Alien: Isolation, Strands of Sorrow, and the Usual Tidbits

This month has been flying by quite fast, which is always a good thing at this time of year. I have never been a big fan of winter – I’m more of a summer type, thus why I will eventually retire in the tropics.

Still, it’s now only three months away from my favorite event, the Calgary Comic and Entertainment expo, although so far there haven’t been any guest announcements that I’m all giddy about.

Not like the 2014 expo, but then again my readers already know that, and any new readers can easily go back through the various logs and find out all about that wonderful event.

This week saw very little in the way of productivity. Mainly I was too busy at work, and even forgot to bring my laptop one day, as I was in such a rush to get out the door!

I finished the last short story for my honorary nephew so I just need the artwork and I can finally get it printed out and give him and his twin sister their very overdue Christmas Gifts.

The Monk Magic item article is all but done, so I just need to write up a few more items and get it sent to my editor. Wait… didn’t I say that last week? Doesn’t matter, it’s a lot of work and I just hope that those who buy it will be happy with the end result.

The crew at Skirmisher have come up with a new project, and it seems to be going over quite well. Even I have gotten into it. We are all going to try and post lists of various items and subjects each week. These lists seem to be very popular and are always excellent at bringing in readers and attention.

So I contributed one myself, and I will do so on Wednesdays from here on in – as long as I can come up with an appropriate list! Last week I contributed my Top 5 zombie apocalypse list for possible RPG games.

I have two more planned out, which I won’t mention the titles here, you’ll just have to wait and see what they are, so at least the next two weeks are covered.

Also I did not pick up any new RPG material this week, and as such I don’t have any reviews or opinions to post about that.

HOWEVER I finally did finish ‘Alien: Isolation’.

Holy shit, what a game!

I’m not easily frightened, especially when it comes to video games or movies. I will not lie, this game scared the living hell out of me more than a few times. It was a perfect blend of atmosphere, lighting and music.

Every time there was a possible encounter, be it with the Alien, human survivors or Androids, you would hear a little beep. When  that happened, it was time to pull out the motion tracker and duck for cover.

This game captured the original movie beautifully. The same overall shape and design of the Nostromo was used to perfection. Tight confines, sharp corners, typically terrible lighting, and the overall claustrophobic feeling of the space-station kept you on your toes at all times.

You could not just walk around either. You had to keep your eyes open and your ears alert. See that liquid dripping from that overhead hatch? Guess what, I wouldn’t go near it if I was you. Hear something heavy running? You better hope you have somewhere to hide or duck behind.

That or that you have the flamer.

The game was damn long too! 18 missions in total and the tension never really let up for more than a minute or two at any time.

God above, I hope there is a sequel!

Also, I finished reading book four of Black Tide Rising: Strands of Sorrow by John Ringo. As I stated in my previous blog, I guess this is the last in the series, maybe just for now, maybe for good. It’s a great zombie series and I absolutely love the humor and the way John Ringo handles logistics and all the niggling details that are pretty much always overlooked in most novels.

I do find the one character, Faith, to be a little annoying, but hey, that’s probably just me.

Still, this is a GREAT zombie series and you can certainly do a lot worse.

Finally I got the last issue in the Terminator: Salvation – Final Battle series by Dark Horse comics.

Dark Horse is typically a miss for me, more often than not. I’ve mentioned the company several times over the year in my previous blogs.

I did not have high hopes for the series. Why did I buy it then, you might ask? Well, J. Michael Straczynski wrote it. Don’t know who he is? He created Babylon 5.

That’s why.

I read it and was very pleased with the maxi-series. It lasted twelve issues. Pretty good combat, and it tied in very nicely with Terminator: Salvation. I have no idea how many people are fans of the movie, but it was very well written.

Much to my surprise. As I said I’ve been burned more often than not when it comes to the movie tie-ins written by Dark Horse scribes.

I’m currently waiting for a four comic crossover series called Fire and Stone to complete. Only one issue left in that series and I’ll give it a read. Again, I don’t have very high hopes but I am really wishing that I will be pleasantly surprised.

And that’s it for this week.

January is more than half finished, that means that the worst of the weather is just about behind us. Yay!

Stay warm, happy and until next week, Peace!

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook  Creatures of the Tropical Wastes  sourcebook, co-author of its  Wisdom from the Wastelands  game supplement and contributor to the  'Sword of Kos: Hekaton'  Anthology.