By Alec Meer on May 12th, 2011 at 11:43 am.
Surprising news from the wilds of Horsham, West Sussex, England. The chaps at the Creative Assembly – best known for the splendid Total War games and some other stuff they’d probably rather forget – have just had their next game announced by, er, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey. In a bit of a major switch-around for these strategy gurus, they’re taking a swing at the Alien franchise. Yep, that’s Alien singular rather than plural. Great (Ridley) Scott!
Very few details as yet, bar that Ed Vaizey seems jolly pleased that a Brit development house is tackling such a huge global license. Clearly, it’s related to SEGA’s current partnership with Fox for the Aliens brand, having already led to Rebellion’s Aliens vs Predator, in theory Gearbox’s little-seen Aliens: Colonial Marines and the sadly defunct Aliens RPG from Obsidian.
Speculation? As it’s Alien rather than Aliens, an all-out action game is perhaps unlikely. An adventure game? A strategy game? Something Dead Spacey? Whatever, surely it’s going to involve just one but very significant boss fight…
We’ll nuke this site with more details from orbit soon as we have ‘em. It’s the only way to be sure. That should be extremely soon, as Alec is RIGHT THERE.
12/05/2011 at 11:45 grasskit says:
ffs you shouldnt have put that picture there
12/05/2011 at 11:48 J-snukk says:
I genuinely find that picture quite arousing.
12/05/2011 at 11:59 Quintin Smith says:
Well it’s gone now. I didn’t want it putting me off my lunch.
12/05/2011 at 12:01 SilverSilence says:
Better?
http://i.imgur.com/XQckj.png
12/05/2011 at 12:02 Jonathan says:
J-snukk’s comment is about 10x better now. Thanks Quinns!
12/05/2011 at 12:02 subedii says:
Well, John Hurt was having lunch at the time it happened.
Are you certain about what’s in that sandwich Quinns? I mean, REALLY certain?
12/05/2011 at 12:06 Quintin Smith says:
subedii i will ban you
12/05/2011 at 12:06 J-snukk says:
I now look as if I love several large men bending another backwards over a table, I cannot claim this is wholly innacurate. I did, however, prefer the first image.
12/05/2011 at 12:12 Gap Gen says:
SilverSilence: Best.
12/05/2011 at 12:13 grasskit says:
http://i.imgur.com/Ar9Bl.png
12/05/2011 at 17:25 Hoaxfish says:
kinda reminds me of: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/The_Anatomy_Lesson.jpg
16/05/2011 at 11:50 Squirrelfanatic says:
Aww dudes, stop it already. Soon I will have to explain to my girlfriend why I love so many of you funny men.
12/05/2011 at 11:49 Rii says:
I just had the horrible mental image of a Total War game populated by Xenomorphs.
And I wouldn’t put too much stock in the singular/plural distinction. Particularly not from the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries. It’s all the same franchise anyway.
12/05/2011 at 11:49 Nighthood says:
Nice to see that the government is at least pretending they aren’t a bunch of money grabbing wankers.
Wait, that’s exactly what they are doing here, supporting a British games company purely because they’ve won a popular, profitable license. Never mind then.
12/05/2011 at 12:26 sonofsanta says:
Aye, if he enjoyed the visit that much and was so inspired, you’d think he might want to support this amazing industry with, y’know, hard-earned tax breaks.
12/05/2011 at 12:40 Nighthood says:
The games industry won’t get any tax breaks from a majority Conservative government, purely because the majority of their voters think games are Satan’s propaganda or something.
It’s probably one of the only big business areas which isn’t getting tax breaks though. Maybe they should just avoid tax, that’s what all the cool cats are doing.
14/05/2011 at 13:08 rivalin says:
Yeah, because only conservatives stereotype and caricature people, oh wait you just stereotyped conservatives; hypocrisy from a lefty, WHATEVER NEXT?
The conservatives’ clear policy before the election was to support game development with tax breaks, and then they got into office and realised how completely bankrupt we were, you see the trouble with living in the real world is you realise you have to live within your means (unless you’re Labour, in which case you can just buy votes with massive deficit spending and wait for the mean tories to fix the finances before doing it all over again!)
12/05/2011 at 11:50 The Sombrero Kid says:
Aliens quote :P
Sounds amazing, unless it’s a dead space clone, we’ve already got one of those.
12/05/2011 at 18:48 MiniMatt says:
They mostly make these annoucements at night. Mostly.
(yeah, also Aliens, can’t think of a suitable Alien quote at mo)
12/05/2011 at 11:51 Shadram says:
Just imagine what their battle engine could be like if used for games of different genres… They could do a shooter with 10,000 marines vs the Alien (singular, obviously).
12/05/2011 at 11:52 KauhuK says:
Total War: Alien?
12/05/2011 at 18:40 Dances to Podcasts says:
Alien vs Predator vs Zerg.
12/05/2011 at 11:52 Grinterloper says:
Been chatting to a friend of mine at Creative Assembly today, everyone is struggling to be nice to Ed so they can keep their jobs. Obviously the only sane response to seeing Vaisey is to scream CUNT! as loud as you can and headbutt him.
12/05/2011 at 11:54 Nighthood says:
That’s the only sane response to seeing any cabinet member these days.
12/05/2011 at 11:55 applecup says:
So very true.
12/05/2011 at 12:19 Alec Meer says:
I was there and spoke to him a bit. He seems a pretty good sort, actually. And I say that as someone who loathes the current government as much as the next sane guy.
12/05/2011 at 12:25 Grinterloper says:
I’m sure he can be very pleasant when he wants to be, However his responses to well mannered emails questioning him on his policies concerning net neutrality would suggest otherwise. I’ll refrain from the headbutting if only to keep my etsy bought screen printed ironic Che Guavara T-shirt clean.
12/05/2011 at 12:42 CMaster says:
It would be very tempting to ask him just how nice a holiday Murdoch can provide.
12/05/2011 at 16:01 Edgar the Peaceful says:
This bilious venting of spleen has actually cheered me up.
12/05/2011 at 11:54 Jonathan says:
In what way is the Alien franchise different from the Aliens franchise? Are there really two franchises? If so, that’s just barmy.
12/05/2011 at 12:07 jon_hill987 says:
It is one franchise. The name Alien instead of Aliens suggests it is based on the Sci-Fi horror film Alien instead of it’s Sci-Fi action sequel Aliens.
I’m hoping for an Amnesia like game on a space ship with a Xenomorph.
12/05/2011 at 14:17 aldo_14 says:
Unless they’re cunningly gambling on Prometheus being reverted to a named Alien prequel.
12/05/2011 at 15:16 -Spooky- says:
Alien / Aliens / Alien vs / Aliens vs. .. always the second part and NOT another franchise.
12/05/2011 at 11:57 DanPryce says:
It’s actually a Spore clone where you incubate a chestburster within John Hurt. You swim around a fluid-physics enhanced stomach, fighting off enzymes and whatnot, leveling up until you’ve built up the strength to explode out of his tummy.
12/05/2011 at 12:00 KauhuK says:
I think that not many people could stomach such a game.
12/05/2011 at 12:26 Gap Gen says:
I was thinking of something more like the Space level of Spore, where you find yourself set upon by a vicious xenomorph in the middle of nowhere with no hope of rescue.
12/05/2011 at 12:00 subedii says:
Not to start an argument (because I genuinely loved it) but I’d say Dead Space pretty much is an action game, much like RE4.
12/05/2011 at 12:04 Jonathan says:
*puts on arguin’ shoes*
Yes, but is it all-out action?
12/05/2011 at 12:06 subedii says:
No most of it takes place indoors.
12/05/2011 at 12:12 Jonathan says:
What is it with you lot and your quick wits? Argh!
13/05/2011 at 06:49 destroy.all.monsters says:
No, some of it is heterosexual action as well.
12/05/2011 at 12:05 Naseer says:
Shogun vs Aliens confirmed.
12/05/2011 at 12:11 jalf says:
Shotgun versus alien?
12/05/2011 at 12:07 Naseer says:
By the way: http://creative-assembly.com/?page_id=10 CONFIRMED! For realz this time.
And http://tinypic.com/r/28sn1jp/7
12/05/2011 at 12:11 KauhuK says:
It said something about console project on that site.
12/05/2011 at 12:14 Rii says:
Yeah ok, *now* I believe it’s based on Alien (1979).
12/05/2011 at 12:50 Koozer says:
That’s the dullest website design I’ve seen all year.
12/05/2011 at 12:09 The Hammer says:
This better not get in the way of their unconfirmed but obligatory Total War: Rome 2!
12/05/2011 at 19:07 Dances to Podcasts says:
The webpage linked just above says ‘new team’ so I would guess it’s a new team.
12/05/2011 at 12:12 jalf says:
Uh, note the “new team, new console project” bit at the bottom of CA’s page?
http://creative-assembly.com/?page_id=10
12/05/2011 at 12:15 Rii says:
No surprises there. All of CA’s other non-TW games have been exclusive to consoles also.
12/05/2011 at 12:28 Defiant Badger says:
Oh god, what alternative reality did I slip into?
12/05/2011 at 12:32 Yak Jazz says:
This ain’t our system!
12/05/2011 at 12:13 DaggleC says:
It’s probably safe to say Ed doesn’t know the difference one letter can make..
15/05/2011 at 05:42 Nick says:
Unlike Jeremy Hunt.
12/05/2011 at 12:23 Yak Jazz says:
If it turns out to be survival horror stealth with Giger’s alien then I have always wanted to play it. They took their goddamn time.
12/05/2011 at 12:31 Tunips says:
I hope they don’t make the mistake (as just about everything else in the franchise, including Aliens, has done) of overlooking the real themes of the movie, rather than just its aesthetic elements. That is to say, raperaperape.
The profound and deliberate symbolic discomfort is what put Alien streets ahead of every other movie (ever) with a big scary monster.
12/05/2011 at 12:49 TsunamiWombat says:
Disturbingly enou, this is true. It’s been discussed by scott and other smart british sounding people on the specials about it i’ve seen on horrornet. The aliens were designed from start to finish to evoke the idea of male rape- thats the point of the face hugger.
12/05/2011 at 12:55 sonofsanta says:
Also, if you ever see any of H.R. Giger’s other stuff, the guy has an obsession with sexual imagery. The majority of exhibits in his museum are hidden behind opaque plastic curtains, like the naughty bit at the back of a video store.
12/05/2011 at 13:00 Rii says:
It’s not just male rape, there’s plenty for the girls too.
12/05/2011 at 14:28 aldo_14 says:
I’m sure I read (I think from one the writers) that part of the storyline was also meant to evoke the idea of being forced to have a rapists baby.
12/05/2011 at 13:17 Eightball says:
It’s gonna be another forgettable console thingy. Like Spartan Total Warrior, Viking Total Warrior, and that awful console RTS.
Boo hiss CA
12/05/2011 at 13:19 Rii says:
Yeah, CA should stick to what they do best: remaking the same game over and over and over again.
12/05/2011 at 14:33 televizor says:
Is that weed in the jar to the right, the one with the white spoon in it?
12/05/2011 at 15:02 mpk says:
I now have an erection that could kill a cat.
In other news, this news excites me for i r a xenofanboy.
12/05/2011 at 15:12 Fumarole says:
Total War: Nostromo
12/05/2011 at 20:02 Andy_Panthro says:
Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Assembly more like!
…
I’ll get my coat.