Another day. Another dollar...or not.

Not much to report on, except that I have started writing a children's picture book. My target age is 3 - 5 years old. It's quite short but long enough for a bedtime story. The main character is a dragon, and I'm hoping to do a series focused on his adventures.

I also just returned from an interview for a role as a Creative Writing tutor. It would only be part time after school hours, but it would allow me to focus on my writing at the same time. I think I'm in with a pretty good chance of getting the job.

In other news: Alien: Isolation is still as awesome as ever! The story is great, and actually brought a tear to my eye yesterday due to the voice acting of Sigourney Weaver.

That's all for now.

Lauren

My scared face

Warning: Spare pair of pants not included

Alien: Isolation was released on 7th October 2014. I pre-ordered and got it through my letterbox the very same day. Unfortunately due to real life commitments, I didn't get time to play it until the following evening.

As some of my audience may already be aware, I first experienced the Survivor Mode of Alien: Isolation at Eurogamer in September. This was the sole reason I pre-ordered the game. I have been dubious about all the positive reviews; the fact it scored so highly in a lot of publications really made me question whether there was some behind the scenes bribery going on. I don't know why, but if everyone seems to be saying the same things I wonder if they've all been paid to say it ...I needn't have been so pessimistic.

I sat down in a darkened room, volume up high, and booted up the game. However, it wasn't quite as quick as that. As soon as I started up the disk it said there was an update available. My initial thought: 'Already! It's been out just over 24 hours!' But that wasn't too much of a hassle. Then however, it had to install the contents of disk 1, which took about 20 minutes, then requested for disk 2 to actually play it. This was only a minor insignificance and just made my anticipation build.

Amanda Ripley

You play as Amanda Ripley; the daughter of Ellen Ripley who you might know as the protagonist from the original 1979 Alien film. The place of the game in the timeline of the series is made obvious when the title scene is voiced over by Ellen (Sigourney Weaver) herself. Alien: Isolation starts with a man named Samuels - who works for the same company as Amanda Ripley - telling her that there is a possibility they have found her mother. A ship has discovered the flight recorder of the Nostromo; the spaceship where the whole Alien franchise begun and where Ellen went missing. The recovered flight recorder has been taken to the Sevastopol Station and a ship called the Torrens is going to collect it. Amanda has been invited by Samuels to go with them to Sevastopol as he knows she is searching for her mother. You take control when Amanda wakes up on the Torrens.

Straight away I noticed the look of the Torrens; it was very nostalgic of the original film with the shiny white walls, clunky keyboards and retro computer graphics. I liked seeing the return of the rocking bird, sitting on the desk doing it's usual backwards and forwards motion. The graphics are beautiful; even on my struggling 360 it looked wonderful. After an initial introduction to the Torrens, you space walk to the damaged Sevastopol and end up being split up from the other crew on your way to the space station.

Film Screenshot? Nope

When you reach the Torrens, you are introduced to the threat of human beings while they struggle to survive. The remaining people on the Sevastopol have guns, so you need to be weary of them. There are also the unpredictable malfunctioning androids who you need to keep an eye on. Each time Amanda meets someone you need to make the judgment call whether to stay incognito or to trust them. You are given a revolver near the beginning of gameplay, but using it is sort of a last resort. The firing of the gun will be heard by any nearby hostiles and the person you're firing at may have back up and/or a more powerful weapon. I have played the game for 6 hours and haven't even pointed it at anyone.

Not only do you get the revolver but you pick up blueprints as you explore the Sevastopol. With these blueprints you can make new weapons and ways to distract any enemies. These includes things like a noise maker and smoke bombs. There are also flares, a flamethrower and a blast stick. This game is not about combat however. Let me reiterate that - unlike previous Alien games, this one is not about shooting the xenomorph. It is made abundantly clear that there is no way of killing the alien, you can scare it off for a minute or so with the flamethrower but it isn't a 'spray and prey' game. If you are looking for that sort of gameplay, Alien: Isolation is not for you. It's all about stealth. Slow and steady wins the race.

Due to scarce save points, the game almost forces you to be stealthy. You can't run to the nearest save because the alien will stab you from behind before you even come close. I didn't find this frustrating though, I haven't gotten angry at the game (yet) but more at myself. If I happened to step out from under a desk a tad too early and my skull got crushed by two, dripping mouthes, I laughed at my impatience, not shouted at the game.

I have been very impressed by the AI. I have died a lot and every time I re-spawned the enemies never acted the same. I could never predict what was going to happen or what direction would be best to avoid hostiles. In some stealth games you can learn the movement of the AI characters; you know they're going to walk 10 paces forwards, turn their back to you then go 10 paces to the left, giving you an opportunity to leg it. Alien: Isolation doesn't have that. The AI is not predictable; it's so wonderful to finally be left guessing.

Xenomorph in all its horrible glory

Hello.

Another update. I have been working hard on my book City of Masks recently and have written approximately 8,000 words in three days; which is far more than I have written in the past year.

I have Joanna Penn to thank for that. I attended a talk she held at The Escape School on Tuesday 29th September titled, 'How to make a living from your writing.' She made the point that you should write everyday for however long you can spare. As I am not working at the moment, I am able to write for at least a few hours a day. Because of this, I have made immense progress on the storyline of City of Masks, moving from starting the build up to just approaching the climax. I feel proud of myself for getting this far and it's lovely writing again. I love my characters in City of Masks and the journey they go on, both together and separately.

These guys I also have to thank. They have kept me focused and been the soundtrack to my writing for the past few days.



Lauren