On the other hand, the Xenos tend to totally dominate any ecosystem they are transplanted to by the Yautja.

Unfortunately you're mistaken. The alien doesn't analyze threat level, but rather opportunity. It is an ambush creature. It doesn't care if you've got a knife or a smartgun, if you walk down that dark corridor by yourself, you're getting yanked into a vent. While the alien does display enough intelligence (or at least understanding) to perceive a minor threat vs a major one, that's not what it bases its attacks on. As I said: as soon as it sees its opportunity to strike it does so.

As for the preds, you're wrong there as well. Ever seen Predator and Predator 2? They save the biggest prize for last, picking off those around him first. My guess is that the pred is playing against it's primary target's human psychology, knowing that the lust for vengeance makes a person fight harder. As such, when the final conflict comes around the target will be royally pissed and burning to avenge his/her fallen comrades. Look at the first Predator. The pred watches Arnold lead the assault on the militant base and kill the fuck outta a bunch of guys, as such the predator realizes he's the leader and the most prized trophy. The pred then begins picking off the members of the squad before going after Arnold himself. Same goes for the pred in Predator 2. It starts off killing gang-members because they're violent and well armed, but then he sees Danny Glover pull off some bad-ass moves and show great courage (at least in the pred's eyes) when he drives that car right into the gang's barricade and blasts the fuck outta them with his shotgun. Having found what he wants to be his primary target, the pred begins killing off everyone around him. Starting with his best friend, then King Willie (who gets killed right after talking with Danny), then the new detective, and he was about to kill the latino chick before a scan revealed that she was pregnant. That's why in the slaughterhouse, the pred ignores Buisey (know I misspelled that) when Danny blows his way in. He turns around and starts heading towards Danny while firing a casual shoulder cannon blast over his shoulder at Gary....a blast which apparently doesn't finish him off, showing how much the pred really cared about Gary in the first place.

The point is, however, look at how ramped up and pumped full of rage Danny is by the end of it. The pred realizes that Danny's ready to give him one hell of a fight and make for a glorious end to his hunt. You don't see it so much in the first one, though essentially the effect is the same. But rather than being swept up by emotion and rage, Arnold reverts to his own primal and covert skills to take out the pred. His assault on the militant base proved him to be a cunning opponent, so the pred was saving him for last. And that's the key thing to note about the predator's psychology: while on a hunt, they'll indeed kill many armed and dangerous foes, however they always have one specific target that they're stalking and hunting, something that'll give them a spectacular fight to close out their hunt with glory and honor.

Saving the biggest for last holds true in the games as well. AvP 1: you're on a hunt for a queen. AvP 2: You're on a hunt for Rykov to restore your clan's honor. In the new AvP: you're on a hunt for the Predalien, because such an abomination is a sacrilege of the highest order and it must be put to death. Even in Predator: Concrete Jungle, you work your way up the food chain. You start by killing gang members under the control of a massive crime syndicate. You then work your way up the syndicate, ultimately facing off against the boss who has turned himself into a pred-human hybrid.




As for Emo's comment, that's exactly correct. No matter where they're placed, the xenos ALWAYS become the top of the food chain. That's one of the reasons the preds consider them to be the most dangerous and difficult prey. They are complete masters of their environment, and no other creature is as deadly as the xeno. They're very fast, can go pretty much anywhere which in turn means they can attack from pretty much anywhere, and their instinct for survival through absolute brutal necessity ensures that they're the craftiest creatures the preds hunt.

Ah, so that's what you meant.

SOMEBODY MOVE THIS TO NO SPAM OR POST SOME NASTY ASS KILL SCENES ON THIS ALREADY.

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Excuse me, Arnold fucked his shit up with twigs and arrows.

To be fair, in the books, you see Humans as being an up and commer race, with decent tech, but organized in a fashion that allows them to take on a hive of xenomorphs. Hell, in later books (or hell, second movie) you find out they kill off aliens all the time. "Just another bug hunt Marines!"

If I had to pic between preds or Xenomorphs, well, of course xenos.

There is also a 4th race... I forget their name, and their only vaguely mentioned. You see the corpse of one in the first film, and assume they are extinct. Turns out they're still out there too.



Amen... especially since it fucks with the continuety(sp?) of the Alien Timeline, and fucks with the books/comics it was loosly based on.

Isn't there always at least one marine who does actually kill the predator?

(Arnie, That black guy, frosty, etc.)

Technically, Arnold fucked up the pred with a explosive arrows and a booby trap consisting of an enormous log dropped from a considerable height.

And the other race you mentioned is the Pilot race. I doubt that's the official term, but that's what they've been considered since the one shown in the first movie appears to be in the pilot seat of the ship they find the eggs in. Also, in the game AvP 2, there's references to "Pilot Technology".

Awesome stuff. Thanks man.

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Actually in avp2 you get to see an actual pilot at the end of marine scenario, in the chamber where you fight the queen.

The thing I love most about AvP 2 is how well written and planned out the story was. Each campaign intertwines with all the others. As the marine, you have to hack the security system to get through the tunnels to the PODs. When the system gets hacked, the xeno you play as is able to infiltrate the PODs and, during this xeno's efforts to release its broodmates, it also sets the player predator free. I also like how when the marine is escaping from the PODs, he actually sees the predator in the cargo hold jump out onto the drop ship. The one continuity problem arises with the fact that there's two queens...the one the marine kills and the one the predator kills. In nature, the queen's pheromones prohibit a Praetorian from molting into another queen. That's why Praetorians either hang around as royal guards or they wander off into the wilderness to find their own place to start a new hive. There can't be two queens in the same hive.

Here's a bit of AvP2 trivia: who gets to kill Ivan, Rykov's second in command? Frosty, the Alien, or the Predator?

The Zerg

I'm actually surprised how fox interactive managed to make a good game like this. Then again, it was developed by monolith, the same guys who made blood and shogo.

close enough with your answer. Indeed, the alien is the one that gets to kill Ivan. A lot of people think it's the marine since Ivan pilots the exosuit you gotta kill in the cargo hold, but evidently he survives as later on in the predator story, you see him talking to Rykov when they know you're coming for him. Obviously this happens after both the pred and the marine have escaped the cargo hold. And sure enough, on one of the last alien missions, you get to kill that blonde haired, crew-cut having fatty after climbing up an elevator shaft.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qYAfwdME-o[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAp_GpPne_o&feature=related[/video]

Never noticed that, but I'm goin back through AvP 2

Yeah, Kami is right about there being a big fossilized Pilot in the queen chamber on the marine missions. The Pilots are also referenced when you're romping around in the Exosuit and you gotta shoot the hive crap off of those generators, Kimiko tells you that it's old Pilot technology that should still be working.