Book Review: Alien:River of Pain.

Alien River of Pain is for me the final insult in a series of unadulterated fan wank like novels....if they were written buy fans who never watched the movies. Sloppy writing and shoe horning like your trying to fit a square block  into a saxophone. Christ this book is bad on so many levels.

Christopher Golden story centers around the fall of the colony Lv-426....cool, cool only got to see a bit of that in the Dark horse comic Newts tale and the faith of the Marine Unit stationed there!...Wait what?
What fucking marine unit. There was no mention of marine unit at the Colony. Did it slip Bruke or Gormans mind to mention it and get this there was also a research vessel there which with to escape. Right so heres the big issues with this added plot point.

• If there was marines on LV-426 already how come the Marine squad sent there didnt seem to know anything about it. Hicks or Aphone were never like maybe we could check to see if any of the jarheads stationed there are alive. For that matter how come when the got stranded and are low on ammo they never go "hay lets check the unit that was stationed here's barracks for more Pulse-rifle ammo and weapons. 
• Frost states that most of the damage done to the colony was small arms fire and explosives used for mining not USCM weaponery which these guys seemed to have.
• The Hero Captain Brackett manages to escape with some of the colonists and while the story states he's trying to avoid contacting Wayland-Yutani the jerk never bothered to send out a transmission saying "yeah the planets fucked....dont risk your lives trying to save people cause their dead and you will be two if you land there!"
• Agien when shit hit the fan with the dropship gone and the reactor going to blow how come no one bothered to check the colony logs to see...holy shit theres a ship stationed here. Fuck it I know it was gone at this stage but surely some one might have gone...yeah the colony might have a ship maybe we should double check.
• They told Ripley that it might be nothing only a downed transmitter then why send more fucking marines if you had ones there already....sure those ones had their own communications unit. You could argue Bruke knew what went done but still wouldnt Wayland-Yuntani want keep the USCM outta its shit as much as possible.

Also the story has this fucking god aweful subplot involving Newts moms relationship with this Marine Captain Brackett which hits ever so slightly he might be Newts real father. Golden also gets lazey and pulls segements straight from the movie but not just Aliens but Alien also...and word for word....thats not writing thats dictating a fucking script to a novel. Then agien I should have seen how bad this books was when the slogan was The prequal story of the Doomed Colony Hardlys Hope from the blockbuster movie Alien!. 
They couldnt even get the fucking movie right. Sweet christ this book is indeed a river of pain and a lake of shit. I rather get facehugged then have to read another one of these fucking books agien.  Aviod this book like the smallpox.

Game over man Review: Alien Isolation

Well Im back after a long break  during which  I finished Alien Isolation and let me tell you Ellen Ripley had a walk on the park compared to her daughter Amanda.

This game makes you sing for your supper. I had to restart at an easier difficulty setting cause it was so damn hard. The Story is set 15 years after the events of Alien and Ellen Ripley daughter Amanda decides to join a team of Wayland-Yutani representatives to a station called Servastopol where the Nostromo's black box has turned up. When they get there the station is in ruin and people are fighting to survive a lone xenomorph which was cause of all the mayhem.

The story is full of twists and turns and has allies and foes alike dropping like flies to the xenomorph. Despite the games pants browning atmosphere and difficultly  the story is so compelling it brings you back for more and more. The most standout parts of the game which there are many is the first encounter with the Alien where your unarmed and under prepared. The other is the perspective part of Marlowe the Captain of the ship which tracked the Nostromo to LV-426 and enters the Jockey ship. I've played many many games where you see the dead pilots chamber and this buy far is the best representation of it.

The A.I on the Alien while not as good as the Xbox one and PS4 is still pretty clever and it feels like its hunting you.  The graphics are stunning for the 360 and the detail if you'v time to take it in while your not hiding under desks or in lockers is amazing.
Sound design and music wickedly lends to the tension of the game making it nail biting hearing the pounding footsteps of the xenomorph and chilling music as your being stalked through dim corridors.

On the station the Alien is not your only foe. Human survivors will kill you if you confront them outta fear of attracting the xeno or if they think your trying to steal their loot. You can either take them on with weapons and risk attacting the Alien or sneak past them and avoid a dangerous situation. The Worker-Joes on the other hand are a hole other kettle of fish. These creepy window dummy looking synthetics will track you down and beat you to death with ease. Your only course of action is to either stun them with the baton and bash their brains in or use fire arms which agein risks drawing out the Alien either way their big trouble.

You do get weapons and you'll want to use them sparingly. You get a pistol and shotgun which is good taking out humans but the shotgun is only one along with the blot gun to take out the Worker-Joes. As I siad before these fire arms will only lure the Xeno and does nothing to him ((which I have a slight problem with))
The only real effective weapon to use on the xeno is the flamethrower. It scares it off and is a sure fire way ((pun intended)) to keep the star beast off your back....aleast for a while. You can also craft weapons such as explosives and distractions. Speaking of which the crafting system takes a while to get used to but when you do its a must to progress in the game.

With all those pro's there are a few cons. The Puzzels can be a pain in the arse as the last thing you wanna do is figure which shape matchs to which or is this grid in the right place while that things hunting you. Hell some of the puzzels confused the hell outta me and in the finish I just randonly bashed some buttons to sort it.
Also this game is bastard hard I mean I repect its trying to push the player to their limits but there were times my foot wanted to go into the Tv set and its a long ass game....maybe over staying it welcome slightly but hay who wants to play game that ends before you can really enjoy it.

All in all Creative Assembly have made a wonderful Alien game that does the franchise justice and with sprawling station to explore play through after play through and a wicked selection of DLC such as the amazing Crew expendable where you can play is Ripley, Parker or Dallas this games life span is limitless.
So if your a fan of the Alien franchise like me theres no question buy this game....and sleep with the lights on.