Alien Isolation Developer Diary: The Stuff of Nightmares

While Sega's Aliens: Colonial Marines game was an utter failure, Alien: Isolation certainly looks like a step in the right direction. Developed by Creative Assembly, the team best known for the Total War games is developing Alien: Isolation to be much more of a survivor-horror adventure experience where players are fighting to survive a single unpredictable Alien.

Players take control of Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda approximately 15 years after the events of Alien. Amanda is searching for information regarding the disappearance of her mother when one of her leads take her to a space station. Unbeknownst to her however, the station has been overrun by a Xenomorph. According to Creative assembly, the Alien cannot be killed and players must use stealth tactics to survive. Weapons in the game are sparse and are only used to fight non-alien enemies.

Alien: Isolation can be compared to games like Amnesia or Outlast where players need to monitor how much noise they make and hide using their surroundings to escape enemies. One significant change which makes the idea of playing Alien: Isolation terrifying is that the Alien A.I. has been programmed to learn from the player and use the senses of sight, smell and sound to hunt down the player. The Alien is also programmed to not follow a predetermined path making it's movements and behaviors unpredictable which will certainly add to the scare factor and give the game some originality on subsequent plays.

I have much higher hopes for Alien: Isolation than I did for Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game is being designed to fit the horror genre more and emulate the look and feel of the original Alien movie with the retro sci-fi technology. I'm a survival-horror junkie and Alien: Isolation looks like it has the potential to be a truly definitive title for the Alien franchise. What do you think? Will Alien: Isolation be a success or is it destined to flop like its predecessors?

NECA Announces Ellen Ripley Figures

NECA, the toy company responsible for making awesome action figures like the Predator line and figures from the Alien series made a big announcement yesterday. NECA has finally gained the rights to the likeness of Sigourney Weaver and they have confirmed that Lt. Ellen Ripley action figures, plural, are on the way. NECA is planning a figure of Ripley in a Nostromo spacesuit and at least one other figure from Aliens, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see more.

This is such big news because Ripley is easily the most important and recognizable character from the Alien series. Weaver however wasn't interested in being made into an action figure and collectors were forced to be content with characters like Hicks, Hudson, and Dallas among a few others (might I note, these figures all look incredible still). NECA was recently able to get approval from Weaver though; perhaps she saw what a great job the guys over at NECA were doing and realized just how bad fans wanted the figure. NECA's Twitter feed was full of fans expressing their thanks and excitement over the news that they will finally be able to fill that gap in their collection.

As a fan of the Alien series, I am also very pleased to see that NECA will be making a Ripley action figure. I don't think there is any company that could do it better, nor any that I would prefer oversee the making of this figure. I'll be looking forward to the prototype reveal in summer during Comic-Con and purchasing them later this year hopefully. What other iterations of the Ripley figure would you want to see? 

New York Toyfair: NECA Reveals Booker DeWitt, Team Fortress and More

Out of all the Bioshock fans out there, I was probably one of the most desperate when it came to waiting for NECA to reveal their Booker DeWitt figure from Bioshock Infinite. I've been tracking their Twitter page where they are always answering the questions of fans and posting updates on all the different figures they're working on. Day after day, since August, I checked their Twitter feed with no luck. It wasn't until this past weekend that photos of the Booker DeWitt figure surfaced on the internet from the NECA showroom at the 2014 New York Toy Fair.

After finally seeing it, I finally feel the satisfaction I've been yearning for. The figure is very impressive complete with details like the embroidery on Booker's vest, the leather shoulder holster and even the tie. They all work together to make the figure come alive. The face resembles Booker's character model perfectly and I couldn't ask for any more on this figure. It looks like he'll come with a shotgun and a Murder of Crows vigor but these may not be final. There's still no release date for the figure but hopefully it isn't far off. 

Booker wasn't the only reveal though. Video game fans will also be happy to see that a Red Spy and Red Engineer will be joining the collection of Team Fortress figures that NECA has been steadily rolling out. I would have liked to see a turret for the Engineer but who knows, it could be in the works. A prototype of Master Chief from the Halo series was on display as well, but is an early work in progress. Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight will be getting a 1/4 scale figure which captures the true menace of the character and looks great, even standing next to a 1/4 scale Batman from Arkham Origins.

There were also a slew of reveals for NECA's more popular lines like Predator and Alien. From the Alien series, Dallas in a Nostromo spacesuit, an indisposed Kane in a spacesuit with a face hugger, the android Bishop, and a Dog Alien are all looking phenomenal. The power loader from Aliens made an appearance and NECA has confirmed that figures can fit inside to operate it!

You can see almost two hundred images here that show just about everything NECA had presented in their showroom, check it out and go follow them on Twitter for updates and news on their figures.