Alien: Isolation

[Art Blade]

Looks promising. Basically all platforms.

Platform(s)    Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
Xbox 360
Xbox One
Release date(s)    Q4 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Isolation

Alien: Isolation First Gameplay Preview - Xbox One and PS4

[PZ]

That does look interesting - keeping an eye on this one even though closed in worlds are usually not my cup of tea

[Art Blade]

depends. What I find interesting is that you're not going to get yet another shooter. It's more like PORTAL1+2 which based on thinking and solving problems without shooting. :)

Alien Isolation Gameplay Trailer - Origins

[fragger]

Drat, it's a bad time of the day for me to attempt watching those clips so I'll have to look at them later when the prime-time internet rush is over.

I read the Wiki article though and I'm very interested in the game. The original Alien is one of my favourite movies and I'd love to play a game that takes place in a Nostromo-like environment (for anyone who hasn't seen the original film, Nostromo was the name of the spacecraft on board which most of the action took place). I like the concept of the gameplay too, having to try and avoid the aliens instead of just blasting them willy-nilly.

I'll be keeping tabs on that title :-X

Thanks for the heads-up Art. Btw, I did notice your new avi earlier! I recognised it right away :-D Cool, man, cool 8)

[Art Blade]

welcome mate and thanks :-()

Having watched those two vids (they're actually good) and read the wiki article, I decided to watch 1979's Alien that evening which I did and that made want to use an Alien avatar here.  :)

I remember those cinema posters with that egg which in itself was frightening enough already, back in the day when those "modern" Sci-Fi films were just en vogue (as opposed to those horrible 1950s-60s films) and I actually watched Alien on release in a proper cinema. It was mind-blowing  :-X I have always had a copy of that film, on VHS and later on DVD. Actually the whole Quadrilogy DVD box plus the new-ish Prometheus.  :)

[mandru]

Coincidentally I came across something last night about the original Alien movie that I can't really verify but would have made for an interesting twist.

Supposedly the original scripting and story boarding for Alien had it in the final scene Ripley has left the ship in the escape pod only to have the alien pop out bite off her head and eat it and then calmly set the auto-repeat emergency beacon using Ripley's voice, adjust the pod's course to intersect with commonly used human space lanes and settled down for a long nap to wait for pick up.

[Art Blade]

To me that sounds as if someone was making that up.

The alien is an intelligent predator with a tad of a parasite but not a spacefaring species and it's kind of extremely unlikely that it could have acquired the ability of understanding American English just on the bite.. excuse me, I mean on the fly, and with that knowledge have rummaged through the on-board "space flight 101" to find out and program an emergency pod just to travel on commonly used human routes to the bazillions of miles away earth and on top, ah sod this. I think it's obvious that it just doesn't fit into the film Alien at all ;)

[mandru]

I think the concept was that it was a process enabled through the alien's extensive evolutionary adaptation as a predator primarily of space faring species.  Its highly adaptive enzymatic digestion of Ripley's brain unzipped all of her knowledge and memories allowing the alien to access them as if they were it's own.

In fact that's not a totally alien concept.  A Planarian is a type of flat worm that has the ability to learn by digesting.

In an experiment I learned about in high school biology one group of planarians (also known as the cross-eyed worms who typically prefer being in the dark shunning direct light) were trained that food was only made available in a bright lit spot of their tank.  Then those trained worms were minced up and fed to a second group of planarians who were not exposed to the that training.

Almost without fail (once they'd digested the first group) the second group threw off their natural tendency to avoid light and would swarm any spot lit area in their tank anticipating food.

[Art Blade]

Alright, I got you. Cool, I didn't expect a scientific background  :-D

What you wrote above reminds me of what we thought humans would inherit from their parents and so on, like certain talents or the colour of the eyes and stuff like that -- recently scientists found out that what parents or grandparents experienced during their lives is likely to be inherited by their children and may affect their lives.

Here are two different articles for you to muse about, enjoy :)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205102713.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/ghostgenes.shtml

[mandru]

Both are interesting reads.  The first one was rather more than I could gulp down in a single passing so I'll be revisiting it a few more times.  ;)

The second article "Ghost in the Genes" however I think I need to thank you for up front.

It feeds right into a personal theory of something I've been calling Racial Memory for probably the last twenty years.  Drawing from personal experience I've always liked the smell of tar and asphalt when I've encounter roadwork being done but there was one time many years ago I came across a bar of soap with the essence of Peat imported from Ireland.  The smell of it was like embracing a long lost friend.  I couldn't explain it at the time which always kind of haunted me.  It wasn't until long after I found out that a fair percentage of my ancestry is from rural Ireland where because peat is used for cooking and heating this scent would have been the aroma of hearth and home.

I suspect that people descending from emigrants of other geographical locations will probably also tend to be drawn to specific odors or possibly foods with out realizing the cause of it is something akin to the "Ghost in the Genes" as described.

Very cool.

[Art Blade]

 :) :) :)

[Abletile]

Then those trained worms were minced up and fed to a second group of planarians who were not exposed to the that training.

Almost without fail (once they'd digested the first group) the second group threw off their natural tendency to avoid light and would swarm any spot lit area in their tank anticipating food.

Fascinating! I never knew that was possible  :o

Nothing like putting a sea sponge in a blender and leaving it for a while, then, it simply reforms into it's original form!
How cool is mother nature :-X

[Art Blade]

nice :)

As long as you don't add gravy.

[Abletile]

So, on a side note, how deep would the oceans be without sponges? 

[Art Blade]

 

[mandru]

 

[PZ]

Drat, it's a bad time of the day for me to attempt watching those clips so I'll have to look at them later when the prime-time internet rush is over.

Dang, fragger, sometimes I think you'd be better off with two tin cans and some string  :-()

[fragger]

 :-D Probably!