Alien: Isolation pre-release footage released, features unused third person view

Games change during development, even change after media journalists have gotten a good look at the game. Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation is no different. The footage above shows what could have been Alien: Isolation before they changed it to first person prospective.

Personally think they did the right move making it first person due to the nature of using melee combat and I hate using melee combat in 3rd person shooters (see: Gears of War, Binary Domain and Uncharted series).

So what do you think?

Alien: Isolation leads BAFTA Games Awards 2015 with six nominations

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The BAFTA Games Awards nominees for the 2015 ceremony have been revealed, and lo and behold SEGA leads the pack with six nominations! Seems last year’s Alien: Isolation made quite the impression, as The Creative Assembly’s survival horror game is up for awards for Audio Achievement, Best Game, British Game, Game Design, Game Innovation, and Music. The slew of awards was no surprise to us here at SEGAbits, as we loved the game so much we gave it a glowing review and named it one of our favorite SEGA games of 2014. Congrats to SEGA and The Creative Assembly on the nominations, and stay tuned to SEGAbits to see how they cleaned up once the winners are revealed on March 12th!

Alien: Isolation passes 1 million sales

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Just announced via the Alien: Isolation twitter account, SEGA’s survival horror title has managed to break the 1 million sales barrier. It’s interesting to note that they announced this figure prior to their full year report, perhaps an indication that the management were happy enough with the figure to announce it. A massive congratulations is in order for the team being able to pull off a true survival horror title in this age and being able to sell it to the masses, hopefully the sales for the title continues over the coming months before we’re updated with a new figure in March to see just how long this game’s tail is.

UPDATE: SEGA has clarified that Aliens: Colonial Marines‘ 1.31m figure represents units sold-in to retailers. Alien: Isolation‘s 1 million milestone represents units sold through to consumers.

After the break, read SEGA’s official press release.

SEGAbits Round Table: Our Favorite SEGA Games of 2014

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It has been an interesting year for SEGA games. During the first few months of 2014, Western SEGA fans had very little when it came to new games, while those in Japan enjoyed the puzzle mashup Puyo Puyo Tetris and the Yakuza spinoff Ryu ga Gotoku: Ishin!. Thankfully, those in the West had Alien: Isolation and Platinum Games’ Bayonetta 2 to look forward to, and in early February it was revealed that Sonic Boom would be releasing to the Wii U and 3DS. Another reveal came, much to the delight of the Hatsune Miku fanbase, with the announcement that Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd was set for a Western release in November. Meanwhile, fans of Relic Entertainment and The Creative Assembly’s real time strategy PC titles were treated to Total War: Rome II DLC and Company of Heroes 2 standalone expansions Ardennes Assault and The Western Front Armies.

Suffice it to say, the year has been mixed but not a disappointment. While certain blue hedgehogs failed to give us a good game, fans who step outside their comfort zone of Sonic and traditional SEGA games will find several great titles from SEGA. What are these great games? Read on to find out what our favorite SEGA games of 2014 were in our annual year end round table!

SEGA reveals new traumatic DLC for Alien: Isolation

The latest DLC for Alien: Isolation‘s Survivor Mode is now available for you to download. This DLC is dubbed “Trauma” as it introduces Sevastopol’s medical officer, Dr. Lingard, as a playable character. You will control Dr. Lingard as you explore three new maps as she seeks to destroy her research on the Alien creature. The DLC has launched on PC,  Xbox One and of course Xbox 360. Sadly Sony gamers will have to wait for the store to update Thursday to get it on Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.

Trauma is the second DLC pack of five that SEGA is set to release and will join the first DLC titled ‘Corporate Lockdown’, that launched in October. The next pieces of DLC are set to be titled ‘Safe Haven’, ‘Lost Contact’ and ‘The Trigger’. You can get all the DLC for $30 in the game’s season pass, which is half off right now on Steam. Each DLC is priced at $8 individuality or you can just wait for the Game of the Year edition later next year, but that’s none of my business.

Humble SEGA Bundle features Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, NiGHTS and more

SEGA and Humble Bundle have teamed up once again to help charity and sell cheap PC games for the next two weeks. This time around you can get Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, NiGHTS Into Dreams, the Dreamcast Collection and DLC for Total War: Rome II and Football Manager 2015 for any price you want as long as it’s at least $1. If you pay more than the average amount you’ll also get Empire: Total War, Company of Heroes 2 DLC and other games that will be added to the bundle later on. Then there’s the $12 tier, and if you pay more than that you’ll get the standalone Fall of the Samurai expansion for Total War: Shogun 2. Finally, if you pay more than $50 you’ll get a nifty looking Dreamcast t-shirt.

Aside from this bundle, there are also various other SEGA games on sale in the Humble Store. The most notable deal on there probably being Alien: Isolation for 50% off, however that deal is only for today so you have to be quick. Other games on sale we recommend are The Typing of the Dead: Overkill, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit and of course Binary Domain.

Swingin’ Report Show #72: Halloween Special featuring The SEGA Fall Lineup

Fall is in the air, the leaves are changing color and new console and PC games are releasing from SEGA! This week on the Swingin’ Report Show podcast, George and Barry look back on SEGA’s scariest games, and discuss the latest current and upcoming SEGA titles. We discuss why The House of the Dead has endured as a franchise for so long, talk SEGA’s most underrated scary titles, share our thoughts on the recently released Alien: Isolation and Bayonetta 2, and celebrate Valkyria Chronicles PC release announcement.

We also look ahead to November, as Barry talks about his experience playing Sonic Boom for Wii U and 3DS at SEGA’s New York event and details the first issue of Archie’s Sonic Boom comic book. November’s console theme month is also revealed, and we tease an upcoming special edition podcast that is going to be Mega fun. Give it a listen and Happy Halloween!

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

UK Charts: Bayonetta 2 debuts and Alien: Isolation still charting

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Its the holiday season, so you know the sale charts are on fire as new released games continue to make their mark on the UK charts. This week we have the debut of Bayonetta 2 and Alien: Isolation staying on the top ten. Check out the chart below:

FIFA 15
Minecraft: PlayStation Edition
The Evil Within
Destiny
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Bayonetta 2
Forza Horizon 2
Alien: Isolation
Skylanders Trap Team

Considering that Bayonetta 2 is competing against games that debuted on multiple consoles and debuting on a new platform that hasn’t be selling a truck load of units (especially compared to the first Wii), I’d say this is a good debut.

Alien: Isolation’s first add-on pack set to release on October 28th

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SEGA has announced the first Alien: Isolation add-on pack, titled “Corporate Lockdown”, is set to release October 28th. The first of five planned add-on packs, “Corporate Lockdown”, adds three new maps to the game’s Survivor Mode. Each add-on pack will feature new playable characters, offering a different perspective on the main campaign’s story. In “Corporate Lockdown”, players take control of Seegson Executive Ransome who takes on three new challenge maps: ‘Severance’, ‘Scorched Earth’ and ‘Loose Ends’. After the break, check out an additional screenshot from the add-on pack as well as SEGA’s full press release. Also, make sure to check out My Life with SEGA’s Alien: Isolation video review.

My Life with SEGA both loves and fears Alien: Isolation for Playstation 3

On the latest episode of My Life with SEGA, rather than stepping back in time, we’re going to check out the newest title from SEGA and The Creative AssemblyAlien: Isolation. Developed in-house and released last week to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC, Alien: Isolation takes a different approach when it comes to what players have come to expect from Alien franchise video games. For starters, it’s not a first person shooter! Instead, The Creative Assembly have cooked up a first person survival horror game that is very much in line with the tone of the original Alien film directed by Ridley Scott. How does SEGA’s latest Alien outing fare? Check out the video to find out!

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SEGA in the Charts: Alien: Isolation debuts in 2nd behind FIFA 15 in the UK

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How about some good news for a Monday? Via VGChartz and SEGAbits forum member Nirmugen comes news that Alien: Isolation launched in the second position on the UK charts, behind FIFA 15 which remains the best-selling game in the UK for three weeks running. Given soccer’s football’s appeal in the UK, it’s quite impressive that a SEGA title managed to chart so highly – especially after speculation that Aliens: Colonial Marines may have tainted the public’s interest in the Alien franchise. However, it should be noted that despite the quality of Aliens: Colonial Marines [watch and/or read our review], the game still managed to surge back into the charts as early as January 2014.

How to unlock Oculus Rift support for Alien Isolation

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SEGA demoed Alien Isolation at E3 running on the Oculus Rift, then after stated that the game wasn’t going to ship with Oculus Rift support. This was partly true considering that the game that shipped didn’t have a selectable  Oculus Rift mode, but the code is still in the game. Here is how to unlock it.

1. Find the Alien Isolation DATA folder.
2. Open ENGINE_SETTINGS.XML
3. Edit the stereo options to the following:

<Setting name="Stereo Mode">
    <Quality name="Rift"   precedence="4"/>
    <Quality name="Off"   precedence="4"/>
</Setting>

Now set the Oculus Rift to ‘extended mode’ and in the Oculus config utility make sure you pause the service. Boot the game up and it should work. More information can be found in this detailed Reddit thread.

SEGA’s extended TV ad for Alien: Isolation looks great


I think they went for a more subtle approach in this ad than I thought they where going to go with. No pop up scare tactics and sets up the mood for the game rather well. It is also nice to see that SEGA is going to actually advertise this game (not that they didn’t with the last Alien game).

So what do you guys think of the advert?

Alien: Isolation’s Survivor Mode will ship with one map, rest are paid DLC


SEGA has just released the Survivor Mode trailer for Alien: Isolation. SEGA’s survivor mode will have you complete objectives while on a timer and have other conditions like being hunted. The items you grab while doing survivor mode factor into your score, which will be displayed on the leaderboards. I assume less items used, the higher the score.

The only issue now is that, “Isolation will ship with a Survivor Mode demo featuring one playable map.” Yes, you heard that, one map. But don’t worry if you want more, SEGA has said they will be releasing the rest of the maps as paid DLC. Five packs are planned, the first one being released on October 28th and will contain three maps, a new character and new variety of enemy types.

The game comes out October 7th, and three weeks later it will already have paid DLC? This penny pinching DLC is what is hurting the industry and its shameful that SEGA went this route with Alien: Isolation after everyone felt ripped off by Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Alien: Isolation’s creative lead states that his game is not Colonial Marines

IGN has conducted an interview with Al Hope, creative lead developer for the upcoming Alien: Isolation.

In it, he specifies a number of different things, many of which should make Alien fans quite happy. His team, he says, from the start set out to create a different Alien game than Colonial Marines was: a true horror experience, something completely unlike the shooter-focused direction its predecessor took on.

Isolation, which according to Hope has been in development for the past four years, has always aimed to take the series back to its roots; the first movie, in particular, where the horror, not the action, took center stage.

“It would be awesome to show Ridley Scott what we’re doing,” Hope said. “I’d like to think he’d really appreciate the care and attention and level of detail we’ve put into re-creating his original vision and original universe and I think he’d appreciate it.”

Alien: Isolation hits stores this November.