Alien: Isolation

[Darth Roxor]

the clunky Lithtech engine.

Lithtech was one of the two reasons why early 2000 shooters were fucking awesome, the second being the Q3 engine.

 

[MapMan]

I'd love it for this to be succesful but I am really, really skeptical they'll pull it off. For example, I *love* Alien. I love the design of it. It's a much better monster than most. But... we've seen it a *million* times now. There is no mystery left. We know exactly what it is. And even moreso, the golden rule of a lot of horror is to keep it in the dark. Always keep it concealed. In these trailers, you've already seen the alien clearly a lot of times. And again, it's a design that is now very familiar to us. It's just... there is no fear of the unknown there. To compare it to video games, take Silent Hill. Was plenty scary for the first two or three games. But now? Who gives a shit about it now? As soon as you delve too deep, or too many times, into the mystery of the horror you're trying to create, it loses its horror.

Secondly, I'm afraid that this amazing AI will be... impressive in how it acts. But... it will always be dumb enough to give the player a fighting chance. In movies, you can create a smart creature that surprises everyone and kills them off one by one (clever girl). In video games, things work differently. You have to kinda design around the fact that the player (which will include the low-born console peasants) have to be able to beat it. So the fearsome alien, maybe impressive and dynamic enough to surprise (don't get me wrong, this can certainly be horrifying) will have to be dumb enough for us to be able to outsmart it pretty easily. I highly doubt the game will be complex enough for us to go "fuck yeah, I'm so smart, I outsmarted the alien with this *awesome* solution duuude".

I dunno. Hope I'm wrong.

What I think you're expecting is more of a sandboxy experience where the ship is your playground and you have to outsmart the alien in various ways and fight for survival. That would me immensively cool but I think this will be a much more linear experience with objectives and linear story progression. Shame. I also agree that the mystery is very important in any horror, you're afraid of the unknown, shit hit the fan but you dont know why or what to expect. As you said, we know everything about alien, no mystery or surprise here.

 

[Morgoth]

I know everything about burglars, no mystery or surprise there. I still lock my doors though.

 

[Morgoth]

I also find the lack of information about the savegame system disturbing.

 

[Angthoron]

There's no mystery or surprise with checkpoint systems.

 

[Dexter]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

OK, even I'll admit that Oculus + Alien: Isolation is something I'd like to try.

 

[zerotol]

So, it's about human hiding from an alien?
A human trying to outsmart / outrun an alien?

.
.
.

Allow me to go back to this:

AvP campaign is trash

trash in the end of the 90's meaning goty now

and wasnt even bad

idiot

 

[Derek Larp]

So, it's about human hiding from an alien?
A human trying to outsmart / outrun an alien?

.
.
.

Allow me to go back to this:

Didn't a twelve year old hide for weeks from, what, 120 aliens?

 

[spekkio]

^
God mode via script.

AvP campaign is trash

Go back to Half-Life's cinematic experience.

 

[sser]

Newt had GLORIOUS Plot Armor, +2 Resistance to Alien Killers from Outer Space.

Activate: Be a child. Nobody kills a child. You can squirm and scream your way out of everything. Surrounding adults will die in your stead.

 

[Machocruz]

There is no evidence of the alien in Alien being a fast runner. In fact, it's movements are quite slow, languid. Even the ones in Aliens weren't crazy fast, even though they bounded from walls rather quickly. The AvP games basically took the Alien from 3 and made a bunch of them, which is bullshit but worked for a shooting gallery And people were keeping ahead of the one in 3 for a bit too. So if you can't run from the alien in this, they fucked up.

 

[Daedalos]

Newt had GLORIOUS Plot Armor, +2 Resistance to Alien Killers from Outer Space.

Activate: Be a child. Nobody kills a child. You can squirm and scream your way out of everything. Surrounding adults will die in your stead.

Alien 3 called. (2nd Best film in the trilogy, with Alien only being slightly better)

 

[anus_pounder]

Ehhh...why not.

 

[sser]

Newt had GLORIOUS Plot Armor, +2 Resistance to Alien Killers from Outer Space.

Activate: Be a child. Nobody kills a child. You can squirm and scream your way out of everything. Surrounding adults will die in your stead.

Alien 3 called. (2nd Best film in the trilogy, with Alien only being slightly better)

GLORIOUS Plot Armor does not have resistances to lazy writing.

 

[Daedalos]

Newt had GLORIOUS Plot Armor, +2 Resistance to Alien Killers from Outer Space.

Activate: Be a child. Nobody kills a child. You can squirm and scream your way out of everything. Surrounding adults will die in your stead.

Alien 3 called. (2nd Best film in the trilogy, with Alien only being slightly better)

GLORIOUS Plot Armor does not have resistances to lazy writing.

Oh you one of THOSE people. Actually killing off newt and Hicks was a brilliant move and a much needed one... Aliens was a good action movie, but it was a much worse Alien movie than both alien and alien 3.

Alien 3 brought back the terror... a fine and much much underrated movie by our David Fincher <3

 

[sser]

Newt had GLORIOUS Plot Armor, +2 Resistance to Alien Killers from Outer Space.

Activate: Be a child. Nobody kills a child. You can squirm and scream your way out of everything. Surrounding adults will die in your stead.

Alien 3 called. (2nd Best film in the trilogy, with Alien only being slightly better)

GLORIOUS Plot Armor does not have resistances to lazy writing.

Oh you one of THOSE people. Actually killing off newt and Hicks was a brilliant move and a much needed one... Aliens was a good action movie, but it was a much worse Alien movie than both alien and alien 3.

Alien 3 brought back the terror... a fine and much much underrated movie by our David Fincher <3

I actually don't mind Alien 3, but the writing is terrible. Most people hate it for nearly axing the entire fucking franchise and that is a legit criticism.

 

[Daedalos]

Newt had GLORIOUS Plot Armor, +2 Resistance to Alien Killers from Outer Space.

Activate: Be a child. Nobody kills a child. You can squirm and scream your way out of everything. Surrounding adults will die in your stead.

Alien 3 called. (2nd Best film in the trilogy, with Alien only being slightly better)

GLORIOUS Plot Armor does not have resistances to lazy writing.

Oh you one of THOSE people. Actually killing off newt and Hicks was a brilliant move and a much needed one... Aliens was a good action movie, but it was a much worse Alien movie than both alien and alien 3.

Alien 3 brought back the terror... a fine and much much underrated movie by our David Fincher <3

I actually don't mind Alien 3, but the writing is terrible. Most people hate it for nearly axing the entire fucking franchise and that is a legit criticism.

Really?

Aliens was largely comprised of slapped together rag-tag one-liners that got all the action lolfans hooked and shit... the actual writing wasn't even that good in aliens... but it was good in Alien.. and actually quite good in Alien 3.

Interesting characters, interesting arcs of old characters.. good speeches... strong performances of ripley, charles dance (FUCKING TYWINN LANNISTER IN SPACE BITCH)... and Clemons

The film had alot of problems, but for how much criticism and shit it gets regularly... alien 3 is by and large, a very successful film that ages well albeit with some lackluster cgi.. but still... dont be a cgifag

Can you outline specifically what you thought was bad and terrible writing? E.g. compared to Alien and Aliens.. and how the first two movies sets themselves far apart from the writing in the third....

And this doesn't include questionable plotholes and other stupid shit that we've been through a lot... and which require faint hints of suspenion of disbelief

 

[Morality Games]

Really?

Aliens was largely comprised of slapped together rag-tag one-liners that got all the action lolfans hooked and shit... the actual writing wasn't even that good in aliens... but it was good in Alien.. and actually quite good in Alien 3.

Interesting characters, interesting arcs of old characters.. good speeches... strong performances of ripley, charles dance (FUCKING TYWINN LANNISTER IN SPACE BITCH)... and Clemons

The film had alot of problems, but for how much criticism and shit it gets regularly... alien 3 is by and large, a very successful film that ages well albeit with some lackluster cgi.. but still... dont be a cgifag

Can you outline specifically what you thought was bad and terrible writing? E.g. compared to Alien and Aliens.. and how the first two movies sets themselves far apart from the writing in the third....

And this doesn't include questionable plotholes and other stupid shit that we've been through a lot... and which require faint hints of suspenion of disbelief

He speaks wisdom. HEAR HIM!

 

[Drakron]

Main problem with Aliens 3 is it wasnt Aliens and much closer to Alien, meaning all the dumbfucks that liked Aliens because of Aliens since it was a Action Movie ended up with TOO MUCH TALKING, granted Aliens 3 is slow and takes a while as Alien gets things done much faster (and Aliens even more) but thats not the problem, they wanted a action movie and they didnt get it in Aliens 3 so it sucks.

Juts like that Halo RTS game gets crapped on because its a RTS, not because of its faults.

This is why Alien Ressurection was a action movie and also why its rarely mentioned.

 

[Morality Games]

Nothing underscores this ideology of action-fanboyism better than Marshall Fine's reviews on 2-4 on Amazon Alien Anthology product entry.

Review of Alien Resurrection

Perhaps these films are like the Star Trek movies: The even-numbered episodes are the best ones. Certainly this film (directed by French stylist Jean-Pierre Jeunet) is an improvement over Alien 3, with a script that breathes exciting new life into the franchise.

 

[Excidium]

and wasnt even bad

idiot

Yes it was.

AvP campaign is trash

Go back to Half-Life's cinematic experience.

Half-Life lmao

 

[Unkillable Cat]

the actual writing wasn't even that good in aliens... and actually quite good in Alien 3.

Very few films have been through as much of a development hell as Alien3. It went to shooting without a finished script, the script was rewritten many times during filming, studio execs intervened and overruled many decisions and the director had only directed MUSIC VIDEOS prior to this film... and he refuses to acknowledge he worked on it!

I'll admit that the 2003 Assembly Cut is an improvement over the theatrical release, but it's STILL a clusterfuck of a movie.

Interesting characters

Dillon is a firebrand preacher and second-billed on the cast, so he's at least not one-dimensional. "85" isn't anything outstanding but not a bad character either. Andrews is the boss which makes him different from the prisoners. EVERYONE ELSE IS A BALD PRISONER WITH AN ENGLISH ACCENT ONLY MEANT TO PORTRAY UPCOMING MEALS FOR THE ALIEN, and of those only two manage to stand out in any way. I'll get to the doctor soon, but the ONLY REALLY interesting character in the entire film... got 90% of his material cut from the theatrical release. Golic. The mentally insane prisoner whom ended up calling the xeno "the dragon" and worshipping him as such.

interesting arcs of old characters...

Please. I'll ignore Ripley as she's the main protagonist, the whole film is about her arc. Let's focus on the other three. Two of them are killed off, off-screen, and there's that. The only thing interesting about their deaths is the story about how that photo of Michael Biehn used in that obit scene turned out to be the most expensive headshot in cinema history, landing him about as much money for what he got paid for doing Aliens.

That leaves us with Bishop. The android Bishop's arc only gets one addition: "I've been reduced to a contraption less useful than a toaster, please kill me." Except then there's the "human" Bishop at the end. His mere presence presented more questions than it asked, and spawned the spectacular continuity mindfuck in the Alien mythos that is Charles Weyland's quest for immortality. (I'm not even gonna go there.)

charles dance (FUCKING TYWINN LANNISTER IN SPACE BITCH)... and Clemons

When Alien 3 was released, Charles Dance was Just Another British Drama Actor. The film is full of them, like they came at a bulk discount. Pete Postlethwaite is also in there, Paul McGann ("I" in "Withnail and I") is in there and he was probably the most well known of them at the time with the possible exception of Brian Glover.

As much as I hate to say this, because I know that Charles Dance is an excellent actor today... this is not his finest hour. He pretends to be the doctor but he's actually an inmate with a medical degree. Something even my 13-year old self spotted when I saw the film in cinemas when the film premiered. I had no clue who he was at the time, but I did recognize him again as the villain in The Last Action Hero, where his performance is much better. Trying to say that Alien 3 is "better" somehow because Charles Dance is in it... it's fanboyism. But then again, your tag.

The film had alot of problems, but for how much criticism and shit it gets regularly... alien 3 is by and large, a very successful film that ages well albeit with some lackluster cgi.. but still... dont be a cgifag

The CGI is fine in the theatrical version. Unfortunately the theatrical version is a poor film. The Assembly Cut is better, but one of the downsides of that cut is the less-than-stellar CGI. Considering that neither of the prequels used CGI, this was a mistake no matter how you look at it.

Can you outline specifically what you thought was bad and terrible writing? E.g. compared to Alien and Aliens.. and how the first two movies sets themselves far apart from the writing in the third....

How come there's an alien egg aboard the Sulaco?

How come ONE facehugger could impregnate TWO individuals? (Ripley and the quadruped)

These two unanswered questions form the ENTIRE BASIS for the plot and story of Alien 3.

And this doesn't include questionable plotholes and other stupid shit that we've been through a lot... and which require faint hints of suspenion of disbelief

Right, let's ignore the elephant in the room while you paint a shadow on the wall and claim it to be reality. No. These two plot holes make the entire film impossible. They break it apart completely. "Minor suspension of disbelief"? Fuck off.

But this way we do reach an answer that falls within your self-defined criteria: Consistency. The first Alien film arrives, sets the scene, leaves alot of unanswered questions as a good horror movie should do. Then Aliens comes along, answers some of those questions in a consistent manner and sets things up consistently. Then the third film comes along and consistency is thrown out the door faster than a two-timing crack whore. People tend to notice that, and it degrades films, especially sequels.

Want more? How come Alien 3 has throwaway characters? The first Alien film had 7 characters, we get to know them and learn their names before they start dying off one by one. (Brett is a personal favourite of mine despite him being just a stereotypical trucker... but IN SPACE!) Aliens has 16 characters IIRC, we get to know many of them a little before they start getting killed off, but halfway through the film we're left with a core group of characters that are distinguishable and memorable. Alien 3 has around two dozen characters of which a vast majority looks and sounds the same and we get virtually NO time to get to know more than half of them before they're Alien Chow. Alien 3 could have been shot with 10 characters total, with each at least given a chance to make their "stage entrance" before being skullfucked by the xeno without any real loss in quality. Hell, we might even have grown to like some of them.

Alien 3 still has a lot going for it. It didn't scare me in the slightest when I saw it first as a teenager, but very few films have had such a gloomy background, an apocalyptic undertheme and all-round despair. The film still haunts me in some ways even today. Seeing things from the xeno's perspective was a brilliant idea, and the soundtrack is underestimated. But it is NOT, and NEVER will be, better than its prequels.

 

[spekkio]

AvP campaign is trash

Go back to Half-Life's cinematic experience.

Half-Life lmao

So, what do you say? AvP2’s campaign isn’t more Half-Life-ish than AvP1?
IMO AvP1's single player was very good (and one of its own), while AvP2's was worse (since it went H-L way: story over shooting).

 

[Excidium]

I say that both games have shit single player modes.