Top Story
Prequel novel based on Cold Iron Studios’ upcoming Alien MMO
Titan Books has announced a new Alien novel that will serve as the prequel to Cold Iron Studios’ upcoming MMO shooter. Alien: Infiltrator will focus on Dr. Timothy Hoenikker, who travels to Pala Station in search for alien artifacts. As you might expect, he soon finds himself in the middle of a xenomorph outbreak.
Written by Weston Ochse – who has authored licensed fiction for franchises like Hellboy, Predator and The X-Files – the paperback edition of the novel is already listed on Amazon US, and should be available on July 28th next year.
Cold Iron Studios have been working on an Alien MMO shooter since they were acquired by FoxNext in 2018. Not much has been revealed about the game, except it is targeting PC and consoles. Cold Iron Studios are continually bulking up their team with concept artists, world builders and other roles, which suggest that the game is far from done.
If the prequel is scheduled for next summer, it’s safe to assume the game is even farther away. Cold Iron Studios has yet to release any games, but it is home to a number of industry veterans from projects like Doom and BioShock Infinite, so there’s reason to hope they will do the Alien saga justice.
Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?
What is the only id Software game NOT to receive a direct story sequel?
- Wolfenstein 3D
- Doom
- Quake
- Rage
The answer will be revealed at the end of this issue!
News Bits
BioWare to join in on Dragon 4ge Day
BioWare has revealed that they join fans in celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Dragon Age along at Dragon 4ge Day on December 4th. The fan-organized event has not been affiliated with BioWare before, and now there is speculation that BioWare might take the opportunity to announce more news about Dragon Age 4 during the event. In any case, the event will host live streams, fan art competitions and generally bring the community together.
Planet Zoo Review Roundup
Planet Zoo was released today, and seems to have made a good impression on critics with a metacritic score of 82. Here’s what some of them have to say:
Gaming Trend (Score 9/10) – “Planet Zoo is the culmination of the best parts of Frontier’s previous efforts, but is far more than the sum of its parts. Hundreds of creatures, both cute and deadly, need homes, and it’s up to you to help them thrive and survive. While a few bugs hamper the overall experience, this is another simulation game that’ll keep me building sprawling and ever evolving parks for hundreds of hours to come.”
Destructoid (Score 8.5/10) – “Even with occasional design quirks and bugs holding it back, I adore this game as is. Similar to Planet Coaster, I think it’ll get better over time, and Frontier will surely flesh out the species list with DLC packs. But even if that doesn’t happen, I’ll be satisfied. Some of us have been waiting decades for a game like Planet Zoo to come along and scratch our Zoo Tycoon itch. Now that it’s here, I can’t get enough.”
GamesRadar+ (Score 8/10) – “Planet Zoo is a complex, deep simulation game with too much to give, if you can get past the minimalist tutorials.”
PCGamesN (Score 8/10) – “Frontier delivers a richly detailed and visually glorious zoo creation sim for genre fans, newbies, and animal lovers alike, bloated only a little by a few clumsy interfacing points.”
PC Gamer (Score 75/100) – “Another strong (yet stressful) management sim from Frontier Developments.”
Daily Fact
The true telling of the last Indiana Jones has never been released
We’re big Indiana Jones fans here at DailyBits and the upcoming Alien tie-in novel reminded us of a missing Indiana Jones adventure. The original Indiana Jones games – Fate of Atlantis, Infernal Machine and Emperor’s Tomb – have always had fun stories, and Staff of Kings looked set to carry on the torch.
Unfortunately, LucasArts cancelled the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, and decided to target PlayStation 2 and Wii instead – with dire results.
The downgraded games didn’t exactly do the material justice, which is a shame since it had the makings of a classic Indy adventure: A biblical artifact of immense power hunted by the Nazis. They even had more than one opportunity to tell the story properly: Rob McGregor – who wrote many Indiana Jones stories – was supposed to deliver a tie-in novel, but it was cancelled alongside the AAA version of the game.
Despite being completed and ready to publish, it didn’t even see an eBook release. In other words, Indy’s hunt for the Staff of Moses is lost forever – or at least until some courageous archaeologist uncovers it sometime in the future.