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Spalec
Apr 16, 2010
If you use the motion tracker just before the Doctor opens the door you can see a signal on the other side of the door.

I guess Ripley decides to be an rear end in a top hat and not mention it as he didn't mention the Alien "might" wandering round Medical before he sends you off on your keycard fetch quest.

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RickVoid
Oct 21, 2010
Time to post this now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0TBp1iZVY

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

Octolady posted:

Watching this game with headphones reeeeeally ramps up the tension, holy poo poo.

Awesome job, TomViolence, thanks for this!

Yeah I've been watching this with headphones on and the lights off.

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

That comment about the human skeleton reminds me of 40K too! People always say all the skulls decorating the "good guys" are creepy and weird, but they're human skulls. In deep space overflowing with freaky aliens a human skull on your mantlepiece lends the room a comfortable, homey feel!

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.


Oh god, if that had happened in my playthrough, I think I'd be trying to exorcise my computer right now.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

I haven't played more than an hour and a half of this game due to my computer barely being able to get it going at a playable frame rate, but I have to say that I love it. Along with being amazingly gorgeous and atmospheric even on low detail levels, the little bits of immersion and Amanda's voice actor make everything feel much more authentic. I also really love how they stuck with the 70s-80s technology aesthetic when the series usually sees the tech magically updating with whatever the real world has invented at the time of the media's creation.

chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Mar 26, 2015

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

PC Gamer linked me to some sweet concept art.





More here for those interested. Be advised, some of it is slightly spoilery.

Antistar01
Oct 20, 2013
I really like this game. Not so much the save system, but apart from that it's pretty great.

From memory I played it on normal (or whatever the closest to 'medium' is; that's what I normally go for in my first time playing a game), and yeah, I was maxed out on resources almost the whole way through. I think partly that was due to never working out the optimal way to use certain items (some of them I don't think I used at all), because I was terrified of doing it wrong and just pissing the enemies off.

So it'd be interesting to see the game both with less resources around, but more resource use. (Haven't watched the videos yet; only just noticed the thread.)


TomViolence posted:

Some of you mentioned the videos have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Unfortunately this is likely due to my weedy monitor only supporting resolutions up to 1280x1024, so I'm afraid I don't think there's much that can be done about it.

Sounds like there's room in there for 1280x720. :v: Seriously though; maybe you could run it in a (borderless?) window? Isolation has amazing visuals; it'd be great to have it in widescreen.

I'm actually hesitating on watching the videos because I'm so used to widescreen everything now; 4:3 feels really weird. Feel free to ignore me as a big whingeing crybaby, though.

LashLightning
Feb 20, 2010

You know you didn't have to go post that, right?
But it's fine, I guess...

You just keep being you!

The game is 75% off until the 30th of March on Steam, and the season pass is 50% off. I'm very tempted to get the main game, at least.

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

Antistar01 posted:

I really like this game. Not so much the save system, but apart from that it's pretty great.

From memory I played it on normal (or whatever the closest to 'medium' is; that's what I normally go for in my first time playing a game), and yeah, I was maxed out on resources almost the whole way through. I think partly that was due to never working out the optimal way to use certain items (some of them I don't think I used at all), because I was terrified of doing it wrong and just pissing the enemies off.

So it'd be interesting to see the game both with less resources around, but more resource use. (Haven't watched the videos yet; only just noticed the thread.)


Sounds like there's room in there for 1280x720. :v: Seriously though; maybe you could run it in a (borderless?) window? Isolation has amazing visuals; it'd be great to have it in widescreen.

I'm actually hesitating on watching the videos because I'm so used to widescreen everything now; 4:3 feels really weird. Feel free to ignore me as a big whingeing crybaby, though.

Yeah, the resource scarcity's really starting to bite, something I never had a problem with on my original hard playthrough. I'm hoping that if I ration my gadgets I'll still get ample chance to show everything off. If not, there's always survival mode to play with a few extra toys, plus the chance to show the alien AI at its worst excess of psychic bullshit. Think Nightmare's bad? Try having the bastard almost land on you every five feet.

As for the widescreen thing, I'd never thought of doing 1280x720. The thing that puts me off it at this stage is a desire to keep the videos consistent. I'll give it a try, though, and see how it affects the video capture and performance.

TomViolence fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Mar 26, 2015

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

I was active in the thread in the main Games forum for a few weeks after the release. A ton of time was spent attempting to figure out how the Xeno's AI is programmed and discover the best way to avoid it. One thing people think they figured out is the Alien is more likely to come out from a vent nearby if you're sneaking, possibly as a way of ratcheting up the tension for stealth segments, so you should walk or run everywhere and only duck when you have to.

RickVoid
Oct 21, 2010

chitoryu12 posted:

I was active in the thread in the main Games forum for a few weeks after the release. A ton of time was spent attempting to figure out how the Xeno's AI is programmed and discover the best way to avoid it. One thing people think they figured out is the Alien is more likely to come out from a vent nearby if you're sneaking, possibly as a way of ratcheting up the tension for stealth segments, so you should walk or run everywhere and only duck when you have to.

Your spoiler was actually mentioned in the third video, So we can probably safely discuss the AI behavior.

Definitely give 1280x720 a try OP, the borders are pretty distracting on a widescreen monitor.

I wasn't aware this game has a survival mode. How does that work?

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

RickVoid posted:

Your spoiler was actually mentioned in the third video, So we can probably safely discuss the AI behavior.

Definitely give 1280x720 a try OP, the borders are pretty distracting on a widescreen monitor.

I wasn't aware this game has a survival mode. How does that work?

Survival mode is basically a timed challenge with the primary objective of escaping a certain area of the station. There's secondary objectives sprinkled in, such as restoring power or locking off stairwells or the like that have ticking score counters. The longer you piss about, the lower your score. Survivor mode alien is a terrifying beast that stays on you like a bad case of herpes and some of the challenge maps have droids and humans thrown in for extra fun. It's a good time-waster for after you complete the game. It also allows you to play as some of the secondary characters, who have different starting loadouts for added (or reduced) difficulty. I really suck at survivor mode, but I'll probably show it off once the main game is done.

EDIT: I'm uploading a test video for 1280x720 resolution with the lastest update. You guys can take a look at it once it's uploaded and let me know how it compares. I can see a definite plus side in that it cuts down on file size, but I want to see if there's a noticeable loss in quality on the other end.

TomViolence fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Mar 27, 2015

Buck Turgidson
Feb 6, 2011

𓀬𓀠𓀟𓀡𓀢𓀣𓀤𓀥𓀞𓀬
Alien: Isolation for 12 dollars... my patience has paid off!

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Buck Turgidson posted:

Alien: Isolation for 12 dollars... my patience has paid off!

And sold. Here we go.

Comrade Koba
Jul 2, 2007

Sold.

Any tips on which of the DLC's are worth getting?

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

Comrade Koba posted:

Sold.

Any tips on which of the DLC's are worth getting?

I can't remember if the base-game comes with any survivor mode maps already in, but if it does give the mode a try. If you don't like it, don't bother with the survivor mode DLCs. If you find it's your thing, grab the season pass. The two Nostromo DLCs are short little set-piece reconstructions of a few of the movie scenes, worth getting if you want to run through a dying spaceship in a screaming panic. Two of the survivor mode DLCs, Lost Contact and Safe Haven, change up the survivor mode format by working in multiple stages with a save-point in between. I dunno if I've helped here or just muddied the waters further, but welp.

Extra Tasty
Aug 5, 2014

God drat did that explosion make me jump right out of my skin. :colbert: I like that this game knows how to pull tension taut and then have it snap just when you think you're momentarily safe.

Samovar
Jun 4, 2011

I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻



Actually that explosion really confused me, because I had no idea where to go afterwards - I was wandering around that firey place for ages before seeing the ladder.

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.



Part 4: Noises From Upstairs

In which there aren't nearly enough deaths to justify a music videofailure reel.



Marshal Waits

Chief of the colonial marshal service aboard Sevastopol, Waits had the dubious honour of a front-row seat as the station descended into the darwinian (in every sense) anarchy we see it in now. Despite his less than hospitable demeanour, he seems to have his priorities in the right place concerning certain anthropomorphized sexual anxieties lurking aboard the station. You might recognise his voice and likeness as those of USCM Lieutenant :xcom: Gorman of the Sulaco.

Ricardo

Deputy marshal and Waits's sidekick, Ricardo seems to have been the go-to guy for dangerous fetch quests prior to Amanda "Muggins" Ripley's arrival. Probably why he's the more personable of the two.

Henry Marlow

Captain of the salvage vessel Anesidora, Marlow is the widower of our unfortunate patient zero Catherine Foster. Finding the Nostromo flight recorder, he and his crew set down on a misanthropic planetoid franchise fans will know as LV-426. Hilarity, of course, ensued shortly thereafter. UK goons likely won't recognise his voice and likeness as that of Paddy from Shameless, but apparently it is in fact Sean Gilder that plays him. Also, it is downright impossible to get a decent mugshot of him.



Level 2 Security Access Tuner

We've now upgraded our security access tuner, possibly by updating it's firmware from a punch card or cassette tape. This allows us to hack more doors and consoles, which will no doubt come in handy.

Flashbang V.2

Our flashbangs now have a bit more snap, crackle and pop with this optimized design which I'm forced to assume just gives them a larger effective area and a longer duration.

Gas Cutting Torch

Your standard oxy-acetyline torch, used for cutting open hatch covers and other protective casings. Takes forever to use, leaving us very vulnerable, but does have one nice touch in that it's got a built-in vision protecting screen over the flame. It's odd the little things Seegson does splash out on considering the rest of the station and its equipment was clearly produced by the lowest bidder.

P.S. I've revised any plans concerning widescreen in light of my utter incompetence at playing the game in a slimmed down window coupled with a desire to keep a consistent aspect ratio throughout the LP. Apologies to anybody that had their heart set on it, but I'd be squinting through a letterbox for much of the game and failing even more than usual as a result.

TomViolence fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Mar 27, 2015

CJacobs
Apr 17, 2011

Reach for the moon!
I love the way the alien's face is shaped, it makes his mouth always look like he's doin' a :haw: face, especially visible in the ep 3 death reel. Ripley is scared out of her gourd and meanwhile the alien's just havin' a good ol time. :allears:

edit: "Dick-Monsters From Beyond The Stars" is the name of my thrash metal band so nobody else steal it please

CJacobs fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Mar 27, 2015

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

CJacobs posted:

I love the way the alien's face is shaped, it makes his mouth always look like he's doin' a :haw: face, especially visible in the ep 3 death reel. Ripley is scared out of her gourd and meanwhile the alien's just havin' a good ol time. :allears:

~and this I know, his teeth as white as snow, what a gas it was to see him~

How could you ever say no to that smile?

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Well, may as well lighten the mood of this game.

SageNytell
Sep 28, 2008

<REDACT> THIS!
I really did not expect that last section, well done by the developers! Are we to assume that Marlow found the flight recorder immediately prior to the details of his... account?

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

SageNytell posted:

I really did not expect that last section, well done by the developers! Are we to assume that Marlow found the flight recorder immediately prior to the details of his... account?

Can't remember if it comes up exactly how they found the recorder, but it was certainly prior to their discovery of the derelict since Heyst says something about the scattered junk inside having the same name stamped on it. I figure they maybe found it floating in space somewhere around Zeta Reticuli after Mama Ripley jettisoned it with her final report in hopes that "the network" would find it and pick her up. It would certainly go someway toward explaining why she doesn't get found for another 40 years, since her log was intercepted by a bunch of amoral roughneck salvagers instead of a WY rescue team.

Also, gotta say, I really love the whole derelict segment. The devs managed to fit it into the story without shoehorning it in too savagely and they also managed to give it a proper sense of scale and gravity. You kind of know what you're in for when the sequence kicks off, but it's no less spine-tingling for all that, particularly when the derelict itself appears, looming through the fog. Through the whole thing I had to reconcile a desire to survey every nook and cranny with a feeling of utter dread in the pit of my gut as I knew what was coming.

Samovar
Jun 4, 2011

I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻



I guess my game bugged out at having to find the compression cylinder part; the Alien never attacked the trio at ground level and at the part where you see it lowp over the railing, the two people just stood there, no patrolling or investigating.

Also, and I'm not trying to defend libertarianism in any form, but surely these boys on the station are less Randian, more Hobbesian?

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

Samovar posted:

I guess my game bugged out at having to find the compression cylinder part; the Alien never attacked the trio at ground level and at the part where you see it lowp over the railing, the two people just stood there, no patrolling or investigating.

Also, and I'm not trying to defend libertarianism in any form, but surely these boys on the station are less Randian, more Hobbesian?

Oh yeah, I had those glitches happen on my first playthrough. Imagine my surprise on this run when the alien dives down from the vents and slaughters the entire posse in the storage area and vaults that guy over a railing in the plant room. I genuinely didn't have a gameplan, because I didn't know that stuff was meant to happen.

As for our survivalist pals, I just kinda took the whole space-rear end in a top hat libertarian joke and decided :regd08:.

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

The tools of a hero mean nothing without a solid core.

"Ah, I've heard good things about this game and love the movie. I can't handle horror games too well but let's see if..."
:stare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sFd8aWT7Io

Puukko naamassa
Mar 25, 2010

Oh No! Bruno!
Lipstick Apathy
Man, the three Nostromo crew members sure managed to drag a whole lot of boxes with them to the derelict ship.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

One thing I'm really appreciating is how they do the violence in this game. It's very sudden and quick, instead of lingering on gore. Like, when someone gets wasted by the Xeno, you don't get long, gruesome kills, it just drags them off. They're there one second, the next they're dead.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Night10194 posted:

One thing I'm really appreciating is how they do the violence in this game. It's very sudden and quick, instead of lingering on gore. Like, when someone gets wasted by the Xeno, you don't get long, gruesome kills, it just drags them off. They're there one second, the next they're dead.

It really follows the first film's style of horror. There's plenty of blood and gore, but they don't go for gorn like many bloody horror works and they minimize jump scares. The vast majority of fear comes from the tension (the best way to do it) rather than just making people anticipate that something will suddenly pop out in front of them and scream in their ear.

I'm not at all a fan of jump scares.

CJacobs
Apr 17, 2011

Reach for the moon!
Except for the chestburster scene, anyway. Blood flies left and right in that one. :v:

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

chitoryu12 posted:

It really follows the first film's style of horror. There's plenty of blood and gore, but they don't go for gorn like many bloody horror works and they minimize jump scares. The vast majority of fear comes from the tension (the best way to do it) rather than just making people anticipate that something will suddenly pop out in front of them and scream in their ear.

I'm not at all a fan of jump scares.

I mean, I like the second film a lot. AVP2 is one of my favorite older FPSes (I really enjoy the Marine campaign and playing a murderous stealth game as The Alien Who Is Why poo poo Went Wrong is cool) and it still managed to be tense and all that. But I really appreciate that this game goes back to the first film's style where it's just one xeno, you have ways to distract it or escape but no real ways to defend yourself, and you're scared pissless that the next time you go into a vent you're going to go the way of Dallas.

Comrade Koba
Jul 2, 2007

Well, gently caress. Turns out my video card doesn't support DX11, so I can't play the game after all. Serves me right for not checking out the system requirements, I suppose. :smith:

Oh well, glad I got it at 75% off and not at full price.

Antistar01
Oct 20, 2013

TomViolence posted:

P.S. I've revised any plans concerning widescreen in light of my utter incompetence at playing the game in a slimmed down window coupled with a desire to keep a consistent aspect ratio throughout the LP. Apologies to anybody that had their heart set on it, but I'd be squinting through a letterbox for much of the game and failing even more than usual as a result.

Oh well, that's a shame. Thanks for trying it out, anyway. :)

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Comrade Koba posted:

Well, gently caress. Turns out my video card doesn't support DX11, so I can't play the game after all. Serves me right for not checking out the system requirements, I suppose. :smith:

Oh well, glad I got it at 75% off and not at full price.

It's very graphically intensive and there's a limit to how low it can go. Even on the lowest setting it's prettier than the vast majority of my Steam library, in part because of the ridiculous amount of detail and dynamic lighting in the environment.

Dreadwroth
Dec 12, 2009

by R. Guyovich
Count me among the people who actually enjoyed the recent AvP game, probably helped a lot by playing fun multiplayer matches with goons. I'm wondering if this game is going to have some mp content eventually. I definitely want to grab this eventually, since I love me some Alien, but it would be awesome if they add some fun mp stuff as well. I presume the season pass is challenge maps probably?
Edit: I really loved the Alien missions in AvP but I thought they were way too short. The marine stuff was actually fun too.
I'm totally gonna go watch Alien again for the nth time too, I love that movie.

Dreadwroth fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Mar 28, 2015

Dreadwroth
Dec 12, 2009

by R. Guyovich
I always loved the alternate cut of Alien where the Xeno dosen't really kill them, just drags em off to be turned into cocoons, it really makes it seem even more weird and alien than the stupid ant hive crap in Aliens makes them out to be.

Comrade Koba
Jul 2, 2007

Dreadwroth posted:

Count me among the people who actually enjoyed the recent AvP game, probably helped a lot by playing fun multiplayer matches with goons. I'm wondering if this game is going to have some mp content eventually. I definitely want to grab this eventually, since I love me some Alien, but it would be awesome if they add some fun mp stuff as well. I presume the season pass is challenge maps probably?

While we're on the subject, are there any other games based on the setting worth getting? I remember playing an old AvP game (early 2000's?) that was pretty fun. Is the 2010 one worth getting? Also, what's the reason that Colonial Marines game got such horrible reviews?

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TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

Dreadwroth posted:

I always loved the alternate cut of Alien where the Xeno dosen't really kill them, just drags em off to be turned into cocoons, it really makes it seem even more weird and alien than the stupid ant hive crap in Aliens makes them out to be.

While I'm conflicted on which cut of the film I like better (the original theatrical cut just seems more condensed and focused to me) that scene where Ripley finds Dallas in that half-mutated state is really, really creepy. The lighting and sound is so dream-like and surreal, like she's stepped into another world. Still quite fresh in my mind, too, since the sci-fi channel had both Alien (Director's Cut) and Aliens on the weekend after I started this LP. Ripley's one of my favourite horror protagonists of all time because she's sensible enough to just go "welp," burn everything and blow up the drat ship there and then.

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