Alien: Isolation Reunites Original 1979 Alien Cast in Pre-Order Bonus - Update

[Nazulu]

Oh Ok, just leave parts out of the game unless you pre-order. ...cutting up a game already to prepare it for DLC is a dick move.

The game follows Amanda Ripley (Ellen's daughter) searching the space station [i/]Sevastopol[/i] for the Nostromo's flight recorder so she can hopefully learn what happened to her mother.

The pre-orer bonus(es) recreate the second half of the first film. Cut this out and Amanda's story (i.e. Isolation's plot) is [b/][i/]still complete[/i][/b].

How is that cutting up a game!? By your logic we should be yelling at EA more for not packaging Mark of the Assassin with Dragon Age 2 (along with ME2's Lair of the Shadow Broker). Bethesda should get rage-filled letters for holding back Dawnguard and Dragonborn to sell for more money. Those DLCs are stand-alone stories just like this pre-order bonus.

Nah, it's all just a giant load. If they can put it in, they should, not exclude unless this or that. Of course they say it's separate, but this whole working on DLC before the damn game is even released is part of a big problem being that the game could be for better value, and I hate it even more that it will be only available when you pre-order. Like I said, I can't pre-order because all the crap I've been through before, so I'll I'm really miffed when I have to miss out on something because I want to play it safe and wait for more reviews and to see it for myself.

And anyone else planning to say the same thing, save your breath because I 'believe' it's bullshit. Just another tactic and another lie.

 

[octafish]

Brett and Parker? That could get me over the line. I can dig Yaphet Koto's scene.

 

[RedBackDragon]

oh look its colonial marines all over again.

 

[Saulkar]

I am sick to death of this pre-order bullshit. It would be like ripping out those two bonus levels at the end of Golden Eye to sell back at launch. Two vastly different environments that have nothing to do with the main story, instead being inspired by locations from the old movies and unlocked through good old fashion perseverance. I was mildly optimistic that stuff like this would die out but now I see what inaction has wrought, again.

 

[Rozalia1]

Friends are all big alien fans who always look forward to games based on the property. I always tell them its going to be crap and I'm always proven right, and this game is no different.

Lol at those complaining about pre-orders, the game will almost certainly have way bigger problems than such minor things.
I mean if you think the game is going to be crap hence why you don't trust pre-ordering it...than why do you care anyway?

 

[ninja51]

I don't see people's problem with this. Instead of offering a discount on the game as a pre-order sales incentive, they offer a complete discount on additional content for the game, the lack of which in no way impacts the main experience of the game.

If you don't want to take the risk to buy it early, you're still ending up with the same experience as anyone else, and if you really enjoy it there's some added stand-alone content you will most likely be able to buy to complement that experience if you want.

Well I believe the problem stems from what you call "additional content". The game isn't out yet, there is hardly any gameplay footage, and yet they have a full part of the game featuring all the nostalgia grabs possible, but it's sold separately (or purchased through a pre-order). It reeks of being a business decision, an idea solely for creating a separate piece for people to buy. Its packaged with the pre-order in an attempt to give the appearance that they are throwing you, the consumer, a bone. They want your money now without anything in return, so they create content like this to make it seem like you are getting something in return, and to make more off of the people playing the game later on. I think people's distaste for this comes from this content being made solely to make more money now and later.

That and the fact that any sort of DLC, especially pre-order stuff before a game comes out is bullshit designed to take as much money as they can out of your pocket as soon as they can with no regard for the base game itself being as expansive, complete, and full featured as possible.

This all may come off a little ranty, it stems from an extreme disdain for corporate greed, of which Creative Assembly is the fucking paragon of. Its tough to adequately explain how gross Rome 2 was in its DLC and business moves with a broken game as its base. As a long time total war fan, I can claim with certainty, CA don't give a fuck bout the people! They care about making money from games, not about making games.

 

[MrDumpkins]

Dang, I really don't like this, the only way I'll be playing this game now is on a humble bundle sale where I can donate everything to charity and the humble guys instead. This should have just been an access pass like ME2's zaeed mission. You get it if you paid for it, and it's 10 bucks if you buy used. It was perfect. Instead what this stinks of to me is the game is going to be bad and they are trying to get as many first sales as possible before it flops.

 

[Frezzato]

Lots of good comments on both sides of the fence specifically regarding this pre-order bonus, but my interest did honestly drop when I read the news. It's not about what's right or wrong, or what's a bonus and what isn't; I just don't have the patience for this bullshit any more.

Incentive, bonus, DLC, whatever people want to call it, I no longer have the time nor the tolerance to wade through the stupidity of marketing tactics. This is just like any other game to me now, so I'll wait a year and buy it for pennies on the dollar.

 

[vun]

pre-order and store-exclusive bonuses? All of my interest just went out the window.

Might pick it up for dirt cheap if that happens, but otherwise I think I'll pass. I just don't want to deal with all of this exclusive bullshit. Either have DLC that everyone can buy, or don't have DLC. I'd prefer it if we went back to the old model of expansions tbh because this DLC bullshit is getting tiring.

 

[Metalrocks]

this all sounds very neat and it does give you something to think about but i rather like to know how much the DLC would cost. the game could be still horrible but if not, then i gladly would purchase the DLC since they did take their time to get the crew together.

 

[Macsen Wledig]

Knowing The Creative Assembly this is going to be a terrible game and the pre-order bullshit is just confirming that for me. Anyone still remember Rome 2 and how awesome that looked before the release? I actually let myself get swept away by the hype and pre-ordered that nonsense, never again you worthless shits, never again.

 

[Scorpid]

I will vote with my wallet and not buy the game at all then.

Fuck pre-order bonuses and day 1 DLC,will not be buying anything that has them.

1
Just wait. Its what the game industry encourages without thinking. This does sound like a cool mission but its still DLC tact on to a game that should have it sold with the base game.

 

[RicoADF]

I'll pre-order this, not for the DLC but for the fact it's something new that looks interesting. Glad to see I'll get a little bonus even though it's no loss to those that want to wait .

 

[Gennadios]

This might be an enjoyable bit of DLC. I'll probably find out in a year or two when I snag the pre order bonus and the DLC on a steam sale for $20 or so.

 

[kael013]

Nah, it's all just a giant load. If they can put it in, they should, not exclude unless this or that. Of course they say it's separate, but this whole working on DLC before the damn game is even released is part of a big problem being that the game could be for better value...

Yet there comes a point when the game has to be submitted for mass production (going gold). At that point the game is put onto discs in the millions. This process takes months, during which time the devs can't do anything more with the game; it's done, ready to be played. So they work on something else. I don't know what they used to do, start work on another game or an expansion pack I guess, but nowadays that time is spent making DLC that can be sold soon after release thus riding the release hype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

[quote/]and I hate it even more that it will be only available when you pre-order.
And anyone else planning to say the same thing, save your breath because I 'believe' it's bullshit. Just another tactic and another lie.[/quote]

Since I've been defending this let me just say this part I agree with. I like that devs spend that downtime during manufacturing to create more content for a game but pre-order only is a pain in the ass (especially retail exclusive pre-order).

 

[michael87cn]

Considering it looks like the game is in first-person view, what exactly changes? The grunts you hear when you get damaged? The games actual story (doubt it, seriously doubt it)?

Or is it like "hey you're ripley now kay?" and you are like "okay" but nothings changed except the game says you're ripley?

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

snip

Look, what you're missing here is that this goes beyond simply being a fun game or "nice things". There is already a load of bullshit and morally questionable things in the game industry right now as it is, we cannot allow even more to seep in. However, if we all allow ourselves to be hypocrites and support this practice with our money, well, what does that say to publishers and developers? "Yeah, it's okay, we'll be your *****. We won't do anything about it" and then what happens? The publishers get free reign to do whatever scummy business tactics they want, and gamers will suck it up as they have been doing over the past decade.

However, if we stand up to them and say "Nah, fuck it. We ain't giving you any money if you pull shit like that", then what happens? A massive loss of sales means they have to switch tactics to more consumer-friendly means or go bankrupt. Are you seeing the point now?

This isn't just a fun game now, this is some serious shit that has the potential to allow more serious shit to become widespread in an already demeaning industry.

 

[andago]

snip

Look, what you're missing here is that this goes beyond simply being a fun game or "nice things". There is already a load of bullshit and morally questionable things in the game industry right now as it is, we cannot allow even more to seep in. However, if we all allow ourselves to be hypocrites and support this practice with our money, well, what does that say to publishers and developers? "Yeah, it's okay, we'll be your *****. We won't do anything about it" and then what happens? The publishers get free reign to do whatever scummy business tactics they want, and gamers will suck it up as they have been doing over the past decade.

However, if we stand up to them and say "Nah, fuck it. We ain't giving you any money if you pull shit like that", then what happens? A massive loss of sales means they have to switch tactics to more consumer-friendly means or go bankrupt. Are you seeing the point now?

This isn't just a fun game now, this is some serious shit that has the potential to allow more serious shit to become widespread in an already demeaning industry.

I disagree. For me it doesn't cross any of those lines, it's a game that looks interesting, and that if they release gameplay footage that continues my interest it's a game that I may consider preordering for the added bonus.

Look, I can see the point people have where they're worried about actual detraction of a product to benefit sales and profit, but I don't see this as a reason to boycott any product with a certain sales model. For me, this game doesn't cross the line of what I see as unacceptable, and so it will be entirely up to whether or not this game seems interesting enough that determines whether or not I buy it.

In my opinion, setting a blanket boycott policy over every single instance of a given sales device sends out a worse message than considering things on a case by case basis.

Anywho, like with all things it's a matter of opinion on whether certain practices are kosher or not. For me, this is just fine, for you obviously not. If it ever got to a point where it detracted from my enjoyment of a game I wouldn't buy that game simply enough, and I think it is the same for most people (unless you think the general populace would for some reason keep buying something they weren't enjoying, maybe out of slavish devotion to the medium).

 

[Nazulu]

Nah, it's all just a giant load. If they can put it in, they should, not exclude unless this or that. Of course they say it's separate, but this whole working on DLC before the damn game is even released is part of a big problem being that the game could be for better value...

Yet there comes a point when the game has to be submitted for mass production (going gold). At that point the game is put onto discs in the millions. This process takes months, during which time the devs can't do anything more with the game; it's done, ready to be played. So they work on something else. I don't know what they used to do, start work on another game or an expansion pack I guess, but nowadays that time is spent making DLC that can be sold soon after release thus riding the release hype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

[quote/]and I hate it even more that it will be only available when you pre-order.
And anyone else planning to say the same thing, save your breath because I 'believe' it's bullshit. Just another tactic and another lie.

Since I've been defending this let me just say this part I agree with. I like that devs spend that downtime during manufacturing to create more content for a game but pre-order only is a pain in the ass (especially retail exclusive pre-order).[/quote]

Sorry this is late, work and all

Well I didn't think you would even bother making that point because if they can throw it in with the pre-order version then that means they 'can' put it in. If they can put it into some then they could've put it into all, no? There's something iffy about this planning.

Also, and I'm not really knowledgeable about this (though some games have done it like Red Alert 2 with free maps and missions), but couldn't they just add it in as a free update? I don't know how much that would be to do but I reckon they should aim to add value, cause that is what a great developer would do, especially because of the mistakes of their previous game

 

[SecondPrize]

Fuck. I won't preorder a game. Not for anything. But i'm far less likely to buy this knowing there's this awesome content I can't play so I guess I'll have a long wait till it's a fiver in a steam sale or old games bin. Fuck you and your splitting games up into different versions.