The best and the worst 'alien' games

The sci fi heart cheers: the acid splashes, the blood flows, the mucus bubbles - alien is back. And even if one or other fanboy of "Alien: Covenant" is disappointed in content, one must say: Director Ridley Scott has finally created a real "Alien" film in the tradition of the first two classics.

A game version of «Alien: Covenant» is unfortunately not planned today. Although the option according to the film studio is not final from the table, but already to "Prometheus" no license game was developed. Best opportunities currently has a mobile game. So consoles and PC gamers will probably have to resort to the games that have appeared so far. And it has real hits under it - and unfortunately also really bad flops.

The best ...

One of the most successful games is "Alien: Isolation" from 2014. While most alien games - especially shooter - are based on James Cameron's action sequel «Aliens» from 1986, this Sega title plays with the oppressive atmosphere of Ridley Scott's original. Not for nothing, the Stealth game was awarded several "Game of the Year" awards and became a huge success.

One blockbuster was the "Alien vs. Predator ". The resulting film did not meet the expectations, but the shooter has set the standard for "Alien" games. With his three campaigns from the perspective of a Marine, Alien or Predator, the Rebellion title was based on a clever concept. And the nervous tension makes even the film franchise honor. This also applies to the 2001 hit "Alien vs. Predator 2 ".

Still popular today is "Alien Trilogy", which was published in 1996 for PS 1, Sega Saturn and MS Dos. The game was programmed as part of the First Person Shooter boom at the time and combines the actions of «Aliens» and «Alien 3». It may have been badly aged - but in 1996 "Alien Trilogy" was a coherent and very difficult shooter.

... and the worst

Not just badly aged, but generally bad was "Aliens vs.. Predator: Extinction "(2003). The decision to raise the game as a Real Time Strategy title turned out to be tricky. However, the game still has fans - which one can definitely not claim from "Aliens: Colonial Marines". The game is quite rightly considered one of the biggest flops of the game history. Because on a great trailer followed in 2013 only an unfinished game with gruesome graphics, drunken gameplay and a stupid story.

Is it even worse? Yes. The "Alien", released in 1982 for the Atari 2600, was more or less "Pac-Man" with the monster by H. R. Giger. Instead of fruit there were spaceships, instead of ghosts aliens - instead of high tension and horror just a fun game for the sake of. The Engineers were supposed to have passed the time.

Computer wins 2nd game against Chinese go champion

WUZHEN, China (AP) — A computer beat China's top player of go, one of the last games machines have yet to master, for a second time Thursday in a competition authorities limited the Chinese public's ability to see.

Ke Jie lost despite playing what Google's AlphaGo indicated was the best game any opponent has played against it, said Demis Hassabis, founder of the company that developed the program.

AlphaGo defeated Ke, a 19-year-old prodigy, in their first game Tuesday during a forum organized by Google on artificial intelligence in Wuzhen, a town west of Shanghai. They play a final game Saturday.

AlphaGo previously defeated European and South Korean champions, surprising players who had expected it to be at least a decade before computers could master the game.

Internet users outside China could watch this week's games live but Chinese censors blocked most mainland web users from seeing the Google site carrying the feed. None of China's dozens of video sites carried the live broadcasts but a recording of Tuesday's game was available the following night on one popular site, Youku.com.

State media reports on the games have been brief, possibly reflecting Beijing's antipathy toward Google, which closed its China-based search engine in 2010 following a dispute over censorship and computer hacking. Google says 60 million people in China watched online when AlphaGo played South Korea's go champion in March 2016.

The official response to the match, a major event for the worlds of go and artificial intelligence, reflects the conflict between the ruling Communist Party's technology ambitions and its insistence on controlling what its public can see, hear and read.

The government encourages internet use for business and education but tries to block access to material considered subversive.

The possible reason for suppressing coverage while allowing Google to organize the event was unclear. Censorship orders to Chinese media are officially secret and government officials refuse to confirm whether online material is blocked.

On Thursday, AlphaGo "thought that Ke Jie played perfectly" for the first 50 moves, Hassabis said at a news conference.

"For the first roughly 100 moves, it is the closest game we have ever seen anyone play against the master version of AlphaGo," he said.

Ke said the computer made unexpected moves after playing more methodically on Tuesday.

"From the perspective of human beings, it stretched a little bit and I was surprised at some points," he said.

"I also thought that I was very close to winning the match in the middle," Ke said. "I could feel my heart thumping. But maybe because I was too excited, I did some wrong or stupid moves. I guess that's the biggest weak point of human beings."

Go players take turns putting white or black stones on a rectangular grid with 361 intersections, trying to capture territory and each other's pieces by surrounding them. The game is considered more difficult than chess for machines to master because the near-infinite number of possible positions requires intuition and flexibility.

This week's games are taking place in a hall where Chinese leaders hold the annual World Internet Conference, an event attended by global internet companies.

China has the world's biggest population of internet users, with some 730 million people online at the end of last year, according to government data.

Censors block access to social media and video-sharing websites such as Facebook and YouTube. Internet companies are required to employ teams of censors to watch social media and remove banned material.

Web surfers can get around online filters using virtual private networks, but Beijing has cracked down on use of those.

Non-online Computerized Games

The computerized version of the genre took off there were a lot of money hungry companies who decided to storm into the genre without really trying to understand what the vital elements of a role-playing game are. In order to sell role-playing games you need an audience willing to buy the product and if a company consistently puts out dodgy shooters in the guise of apparent role-playing games they'll only destroy their reputation and go bankrupt.

On that note, of the styles of role-playing games that include pen and paper, computerized games and online games, there is only one type that can meet the fully immersive needs of a role-player and I'll reveal why later. The worst of these are the recent thug games where one criminal organisation wants to defeat another criminal organisation and you're the hitman. Who is really that stupid to fall for such a terrible storyline? It's certainly not for intelligent role-players.

 This can be done cleverly by feeding snippets of information in a natural manner during conversations with non-player characters. Some extremely vital information can be revealed in otherwise meaningless banter, just like in the world you're immersed in right now. Making a major city that lies not ten miles from your current position something that you have to discover is ridiculous at best and only suits scenarios where you've been teleported into a new reality or you've lost your memory although the latter should be used sparingly as there are already too many games out there that rely on the character having amnesia. Discovery can be implemented in far more subtle ways by having secret areas within already well-known places and it is this that gives a role-player a sense of discovery.

Sure, the idea was novel but it was also very childish because it assumed that these two love interests were so enamoured with the player that neither could do without him. It was worse than watching Baywatch or Desperate Housewives. A real deal breaker for me is the inability to develop the type of character I want. I've encountered this more often than not in games where you have no choice over the skills that you character can develop. Of course, this is the worst scenario and there are many games that allow limited development but there are only a handful of games that allow a real sense of development.

The most annoying of these issues is a game where you can have a spell wielding character but they develop the exact same spells at exactly the same point in every run of the game. It's a little more forgivable for warrior types but even in this case there are many games which allow for dozens of different fighting styles. Non-online computerized games are the only games that allow for full immersion and I'll explain why.