SpreadEagleBeagle: "I always loved the idea of the Alien being able to squeeze in anywhere; translucency; fold together etc."
Yeah, I'm down with that, and liked the translucent alien photos, but my fear is that every Alien incarnation since the original has not been true to the horror of the original film. Nothing has scared me since. Someone said that it's still scary in Isolation, but I'd say that's down to great direction in the game. If a director gets the atmosphere right I think even Freddy could still scare us. If you just think of the Alien in isolation from atmosphere, no pun intended, then it just taps into its much wider presence in marketing of the alien films.
I think SpreadEagleBeagle comments aced it in how the alien should look, an alien true to the big scary original "Alien" alien, but with those extra things to add something new but old at the same time (idea's wise). And like the AI in games, we need to believe that it's unpredictable, thinking, thoughtful, curious about us, but ultimately the corporeality of our worst nightmares, so scary that like a nightmare there is no escape, you want to run but can't and then that moment when it gets you, parker, lambert, kane ... those kills were pure horror, not the "this time it's war" kills of hudson etc. Although, I will add Burke's "death/capture" when he turns around was amazingly scary but nothing to do with the alien there, it was just so scary as he had no where to run, alone, couldn't go back to the marines, exposed ... you felt this as the audience and then he gets it, with an excellent sound effect of the alien snarling.
One final caveat, I've learned a lot on this site and one thing that makes a lot of sense is that I always through the chest burster looked a bit rubbish, not the scene that was pure cinema history, but how it looked when it burst on the scene. When I found out that it was Ridley's design, it made a lot of scene so I'm a bit worried about what he may do. Although in saying this, I'm confident he's a "no one can hear you scream" rather than a "this time its war" director so even if it looks a bit naff, I'm sure his direction will scare us to compensate and make the whole package work. That's if he truly wants to scare us ...
