In case you missed it first time around, Creative Assembly's classic space horror Alien: Isolation will once again be free on the Epic Games Store next Thursday, 22nd April, with entertaining deck-building RPG Hand of Fate 2 bringing up the rear.

Alien: Isolation originally released back in 2014, offering up a delectable slice of claustrophobic first-person horror that follows Amanda Ripley's attempts to track down her considerably more famous mum, Ellen - portrayed by Sigourney Weaver in the movies.

Soon enough, that journey takes Amanda aboard the starship Sevastopol where, would you believe it, a deadly Xenomorph is on the prowl.

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As expected, Alien: Isolation is the next free game on the Epic Games Store.

Epic's free Holiday Sale 2020 games list leaked last week, and it's all played out as accurate so far. The leak said Alien: Isolation would be today's free game and that's an affirmative, soldier.

Alien: Isolation is free to claim until from now until 4pm tomorrow, 23rd December, when if the leak continues to prove accurate, Metro 2033 goes free.

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Sir Ian Holm has passed away, aged 88. The legendary British actor had been living with Parkinson's disease for several years.

Holm's contribution to video games was small, though anyone playing Alien: Isolation would have encountered Holm's likeness as Ash.

While Holm did not contribute new voice lines to Alien Isolation, he previously appeared in video game versions of some of his other famous roles - as priest Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element video game, and chef Skinner in the game version of Disney's Ratatouille.

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In just two weeks time we'll all be able to terrify ourselves running away from Xenomorphs on the Switch, as Alien: Isolation gets a December release date on the Nintendo console.

As spotted on Nintendo website and in today's new trailer below, the game will be available for the Switch from 5th December, and will feature gyroscopic aiming and HD Rumble.

If you've never played Alien: Isolation (and you really should because it's great), the game is inspired by Ridley Scott's Alien. It follows Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley's daughter, as she attempts to discover what fate befell her mother.

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As if Alien: Isolation isn't scary enough, modder Matt Filer has gone out of his way to make it even more terrifying by importing multiple Xenomorphs into certain levels of the game.

Appropriately named Aliens: Isolation, Filer uploaded a video of the mod showing eight xenomorphs pacing around a tight corridor, before eventually one of them spots him and - well, you can guess what happens next.

For most people, one Xenomorph is too many Xenomorphs, yet Filer says there are some players who still wanted more of a challenge, so this mod is for them.

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I popped into London's Barbican Centre last week to see the new exhibition about artificial intelligence - AI: More than Human, it's called. I considered myself peak target audience, not because I've read a couple of Isaac Asimov stories and not because I've seen Deus Ex: Machina, although that was a good film - Poe was great wasn't he? It's not because I'm a particular AI geek at all. It's because of video games.

We hear about AI in the games world all the time. Every year, it seems like we're being promised the most realistic villagers ever, or the cleverest footballing opponents, or the most aggressive baddies with guns. "They will learn and adapt to your style of play!" God, how many times have we heard that? So when I walked into the Barbican exhibition, I expected video games to be everywhere.

And I looked. And I looked. But I couldn't find them.

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Here's an odd one: Alien: Isolation's cutscenes are now an official digital series.

20th Century fox has taken the cutscnes from Creative Assembly's superb 2014 stealth horror game, added to them and packaged them into a seven episode digital series that kicks off today on IGN.

Spliced together are cinematics taken from the game, first-person scenes from the game that were re-shot and edited for the series, and new scenes.

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Microsoft's catalogue of games available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers grows ever stronger this month with the addition of some genuinely top-drawer titles such as Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, as well as Alien Isolation.

Rocksteady's first two Arkham adventures are quite possibly the best superhero games ever made, and they're both included in the Batman: Return to Arkham collection which arrives on Game Pass tomorrow, 21st February.

Joining them is the retro-futuristic Metroidvania Headlander, and the enjoyable Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.

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More Alien games are in the works, Fox has said as it battles a backlash sparked by the announcement of a new mobile game based on the franchise.

This week, FoxNext Games, the part of Fox that's hoping to make a splash in the world of video games, announced Alien: Blackout, a mobile game starring Amanda Ripley.

Blackout faced a negative reaction from many Alien fans who had hoped for a big budget, triple-A Alien video game reveal. It didn't help that Fox had teased the announcement of a new game starring Amanda Ripley, who was the protagonist of Creative Assembly's much-loved stealth game Alien Isolation. This led some to suspect the announcement of Alien Isolation 2 - despite that being very unlikely indeed, at least from Creative Assembly.

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It's easy to underestimate the humble door. You open it, you go through. Sometimes, you must find the key first, and for many games, that's the whole extent of the player's interactions with doors. They're something to get past, something that cordons off one bit from the next bit. A simple structural element, of special interest to level designers, but not the ones who turn the knobs.

And yet, the fundamental nature of doors that makes them seem so mundane also imbues them with a kind of magic. How do I open it? And what could be behind it? A good door is a locus of challenge and mystery; mystery that could give way to delight, wonder, or even a good scare. A good door is a teasing paradox that does everything in its power to entice and invite, but also puts up a decent effort to keep you out, at least long enough to intrigue and fire up your imagination.

Some games highlight the versatility of doors by turning them into especially dense knots in the possibility space. In games like Thief, Dishonored, Prey, Deus Ex or Darkwood, doors can be lockpicked, hacked, blown to bits or cleverly circumvented. In emergencies, they can be barricaded, blocked by heavy objects or even taken off the electric grid. For the tactically minded, they can serve as choke points to lure enemies into traps or ambushes, while the patient can use keyholes to spy on the unsuspecting, or simply get close enough to a door to eavesdrop on an important conversation.

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