Fox Announces Alien: Isolation Digital Series!

[Voodoo Magic]

It would have been painful to watch at normal speed, but I watch most everything at 1.5x or faster. It's faster that way and you still get the content. Obviously, they did it on shoestring budget. It's probably for people who can't be fussed to play the game, but even the players get sucked in by the apparent inclusion of additional content. I can see where they're getting people caught up for More Amanda Ripley, 'cause can't have Alien without a Ripley, Makes me want to puke, but maybe other people think it's great. IGN is a relatively large outlet. It's no surprise they'd get the nod. By this point, nothing Fox does should surprise anyone.

This is really fascinating. I've never heard of this before. You said you "watch most everything at 1.5x or faster." Does this include films and television series?

[The Old One]

ADHD Xenohunter?

[Voodoo Magic]

I know a person that has ADHD that does.

But that might not be the case with XenoHunter99. Let's be nice because I'm genuinely interested in what XH has to say. No judgments!

*edited generally to genuinely - need coffee

[The Old One]

Fair enough.

[razeak]

It was okay. The animation was distracting as hell. There were some interesting things late.

I get that it was free, but it is still subject to criticism. Venom is unnecessary though.

[The Old One]

I don't see venom, but genuine criticism.

[Ironb4lls]

I've presented animatics of TV spots to advertising clients, and some of them have resembled the new dialog scenes in this series. They're these low-poly, sort of creepy, minimally animated versions of a storyboard to give people a sense of what the commercial would look like.

Now that it's been out for a day, I'm wondering if the low-poly, poorly-animated-mouth scenes were originally just animatics, and not intended to be the final product? But then the studio was like, "c'mon, we have to release this," and they had to just run with the animatics instead of fully animating them. 

I'm not sure why they were in such a rush to get this up online. Alien Day would've made a lot more sense, and they could've had more time to polish it.

[The Old One]

Indeed.

[Hudson]

Oh, also the "prologue" parts with Amanda floating in space and telling her story repeatedly kill and bury every trace of suspense (since we know she'll survive) and they are useless, as well as her voiced narration. They make the entire product even more artificial and laborious.

I thought it was a much better way to frame the narrative than merely opening with the ending dialogue from Alien as a voiceover to clumsily transition us into the story, and literally just cutting the thing off to end it. I preferred both the beginning and ending of The Digital Series to what we get in the game.

But a lot of it doesn't make sense and I'm skeptical that someone unfamiliar with the game's story is going to fully understand what's happening here.

Spoiler

Missing the medical center sequence, the flashback to LV-426, the hive, and the Anesiadora (sp?) segment really cut this down to the bare bones.

[close]

[TheSailingRabbit]

Oh, also the "prologue" parts with Amanda floating in space and telling her story repeatedly kill and bury every trace of suspense (since we know she'll survive) and they are useless, as well as her voiced narration. They make the entire product even more artificial and laborious.

I thought it was a much better way to frame the narrative than merely opening with the ending dialogue from Alien as a voiceover to clumsily transition us into the story, and literally just cutting the thing off to end it. I preferred both the beginning and ending of The Digital Series to what we get in the game.

But a lot of it doesn't make sense and I'm skeptical that someone unfamiliar with the game's story is going to fully understand what's happening here.

Spoiler

Missing the medical center sequence, the flashback to LV-426, the hive, and the Anesiadora (sp?) segment really cut this down to the bare bones.

[close]

Spoiler

The flashback to LV-426 was there, but it was cut really short.

[close]

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Alrighty, so have we all reached consensus on this new series?

[XenoHunter99]

@The Old One: No. It's limited time to watch. Life intrudes. That's also why I don't play games now. I love games, but it's a choice for what I do with my time. Plus, in videos, normal speed often unfolds too slowly for my taste. Even 1.3x is a big help!

@Voodoo Magic: Obviously, at the movie theater, I watch at normal speed. I don't watch TV. When I watch with the family, normal speed. Watching alone? Faster, please. The mind can process speech that's faster than normal cadence. 1.5x is the sweet spot, I think. 2x is usually unintelligible, unless it's a Lynda class. Some of those instructors speak very slowly. I've been watching movies faster for years. If I watch the movie in less time, that frees me to watch something else or go back for highlights. I don't feel like I've missed anything. Sometimes, I do like to watch more than once. And when I'm watching, I want to watch as much as I can stuff into the time. I prefer subtitles. I have the backup if I miss something. But I like subtitles at normal speed, too. That's fun with foreign movies, where the subtitles are a bit different from the dubbed speech. Thanks for asking

[Oasis Nadrama]

Xenohunter> You sure have an interesting watching philosophy. Logical conclusion from a limited lifetime. Yet I'd propose to you the hypothesis you are in fact missing something - movies and series are meant to be watched at a specific rhythm, the pacing won't have the same value if you accelerate it, plus it alters the immersion.

Oh, also the "prologue" parts with Amanda floating in space and telling her story repeatedly kill and bury every trace of suspense (since we know she'll survive) and they are useless, as well as her voiced narration. They make the entire product even more artificial and laborious.

I thought it was a much better way to frame the narrative than merely opening with the ending dialogue from Alien as a voiceover to clumsily transition us into the story, and literally just cutting the thing off to end it. I preferred both the beginning and ending of The Digital Series to what we get in the game.

About the ending, I feel you. It's nice to have some kind of conclusion, yes, and it is actually superior to the weird experimental cut that "concludes" the game.

But about the beginning... Well, the series (and the game for that matter) could have just started with the Samuels/Amanda dialogue. It's a nice dialogue, in media res, quick to get to the point, with great industrial atmosphere, nothing is missing from this beginning.

It's kinda raw, but I like it raw.

[The Old One]

100% Agreed. Oasis Nadrama.

[CainsSon]

It would have been painful to watch at normal speed, but I watch most everything at 1.5x or faster. It's faster that way and you still get the content. Obviously, they did it on shoestring budget. It's probably for people who can't be fussed to play the game, but even the players get sucked in by the apparent inclusion of additional content. I can see where they're getting people caught up for More Amanda Ripley, 'cause can't have Alien without a Ripley, Makes me want to puke, but maybe other people think it's great. IGN is a relatively large outlet. It's no surprise they'd get the nod. By this point, nothing Fox does should surprise anyone.

This is really fascinating. I've never heard of this before. You said you "watch most everything at 1.5x or faster." Does this include films and television series?

Crazy. This is what happens when generations of people think they watched a movie on a f**king telephone. - to quote David Lynch - get real!

I dont mean to attack anyone really, just to point out that there needs to be some assessment as to what platform somehing is meant to be seen on. Filmmakers make films to be seen in the theatre, but youtubers donmake movies to be seen across platforms. This is an interesting kind of narrative expression. Its a computer generated version of a cartoon made to be presented episodically like a vlog, made from cut scenes which are elaborating on story elements of a video game which is trying to recreate the world created by a specific sequel of a film franchise, and its narrative continues in the form of graphic comics. It should be noted hat all roads lead back to the immersion / transportation created by the original film. Film is still the kickstarter - the model the game tries to achieve, here. And all modeling and judgement therefore is in how it relates to a film, which is meant to be experienced a certain way (in a theatre) as opposed to another, and inferior way. Everyone should see Alien in a theatre IMO. Its easy to see why someone would say that is the ideal setting even if you fell in live woth it otherwise. Likewise, you shouod consider tbat you are missing something watching anything at an accelerated speed.

That said I loved the series, could see it was rushed but think the story should be a film but it would likely be very expenisive.