Recent reviews by laurence of arabia

"where did he kill me from??????????????????"

Alien: Isolation is a 2014 horror game in the Alien universe, set 15 years after the events of the 1979 movie Alien. You play as Amanda Ripley as she travels to a space station to retrieve the flight recorder of her mother's missing ship, the Nostromo. When she arrives at the station, however, she realizes it won't be as simple as popping in and grabbing it, and some shenanigans ensue.

The overall graphics of Alien: Isolation are pretty good, but this game loses points for the lackluster models of the other humans and the Alien. There are mods that you can download on Steam that increase the visuals if you have a 2k or 4k monitor, but they only increase the quality of minor details like shadows.

Alien: Isolation's gameplay is constantly engaging due to the fact that you need to be very aware of where you are and how loud you're being so that the enemies are not made aware of your presence. All the while, you are collecting materials and schematics to build tools to help you fend off any enemies that you may be unlucky enough to encounter. The manual saves make this all the more challenging, as the save points are few and far between, and must be used wisely.

Alien: Isolation's sound design is almost certainly its strongest point. As a horror game, the music and ambient sounds keep you constantly on edge, and the sound of the Alien's heavy footsteps sprinting towards you from around the next corner is almost as scary as the moment it comes and tears your face off. As the audio of this game is so good, I recommend you use a good pair of surround sound headphones to get the full, terrifying experience.

Most PCs can run this game at medium/high settings, and I could run ultra settings with no problem with a 2060 and i5 10500k.

The main game takes approximately 15-20 hours on Medium difficulty, but this can be shortened if you are very skilled or use speedrunning techniques, and can be lengthened dramatically if you would like to explore every nook and cranny of the environment. It should be noted that the AIs of every NPC are random, and thus every playthrough will be different. Completing the game on Medium or even Hard difficulty shouldn't take that much grinding if you know what you're doing, but completing the game on Nightmare Mode requires knowledge of the Alien's behavior patterns and how to best progress through specific levels through practice. The Alien AI, while for the most part very predictable, is very hit-or-miss with detecting you. The majority of my playtime is on Medium difficulty, and there have been moments where, after crouch-walking down an entire hallway, the Alien will just come running out of nowhere and come to murder me in the face as I am hiding behind some boxes. Other times, I can simply walk right in front of it and it will just turn around and romp away in the other direction.

I bought this game at a slight discount at 31.99 USD, rather than its usual 39.99. Given how much playtime I've gotten out of it, I would say it is very worth it even at full price. You may even be able to get a discount on the DLCs, which add new gamemodes and even a chance to play through the ending of the movie Alien.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist is a comedic game about a player who loads into his favorite heist game, only to find that, since someone else is currently playing it, he cannot play. Furthermore, most of the staff running the behind-the-scenes special effects for the player have gone on strike. You must work with the director to single-handedly make all of the special effects for the player before you.

Islanders is a procedurally generated city-building game, where you must build structures on a randomly created island. You may earn points to progress to new islands, but progression is optional to an extent, so you can develop an island further. The points system depends on building types of buildings near each other and other natural features. The graphics are geometric, simple, and relaxing.