Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

[jyoung]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

You can preorder the PC version for $40 on getgamesgo:

http://www.getgamesgo.com/product/aliens-isolation

[Flawless]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Hands-On

For better and worse, Isolation is shaping up to be the game that was promised. The alien doesn’t follow a simple set of directions during each encounter, it follows a programmed set of habits, instincts and behaviours. It’s unstoppable and lethal, punishing the slightest mistake or act of bravado. If you’ve played Amnesia, you’ll remember the moment that you realised nothing was hunting you in most areas and that the sounds were the creaks of a ghost train’s animatronics.

The xenomorph is predictable to an extent, but it certainly isn’t a mechanical skeleton bursting from the shadows and shaking at the end of a stick. It investigates sources of sound and light, follows movement, and kills anything that moves. Alarmingly, it even defies the conventions of the horror movie hunter. My most memorable moment with the preview build came when I encountered a group of terrified, hostile humans. The alien was at my back, prowling, and they were between me and the area’s one exit. I threw a noisemaker into their midst and rolled under a table.

A green blur on the motion tracker shot toward the group. They screamed, they fired their weapons, they begged for mercy. I decided to make my escape while the creature fed on their shredded remains, darting toward the next room, and it was only when I heard the clattering of chitin on metal and a horrible shriek behind me that I realised – the alien doesn’t feast on remains and it doesn’t celebrate its kills. It engages, executes and leaves a pile of steaming entrails in its wake. Then it moves on to the next target.

All that I saw of it was the tail as it punctured my stomach and a spider-like hand gripping my face from behind, preparing to snap the head from its stem.

Eurogamer: What it's like to spend a day with Alien: Isolation

As such, Alien: Isolation has chosen to walk a very delicate tightrope. The ruthless difficulty is essential in creating a sense of genuine peril (indeed, this build is set to Hard mode by default) but it also means I repeated the same sections many times, and repetition soon becomes the antidote to fear. Certainly in the opening sections of the game, the Alien is a near constant presence, or at least it was during my play sessions. During particularly tricky sections, the monster sometimes felt less like an ominous threat, a Damoclean sword that could fall at any time, and more like a persistent nuisance to be worked around. The power of the creature - indeed of any movie monster - is the anticipation of its arrival rather than its actual presence, and sometimes Isolation's unscripted nature trips over that balance.

This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy my time in Alien: Isolation's cruel, sharp-edged world. In many ways, that zig-zag between terrified elation and controller-gripping frustration are the natural outcomes of the game Isolation is trying to be. It would have been easy for Creative Assembly to make it a cinematic adventure in which the player's progress is greased ever onwards through scripted set pieces, with quick restarts and forgiving difficulty. The theme park ride approach, in other words, where the importance of the "experience" trumps the gameplay.

Isolation scuttles in the opposite direction, and for all its immersive world-building and emergent storytelling, is actually a very videogamey video game. It is, at its heart, an heir to the original source of all survival horror: Pac-Man. You're stuck in a maze with a monster that can only ever be avoided or temporarily stalled. The perspective is different, the visual style is completely opposite, but the core gameplay hook is the same: that primal pulse-pounding feeling of being relentlessly chased, hunted, stalked. It's just that the same systems that can make that sensation so utterly thrilling can also make it kind of frustrating when things don't go your way.

And, as I've learned many times to my bloody cost, in Alien: Isolation things don't always go your way. In my hours with the game, on my own, at my desk, in the dark, it managed to delight me with its fan-pleasing fidelity, scare the bejesus out of me with its all-or-nothing stealth horror and, yes, drive me up the wall with its punishing brutality and sporadic save points. It is both exactly the game I was hoping for, and something else entirely. Am I heading back now for another encounter with the beast? Most definitely.

[mgoblue]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

Read another article on my phone that echoed these comments. Almost pisses you off because it's so hard to get to a save point without randomly dying sometimes. Good or bad, that's just how they're making it. Not sure whether or not I want that frustration or not. I kept trying to play Dark Souls and had to make myself stop cause I'd get mad lol

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

I say bring on the difficulty. Too many games are too easy to beat. I'll take a little frustration as I play through trial and error. I've been experiencing this with The Last of Us.

[bakan723]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

Minimum PC Specifications are:


Operating System: Windows 7 (32bit)

Processor: 3.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo E8500

RAM: 4GB RAM

Hard Drive: 35GB required for installation

Video Card: 1GB DirectX® 11 (AMD Radeon HD 5550 or Nvidia GeForce GT 430)

Broadband Internet Connection


Recommended PC Specifications are:

Operating System: Windows 7 (64bit)

Processor: AMD: Phenom II X4 955 – 4 Core, 3.2 GHz or INTEK: Core 2 Quad Q9650 – 4 Core, 3.0 Ghz

RAM: 8GB RAM

Hard Drive: 35GB required for installation

Video Card: 2GB DirectX® 11 (AMD GPU: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series or Nvidia GeForce GTX660)

Broadband Internet Connection

Hmm..I might actually be able to play this on my PC. It's also coming out for PS3 too, which I didn't know about, so I can always grab it for that if needed.

Hopefully it'll be good enough to make me want to get it in the first place.

This sounds reassuring if true - http://www.gamefront.com/alien-isola...nd-thats-good/

[half-fast]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

Preordered it today for PC and absolutely cannot wait to play it.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

Pre-ordered on Amazon for PS4. Can't wait to play this with all the lights turned off and wearing my sony gold headphones.

Should be awesome.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4)

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[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 &amp; PS4)

Kotaku Review



"First person alien death sim"

[areobee401]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 &amp; PS4)

So freakin' happy next generation consoles are finally seeing a steady wave of single player games I want to play.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 &amp; PS4)

This game is truly getting mixed reviews...

IGN:5.9

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/03/alien-isolation-review

Gamespot:6

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/alien-isolation-review/1900-6415897/

Eurogamer:8

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-03-alien-isolation-review?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialoomph

Destructoid:8.5

http://www.destructoid.com/review-alien-isolation-281651.phtml

What's weird is IGN usually overrates everything and Eurogamer underrates.

I'm a big fan of the films so I will pick it up sometime down the line.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 &amp; PS4)

I expect this to be on sale relatively quickly. I'm looking forward to playing it.

[ckarlic]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 &amp; PS4)

I see some people on Ebay have this game in stock now. I may hold off on this for a while since I have a huge backlog of games but wanted to put this out there in case people wanted to get the game.

[mgoblue]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 &amp; PS4)

Wow, so varied...I think I'll get this on sale, but seems fun.

[areobee401]

Re: Alien Isolation (PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 &amp; PS4)

Will likely be apart of my annual Christmas haul. If not I'll wait for a buy 2 get 1 used deal at Best Buy. Either way even with mixed reviews it's something I wanna get my hands on eventually.