Game News Sega and Obsidian Entertainment to work on Alien franchise

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Sega of America is planning on taking over Sega of Japan like the good old days?

"ZOMG THE GRAPJHICS CHIP AINT FAST ENUFF" - soj

"YO BITCH ITS GOOD STOP BEING A FAGGOT" - soa

"HERE I MAKE GRAPHICS CHIP A LOT MORE COMPLICATED AND SLOWER LOL" -soj


Development of the Sega Saturn

 

[denizsi]

So the terrans have finally learned to manipulate the forces of universe as they spent time in space or "I can't imagine a mainstream RPG being done without the supah mass appeal of having ridiculous supernatural powers, even in an IP with an established setting".

I agree that the only way it may work is if it will have the feel of the original movie, instead of going "gunzz!1".

Since so much SF has become derivative of Alien and Bladerunner, it can be a real plus to be able to work with the original material, such as Giger's art design.

They will have to imitate any aspect of Giger's art, that's for sure. Giger has designed and given consent only for the original movie. After that, starting from "Aliens", they made slight alterations on the original designs just to dodge the legal issues, but as you can see, a few extra cables around the body doesn't make much differenece ( if the memory serves right, James Cameron himself either designed or contributed to the design of alien queen for instance ) As far as I know, HGR has since been trying to get them pay and prevent any further use of his Alien related designs.

Also notice that hardly any original Giger material is ever used in any of the Alien(s) games. Design of space jokey might be an exception though, but I wouldn't be surprised if its usage in other media is an outright violation.

Now all these talk just reminded me of the Dark Seed series. Awesome games, and a perfectly fitting setting for an RPG! I wonder what became of the devs and the game's liscense. Must check now..

... oh, and I'm someone who likes most of the alien films and alien games (even the c64 one!), I might add.

Do you remember the game on C64, where you would move room to room, where you would look around 360º from the center of each room. You could blow door's locks to jam the doors and so on.. I never managed the progress in that game. I couldn't prevent having other characters die so quickly.

This also reminded me of the 2 cd adventure game, "Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure". Clunky and somewhat idiotic but awesome anyway. Setting and the feel of "adventuring" was great.

 

[Whipporowill]

Do you remember the game on C64, where you would move room to room, where you would look around 360º from the center of each room. You could blow door's locks to jam the doors and so on.. I never managed the progress in that game. I couldn't prevent having other characters die so quickly.

Seems like the game wasn't finished - you run out of ammo sooner or later, and there seemed to be no possibilty to reload or find new ammo. Me and my buddy got to the part where the lights go out and your flooded by aliens in the dark - and finally assaulted by a queen. We managed to kill the bitch, but never got any further. I believe we found Newt as well...

 

[WittyName]

At best it'll probably play like Bioshock.

 

[DemonKing]

I kind of enjoyed parts of Alien vs Predator 2.

I actually found playing as the Alien the most fun - you got to progress from a hatchling, to a belly-bursting baby alien to a fully fledged wall-crawling killing machine.

Not sure how it would work as an RPG, but as always (except in the case of Herve and Ineptplay) I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until we hear more.

 

[Dhruin]

Why is this news on RPG Codex? We don't even know if it's for PC.

Seems likely to me...

LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO (March 23, 2006) - SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe, Ltd. today announced a new partnership with Obsidian Entertainment, Inc., an entertainment software development studio based in Orange County, CA. Under the terms of the worldwide deal, SEGA and Obsidian will collaboratively develop an original role playing game (RPG) for PC, PlayStation®3 (PS3) and the Xbox 360TM.

...unless you think they have multiple titles in development for Sega.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

I can't even remember much of the last two films and I guess that is a good thing. But my idea of a great setting would be Earth or another planet decades after an infestation.

Since the Aliens require a host to transform from a face-hugger to chest-burster then adult wall-crawler I could imagine the population using WMD to kill off living creatures that could/would be used as hosts for the chest-burster. While groups or governments go into hiding under-ground or in fallout shelters. See what I am getting at?

This would open up to a possible Fallout type futuristic Earth with few survivors fighting to stay alive among the few surviving Aliens. Since the human population would be thinning the Aliens would not be as quick to kill and would most likely try to capture and use humans. It could work if done well.

Only question I have always had is what do Aliens eat?

 

[Seboss]

People, animals, anything that has some meat on it I guess.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

Yeah, I always figured they were meat eaters (it's the teeth, two sets) but was that ever established in any of the movies. I know there are a series of books also right?

 

[Volourn]

"LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO (March 23, 2006) - SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe, Ltd. today announced a new partnership with Obsidian Entertainment, Inc., an entertainment software development studio based in Orange County, CA. Under the terms of the worldwide deal, SEGA and Obsidian will collaboratively develop an original role playing game (RPG) for PC, PlayStation®3 (PS3) and the Xbox 360TM."

 

[Bradylama]

I think in the literature, some death cult smuggled a Queen onto Earth and Xenomorph colonies started stinkin' up the joint. I think they nuked them all, maybe, I dunno. I never read the stuff.

 

[Dhruin]

"LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO (March 23, 2006) - SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe, Ltd. today announced a new partnership with Obsidian Entertainment, Inc., an entertainment software development studio based in Orange County, CA. Under the terms of the worldwide deal, SEGA and Obsidian will collaboratively develop an original role playing game (RPG) for PC, PlayStation®3 (PS3) and the Xbox 360TM."

...and?

 

[The_Nameless_Prick]

Complexity and choices are hard to find in the days of sweet butter graphics. Imagine what this lovely trend will be like in 2009. But always remember, you never know.

 

[Ivy Mike]

As someone how occasionally enjoys a good FPS I can see the merit in a gritty, Gears of War combined with System Shock, Alien FPS - since that's the kind of game that would probably work best for the Alien franchise. Ideally I'd like to see some of the ideas found in Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, such as the blurry vision when the PC is under a lot of stress, incorporated.

I hope Obsidian captures the atmosphere prevalent in Alien 1, as in scenes like when they approach that bizarre horse-shoe shaped hulk of a ship on the planet and find the gigantic fossilised alien astronomer inside.

Yeah, a horror-FPS with the Alien 1 atmosphere would provide some pretty good entertainment. The question is wether or not any of the mentioned developers can deliver such a game.

 

[Volourn]

"...and?"

And?...

 

[Sir_Brennus]

They will have to imitate any aspect of Giger's art, that's for sure. Giger has designed and given consent only for the original movie. After that, starting from "Aliens", they made slight alterations on the original designs just to dodge the legal issues, but as you can see, a few extra cables around the body doesn't make much differenece ( if the memory serves right, James Cameron himself either designed or contributed to the design of alien queen for instance ) As far as I know, HGR has since been trying to get them pay and prevent any further use of his Alien related designs.

Utter BS, moron. The whole Dog-Alien concept (should better be named Cow-Alien) was designed by HRG himself. They altered the the final design to get it to work as a puppet-on-a-string, but it IS HRG's work.

IMHO he has long declared creative bancrupcy, since his work for that shitty creature movie with the anorexic model chick and all his designs for Darkseed were a steaming pile of shit.

I have high hopes for the Alien-RPG if it's done by Obsidian, because I love their design philosphies (opposed to many on the codex) - I'm totally in love with NWN2 atm.

I completly disagree with Twinfalls about the way to go with the game: I think there must be a combination of 1-alien-hide-and-seek and 300-aliens-guns-blazing-gore, because that is the formular of all the movies (even the crappy frensh 4th one). Most people forget that there are also scenes of humans attacking the Alien in the first and the third movie - the only problem is their lack of effective weaponary. Aliens 2 is actually totally over the top, but was intended as being so - Vietnam on steroids.

 

[Dhruin]

"...and?"

And?...

Uh. I misunderstood your post.

 

[Monolith]

A survival horror RPG set on a spaceship would be far too much to hope for. The colony during the alien attack dawn of the dead style before the arrival of the marines might be a good setting too. Plenty of good opportunities for role playing in a small community under pressure.

I'm betting on the clicking on hordes of aliens to kill them with your limitless ammunition and occasionally stopping to throw 30 grenades when things get a little tough though. Which is likely to loose me as a player about as quickly as NWN2 did after clicking on one 'thug' too many. If you are going to make a game so dependent on combat at least make it fun.

Hell yeah. I stopped playing NWN 2 recently and I'm not even halfway through it. Combat is just boring and there is simply too much of it. It seemed to get better in Neverwinter and actually slightly challenging but I guess that was due to my enthusiasm caused by quests became slightly more interesting...

Therefore my low expectations...

 

[Azarkon]

A dark, Aliens-themed world suits Obsidian Entertainment far better than the light-hearted, high fantasy worlds they've been dealt with. Obsidian thrives on the dark and angsty, whereas Bioware (with the possible exception of DA) has been largely moving in the opposite direction since the days of the BGs.

 

[The_Nameless_Prick]

Obsidian thrives on the dark and angsty.

Funny. I never felt "Dark and angsty" while playing their make-money-from-what-Bioware-startes games. Just discust over their half-assed attempts to try to make more complex games (with the exeption of Icewind Dale, which is a simplified BG).

 

[Azarkon]

You didn't think KOTOR 2 was dark and angsty? I don't know what to say. Kreia (and to a lesser extent, Atton Rand) was like the personification of dark and angsty, not that she carried any depth, necessarily - but you would never see a NPC like that in a Bioware game.

Meanwhile, in NWN 2, you had the whole juxtaposition of a "good" ending where you're crushed by rocks (OR MAYBE YOU ESCAPED!11!) and an "evil" ending where you hang the heads of your companions on pikes in Crossroad Keep. Compare that to NWN 1 or even HOTU.

 

[The_Nameless_Prick]

Sorry. The wrinkle faced-hag in KOTOR 2 didn't phase me. And I don't have the stomach to get very far in NWN 2, too cliche, too limited, too action-ey, too story driven, too much bullshit for me.

 

[kris]

Sorry. The wrinkle faced-hag in KOTOR 2 didn't phase me. And I don't have the stomach to get very far in NWN 2, too cliche, too limited, too action-ey, too story driven, too much bullshit for me.

I am pretty sure you would say that about yourself if someone described you as a person.

 

[Jason]

It's truly a great honor

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (December 11, 2006) – SEGA® of America Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced that Obsidian Entertainment will create a role-playing game based on the Alien film franchise with license from Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising. This title will be developed for the next-generation systems and the PC.

Obsidian Entertainment draws upon their wealth of design knowledge creating successful games such as the best-selling Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords and the award-winning Neverwinter Nights 2 to bring the Alien franchise to role-playing gamers for the first time. The role playing game will build upon the distinctive look and feel of the original films while utilizing next-generation technology to create an entirely different and unique Alien experience.

"With Obsidian Entertainment's development pedigree, they were our first choice to bring the Alien franchise to the RPG universe," said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. "They are the only developer for us that could effectively combine the Alien mythology with compelling RPG gameplay to create the ultimate Alien experience."

"We are thrilled to be working with the great production and publishing teams at SEGA to deliver the ultimate in-depth Alien experience to gamers worldwide," said Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment. "Building an epic RPG with a license as heralded as the Alien franchise is truly a great honor."

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Meanwhile, in NWN 2, you had the whole juxtaposition of a "good" ending where you're crushed by rocks (OR MAYBE YOU ESCAPED!11!)

I don't think they could've made it more obvious that you did. "Those who carry the silver swords will have many adventures... on this plane... *heavy and emphasisisising voice* AND BEYOND."