Monday 10 November 2014

Alien fans.......let's help make this go viral!

Monday, November 10, 2014


HELP THIS FELLOW BLOGGER REALISE HIS DREAM......PLEASE VOTE...........AND SHARE........LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN! ^_^


http://studiogekko.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/alien-isolation-movie.html



Alien Isolation - the movie?

Hi guys. Well this morning at 6:30 am I finished Alien Isolation on Xbox 360. For me it was the most amazing experience. I loved every minute of it. I've been waiting a very long time to be able to play a game like this and I wasn't disappointed.

My interest in Alien actually began in 1978 when I read in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper about a movie being made that was on a planet made out of bones! I was 15 years old at the time and this newspaper article sparked my imagination. When I finally got to see Alien it would be the first movie I ever went to see on my own, none of my friends were aloud to see it! As I stood in the foyer of the Regent Cinema in Wollongong, Australia, I was fascinated by the posters up on the wall from the movie. The poster that caught my attention more than any other was that of the Space Jockey. I'd never seen anything like it. Nobody had. What was it exactly? What was it sat in? A laser gun? A telescope?

Sitting there in the cinema closely following Kane as he made his way up the ledge and onto the platform........................... the camera pulls back...................... and there it is! It was such a pivotal moment in my life. I was stunned. Here it was, an alien life form. Nothing in the history of science fiction had ever produced anything like it, and nor has it since. The Space Jockey's ship, the architecture inside the ship, the cavernous chamber, was the stuff of amazement. Later on I was to learn about an artist by the name of H R Giger who created all of these things and of course the Alien itself.

As for Kane, well, yes, he just had to look into the open egg now didn't he! The Alien itself was also amazing. Walking out of the cinema that day I was energised in a way I'd never been before. I became interested in Science like never before, in writing. Learning about how movies are made, the actors, all of it. I'd watched Star Wars two years before and I also immersed into that, but nothing like I did Alien. That grungy grimy dirty VERSION OFscience fiction. The space ship design, the graphics, the alien life forms, it was all new to me and I just dove into it buying everything I could afford at the time and collecting whatever I could ever since.

Since then we've had Aliens which is also a favourite, then Alien 3 which I hated at first, but since watching the directors cut, like it as much as the first two. Then there was Alien Resurrection which, lets face it, was total shit! The latest, Prometheus, was amazing in so many ways, but ultimately I felt cheated and disappointed. Essentially Scott and company took Giger's designs and cheapened them. Ultimately few people appreciated that. To take something as amazing as the Space Jockey and turn it into a buff white guy in a costume/space suit was ridiculous.

So then we were left with what next? The prospects of Prometheus 2 doesn't excite me much as I feel that story line ruined so much that was built up in the first three movies of the franchise. Then I began to hear stories of another "Alien" game. After the disappointing Aliens: Colonial Marines I cautiously wondered what it could be about? The more I read the more I became interested. The initial visuals looked very familiar. Something good was being made! Cautious hope turned to excitement as some of the first game play footage was released.

To read/hear that the Creative Assembly had worked on Alien Isolation for three years gave me hope that it would be something quite special. It is! Now I must confess that I'm not much of a "gamer" I just simply don't have the spare time for it. However as I began playing Alien Isolation I couldn't help but find myself drawn deeper and deeper into it. How could one not? The sheer amount of visual information in front of one's eyes was epic! Fortunate enough to be able to play it on a brand new 55" Smart TV I found myself sucked into the environments of Sevastopol Station in totality. The fear, the anxiety, the frustration! That sweet perfect combination of superb set design, GRAPHIC DESIGN, story, sound and music was all encompassing. It wasn't just playing a game, it was an adventure. An adventure into something that harkened back to 1979, back to that little boy standing there in the cinema about to embark on something that would change his life. Here I was night after night fighting my way through Sevastopol Station as Ripley's daughter surrounded by things new and yet at the same time oh so familiar.

More than once I found myself being killed by either a Working Joe, a human or an alien, because I was stopped staring at the surroundings in awe! I could see Ron Cobb's influences everywhere. I loved how the story built as you read the events CATALOGUED on the computers. Ellen Ripley's last message to her daughter was a nice touch. The story is simply amazing! Very plausible and it opens up the "Alien universe" in so many ways, ways I thought that were much more intelligent than what Prometheus tried to do.

A big thank you to the Creative Assembly for the opportunity to walk on LV426 and go inside the derelict, MEET THE Space Jockey and have a good look around. That was all quite unexpected and came as a genuine surprise. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I took it all in. Simply amazing!

So, having finished it I must say I sat there reading through the credits feeling utterly exhausted. I really felt like I'd been on quite an adventure. And I know I haven't really finished it yet because I've got Survivor mode to get to grips with, then the Nostromo edition to start and then there's the rest of THE DOWNLOADABLE content to come. Wow, its a game that just keeps on giving! Then there's that not so small matter of what happens next to Amanda? Is it the Colonial Marshals with a rescue team that have showed up? Or a Seegson Corporation vessel? A Weyland-Yutani ship? Or some other ship?

This leads me to the title of this blog entry. Alien Isolation - the movie. I for one would love to see this story made into a motion picture! BUT! Only if Kezia Burrows plays Amanda Ripley. I couldn't stand it if another actress got the part.
Lets face it. She is gorgeous. She'd be so interesting to watch on the big screen, going through all she goes through in the game. Then there's the rest of the game cast. Surly that is a pre-approved movie cast? Then there's the set design, GRAPHIC DESIGN, music score, sound effects. THE STORY! It's all there ready to be utilised.

Think of the potential audience you'd have. Older people like myself who saw the original Alien back in 1979 right up to the young gamers playing the game now. My youngest son, who is eight years old is slowly playing his way through the game. My oldest, she is twenty loves it too and would also be happy to see it as a movie. My wife, who is not a gamer at all, is also excited by the prospect of Alien Isolation being made into a movie.

It would open the franchise up to so many more possibilities. Figures, scale models, comics, books, art books (yes I've got The Art of Alien: Isolation. It is amazing!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEAwhYYu6N0

I've no doubt that the talented team at the Creative Assembly have more than one idea of where the story could go keeping to the same theme they've set for themselves in Isolation.

So come on Twentieth Century Fox and the Creative Assembly, how about it!

I've set up a poll on the right hand side of this blog so you can cast your vote if you'd like to see Alien Isolation made into a movie, and if you'd like Kezia Burrows to play Amanda Ripley.

Lastly a BIG THANK YOU to the Creative Assembly for an awesome adventure, a fantastic game and a re-energising of my imagination and all the possibilities of where this could go now.

Cheers!

Monday 3 November 2014

DIY projects and good intentions.......



A few months ago I got a what you'd call 'spring clean' bug. No, it was much more than that, it was more like a "I hate EVERYTHING, and it's all got to go!" bug.

Well we seem to have over the last 17 years collected a lot of stray bits of furniture. Old chairs, cupboards, rugs, mats, just things that at the time where much appreciated, but now are just old, and broken, and don't really match anything. Things like the boys wardrobe that was dropped while moving house, and despite several attempts at repairs, still had it's door fall off.

Another example of what I mean is things like  my sister is having a clean up, and my nieces old dining chairs in her shed collecting dust. We need a matching set, as ours have broken, and the seams are coming apart, and the cats have helped  accelerate the deterioration with their sharp claws. In short we have odd chairs. UGLY chairs.

So I say 'YES" why not, matching chairs, and free...............

BUT.....................

They were left behind in my sisters shed for a reason. They are nice, and not ripped, but fragile as hell, and one chair has a leg completely broken.

Not having the heart to say "I really  don't want them now" (seeing how she drove them to me, and I now have them in my kitchen), I took them, and gratefully, as they do, however impracticable they are, look better then my current status, but I still have ODD CHAIRS, and now more broken chairs. 

All good intentions of family members to fix said chair, and re-enforce the others have not become fruitful, so I have solved nothing, and gained more clutter.

Lesson finally learned...... I will be no ones dumping ground, unless I am sure, and have seen with my own eyes what is on offer, and if it just needs a little.....................NO!

Any way, back to my insane desire to home improvement.

After discussing with hubby about what I'd really like for my birthday..... "all the shit thrown out" he agreed, but did ask that we do only one room at a time. (He also did buy me a lovely hoody with the words "KEEP CALM AND LET CRISS HANDLE IT" printed on the front, for my birthday. Such faith in me. lol 




Seems like a fair enough request. Sensible, practical, and full of good reason and common sense. So do I take it?

NO!



Our daughter, now seeing that things might look good, decided that she too would like to sort out her room. The recent bust up with said boyfriend, still has her in a state of retail therapy. She is buying, so why not.

I realise that my 6 year dream to rid myself of all the odd, the ugly, and mismatched, the broken, is at my finger tips, and I am going to need a huge skip to clear this rubbish up. It is/was/is intoxicating.

I have been saving, and after a recent visit to the bank, to sort out the finances, I am now credit card debit free, and just one personal loan to deal with at a lower interest rate, and have spare cash to play with. PERFECT. All my Christmas/ Birthday's have come at once.....

So daughter and I start shopping............................we soon discover that furniture is expensive, and to buy all that we need we may need to shop smart. We also discovered that NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE seems to build the bloody things any more either!

I am not un-used to screwing things together, having made most of the bookshelves and small office type furniture myself in the past, my daughter too, we had a sudden 'GIRL POWER' moment, and we felt we could do anything.

After a lovely day out at IKEA, and a quick stop at Chip as Chips, we had pretty much bought EVERYTHING we needed, except the room hubby said we should start with, and that was the kitchen. ( Ran out of money)  

But in my defence, we did between us get  A LOT of stuff, and we only had 2 delivery costs, where as hubby's way would have incurred more expense. Well that is what I am telling myself to make it all OKAY.

Now here in lies the problem. 

Daughter has no room for her things, with her current things in her room, so she moves her things, to kitchen, and our room, and where ever else she can stash it. Her huge book case, is now ours, so all the hall way things, books, DVD's, Photo albums, and pictures need to be emptied from current living arrangements and stored in new home. We did that, and it looks good, but now all that stuff is also in my kitchen.

We also bought a new desk for hubby's computer. So all his things went into the kitchen too, as we built, hammered, screwed, for hours. Trying to read instructions, that do not always make sense, and slowly becoming sick of this girl power movement we started.

Hubby mean while is TUT TUTTING, saying we didn't listen and now there is chaos, and don't come crying to me................you get the picture........  he is right, but I wont say it out loud. Sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh don't tell him......................


At least the cat seems to like it............



It is slowly coming together, but our house is still a mess, and things are still in the process of structure, and although I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I still have a huge mess to deal with which is doing my head in.

Our Miss is now taking a break from construction, which is not good, as it is her room with the most crap to sort, and we need her stuff out the way to be able to finish the boys room.

I am seriously over it all..................I thought in 2 weeks we would have it all done, and be shopping around for a new table and chairs, with buffet maybe??? But I really don't think so.............

I forgot somewhere in this girl power duo collaboration, that I also have a job, and I am also a mother, and I also do not have the strongest back in the world, and have definite limitations.........I forgot that the rest of world would not stop and take a pause while I DIY my home, and that I would be shopping, cooking, working, washing, and cleaning, as well as going through 8 years of stuff.  It is amazing the amount of things you gather. Scary actually!

So I am EXHAUSTED. Staying up till 2 am, waking up at 7 am and doing this repeated day after day is now really taking it's toll.

Hubby is now helping. I think he is just sick of the mess too, or he is feeling sorry for my lack of self control, but he is a perfectionist, and so building a small boy, might have taken us 4 hours, but it has been a whole 24 hours now, and he is still yet to screw anything together. It will however be put together well, and of that I am sure. Not like the boys wardrobe where my daughter in her rush to get it done, angled the nail wrong and spilt the wood. Thankfully it is on the top and at the back, no one will see it, but I know it's there. 

So the plan is by the weekend to have the rest built and set up, and then the rubbish removal can start. I have a few weeks left before house inspection, so it has to be all cleaned up by then. It will look good, and eventually the dining room will too...........Rome wasn't built in a day you know! But the next shopping trip will be with hubby, so I don't get talked into anything else by Miss shop-a lot. She really is a bad influence...........well is it fun spending someone else's money. (Hers) 

Wish me luck......but I can honestly say that if I don't see another Allen Key for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. At least all the clutter is disappearing...............YEAH!