"Somebody wake up Hicks."

If you are a fan of the movie Aliens, you should check out a mod for Unreal Tournament called Alien Swarm.

Unlike most mods, Alien Swarm is a conversion that changes the FPS UT into a top-down squad based action game. The 3D engine combined with good level design makes this mod very pretty to look at. As of right now, I've only played through the tutorial, so I've not gotten a big taste of the gameplay, but it looks promising.

The weapon effects looked great, and the animations and sound were solid. I particularly liked the flamer and the targeting flare.

The game is definitely inspired by Aliens. The creatures come in egg pods, and lay their young in humans. The weapons include the assault rifle, flamer, shotgun and autocannon. The marines can bypass locks, use cutting torches to open doors and seal them, and hack computers. I love it.

The only multi-player offered is co-op play of the campaign, but thats fine with me. If I wanted to get owned in a top-down game, I'd go play Starcraft.

I'll post more when I get a chance to play some more.