[Lucien21]

Obsidian developing Sega's Alien RPG
Studio behind KOTOR II, Neverwinter Nights 2 crafting sci-fi-movie-based role-player for "next-generation systems," PC; Gearbox working on Alien FPS?
By Tim Surette, GameSpot

Some acclaimed creative minds have been involved in the Alien franchise, including directors Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher, who crafted the sterile, spooky sci-fi movies, and Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, who created the looks for the titular creatures.

Gamers can add one more name to that list, as Sega today announced that role-playing game specialist Obsidian Entertainment is developing the upcoming RPG set in the Alien universe.

The game, which as of now remains untitled, is coming to PCs and "next-generation systems." Sega has not dated the project but on Monday said that the first Alien-licensed game wouldn't arrive before 2009. No further details of the game were mentioned.






Cooooool.

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Cooooool.

OMFG! Obsidian? Woooow, I'm glad that there'll be an Alien game with a little more depth to it. I like AvP2 though, even though it's all running and gunning... Alien³ on the Amiga was a waste of precious pocket money, but Aliens on my CPC was really creepy for its time.

Can't wait.

PS: Heres the tease site, with press releases'N'stuff. http://www.sega.com/aliens/index.php

With Obsidian Entertainment's development pedigree, they were our first choice to bring the Alien franchise to the RPG universe," said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc.

Simon Jeffery? Hm, sounds familiar...

[RLacey]

I look forward to seeing what Obsidian come up with.

In an unrelated comment, it's interesting that Sega have acquired the Alien licence rather than the Alien vs Predator one.

And that is indeed the same Simon Jeffery. But you already knew that.

[Maquisard]

Does the old-school Alien Breed game series have any copyrighted relation to the movie franchise?

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by RLacey

In an unrelated comment, it's interesting that Sega have acquired the Alien licence rather than the Alien vs Predator one.

Yeah! That means we get to see the REAL Alien stuff, like this, for instance.

Found on the Obsidian forums. I hope the guys who posted it don't mind me dragging it to this place. And what about this?

Originally Posted by Obsidian community member

I can't wait for an Alien RPG where I can finally roleplay an alien with great dialogue trees.

CODE
[Intimidate] Hiss! Fschzz!
[Bribe] Hiss! Fschzz!
[Persuade] Hiss! Fschzz!
[Insight] Hiss! Fschzz!

I'm a little thrilled, to say the least.

Originally Posted by Maquisard

...Alien Breed...

I don't think so. Where the lot of Team17 got their inspirations from is all over the place, though. Alien, Gauntlet and Doom respectively.

[Aj_]

Originally Posted by samIamsad

Found on the Obsidian forums. I hope the guys who posted it don't mind me dragging it to this place. And what about this?

I'm a little thrilled, to say the least.

That makes me glow fuzzy joy inside.

[Spiwak]

Interesting...

[GED X-42]

Definatley has massive potential and its in good hands.

But I wonder how much variety there is going to be in the gameplay without inventing massive amounts of stuff, which could seriously p-off the fanboys.

I mean there's only about 4 types of enemies (facehugger,chestburster, normal alien and Queen) and only a limited variety of allies (based around different armaments maybe)

Unless they set in a research station where they've been infesting various animals with aliens to see what cross breeds they get. (alienephant anyone ) which could be fun or just plain silly.

Im sure they'll think of something.

[Solid Snake]

Actually there are more types of Aliens or more correctly Xenomorphs than 4.

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by GED X-42

But I wonder how much variety there is going to be in the gameplay without inventing massive amounts of stuff, which could seriously p-off the fanboys.

Didn't each movie sequel piss off the fanboys of each flick that came before as well?

Originally Posted by Solid_snake

Actually there are more types of Aliens or more correctly Xenomorphs than 4.

For me the one true Alien will always remain to be the biomechanical humanoid nightmare from the first movie. The one with a penis for a head sticking its tail between Veronica Cartwright's legs, slowly moving it upwards before the camera cuts away to another corridor, and we only get to hear her distant screams of hellish pain caused by something our mind refuses to imagine. Oh , wait... they all have penisses for heads! Dickheads. I predict that they will get most of their ideas from Cameron's portrayal though, which is also fine. And guarantees that there'll be a hell of a lot more bugs than you could ever shake your stick at. Beware.

[maladroid]

Originally Posted by samIamsad

I predict that they will get most of their ideas from Cameron's portrayal though, which is also fine.

Shouldn't that be Ridley's Scott's portayal? I think he is the guy behind the first Aline movie. Even more acurate would probably be to credit H.R.Giger, since I believe was the one who designed those nasty meenies.

[Spiwak]

Well I feel fairly certain it won't take place at the same time as any of the movies (even Resurrection), or if it does it will be a separate in tandem storyline...so who knows what alien types we could see.

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by texallos

Shouldn't that be Ridley's Scott's portayal?

No, it was Cameron who was responsible for turning them into "bugs", since he didn't only direct, but wrote "Aliens" as well (heavily inspired by Heinlein's "Starship Troopers").

I think he is the guy behind the first Aline movie. Even more acurate would probably be to credit H.R.Giger, since I believe was the one who designed those nasty meenies.

Amen to that.

Originally Posted by Spiwak, that's Kawips spelled backwards

so who knows what alien types we could see.

I think it's about time to introduce monkey aliens™, spit-and-swallow aliens™, underwater aliens™, slimeball aliens™, redneck aliens™, Myspace aliens™ and many, many more to benefit from turning them all into profitable merchandising products each.

Maquisard's post reminds me of something. I think I once read an interview with somebody from ID Soft. It was said that the game that eventually became "Doom" started as a game based on the "Alien" license. True?

[samIamsad]

The masterchief has spoken:

Originally Posted by J.E. Sawyer

One thing that I want to state is that while this game needs to have things that make it recognizably an RPG, I think there are some RPG conventions that would feel/seem really corny in the relatively realistic Alien setting.

For whatever reason, slapping mithril ingots and gems onto a workbench and making a dragon slaying sword doesn't jar most people in fantasy RPGs, but doing the same thing to get an upgraded pulse rifle or a brand new type of weapon seems kind of goofy in the Alien context.

Anyway, I do think there are ways to approach item creation or upgrading in a way that seems plausible and fitting for the setting without feeling like RPG Convention #12.

Also, some more recent suggestions in that thread make me feel hornier still.

Source.

:drool:

[Fop]

Modern assault rifles allow for quite a large number of modifications, from different sights and grips to grenade launchers. Not much of a problem.

[JemyM]

What I wonder... What do Obsidian have to create dialogue about?

Earlier they had the Dungeons & Dragons alignment system to fall back on, then in KOTOR they had Dark vs Light... In Alien there's no real alignment, although maybe you can support the "evil companies" who want to breed aliens for warfare, or the opposition who are trying to prevent it and maybe you can earn predator faction or something, I dunno.

[Fop]

They're going to have to tone down the epic nature of their games. We'll see how that goes.

[samIamsad]

^ That would be awesome. Something as claustrophobic as the first movie, maybe. For now I'm really, really glad that they're more or less thinking about what to actually make out of the license, being open to possibilities, instead of shoehorning it into what they have been doing before.

Hehe, somebody on the Obs forums made a guess that they'd use a pregnancy of the main character as the game's twist. I guess that wouldn't work out now anymore.