something out there, and it aint no man. But there's plenty of variety on offer, and you'll soon find yourself carried away by the tension of it as you sneak up behind someone, and vindicate your playing style by ripping their head off with a well-placed wrist blade swipe. It's unlikely AvP2 will challenge Counter-Strike as the king of online shooters, as its complex, tactical nature will put many casual gamers off. The second problem lies with the small choice of maps, which are for the most part, fairly uninspiring. Even with an ADSL connection this proves troublesome and makes closeup combat virtually impossible for anyone still chugging away on a 56K modem. There are unfortunately two concerns which blight this otherwise entertaining online shooter. Them), rarely had more than one server running it at a time. However, both seem to wane in interest fairly quickly (not helped by the dearth of servers), and it struck me as surprising that the excellent Evac games (marines must get to a dropship, aliens must stop

The first is ultimately a lastman-standing competition, while the latter is a team based round-game not too dissimilar to Counter-Strike, where races must annihilate the opposition in order to score a point. Survivor and Overrun games are rare, but often entertaining. Perhaps some further balancing is required to even things out. The opposition, utilising their sheer speed and agility (wallwalking is an invaluable skill to master), while their pounce attacks seem a little too powerful. Surprisingly, Aliens often appeared to have the edge over the other two, as well-organised groups of drones would literally scythe through

When Three Tribes CollideДM and TDM games vary in quality, and rarely work as well when there are three sides (marine, Alien and Predator), providing far more satisfaction when two races go at it.

Playing as an outnumbered Predator is even more enjoyable, as you're required to think tactically if you're to survive, especially against some of the well-organised teams of marines I came across online. Contrary to popular belief, if you look carefully enough you can often spot a cloaked Predator fairly easily, but holding your nerve as you desperately try to take them down is a totally separate challenge. Hunt is best played on the larger, erratically lit levels, and playing as a marine can become incredibly tense as you mistake friendly blips on your motion sensor for the enemy and start firing wildly into the night. And you can only score points as a Predator. However, once a Predator is taken down, he and his assailant swap places. This style of play works best in AvP2 Hunt mode, where a set number of Predators take on a higher ratio of marines. Surely that's the point of playing as one, utilising stealth, thermal imaging and infrared view modes along with an array of long-distance weaponry to take out your opponents. And while its online game types are highly varied, and for the most part extremely entertaining and tense, it's nothing short of baffling (not to mention off-putting) when somone starts having a go at you for remaining cloaked when playing as a Predator. It's one thing being frightened by a game when playing it singleplayer, and a whole different thing when you're playing online against a bunch of jumped-up selfobsessed gits, intent on insulting you unless you play the game exactly how they demand.

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