Alien: Isolation video shows off 1970s tech, reveals importance of VHS
“This isn’t a world of holograms and touchscreens; there’s no sense here that technology is going to save you.” creative lead Alistair Hope says in a new developer diary video. “It’s a world very much of CRT, not LCD.”
The folks at the Creative Assembly are doing their darndest to make sure that Alien: Isolation look, sound, and feel like the original Alien from 1979. So, it’s critical that the game doesn’t employ any tech that would have been impossible while creating the original film.
“This isn’t a world of holograms and touchscreens; there’s no sense here that technology is going to save you.” creative lead Alistair Hope says in a new developer diary video. “It’s a world very much of CRT, not LCD.”
In fact, in order to help inform the developers on how the game should look, they recorded gameplay onto VHS and played it back, making sure to stomp on the wires to create the right kind of distortion. You too will be able to experience this “lo-fi sci-fi” when it launches on next-gen consoles and PC on October 7th.
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Shacknews
replySteve Watts posted a new article, Alien: Isolation video shows off 1970s tech, reveals importance of VHS.
“This isn’t a world of holograms and touchscreens; there’s no sense here that technology is going to save you.” creative lead Alistair Hope says in a new developer diary video. “It’s a world very much of CRT, not LCD.”-
I love the manual VHS destruction to make in-game video and stuff.
It's taking the lore to an extreme since we know we won't be using analog hardware in the future, but it's a really nice nod to the original design and gives it that dirty grimy feel that was so effective in Alien. -
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"The folks at the Creative Assembly are doing their darndest to make sure that Alien: Isolation look, sound, and feel like the original Alien from 1979. So, it’s critical that the game doesn’t employ any tech that would have been impossible while creating the original film."
...but the movie is set in the future not 1979. seems kinda of stupid that they would base their creative direction based on the technical limitations of the day
"The game is set in 2137"-
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It's a divergent timeline, the future as it was conceived in 1979. The technical term is retro-futuristic.
Plenty of games have done this before. Bioshock 1 and 2 used a 1930s-inspired retro-futurism, while Bioshock Infinite was roughly 1920s. Most of the Fallout franchise (the ones that are canon anyway) are 1950s retro-futurism.
Using the 1970s as a base for another go-round of retro-futurism is a great idea, especially since so many MAJOR sci-fi films came out in that decade. Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Andromeda Strain, A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green, THX 1138, Logan's Run, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Westworld, Mad Max... and that's just up to 1979. Go a few years ahead, basically the same aesthetic, and there's tons more.
Basically, quite a few people were raised on sci-fi that used this aesthetic for its version of the future. Finally getting to play in that future will be great.
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Thank you for actually sticking to the artstyle of the original movie! And thank god GearBox isn't making this....
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Maybe you should have a link to Wikipedia as some young Shackers may not know what a CRT is.
Definitely like the art direction though as it gives the game its own style versus some generic "sci-fi" look. -
I hope this game is really good and sells well. I worry that it won't find a big audience.
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Can't wait to play this ON a CRT, so very meta.
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