Horror video game favorite Alien: Isolation is finally getting a sequel from Creative Assembly and Sega after 10 years, multiple rumors, and one shockingly canceled project.
Creative director Alistair Hope, who was also the director on the original game, shared the announcement on X (formerly Twitter), burying it at the bottom of a letter recognizing the game’s 10th anniversary, which is a perfect time to announce a long-awaited sequel.
“Today, I’m delighted to confirm, on behalf of the team, that a sequel to Alien: Isolation is in early development,” Hope wrote. No other details were provided, but he wrote that the team is looking forward to sharing more “when we’re ready.”
Part of the reason the sequel took so long was that the team at Creative Assembly had been working on Hyenas, a big-budget, first-person extraction shooter that had been in the works since at least 2017. While It was officially announced at IGN’s Summer of Gaming showcase in 2022, complete with an action-packed trailer, and had already concluded a closed beta test, Sega called it a “challenging” title a month before canceling it in 2023. The company blamed the cancellation on “structural reforms” following an economic downturn in Europe.
Alien: Isolation was well-received at launch, but it’s become a favorite among horror game fans over the years due to its relatively simple, yet effective gameplay, which involves using stealth and a beeping tracker to avoid a xenomorph hiding in the ship. As Amanda Ripley (Ellen Ripley’s daughter), you also have to deal with more vulnerable enemies while trying to figure out what happened to your mother. It also saw a bit of resurgence following the release of Alien: Romulus this summer. Alien: Isolation just never wanted to die.
“It’s been nothing short of incredible to witness your passion for the game over the years and see it reach so many players around the world,” Hope wrote in his 10th-anniversary post. “Your boundless enthusiasm, excitement, screams (!), and steely courage in the face of cinema’s greatest killer have been profoundly rewarding.”
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.