Alien: Isolation

[Le Celticant]

I'd rather have people improving the gameplay at this stage than people improving the Alien design 
It's always the same thing when they release a new game involving the alien:

First stage:
Fans nitpick about all the smallest and passive details of everything concerning the universe.
Developers spend a huge amount of time on the design because FOX and the fans ask for it.
(And they don't succeed to nail it most of the time because you can't re-do what has been done).

Second Stage:
The game is released

Third Stage:
Everybody cries because the gameplay sucks ("Hey! What did you expect?")

Just do know where you want the developers to spend their time.
I think the Alien looks very good and I don't see the point at this stage to change the design.

[thecaffeinatedone]

^ This.

[Seegson]

We have to wait a little. Some screenshots, a few gameplay minutes of gameplay in the same Sevastopol location...and nothing more. Im pretty sure that in a couple of months we will have more stuff to discuss...but right now its too early to judge complex things like the alien AI or the gameplay quality

[Xenoscream]

The Alien its almost perfect for me, and im a huge Alien fan.


I really hope we can interact with MU-TH-UR 6000 (i know we can hack computers) but im pretty sure Sevastopol its cintroled by a big AI mainframe (with a secret to keep)

Great idea! My god I think weaving in a crazy AI would blow my mind.

[Born Of Cold Light]

I'm actually glad that they aren't featuring any facehuggers or chestbursters in the game.  Of course they are a crucial part of the mythos, but between Colonial Marines, using facehuggers as a special kill in AvP2010, and bursting out of people's chest in AvP2, a great deal of the horror surrounding the alien lifecycle has been lost.  I like their idea of having the story unfold gradually, and the alien's presence initially being a mystery.

[Xhan]

Christ, the developers try and infuse a little of their own ideas into the design and you guys rip them a new one. Anyone would think they'd made the thing bright pink the way some of you are carrying on about it.

Man, you'd have to be an ALIEN fan to actually nitpick whether or not the xenomorph looks accurate to the one in the film. 

Take your criticisms to an AvP forum or something, nerds!

As for claiming people aren't proper Alien fans just because they aren't getting their knickers in a twist over the mouth being a slightly different shape, how f*cking ridiculous. By all means say if you don't like the differences, but don't have a go at others just because they can get over it.

yeah, cause that worked so well in the past.

Just do know where you want the developers to spend their time.

Both is entirely possible seeing as they people hired for both.

[Seegson]

Christ, the developers try and infuse a little of their own ideas into the design and you guys rip them a new one. Anyone would think they'd made the thing bright pink the way some of you are carrying on about it.

Man, you'd have to be an ALIEN fan to actually nitpick whether or not the xenomorph looks accurate to the one in the film. 

Take your criticisms to an AvP forum or something, nerds!

As for claiming people aren't proper Alien fans just because they aren't getting their knickers in a twist over the mouth being a slightly different shape, how f*cking ridiculous. By all means say if you don't like the differences, but don't have a go at others just because they can get over it.

yeah, cause that worked so well in the past.

Just do know where you want the developers to spend their time.

Both is entirely possible seeing as they people hired for both.

Sure. The alien desing was the big problem of ACM.

[Xhan]

You haven't the vaguest notion of what you're talking about. Have you seen a mechanic-in-action video?

No, you haven't.

Your generic supposition also has jack to do with topic at hand.

By all means whip out that secret and ultra comprehensive gameplay video you've got, so you can at least justify attempting to meander the topic to ACM's gameplay from Isolation's ALIEN, which is the actual topic of discussion.

Both teams have people specifically tasked with both sections, there is no "focus" where the entire team piles in on a game this big.

But by all means keep dragging the subject off track as if somehow that makes the Alien's design better, when there's no gameplay flow sample to critique, it doesn't make you sound like an apologist at all.

[Seegson]

I haven't the vaguest notion of what im talking about.

Fixed. Thx

[Le Celticant]

Just do know where you want the developers to spend their time.

Both is entirely possible seeing as they people hired for both.

Only if both come equally from the community.
Most "successful topic" so far are always concerning the design.
Gameplay has so few topics before the actual game release (I know the game isn't released, but it ain't a reason to stick nitpicking for the design when your analyse could be very helpful concerning the Environment [not the design, the architecture of it] the AI...) As I said, people shouldn't cry when the game will be released because at that time it'll be too late.

All I'm doing is warning you another X time. I can see very much what SEGA marketing planned:
1) Say they gonna remake the best AVP game from the Original (which was a huge success and got everybody by the balls).
2) Say they are adapting the Aliens game everyone wanted to see that is so accurate and true to the originals films. A:CM is kinda the biggest failure of all.
3) Say they are adapting the Alien game everyone wanted to see that is so accurate and true to the original film (Isn't anyone noticing something strange?).

There's nothing original by attempting to re-do the original in a new way.
I'm not surprised this licence didn't get over it and is still stuck in the same loop of sh*t after so many years of desperate effort purely wasted because no one understands we need new and fresh thing that aim to be equal to the original, not a copy of them that obviously gonna be a much lower product since the reference already exist.

[Xhan]

True, but it does take almost as much effort to go into new territory as it does to get things bounce-a-quarter-off-it exact.

Going "completely original" isn't necessarily a better step either as stuff like Deadliest of the Species proved pretty handily.

As with most things, finding the optimal balance in a path of diminishing returns is best, Battlestar Galactica found this balance pretty well for two and a half seasons  before descending into "let's simply critique current american politics and give all our main cast schizophrenia instead of just the one guy and his imaginary girlfriend with surprisingly sound advice".

Both ACM and 2010 came under time constraints but the resulting paring down also shows where the focus was to begin with. Almost all of 2010's cut content was width and options (weapons, class abilities, locations) whereas ACM literally cut out the entire story and contextual reinforcement other than Hadley's Hope Nostalgia Tour. (which was a stupid idea to begin with, I totally agree)

Keeping things this clear and simple may not be the best use of license, but SEGA doesn't really seem to know what to do with it as it was, the guy who spent the bulk of effort procuring it has been gone for years.

Lemme ask you this then, IF Isolation was a character that no ties to the previous cast in any way and the Sevastapol was in fact a station that had been missing for 200 years circa Alien timeline and archeological team was investigating it and got chomped by a 200 year old crabby Alien that came out of hibernation or [insert insertion mechanic here] would it be more palatable?

Or is it the the changes, especially to the creature are always seem to be borne from a mindset where "it has to be this way or no one will get the concept" (aliens = sapce dogs, corporations are inherently evil, there's always a traitor/spy/asshole, must use all current video game buzzwords in the game's white paper, etc)

[Snark]

I tried to find a connection between Sevastopol and Joseph Conrad but couldn't find anything clear. It is a very important naval port city so he may have visited there when he was at sea. This is the main port for tge Russian Navy. The other strange thing I found was during WW2 dolphins were trained here for undersea operations. They also studied using other animals. I wonder if maybe the space station Sevastopol is being used like that, but with the Alien. Just "really out there" thought...

[MrSpaceJockey]

I tried to find a connection between Sevastopol and Joseph Conrad but couldn't find anything clear. It is a very important naval port city so he may have visited there when he was at sea. This is the main port for tge Russian Navy. The other strange thing I found was during WW2 dolphins were trained here for undersea operations. They also studied using other animals. I wonder if maybe the space station Sevastopol is being used like that, but with the Alien. Just "really out there" thought...

That's an interesting thought.

Upon the revelation that Sevastopol is owned by Seegson, not Weyland-Yutani, I wondered if the "new rule" is that only Weyland-Yutani ships get Conrad references, as a particular distinction they can be characterized by.  That would be why Amanda's W/Y ship the Torrens is a Joseph Conrad reference and the Seegon owned Sevastopol isn't?

Also it would put it in the same boat as the USM owned Auriga, which isn't a Conrad reference either. Only flaw in this theory is that the Sulaco isn't really owned by Weyland-Yutani (though parts of it were built by the company), its owned by the USCM.

[HuDaFuK]

I heard someone say that the Union of Progressive Peoples (the space Soviets from William Gibson's Alien 3 script) features in the game. If so, a name like Sevastopol would certainly fit.

[Valaquen]

I heard someone say that the Union of Progressive Peoples (the space Soviets from William Gibson's Alien 3 script) features in the game. If so, a name like Sevastopol would certainly fit.

Cool!