Alien: Isolation & Hand Of Fate 2, Free On Epic

Monday, I still wasn’t over F1 2021 being announced on Friday, and was ready to download Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition for free with #PlayAtHome. Also, Aaron spoke about how Square Enix is not up for sale. I returned Tuesday, Sony did a U-turn, and Taylor spoke about Apex Legends adding a Titanfall hero. Alexx spoke of Before I Forget (free with Prime Gaming this month) coming to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox family of consoles. Later, I spoke of Rockstar’s latest Steam changes. Thursday, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live isn’t required for Fortnite anymore, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles was announced, and RWBY: Grimm Eclipse – Definitive Edition got a new trailer.

Onto what is free on the Epic Games Store this week. I’m very very happy to be talking about being hunted by something with a big black tongue that has its own mouth. I love the Xenomorph, it is such an iconic and unearthly creature from the mind of a man that desperately needed some mental help. Yes, Alien: Isolation is by far the best Alien adaptation (I’m including film sequels for those that are counting), period. That 9ft tall, angry, slimy lizard-like thing is (prepare yourself for this) beautiful.

Ok, yes, she is not as nice as a blonde Australian naked in the sun, but I’ll still have an office-style rom-com relationship with her nonetheless. Have I gotten to the point where I’m referencing myself? Yes! after 750+ articles, you’d do that too. I love how little of the creepy-looking sod we actually see in the best movie (Alien – 1979) and, for the most part, Alien: Isolation keeps it isolated. Nice proper use of a colon Sega, most others can’t do this to save themselves.

Will you actually talk about the game? Yes, you play as Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda, as she crawls through the Nostromo. It is the ship from the first film where her mother encountered the Xenomorph, or titular Alien. You are tasked with trying to recover information that led to Ellen going into three sequels, and why we continued to get them up to 2017. As you roam around the ship, you’ll be attacked by everything that 70s futurism could throw at you: CRT monitors, beige panels on the walls, androids that are dead behind the eyes, and a great big cantankerous fella that wants to eat you.

Hand of Fate 2, the sequel to Mario 64, is a game trying to merge D’n’D with a sprinkling of Magic the Gathering thrown in. Ok, maybe the Mario 64 bit was a joke. It is the type of game where you are going to spend quite a bit of it enjoying the fantasy elements and more or less the same Hand of Fate style of game. The rest of the time you’ll be swearing at a pair of dice for rolling a 1 and a 3. It is a game that, if I were not a dyslexic that is constantly drinking coffee that’s 90% sugar, 6% milk, 2% hot water, and 2% ground up coffee, I’d possibly enjoy.

I’m not opposed to the idea of playing Hand of Fate 2, I am just a very busy man and I know it is the type of game that needs more than 30-90 minutes to enjoy. As I’ve had it described to me by those that do enjoy Hand of Fate 2, the card-based management and mini-game sections are broken up with a Batman-style of combat that lets you beat characters to death with sticks. I think, if I had the time between reviews to write, that is what is selling it to me.

All this week on the Epic Games Store, you can pick up the fantastically scary and wonderful 70s futurism sci-fi of Alien: Isolation. During this time you can also pick up the interesting and time-sink of a game that will be Hand of Fate 2. Both are available all this week until next week, the 29th of April. This is where I get my anger on as next week I’ll not be talking about Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, because that’s already a free game that is purporting to be offering “$100 in value for a limited time.” It’s only $100 in value because you’ve artificially made it that, you gibbons!