New 'Alien' video game promises stealth, smarts
One of last year's most anticipated games promised to take us further into the world of James Cameron's "Aliens." The result, "Aliens: Colonial Marines," angered critics and paying customers with its repetitive gameplay, worse-than-promised graphics and bugs galore.
The franchise that began with "Alien," Ridley Scott's 1979 classic horror film, takes another crack at the world of video games Tuesday, Oct. 7, with yet another hotly anticipated title.
"Alien: Isolation" (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC) seeks to replicate the spookhouse-in-space feel of Scott's film instead of the shoot-'em-up action that one would normally associate with games based on the franchise. (Remember Konami's "Aliens" coin-op game? You can still play it at Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield!)
Players take control of Amanda Ripley, daughter of movie hero Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), in a story that begins 15 years after the events of "Alien." The game's trailer shows Amanda on a space station using a flashlight and her wits to stay alive as the iconic, H.R. Giger-designed alien stalks her and her few companions. With only one beastie chasing you, the main campaign's gameplay puts an emphasis on stealth and smarts.
Marrying the dread of "Alien" to a survival horror game a la "Resident Evil" is a great idea; let's hope the developers from Creative Assembly and Sega can deliver ... and that it won't scream too loudly when I'm playing it at 3 a.m. with all the lights off.
If you pre-order the "Nostromo Edition" of the game from GameStop, you'll also get two downloadable bonus missions that reunite the original "Alien" cast. One lets you take control of Ellen Ripley in the climactic moments of the film, and the other lets you choose between Ripley, Dallas (Tom Skerritt) or Parker (Yaphet Kotto) to try to lure the alien to its death.
<b>Speaking of aliens ...</b>
Tom Cruise is back on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD Tuesday, Oct. 7, with this summer's woefully underseen "Edge of Tomorrow." A fabulously entertaining, surprisingly funny adventure was wrongly sold as a grim, foreboding sci-fi epic, resulting in a disappointing $100 million North America gross for a film with a budget well north of that.
That generic name didn't help, and Warner Bros. has apparently realized what anyone who saw the trailers did months ago: The advertising tagline would have been a much better title for the actual film.
And so the home video release has been rebranded "Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow" - apparently studio honchos weren't comfortable with ditching the original title altogether - which speaks to the film's eyebrow-raising premise.
Cruise plays disgraced military PR officer William Cage, thrust into a hopeless battle against invading aliens near London. He dies almost as soon as the battle begins, but wakes up 24 hours earlier. This keeps happening, and Cage slowly begins to learn about the enemies' weaknesses.
This heavy-metal version of "Groundhog Day" trades in Andie MacDowell's optimistic TV producer for Emily Blunt's Rita Vratanksi, a seemingly indestructible soldier who doesn't seem too surprised when Cage tells her about his time-bending, death-defying feats.
Directed by Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity"), "Edge of Tomorrow" keeps a surprisingly light tone thanks to Cruise's unexpected performance - for once, his character is the inept novice and not the Type-A leader - and the always-welcome presence of Bill Paxton as Cage's bemused commanding officer. I'm still not quite sure what happens in the last five minutes, but that's what "Repeat" viewings are for, right?
<i>Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald copy editor and a tireless consumer of pop culture. His favorite film in the "Alien" franchise is James Cameron's sequel. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.</i>