Alien Swarm PC/Steam IT'S FREE!

[Family Fry]

So after fitting a new 3D card today so that I can play some games again, I decided to download my old DD games, so I installed Steam (of course!)
Today just so happend to be the day when Alien Swarm was being released onto steam for free and knowing nowt about this game at all decided what the heck it's free. So after downloading the 2gb file and having a go on offline mode, colour me very impressed with this free game, it beats the pants off the new Alien Breed.
It's like Alien Breed meets Left 4 Dead, you have to survive the swarms of aliens whilst trying to recover data, hack terminals and esacape from the maps. You have 4 character classes Medic/Tech/Officier/Special Weapons, you are all equiped with the classic Alien motion detector. I decided to try Tech first and I think one of his abilities is he can weld doors shut, very handy and satisfying when a swarm is hot on your tail and you seal the door up behind you, until you die.

Copy n paste key features...

Alien Swarm is being released for free by Valve.
Is a tactical, 4 player co-op action game with a top-down perspective.
Complete game code and mod tools available to the community.
The SDK is separate from that of other Source games.
Features 4 unique classes.
Over 40 weapons and equipment with many configurations.
8 unique characters.
Has Easy, Normal, Hard, and Insane difficulties.
Features only Campaign Mode and Offline Practice Mode.
Uses L4D2 style add-on system for custom campaigns.
Much less randomization than L4D so players can observe, learn, and overcome challenges.
Uses a modified Source engine between the L4D2 and Portal 2 iterations.
Supports dedicated and listen servers.
Contains Valve game easter eggs.
64 achievements.
Does not currently support Mac or controllers.

7 Maps.
Cargo Elevator
Rydberg Reactor
Deima Surface Bridge
Sewer Junction
Timor Station
SynTek Residential
Landing Bay

The offline map I played took me about 20+mins to get through, not a bad size and great stand off at the end too, I made it out with 1 character left, Sarge and his shotty.
My Steam ID is FamilyFry add me up for some co-op, also list your Steam ID in here and we can get some NTSC co-op going on.

[FreelancePolice]

Can't believe more people aren't playing this! It's an absolute blast with a few friends.

I love how the level doesn't really boost you in anyway that coming in as a level 1 will put you at a disadvantage to a level 20. It merely gives you more options to adapt your own individual strategy.

In a similar way to L4D, staying together is absolutely key. Stray off and you can soon be overwhelmed. I believe this is using a similar Director in that enemies won't always spawn in the same place, although it's certainly no Director 2.0. Objectives seem to remain in the same place and certain enemies will always appear. Some Director 2.0 features would be amazing, but as it stands it's a superb package. For free, argh!

The SDK should ensure that there's plenty of custom stuff appearing. I've already seen a space hulk marine custom model

Valve is certainly benefiting from the ridiculous spike of users on steam usage data. I've read people speculating that this is one of the reasons they released it for free.

[Ouenben]

Hopefully it'll have controller support soon, I tried to use my xbox 360 pad, all was well every action set to a button similar to CoD/Halo type controls, and then I load up the offline practise level and realise there's no way to set up aiming for the right stick!

I'd really prefer to play it with a 360 pad over mouse/keyboard but i'll have to make do for now

[mekanor]

Valve are branching out. This must be their first non-fps. It's always good to see them pick up some of the high quality mod teams and their mods. Here's hoping it is the start of another great series (though I'm still awaiting my ricochet sequel).

Edit: actually I suppose portal was a first person puzzler wasn't it. oh well

[MisterBubbles]

Heres a nice set of commands that you can put in, including putting AS into FPS mode,

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1371124

p.s Ouenben theres a tweak for 360 pad support too

[cavalcade]

This is decent.

With proper pad support rather than the half-arsed bodge job it is at the moment it would probably be the best thing given away for free since I scored 6 free Strawberry Cornettos off an attractive blonde lady in Basingstoke.

[Jebus]

This is a great little game but I really struggle with the mouse aiming, is there proper 360 pad support yet?

[Ouenben]

This is a great little game but I really struggle with the mouse aiming, is there proper 360 pad support yet?

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1371124

(Same link as before )

It works pretty well I find but I still wish valve would get some official support out.

For games like this: Controller > Mouse and keyboard