aliens-isolation
Latest
Alien: Isolation Season Pass is for Survivor Mode DLC
Alien: Isolation's Survivor Mode is simple and scary: survive against the clock and the alien, with limited resources on each map. The first Survivor Mode map, Basement, is included with the game when it launches on October 7. Alien: Isolation is getting a Season Pass for all five of its Survivor Mode map packs, the first of which launches on October 28. Each Survivor Mode pack includes three maps. The first map pack has its "own set objective and challenges, a new playable character and a variety of enemy types between you and your escape," Sega writes in a press release. "Over the following months, four more add-on packs will release, each featuring a new playable character, and a mix of new maps and game modes to challenge even the most proficient player." All of the Survivor Mode maps are due to be out by March 2015, Sega says. There's no word on a price for the individual packs or the Season Pass, but the pass gives players a discount of "up to" 25 percent. [Image: Sega]
There's No Escape from the latest Alien: Isolation trailer
Alien: Isolation has officially gone gold and to celebrate this momentous occasion, publisher Sega has kicked off a new series of trailers, starting with the vignette you see above which poses the question, "How will you survive?" before demonstrating exactly how to do the opposite. [Image: Sega]
Video preview: Alien Isolation
Alien: Isolation is just around the corner, launching on October 7 for PC, Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. After playing an Oculus Rift-powered preview of the game, Joystiq Senior Reporter Jessica Conditt described The Creative Assembly's take on the classic franchise as "pants-shittingly awesome." While the final game isn't being built with the Rift in mind, it's the A.I.-driven monster that does the heavy lifting, bringing the classic film series into a growing genre of escape-horror video games. In a new video preview alongside Jessica, Joystiq Editor-in-chief Ludwig Kietzmann discusses his recent hands-on with the game, a few hurdles he thinks the Sega-published title will have to overcome and the many merits of breath management. [Image: Sega]
A toy robot proves crucial in latest Alien: Isolation trailer
As this latest Alien: Isolation trailer demonstrates, motion trackers exist solely to make the user's final few moments as terrifying as possible. Frankly, she would've been better off with the plastic robot. [Image: Sega]
The Nostromo crew lives again in Alien: Isolation trailer
In this Alien: Isolation trailer, Sigourney Weaver, Yaphet Kotto, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright and Harry Dean Stanton return to the Nostromo to reminisce about the good ol' days, when men were men, women were women, and aliens didn't care, because human face is equally tasty. [Image: Sega]
Joystiq Discussion: Pray or spray the Xeno away in Alien Isolation?
"You can get through the entire game without killing someone," said Gary Napper, lead designer of Alien: Isolation, in a new interview with GamesTM. "It's something that was, not so much a challenge, but something I felt was what the character would do. We're talking about a member of the Ripley family-they're not like characters in games that gun down civilians because they're in the way to get to the switch." Napper's got a good point. Ellen Ripley wasn't a stone cold killer in Alien, she was a trucker who fought to survive. Dishonored, Thief, The Last of Us; plenty of modern blockbusters give the option to avoid the old ultra violence, but only the option. Alien: Isolation, meanwhile, emphasizes flight far over flight.Do we really want that, though? Alien's a spectacular work of suspense, but it's a movie, not a game. Its pacing is controlled, free of a player's wild whims. Maybe the xenomorph is always best as a moving, splattering, screeching gun target. Maybe not! We've got plenty of that already. Indeed, Sega already funded Aliens: Colonial Marines. The question, then: How do you want to play your Alien game? Flame thrower first, ask questions later? Or do you just want to get the hell out of dodge with a minimum loss of life? Discuss.
Alien: Isolation pre-order DLC available separately 'at a later date'
The Creative Assembly moved to answer concern regarding its newly revealed pre-order DLC for Alien: Isolation by confirming the content will be available separately after release. Earlier in the week, Sega revealed the content starring the cast of the original film would be tied to pre-orders, with one of the two DLC missions, "Last Survivor," only available at GameStop in the US. However, the news drew disapproval from some quarters, with many dismayed to see substantial content limited to pre-orders and used to promote them.
Ellen Ripley leads Nostromo crew's return in Alien: Isolation's pre-order DLC
Sega revealed Sigourney Weaver and several members of the original Alien cast reunite in two missions from the upcoming Alien: Isolation. Temper your excitement, because Sega is making both missions pre-order bonuses, with one exclusive in the US to GameStop. Sega says all pre-orders come with the "Crew Expendable" mission, in which you can play as either Ellen Ripley, Dallas or Parker in the moments following Brett's protracted death in the film. Meanwhile, the GameStop pre-order mission is "Last Survivor," in which players as Ripley try to escape the Nostromo by boarding the Narcissus shuttle.
Relax, Alien: Isolation is 1080p on PS4 and Xbox One
Alien: Isolation runs at 1080p on both Xbox One and PS4, and in terms of framerate it's roughly the same across both platforms, Creative Assembly Lead Game Designer Gary Napper tells OXM. "When I think about working on the game, it's almost platform agnostic because I only think about the differences between platforms and the different mechanics we can use, like the light on the PS4 pad and the stuff with Kinect 2.0," Napper says. "So I think with framerate it's pretty comparable. There's no noticeable drop or change in graphics between them. Obviously there are a lot more options to tweak and scale up on the PC." So, when we're waking up the neighbors with screams of terror in the middle of the night, we'll tell them it's all Napper's fault. And if 1080p weren't horrifying enough, there's a demo of Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift. We'd note if that were in 1080p, too, but we couldn't keep our eyes open long enough to tell. Alien: Isolation is due out on Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4 and PC late this year. [Image: Sega]
You can't cover your eyes in Oculus Rift, a study of Alien: Isolation
With Oculus Rift dev kit 2.0, the world of Alien: Isolation appears more real than ever before – you peer around dark corners by tilting your actual head, you can almost feel the cold metal walls of your busted ship, and you cling desperately to the motion tracker, hoping that little green dot never appears. Because when it does, you're dead. Thankfully, dying in Oculus Rift doesn't equate actual death – this isn't Stay Alive, people – but it certainly feels real, if only for a second. This is my excuse for squealing like a piglet while playing Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift at E3. It might be flimsy, but it's all I have. Alien: Isolation was one of Joystiq's official game selections of E3 2014, and we discussed how the Oculus version went down, in text form, here. But, of course, seeing is believing.
Confessions of a VR Virgin: Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus
While the rest of gaming world seemingly hopped on the VR bus as soon as Oculus Rift was announced, I've been skeptical. Every time a friend or developer started to extol the virtues of strapping on a Weapon X mask to play Mirror's Edge, I'd ask the same question: How long did you play while wearing it? Half an hour tops? No way anyone's going to want to sit around marathoning Skyrim with shoebox-sized goggles on their dome. That may still be true, but my doubts were unfounded. I finally put the big gaming VR helmets on my face at E3 2014 and took them for a quick spin. I have no idea if I'll ever want to sit in my living room playing four hours of Yakuza 8 wearing an Oculus or Morpheus, but I do think VR technology adds a remarkable bodily element to video games that's unlike anything else. My experiences with Oculus and Morpheus were also dramatically different.
Alien: Isolation's challenge mode is a space-time conundrum
In addition to the main story-based campaign, Alien: Isolation features a separate time-based challenge mode that combines the game's space-based scares with an inherent need to get a move on. In the E3 demo I played today, the Xbox One build tasked me with escaping an area while a timer ticked upwards. There were three achievable bonuses that would cut into that accumulation of time spent, won by doing things like finding ID tags, locking down the stairwell and not using the motion tracker. That last one was never going to happen, especially without a map this time around to fall back on. The first time I played Alien: Isolation it creeped me out, but I only suffered death at the xenomorph's hands once. This time I died a total of 7 times across just over 20 minutes, and barely made it anywhere near the supposed exit. My drooling hunter gruesomely killed me no matter what I tried to do, be it crouching quietly behind barrels, hiding in a locker, or torching the fiend with a flamethrower. One full blast - all I had - merely scared the pursuer off, but my new found safety was always brief.
Oculus Rift and Alien: Isolation: I see you
Alien: Isolation is running in prototype form on Oculus Rift at E3. Two things about that: The full game isn't coming to Oculus Rift for sure just yet. It's terrifying. Creative Lead Al Hope first saw the Oculus Rift's horror potential after a demo at GDC in 2013, he told Joystiq. Creative Assembly decided to give it a try and built the demo now stalking the booths of E3 2014. "To be clear, what we announced last night is that we're showing a prototype of Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift," Hope said. He made it clear that a demo didn't equate a full game, at least not for now. This is a blessing and a curse, because Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift is great, and also greatly horrifying. We sat down with it on Oculus Rift dev kit 2.0, and those few dark minutes were easily 10,000 times scarier than the standard controller-and-screen version.
Feast on this Alien: Isolation E3 trailer
Alien: Isolation, for those who have survived the Xenomorph buffet so far, is a first-person survival horror game using Ridley Scott's 1979 movie a spingboard. The game will be available on the flustercluck day of October 7. Here's the trailer Sega brought to the E3 2014 party.
Meet the (assuredly-doomed) cast of Alien: Isolation
Ellen Ripley may have been the sole survivor, but she wasn't the only crewmember of the Nostromo. Taking a cue from the 1979 film, the developers of Alien: Isolation are building a cast to support another Ripley on her quest to destroy a monstrous alien. [Image: Sega]
Alien: Isolation dev diary breaks things to make them look better
Wondered how Alien: Isolation, a game being made in 2014 on modern computers can emulate its 1979 heritage? According to Creative Assembly's new dev diary, the secret lies in twisting cables and generally ruining perfectly good VHS tapes. Ah, the good ol' days of property destruction. [Image: Sega]
Sounds of Alien: Isolation dev diary features terrifying vegetables
We're going to have garden-themed nightmares thanks to this sound design-focused Alien: Isolation dev diary, which reveals that stomping on ripe vegetables sounds suspiciously similar to an alien sinking its teeth into people. And here we were just getting over our fear of asparagus. [Image: Sega]
Alien: Isolation is coming right toward you on October 7
Alien: Isolation has been given a release date of October 7, 2014, according to a tweet from the game's official Twitter profile. The interstellar monster inspired by the nightmares of H.R. Giger will come to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, to ensure its frightful reach extends across both current and previous-gen systems. Seal the vents. [Image: Sega]
Challenges and comparisons: The monsters that hunt Alien Isolation
The Creative Assembly has been forced to make a number of changes in order to realize the vision for Alien: Isolation. After successful pitches to both Sega and 20th Century Fox, the developer turned to recruitment, ensuring it added new members to its team that were capable of crafting the exact game it pitched, what Creative Lead Al Hope calls: "The Alien game that we always wanted to play." A game completely different from that other Alien game, which his team at The Creative Assembly had no involvement with making, yet keeps coming up, just the same Its pitch demo for Isolation was built in four weeks and featured two identical medical bays: one with its environment and objects in pristine condition and the other obliterated by an unknown menace. The juxtaposition led to immediate questions: "What happened? What did this?" Soon, an answer invaded the screen as a large xenomorph falls into frame, ending the demo. Sega was immediately interested, Hope says, as was Fox. Adding new talent to execute on the project was necessary. For the better part of a decade, The Creative Assembly has focused its attention on the RTS genre. Once its pitch was green lit, Creative Assembly brought in talent that contributed to a host massive franchises, including Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed. Its team assembled and its concept approved, the developer began its work over three and a half years ago on Alien: Isolation – a survival horror game based on a beloved movie from the late 1970s. "This is exactly the game we want to make," Hope says.
Making everything new, old again in Alien: Isolation
Though Ridley Scott's classic Alien takes place in a distant future, the film's production values were a product of the late 1970s, with sets and props cobbled together with elements from the era. Rather than evolve the original designs-of-necessity in its upcoming and inspired Alien: Isolation into more modern props and environments, developer The Creative Assembly chose to embrace the "lo-fi sci-fi" concepts found in the horror masterpiece. "You could say the first part of development was this phase of deconstruction," Creative Lead Al Hope explains. "Kind of taking everything we knew and loved about the film and pulling it apart, so that when we built new content it would still look and feel as though it were from the film." To achieve an in-game design that would mesh with the original film's aesthetic, The Creative Assembly pored over three terabytes of behind-the-scenes video, photos, handwritten notes on props and continuity photos from the production of Alien, courtesy of the 20th Century Fox archives. The treasure trove even included some rarely seen production pieces, such as detailed blueprints of the cargo vessel Nostromo, which proved vital for creating the spaces within Isolation. Using the source material, the developer made what Hope calls "a brave decision," and began populating its game with objects and environments created by replicating production techniques used for the film's development. Computers are slow, clunky and always seem on the verge of breaking down. And it's all by design.
