Games

Ridley Scott's new movie Prometheus has won a fair amount of critical acclaim (though a more mixed general reception) and an impressive opening week's worth of money, but it's also left a lot of people pondering over the precise relationship between the movie and Alien , to which it acts as a sort-of prequel. Through careful research (i.e. googling interviews) the following clarifications can be made: NOTE: MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR PROMETHEUS , ALIEN AND ALIENS . An Engineer ship crash-landing on the surface of LV-223 in 2093. Time and Date Prometheus opens in 2089 with the discovery of a cave painting in Scotland which points the way to the Engineer base. The ship arrives at this location in the final week of 2093, with the final moments of the film taking place on New Year's Day, 2094. No date is given in Alien for the action, save that it happens in the 22nd Century (due to the presence of a crew uniform patch that says, 'Flag of the United Americas 2104 to pres...

2089. During an archaeological dig on the Isle of Skye, scientists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover cave paintings from tens of thousands of years ago, prominently showing a star pattern in the sky. This same pattern can be found in cave paintings, stone carvings and other artifacts from ancient civilisations that never had any connection with one another. Shaw and Holloway, who believe that humanity was created by another species, convince Peter Weyland, one of the richest people in the world, to fund an expedition to the star system indicated by the pattern. Christmas, 2093. The interstellar exploration vessel Prometheus arrives at LV-223, a moon circling a giant ringed planet. The crew discover a series of vast, artificial structures and begin an exploration, hoping to find evidence of humanity's creators. Initial findings suggest that the inhabitants of the planet are long dead...until the deaths begin. Prometheus is a quasi-prequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 clas...

Here's the new, full trailer for Ridley Scott's Alien quasi-prequel Prometheus . Looks impressive. The film launches on 8 June.

A new full-length trailer has been unveiled for Ridley Scott's Alien quasi-prequel Prometheus : The movie hits cinemas on 8 June.

A new trailer for Aliens: Colonial Marines has been released. This trailer showcases the gameplay rather than the CGI of the previous trailer. The trailer also reveals more info about the plot, confirming that the game is a sequel to Aliens . Remember in the movie how there was much discussion about the back-up team that would be sent once the Sulaco marines were declared overdue? Yeah, the game's about those guys, who are sent on the USS Sephora to take care of the situation once and for all. Needless to say, this doesn't work out as planned and, after a fierce firefight with aliens on the Sulaco, they end up marooned back on LV-426 (which seems curiously intact despite the atmosphere processor's nuclear detonation; maybe that's some other installation on the other side of the planet?). Mayhem results. The game, written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle (noted for their work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the new Battlestar Galactica ) is due for release on PC, P...

Aliens: Colonial Marines has been delayed until the autumn. But to compensate (at least a little) Gearbox have released a new trailer for the game. No gameplay, but some nice CGI and great use of the Clint Mansell soundtrack from the film Moon . The game is a direct sequel to the movie Aliens . It focuses on the recovery of the Sulaco (the ship used by Ripley and the marines in that film to get to LV-426 and subsequently escape) by a rescue team of colonial marines, who then backtrack the ship's course to LV-426 and subsequently learn the fate of the planet after its nuking in the movie. Established characters are not expected to appear (since they bailed out of the Sulaco at the start of Alien 3 ). The Aliens universe will also be explored this July in Ridley Scott's new film Prometheus , set before the events of the original Alien .

Since it's that time of year when we are inundated with new movie trailers, here's another one. This is the trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus . Due for release on 8 June 2012, there's been a great deal of confusion over the relationship between Prometheus and Alien . Originally it was a straight-up prequel, but Scott and co-writer Damon Lindelof (of Lost fame) have tried to put some distance between the two projects, suggesting they take place in the same universe but little more than that. From the trailer, that's obviously 'a mild understatement'. Much of the film appears to involve the crashed alien spaceship from LV-426 (and we may even see that crash in the trailer), the 'space jockey' aliens play a role, the Prometheus logo is pretty much identical to the Alien one and, most tellingly, the trailer bears an uncanny resemblance to the original Alien teaser , even using some of the same sound effects. So yeah, Alien prequel, totally. And ...