Isolate News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Slay the Princess begins with a simple scenario: There is a princess chained to a wall in the basement of an isolated cabin. You need to murder her (hence the name of the game) or the world will end.

The World of Warcraft Avaloren expansion might have leaked ahead of an official announcement at this year's BlizzCon event next week.

Darkness falls upon the land earlier during this time of the year, giving you a little more time with each passing day to enjoy spooky video games with a suitably dim, moody setting. If you need some activities to fright and delight you, check out Steam’s Scream sale that discounts tons of games — some of which aren’t so scary, actually. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is 40% off, of all games.

Occasionally, I’ll try a “weird controller” challenge: I mean, playing things with a DDR mat is just a fun idea. But have you ever considered beating Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom bosses with an ocarina?

Katsuki Bakugo is currently one of the most powerful characters to play in My Hero Ultra Rumble. With his move set nimble and far-reaching from the anime to the manga, it’s no wonder he’s the most attack-heavy and mobile in the battle royale.

With about a week and a half until BlizzCon 2023 announces the future of Blizzard games, a new leak may have already revealed the next World of Warcraft expansion!Warning: leaks, rumors, speculation, and what may not be real spoilers abound!

Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability in Apple products that can be abused to force the Safari browser to leak a user’s login credentials and other sensitive data to a hacker.

Oregon State University (OSU) is home to quite a few food delivery robots from Starship Technologies, which ferry meals to hungry students. This week, however, deliveries were halted after a bomb threat, and one person has now been arrested for the hoax.

As zombie-slaying specialists, we reserve the right to rank some of the best slayers in the world of Dead Island 2. With the Haus DLC inching ever closer, here’s a list of characters you should be leveling in preparation.

Thomas the Tank Engine has become a gaming mod staple, having appeared in everything from Elden Ring to Skyrim over the years. Remarkably, though, the dread train has never appeared in Alien Isolation, the now-classic horror game built around the conceit of being stalked by a Xenomorph. At least until now.

When it comes to the topic of the best horror games of the last PlayStation era, Alien: Isolation typically ranks high. And why wouldn’t it? With its terrifying atmosphere, deadly antagonist, and choo-choo train, its horror is as memorable as it is intense.

What's scarier than a 10-foot tall, indestructible Xenomorph lurking about and stalking you to your death? Yes, you guessed it — Thomas the Tank Engine.

Regions play a big part of defining the series, but the games don't always do a perfect job of rendering their settings in a way that makes sense. Earlier titles all featured regions based on areas of Japan, while later entries have taken on a number of other cultural inspirations. Although the prevailing influence of one real-world environment can always be felt in a region, certain elements can feel anatopic in a way that ultimately doesn't make complete sense.

Habbo, formerly known as Habbo Hotel, went all-in on the Web3 nonsense in 2021 with the announcement of the Habbo NFT project in 2021. Its first offerings were Habbo Avatars, which quickly sold out 10,000 randomly generated NFT avatars, before moving on to NFT furniture and other cosmetics.

PlayStation is rolling out its PS Plus Extra and Premium tier offerings for October today, and the list includes several spooky games, befitting the season. These include Alien: Isolation and Outlast 2, though the headliner is the less-spooky Gotham Knights. All of the games roll out on the service today, so that users can get started on getting their scares on before Halloween.

October 2023’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue and Classics titles have been made available to subscribers.

It appears that the new iPhone 15 Pro series is having a hard time finding stable ground for itself. The new phones have been subjected to a lot of issues ever since they hit the selves, including problems with the phone's structural integrity, as well as issues with the titanium finishing on the phones, to the phones heating up a lot. Now, another issue has popped up, which is just as severe, if not more, than the issues that we have reported in the past, and this time, iPhone 15 Pro Max users are reporting screen burn-in issues.

Doom is the gift that keeps on giving. Between Doom Eternal and the 2016 reboot, id Software’s epochal PC shooter feels just as alive as ever, but even the 1993 original is still thrilling and thriving in equal measure, as total conversion Doom mods provide a steady stream of nostalgic but modernized boomer shooters. Now it’s the turn of FEAR, the terrific, bullet-time horror FPS from Shadows of Mordor and Blood creator Monolith, to get the unofficial, spiritual successor treatment. Also incorporating the claustrophobic horror style of Aliens, it feels like we just got a brand-new FEAR game, courtesy of an enormous and stunning Doom total conversion.

The AirTags were originally launched to help keep track of your items or expensive belongings if they ever got lost, misplaced, or stolen, but thanks to Apple’s vast Find My network, these devices have been included in a number of nefarious activities. Though Apple has done its best to implement anti-stalking countermeasures, it has not prevented three victims from filing a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming that these trackers are the weapon of choice for stalkers and abusers.

October 2023's PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium games have been officially announced. We already knew about a chunk of this selection thanks to a leak earlier this week, but as is usually the case with Extra in particular, there are a bunch of titles that weren't mentioned.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) published a report this week detailing the benefits gamers report around the world. The Power of Play 2023 Global Report collects findings from global surveys as well as several academic studies to detail the positive benefits to gamers around the world. The report’s findings show that gamers near-universally find gaming to have positive effects on their life, including reducing stress, assisting with feelings of isolation and helping them have fun.

The oft-overlooked Alien: Isolation mobile follow-up, Alien: Blackout, is being pulled from mobile storefronts as the devs face a «hard decision» about the future of the game.

Alien: Blackout, the Amanda Ripley-starring survival horror that launched on mobile back in 2019, is being delisted from the iOS App Store and Google Play on 31st October.

How about a little something to lower your spirits? FoxNext have announced that they're delisting or, ugh, "sunsetting" 505 Go's Alien: Blackout, the surprisingly solid mobile and tablet horror game you could summarise as Five Nights at Freddy's, if Freddy's were a subsidiary of Weyland-Yutani. You've got until 31st October to play it, after which all development and support for Blackout will cease and the game will no longer be available to buy.

Alien: Blackout, the mobile spiritual successor to Alien Isolation, is being delisted.

Bungie has apologized for mistakenly banning some Destiny 2 players and will compensate those affected by giving away premium in-game currency.

A common refrain from gamers caught cheating online is that they've been falsely convicted of a crime they didn't commit. It's hard to know who's telling the truth and who's just lying, because of course you'd lie if you were caught cheating. When we're lucky, the lies are exposed in a dramatic, extremely funny fashion. But sometimes the accused are telling the truth, and so it is that Bungie is now forking over 5,000 Silver to «a small number» of Destiny 2 players who were banned from the game for cheating, even though they weren't.

Hold onto your subscriptions because Sony has revealed the games coming to PlayStation Plus on October 17. This set involves a bunch of horror games, just in time for Hallowe’en. It’s definitely not a bad mix, but the Classic Catalog line-up is anemic, as usual. On the other hand, I’m surprised by one particular game’s inclusion.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has confirmed October 2023’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue and Classics titles.

Sony has officially confirmed the selection of games being added to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium this month. Those subscribers at Extra-tier will be able to dive into a number of games well-suited to Halloween. 

Forgive the surprise, but 80s action movies haven't typically made for the smoothest transitions to modern video games. Predator had Predator: Hunting Grounds, for instance, "a naff waste of great material". Terminator had Terminator: Resistance — "generic and boring". The infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines was admittedly followed by Alien Isolation and the enjoyable enough, fun-flamethrowing-with-friends of Aliens: Fireteam Elite, but still. When RoboCop: Rogue City was announced and subsequently delayed back in 2021 by Polish developer Teyon — the studio behind Terminator: Resistance and its sumptuously awkward first-person sex scene, no less — I can't, personally, say I was too optimistic.

A year after unveiling the co-development studio Calypte, Virtuos Studios has shut it down.

A short while after being made available as part of Xbox Game Pass, Gotham Knights looks set to make its arrival on Sony's subscription service, along with some suitably scary offerings for October.

The PS Plus Extra October 2023 games have seemingly been leaked ahead of an official announcement from Sony once again.

In Cyberpunk 2077, there are few problems that can’t be solved with either a bullet, a blade, or a colorfully worded variation of “F you.” In Phantom Liberty, the first and only expansion for the game, developer CD Projekt Red throws a curveball at the player in the form of an optional final mission that channels inspiration from one of the greatest survival-horror games of the eighth console generation.

Starfield watches included in the collector's edition are already breaking, according to some fans online. One buyer shares their experience dealing with customer service to amend the issue, saying that none of the suggestions have worked, and they have not been offered a replacement or refund so far.

Horror isn't for everyone, and gamers that would rather sit back and get engrossed in a story rather than scare the living daylights out of themselves usually spring for an RPG like Skyrim or Cyberpunk 2077. However, game developers like to mix things up every now and then, bringing certain elements of the horror genre into their RPGs for a one-off spooky mission that has everyone just wanting to chill out with an RPG cowering behind their cushions.

From carefully planning out your kills to sneaking across a heavily guarded area, stealth games continue to flourish the market. In this list we’re looking at some of our personal favorite stealth video games to have released on the Microsoft Xbox One platform. In the list you’ll find classic franchise installments such as Metal Gear and science fiction settings such as Alien: Isolation. We’re always on the lookout for new stealth titles so we’ll continue to update this list in the future.

Hyenas from Creative Assembly was reportedly Sega's most expensive game to date before it was cancelled.

New alleged details on the development of Sega and Creative Assembly’s cancelled live service shooter Hyenas have been published, including claims that it was Sega’s biggest budget game ever before the company pulled the plug.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty isn't a horror game, which is precisely why one uncharacteristically terrifying mission is catching so many unsuspecting players off guard.

Even in an historic year for RPGs, I'm still damn thirsty for more updates to Dread Delusion, an indie RPG set on the cursed asteroids orbiting a small red star. As part of the Realms Deep 2023 showcase, DreadXP revealed a first look at the game's Clockwork Kingdom coming later this fall.

When the day is done and you're all out of spell slots, there's nothing like a long rest with your Baldur's Gate 3 party. Typically, this is a good chance for the story to progress too, as your companions often get unique cutscenes before you head off to bed. However, if you're all caught up on them, you're instead greeted by a shot of your party members all tucked into their bedrolls, snoring away.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max overheating issues were already in circulation, with some users complaining that both flagships were either too hot to hold or just felt warm to the touch. However, none of them encountered any swollen battery problems until today, when a Redditor posted an image of the handset showing a bulge that slightly separated the bottom display assembly.

Counter-Strike 2 has finally made it to public release, and while there have been reports of some issues with entry fragging being too prevalent and even support on Valve’s own Steam Deck being underwhelming, it has largely been a smooth launch. However, one feature that some gamers might be surprised to see omitted from the game is DLSS. The exact reason for the lack of Counter-Strike 2 DLSS support is something we’re still awaiting official word of from Valve, but we can certainly speculate on one very good reason why Valve wouldn’t have bothered implementing it.

Hyenas was the next release from the British studio Creative Assembly. Unfortunately, it’s recently been confirmed by publisher Sega that the project – along with some others – has ceased development.

Campfire, which makes 3D collaboration tools for virtual reality, announced its platform for enterprises will debut on the Meta Quest 3.

Warning! Spoilers ahead!

Hulu’s original science fiction movie No One Will Save You is an effective, creepy, and at times repulsive thriller, but it’s also openly positioned as a discussion-starter. Isolated small-town loner Brynn (Booksmartstar ​​Kaitlyn Dever) encounters aliens, which she alternately fights and flees. Her situation keeps changing in ways that are sometimes hard to interpret, especially since there’s virtually no intelligible dialogue in the entire movie.

Stephen King is a big fan of No One Will Save You, the new sci-fi horror movie that just quietly dropped on Disney Plus in the UK and Hulu in the US. Starring Booksmart's Kaitlyn Dever, in a practically dialogue-free role, the film sees an isolated young woman tasked with surviving the night when her home comes under the attack of evil extraterrestrials.

Amirdrassil is the new World Tree currently growing within the Emerald Dream, and the location for the main raid for Patch 10.2. A spell in 10.2's data hints at something quite significant about this tree's future. Warning: Potential spoilers ahead

Blizzard responded to more Demon Hunter and trinket feedback over the weekend in Patch 10.2!

This has genuinely got to be one of the more baffling bugs I've seen in Starfield. It all starts with a few isolated incidents of players being followed by their own pet rocks—asteroids somehow bound to their ships. Here's a couple of examples from Reddit users ReverendRoo and Ultimastar.

Destiny 2 players are continuing to experience difficulties this weekend, with some players reporting issues with redeeming bounties, unresponsive doors, and a bizarre issue that sees the usually combative foes decline to engage on the battlefield.

Earlier today, I reported that The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki was finally getting an English localization. Titled Trails through Daybreak, I picked out a talking point from the NISA announcement stream that Trails through Daybreak would be the start of a new story arc, and therefore serve as a decent entry point for new fans. Little did I know that I stepped on a landmine with this comment.