Sega Pleases, Enrages Alien Fans With Isolation's Pre-Order DLC [UPDATED]

"Oh, no, this is going to force me to pre-order something that I wasn't going to pre-order!"

No? It's two missions that are based on fanservice and I'd wager that they won't be all that good. Even if they are, it can't be more than an hour's worth of gameplay content, maybe two if you're lucky. Certainly not worth changing your mind and running out to make your wallet $60 lighter. You're playing right into the hands of Sega and Gamestop, which is why this stuff keeps happening.

I really have high hopes for this game, but there's no way in hell I'll preorder after Colonial Marines.

Jim Sterling has the right idea. Fuck em'. I'll get the GOTY version on a Steam Sale. I was only sort of excited for this game anyway. Given that it's coming out in October, the same time as every other game this year, I don't feel bad leaving it behind.

Patrick, if pre-order DLC gets better, bigger or more significant than the throwaway junk and cosmetic baubles its been up until now, that will be a change for the worse, not better.

"The Alien cycle is much like the Sonic cycle."

I disagree with this wholeheartedly. "The Alien cycle" really isn't any different than the usual "licensed games cycle", in that publishers rarely give licensed games that much of a budget, assuming they can sell mediocre games to rubes who don't read reviews and will just buy the game because they like the brand. It's still a rarity that licensed game projects are actually given the time and budget required to make a compelling experience. The Batman Arkham series stands out for a reason.

The Sonic cycle, by comparison, is predicated more on people wanting to like the new 3D Sonic games as much as the original 2D Sonic games, always hoping that this latest Sonic game will finally be the return to form they're looking for. Sega honestly gives the Sonic team plenty of resources and people to make Sonic games (though they do release them rather frequently as of late), so it's really not the same thing as the issues facing licensed games like Alien: Isolation.

Why are people still getting their hopes up for crap like this? Based on my experience with CA latest release (Rome Total War 2), I'll hold on and buy this a year later. That is, if the game is any good - which is yet to be proven.

How much money did they pay these actors to put them in bullshit fluff content that isn't even part of the game?

They just lost a full purchase. Alien: Isolation is now a rental for me. I'd love to play some content with the original cast (that sounds incredible) but they can fuck right off trying to use it to determine where I buy my games.

Alien: Isolation gets two middle fingers out of no thank you!

People have a right to be cynical about pre-order DLC, but isn't that because pre-order DLC has been mostly garbage?

I don't think this is the case at all. People are against pre-order DLC because it's completely anti-consumer. It's trying to force your hand into making an uninformed purchasing decision because of the threat that you won't have access to potentially interesting content later.

(For the record, pre-ordering in 2014 seems silly. You can buy almost any game digitally, which means scarcity is no longer a reason to pre-order. So companies ought to be to trying harder.)

I disagree, Patrick. I would still pre-order games because having a physical copy in my hand and guaranteeing that I can get it day 1 is a nice bonus. It's not like I'm paying any more than if I bought it the next week, and usually developers like to throw in cool bonuses, be it in-game items or real world stuff.

So if you're buying a console game, it seems silly if you don't pre-order. You're missing out on cool, if minor bonuses and don't have to worry about walking into a place that's already sold out.

Opposite effect for me. I'm not pre-ordering it and now that I know this content is available I wouldn't buy it without it.

Sooo... GotY Edition then?

I'm going to hold off until Isolation (and its reviews) launches. If it's good, I'll reward them with tossing some more money their way to pick up this DLC. They'd be nuts not to sell this pre-order stuff later...

Why is this issue, as it is presented, even a topic of discussion? Is there any kind of scenario where this doesn't go up for sale a few months after release as regular paid DLC?

I rarely, if ever, partake in pre-orders, but I can see the upside for the consumer. If someone is already planning on getting this game, then why not pre-order and get free DLC? I don't see it as a problem as long as the pre-order bonus isn't a game breaker like if you received some gnarly weapon in a multi player game that could unbalance and break the experience for those that didn't pre-order.

We can only hope some good soul will upload both missions on YouTube without any bullshit commentary. I'm getting too old for this shit.

@white: This is what I do. I preorder games off Amazon all the time, it doesn't cost a thing and reviews usually come out before release or in the case that they come out on launch, if the game is shit I just return it back. Easy system for me.

Vote with your wallet, sheeple!

This is pretty much what I do too.

You, my friend, have figured this out.

Im just not going to buy this game. It sucks because I'd love to support creative assembly and it looks like they are really doing the series justice with this game, but fuck sega, fuck gamestop, fuck this bullshit. Im not going to support dirty business practices like this.

I won't be preordering this game, but I might rewatch Alien!

Thanks Sega!

It's good to see Ian Holm has high standards of quality for returning to his past roles.

I pre-ordered on Steam. Would do again. 10/10.

Why should fans be happy that a bunch of ancient actors are trying to imitate roles they had 35 years ago?

Yaphet Kotto is turning 75 this year. Tom Skerritt is 80. Harry Dean Stanton is damn near 90.

I have to disagree that most games have reviews out a few days before launch though. Embargoes are almost always day of release.

Why is this not the game?

In Gamestop, no one can hear you scream.

Now you have to figure out whether you're going to pre-order from. What happens when Amazon, Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Steam all have different pre-order bonuses?

This happens a lot, by the way.

AGEIST!

Well I'll give Sterling this one, I for one sure as fuck won't give Sega my money when they are holdning content like this back. Good heavens...

Nope. Not pre-ordering. I may sit down to play the game at some point, whether it gets good or bad reviews. But I am not pre-ordering it. I'm pretty sure pre-ordering Colonial Marines got you access to Hicks and Hudson voice packs for the MP. Sega seem to love wheeling in the original cast for these games.

Also, I wrote this in January, but its still prevalent for all Alien fanboys.

http://tobephair.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/my-reaction-to-aliens-isolation.html

I feel like we're never going to get out of the "videogames are for children" phase if these companies keep treating their games as pieces to be sliced off at will.

Even the movie industry doesn't do "ticket pre-order content" or "theater exclusive content", because that's super dumb. The fact that these things have become normal in videogames is pretty sad.

I must say I hadn't even entertained the thought that there might be people that'd be cool with all those pre-order boni if only they were substantial and good. So that theory is ... interesting at least? Though this strategy usually goes one of two ways for me.

I'm either pissed off at the prospect of having to buy a game in the influential "jigsaw puzzle" genre piece by fucking piece and opt to wait for the affordable complete edition (that I might or might not actually remember to get). Man, was it glorious to get Fallout: New Vegas for 20 € after all of it had released and then just live in that universe for more than a hundred hours. F:NV is a great and worthy standalone game and has solid to great DLC by the way, it's just that I play through games in an intense pace once I get started and don't take long pauses.

Or I deem the "bonus" in question inconsequential, buy (but not pre-order) anyway and ignore all DLC since that shit usually isn't made available until I'm done or is way too expensive. Company of Heroes 2 is a good example. I really, really enjoyed that game and didn't regret buying it for full price at all. But now when I look at all that DLC/ex-pre-order bonus/whatever mess, including some sort of more traditional expansion, I'm actually a lot less likely to research and buy any of it or even get back into the game again than I would've otherwise been.

But it's not a huge deal to me since the pre-order nonsense is barely ever worthwhile. As soon as publishers really start to rip useful gameplay elements out of the standard, full price game to get more than full price at release it would not be worth buying on release by my standards anyway. Leave that tactic to FTP games and push DLC as much in the direction of substantial expansions as you can and I'll be happy.

endless vomit cascading from my mouth forever

For what it's worth, the demo I played several times at E3 was fantastic. It controls amazingly well, it's beautiful, and the atmosphere is absolutely flawless. The demo was, however, extremely hard. Although I understand reticence towards Sega-published Aliens games, this is not one to be afraid of.

At any rate, lots of things about this still suck.

Here's a novel idea...how about they include these missions in the $59.99 purchase that EVERYONE makes? As in, put it in the damn game!

Creative Assembly was doing stuff like this before with Total War: Rome 2, so I'm not surprised that now Alien Isolation is going through the same thing. I'm not a fan of pre-order DLC myself so if I ever get this game, I'm buying it without a pre-order.

I just want to say for the record if the game turns out to be terrible you have no right to complain if you bought into it with this pre-order.

If Gamestop can give me a physical copy of the PC version of this, then I don't have a huge issue, to be honest.

Sometimes I want a box. A game like this- I want the box.

Here is my strategy: Wait for the reviews to hit, then "pre order" the game. If that doesn't work but the game is good buy the game, then later buy the DLC for 5€ cause of course they'll sell it at some point.

It's hard for me to be angry at Sega though. If people pre-order a game because of this, it'll be stupid not to do it.

agree with patrick about pre-orders for anything without anything physical with it (except the disc etc...you know what i mean)

Hopefully there are early reviews so I can choose to "Preorder" this game two hours before it is released on Steam.

A quick glance at the EBGames Canada and the Gamestop sites tells me that you cannot pre-order the PC version. Steam just lists Crew Expendable as pre-order DLC which means there will be no PC version of the Last Survivor DLC, at least not at release.

Hmm I think I'll wait it out. I already got Dragon Age and Middle Earth on my plate as it is. This is pretty tempting though

The levels of uncanny valley in this DLC trailer thing are ...uncanny.

You mean other than the thing they received with their preorder?

If there is one thing I think could be a positive of all this is this looks to actually be some sort of substantial piece of preorder DLC. It isn't just some sort new costume or weapons. This is voice acting and likeness of the original actors being put in just (to the best of my knowledge) for people who are willing to put money down before hand at this point. The problem I have is that it is for an IP that has burnt fans a year and a half ago. I would rather pay the $10-15 after I know the game is not a flaming wreck then to pay $70 for a piece of garbage with 2 nostalgia fueled DLC packs. But I hope this starts a trend for preorder DLC to be something worthwhile.

So put down $5 at GameStop and wait a week after release. While waiting, watch Twitch, read reviews, or whatever you do to make a decision as to buy a game or not. Then cancel or complete the transaction dependant on your decision. Why is this such a big deal?

How about I buy your game on clearance in a year and watch the DLC online? I would absolutely not pay full price in advance after Colonial Marines, and I would hope others wouldn't also.

Games used to just come with this stuff.