Aliens vs. Predators isn't Aliens: Colonial Marines. Get that illusion out of  your head right away. It is, instead, a rebirth of the hugely popular Aliens vs. Predator series for current generation consoles. The game takes place well after the third Alien movie, where the Weyland-Yutani Corporation has begun mining on a new planet, and oh no, Aliens! In a shocking twist, the planet is a nesting ground for Xenomorphs, who, upon finding the planet, immediately begun planting their seeds and reproducing, leading to standoffs with the Colonial Marines and Predators that quickly make their way to the planet.

The demo we saw was part of the Colonial Marine campaign, and looked very similar to first-person horror titles such as Doom 3 and F.E.A.R.. The outpost is falling apart, with massive system failures causing the lights to blink, doors to slam open and shut randomly, and people to pop their head out and yell "BOO!" whenever anyone turns a corner. Making matters worse, the base has been taken over by Aliens, who are slowly taking down the marines. Their presence was apparent by the bodies of Marines and large acid holes burnt into the ground. It all looked very moody and scary, taking advantage of the current generation's power for fantastic visual effects and wonderful, real-time shadows.



After a bit of exploring, the Aliens broke through, and needed to be hunted down. The enemy AI looked very good, and had the Aliens hiding in shadows, attempting to sneak around to attack the player. After being hit, puffs of acid would shoot up, blinding and damaging anyone too close. When asked, the developers said they might, in the future, have the acid destroy environments, such as lights, but it wasn't in the build at E3. After some encounters left a few Xenomorph bodies on the ground, the developer running the demo finally met his end, and was overwhelmed by an onslaught of enemies. "That wasn't supposed to end there," he laughed, before moving on to a brief Q&A.

The three campaigns will all be available from the start, and should have a good deal of overlap and cross-over. When asked about the Predator and Alien campaigns, the producers couldn't go into details, but offered a bit of information on both. The Predator's obviously will have a focus on stealth and hunting, while the Alien campaign will go through "the entire life cycle" of the Xenomorph. I think its safe to say that players will be able to enjoy a good bit of face-hugging in early 2010 when the game is released.