title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: For the 1977 model year, the full-sized Pontiacs received the same "downsizing" as GM's other "B" body cars. The new Bonnevilles and Catalinas continued to be best-sellers, although their styling similarity to the Chevrolet Caprice was seen by some buyers as a "cheapening" of Pontiac's image. In 1981, the full-size Bonneville was discontinued, and the name was reassigned to the "A" body intermediate platform. That left the Catalina as the only big Pontiac, further reducing sales as buyers went for more plushness.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The remainder of the 1970s and the early 1980s saw the continued rise of luxury, safety, and economy as the key selling points in Pontiac products. Wire-spoked wheel covers returned for the first time since the 1930s. More station wagons than ever were being offered. Padded vinyl roofs were options on almost every model. Rear-wheel drive began its slow demise with the introduction of the first front-wheel drive Pontiac, the 1980 Phoenix (a version of the Chevrolet Citation).


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The Firebird was successfully marketed by product placement in the 'Smokey and the Bandit' film and The Rockford Files TV show. The Firebird was available with Formula and Trans Am packages, plus a Pontiac first- a turbocharged V8, for the 1980 and 1981 model years.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Introduced in 1982, the wedge-shaped Firebird was the first major redesign of the pony car since 1970. Embedded marketing in the television series Knight Rider was successful. Pontiac introduced more performance-oriented models over the next decade. The Trans Am also set a production aerodynamic mark of .32 cd. A convertible body style was reintroduced after nine years. GM adapted the J-body cars and the all-new 1982 J2000 (later renamed Sunbird) had a convertible as part of its line.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The 1984 Fiero was a major departure from anything Pontiac had produced in the past. A two-seat, mid-engined coupe. The Fiero was partially responsible for Pontiac seeing its first increase in sales in four years. Pontiac also began to focus on technology. In 1984, a Special Touring Edition (STE) was added to the 6000 line as a competitor to European road cars such as the Mercedes 190. The STE sported digital instruments and other electronics as well as a more powerful V6 and retuned suspension. Later iterations would see some of the first introductions on Pontiacs of anti-lock brakes, steering wheel-mounted radio controls, and other features.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Full-size buyers, disappointed by the lack of an available big Bonneville, complained, resulting in Pontiac's importing the Canadian market Pontiac Parisienne, which featured the Bonneville's deluxe trim. This car, although a Pontiac in name, was no more than a slightly re-trimmed Caprice. Despite this fact, the Parisienne sold in profitable numbers and this car continued in production until 1986 for the sedan, and 1989 for the Safari station wagon.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: With the exception of the Parisienne Safari, the Firebird, and Fiero, beginning in 1988 all Pontiacs, with the exception of the Firebird, switched to front-wheel drive platforms. For the first time since 1970, Pontiac was the number three domestic car maker in America. The median age of Pontiac owners dropped from 46 in 1981 to 38 in 1988.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Pontiacs introduction included anti-lock brakes, GM's Quad-4 engine, airbags, and composite materials.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Safari station wagon production ended in 1989, the last V8-powered full-sized, rear-wheel drive Pontiac until the 2009 G8. The 1990 model year saw the launch of Pontiac's first minivan and light truck, the Trans Sport. In addition, the Grand Prix line added its first-ever 4-door model, offered in LE and STE trims. At the end of the 1991 model year, the 6000 was discontinued in favor of the newly expanded Grand Prix lineup and the new Trans Sport minivan, which replaced the 6000 station wagon.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: In 1992, a brand-new Bonneville was introduced. This full-size model featured aerodynamic styling, large expanses of curved glass, front-wheel drive, and the 3800 Series I V6 as standard equipment. A new sub-model, the SSEi, was introduced in 1992 carrying all standard equipment from the SSE model, plus the 205 hp supercharged 3800 V6. For 1993, the Bonneville added a new option package (H4U) called the Sport Luxury Edition (SLE), which was available on the SE model. This package included leather bucket seats, specific grille, side trim, exhaust, dash trim, lace alloy wheels, as well as a spoiler, sport handling suspension systems, and anti-lock brakes.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: An all-new Firebird was introduced in 1993. It was powered by either a 3.4 L V6 with , or in Trans Am guise a LT-1, a V8, and could be backed by a T-56 six-speed manual. The Sunbird was replaced with the (still J-body) Sunfire in 1995. While a V6 engine was no longer available in the J-car, sedan, coupe, and convertible body styles did survive. For 1996 the Bonneville received updated front and rear fascias along with several other enhancements. The 3800 Series II V6 had become standard in 1995, featuring 205 hp. The updated supercharged 3800 Series II now featured 240 hp.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: 1996 was the last year for the 5th-generation Grand Prix. The Grand Prix debuted in 1997 with the "Wider is Better" advertising campaign. The GTP trim level was added to the Grand Prix. It featured a supercharged 3.8 L V6 rated at and of torque. One design highlight of this generation Grand Prix is the sharing of the roof's sheet metal between both coupe and sedan models.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: In 1998 the Firebird was updated. The TransAm received the LS-1 motor which produced . The WS6 option saw this number increase to and the addition of Ram Air and stiffer springs. The 1999 model year saw the replacement of the Trans Sport with the larger Montana minivan.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: In 2000, the Bonneville got its first major redesign since 1992 and was based on the G-Body, shared with the Oldsmobile Aurora and Buick LeSabre. In 2001 Pontiac introduced the polarizing proto-crossover Aztek. In 2002, both the Firebird/Trans Am and Camaro were discontinued as a result of declining sales and a saturated sports market. The coupe version of the Grand Prix was also discontinued. The 2003 Vibe arrived in spring 2002, a Toyota-based compact wagon built at the NUMMI joint-venture plant. Also, in 2003, it was announced that the Grand Prix would be in the last year of its generation, with an improved 7th generation on the way for 2004. It would also be Pontiac's final year in NASCAR. Pontiac's final victory in the NASCAR Cup Series would be achieved by Ricky Craven in one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history, with David Green scoring their last second-tier series win at the Mr. Goodcents 300 at Kansas Speedway. A few surplus Pontiacs continued running in the Busch Series through 2006, in the ARCA Racing Series through 2008, with factory support in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series from 2007 to 2009, and in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour as late as 2019, nine years after the marquee went defunct; Pontiac cars can still be found in local and regional stock car leagues.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: 2004 saw the reintroduction of the Pontiac GTO (based on the Australian-developed Holden Monaro). The GTO was also initially powered by the 350 HP LS-1 V8 in its first model year. It had an independent front and rear suspension and an upscale full leather interior. Sales did not reach the 18,000 units that GM predicted. The LS1 engine was retired in 2004. Pontiac added the drive-by-wire 400 HP LS2 V8 for the 2005 and 2006 model years at no additional cost. Additional upgrades also consisted of stainless steel dual exhaust outlets, larger Corvette-sourced PBR brakes with EBD, larger front vented rotors with vented rear rotors, and functional heat extractor hood scoops. The Bonneville introduced the GXP trim level to replace the SSEi. The Bonneville GXP featured a 4.6 Northstar V8, borrowed from Cadillac, and replaced the Supercharged 3800 Series II. The redesigned Grand Prix made its appearance and featured a GT and GTP trim level. The GTP's new 3.8 L supercharged V6 now made , up 20 from the previous generation. TAPshift was also introduced as well as a Competition Group package (Comp G).


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: With the discontinuation of Oldsmobile in 2004, Pontiac went through a complete product revamping through this period. The Grand Am was replaced with the mid-size G6 in 2005. The Grand Am was produced for the 2005 model year to fill the gap until the new G6 coupe and convertible became available for that model year. The Bonneville ended production in 2005 after nearly 50 years of production. Although it was not directly replaced, the RWD G8 introduced for the 2008 model year did fill some of the market voids. The Solstice concept shown in 2002 was approved for production as a roadster (2006-2009) and, for a few months, a total of 1,266 coupes (2009) were built in Wilmington, DE before the end of Pontiac. In contrast, over 64,000 Solstice Convertibles were manufactured on that same line. The controversial and slow-selling Aztek was finally phased out and replaced by the Torrent, which was identical to the Chevrolet Equinox.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: In 2005 the Sunfire was discontinued and replaced by the new Pontiac Pursuit (later named G5 for the American market). Initially, Pontiac did not plan on offering the G5 in the United States, however, dealer pressure to fill the gap left by the discontinuation of the Sunfire caused Pontiac to introduce only the coupe variation into the U.S. The 4-door sedan version was available in Canada as the Pursuit throughout the model run. The high-performance GXP trim was introduced in the Grand Prix line in 2005, adding GM's LS4 V8 engine that produced 303 horsepower and 323 lb. ft. of torque. This engine was built to give buyers a V8 sedan option until the all-new G8 arrived in 2008. In 2008, the Grand Prix ended production, and the launch of the Australian-built RWD G8 commenced. The G8 gained positive reception for its high performance and low costs. Many noted the G8 as the poor man's BMW M5, due to its similar performance at a much cheaper price. The G8 GXP was the most powerful production car Pontiac had ever built, and is widely regarded as the best driver's car ever to wear the Pontiac badge. The Holden Ute was scheduled to be launched as the G8 ST before it was canceled in January 2009 due to GM's financial situation. It was later announced that the G8 may not see a second generation. Towards the end of the decade, many rumors began spreading that Pontiac would become completely reliant on RWD. Reports ranged from a compact sedan based on the Alpha platform to a new RWD G6 for the 2013 model year. Many reports suggested that the Trans Am/Firebird would return after GM confirmed the rebirth of the Camaro, however, no reports confirmed this.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: On December 2, 2008, General Motors announced that it was considering eliminating numerous brands, including Pontiac, in order to appease Congress in hope of receiving a $25 billion loan. On February 17, 2009, GM proposed the sale or elimination of its Saturn division, the sale of Saab, and either the sale or elimination of Hummer, depending on whether a buyer could be found quickly. GM clarified that Pontiac would have begun to focus on "niche" models aimed at the "youthful and sporty" segment, but did not provide specifics. Pontiac was to trim its number of models to four, although there was talk of retaining only one model. By April 2009 several automotive websites and business publications were reporting that GM was doing a study suggesting it might eliminate the brand altogether, along with sister truck brand GMC. On April 23 a report was published stating the company would be dropping the Pontiac brand while preserving the GMC truck line, and the Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Buick brands. The decision to dissolve Pontiac was made primarily due to the increasing threat of a bankruptcy filing if the June 1 deadline could not be met. On April 27, 2009, GM announced that Pontiac would be dropped and that all of its remaining models would be phased out by the end of 2010. Though both production and franchise agreements ended in 2010, Pontiac remains a registered and active trademark of GM for licensing purposes.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: General Motors would eliminate an additional 7,000 to 8,000 factory jobs in the United States and shed 2,600 dealers by 2010 under a revised business plan. GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said the Pontiac brand would be closed by 2010, calling it an “extremely personal decision”. In addition to speeding up decisions on Saturn, Saab, and Hummer, GM would be left with four brands—Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: In early May 2009, Jim Waldron, a Davison, Michigan, Pontiac dealer, announced that he was interested in purchasing the Pontiac brand and logos and had found financing to purchase them and some soon-to-be shuttered GM plants in order to build cars. However, GM had already decided to retire the brand as it has begun to sell off its remaining inventory and said that, unlike Saturn, Hummer, and Saab, Pontiac was not for sale.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The Pontiac brand was pulled after the 2009 model year in Mexico and the brand was renamed Matiz, selling only one vehicle, the Matiz G2 (Matiz's logo is similar to Pontiac's).


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The last Pontiac, a white 2010 model year G6 4-door sedan, was built at the Orion Township Assembly Line in January 2010.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Pontiac was one of three brands General Motors eliminated in 2010; the other two being Hummer and Saturn.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: A Native American headdress was used as a logo until 1956. This was updated to the Native American red arrowhead design for 1957 in all usage except the high-beam indicator lamp, which retained the original logo through 1970. The arrowhead logo is also known as the Dart.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Besides the logo, another identifying feature of Pontiacs was their "Silver Streaks"—one or more narrow strips of stainless steel which extended from the grille down the center of the hood. Eventually, they extended from the rear window to the rear bumper as well, and finally; along the tops of the fins. Although initially a single band, this stylistic trademark doubled to two for 1955–1956. The Streaks were discontinued the same year as the Indian Head emblems (1957).


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: One long-familiar styling element was the split-grille design which was introduced in 1959 to complement the make's new "wide track" stance. The 1960 models, however, reverted to the full-width grille styling. The split-grille then returned for the 1961 model year and would remain as the marque's trademark. Other styling cues were the pointed "arrowhead" nose (in the 1960s and 1970s), and "grilled-over" (in the 1960s), or multiple horizontal-striped taillights. This later feature originated with the 1963 Grand Prix, and although the 1962 Grand Prix also had rear grillework, the taillight lenses were not behind it. Less longstanding but equally memorable is the "cladding" common on the doors and fenders of Pontiacs produced in the 1990s and 2000s. Rather than minimizing the side bumper, Pontiac designers put two troughs going along the length. Bumpers with this appearance were found on nearly all Pontiacs until the arrival of the G6. From 2004 onwards, new Pontiacs had cleaner, more premium styling, but retained the traditional split grille.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The name "Pontiac" had come from the Ottawa leader who had fought against the British for Fort Detroit in the 18th century. As mentioned above, GM would incorporate Native American imagery into Pontiac and would use Native American names for its cars on the brand. However, there was never controversy during the brand's lifespan.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Although GM had already discontinued the Pontiac brand, the fact that GM had used the name to begin with gained some controversy in 2021 when the Cherokee Nation asked Jeep to rename its popular Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee vehicles. In its statement, the Cherokee Nation cited GM's use of Pontiac as well as the RV manufacturer Winnebago Industries as other examples of Native American names being used on vehicles.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Pontiacs were built in Canada by Canadians in GM Canada with Canadian raw materials beginning in 1926, with factories in Oshawa, Ontario and Regina, Saskatchewan. The models they produced were largely the same as their US-built counterparts. Canadian cars had Canadian oak in the bodies, not peach wood like the US cars. The first significantly different model was the "224", introduced in 1937 with a Canadian-built 224 in (3.7 L) version of the then-new . After 1940 the Pontiac Flathead Six was used, but otherwise, the cars shared chassis and body parts with the Chevrolets as a measure to reduce the cost of production for the relatively small Canadian market.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: After the Second World War, the Pontiac brand continued to be very popular, and the product line was further harmonized with the Canadian Chevrolet products. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the US market embraced eight-cylinder engines and US Pontiacs equipped with the straight-eight engine were popular, but in Canada, the straight-six continued to be the popular offering. Beginning in 1953 the model lineup consisted of the base "Pathfinder", mid-range "Pathfinder Deluxe", and top-of-the-line "Laurentian". The chassis was shared with the Chevrolet, and the interiors were a combination of Chevy and Pontiac parts.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: By 1955 the US and Canadian Pontiac lines had diverged almost completely, with the US models positioned as "mid-market" cars available exclusively with the new Pontiac V8, while in Canada the brand was still positioned as an entry-level marque. The Canadian dealership lines were either Chevrolet-Oldsmobile-Cadillac or Pontiac-Buick-GMC; small towns usually had only one or the other, but not both, so it was imperative to keep Pontiac prices competitive with Plymouth and Ford (and Chevrolet). Producing two entirely separate engine series would have increased costs, so the Chevrolet straight-six replaced the Pontiac Flathead Six, and the new Chevrolet V8 replaced the old Pontiac straight-eight.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: In 1958 the "Strato-Chief" replaced the "Pathfinder Deluxe", and in 1959 the line was reorganized with "Laurentian" in mid-range and the new "Parisienne" inserted at the top (similar to the US market Bonneville). Even after the Canadian market was opened by the signing of the 1965 Autopact the Canadian full-sized Pontiac lineup—and the practice of building them on Chevrolet chassis with Chevrolet engines—continued mostly unchanged into the 1980s (although the Strato-Chief was dropped in 1970).


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: GM Canada also built right-hand drive versions of their Pontiacs for export to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa as knock-down kits until the late 1960s. The interiors of these cars more closely resembled the equivalent Chevrolets than the Canadian market cars did, as the Chevys had already been designed for right-hand drive.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: When the compact Chevrolet Corvair and Pontiac Tempest were introduced in 1960 the Corvair was built in Canada, but the Tempest was not. Importing the Tempest into Canada from the United States was not a viable option as the duties that would have had to have been paid would have substantially increased the price of what was supposed to be the least-expensive Pontiac. Tentative plans to build a Pontiac version of the Corvair were scrapped when the more conventional Chevy II was introduced in late-1961. GM Canada developed a new brand exclusively for the Canadian market for their rebadged Chevy IIs, the Acadian. Acadians were sold alongside the rest of the Pontiac lineup at Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealerships until 1971. When the mid-sized Chevrolet Chevelle was introduced in 1964 it was sold in Canada as the Acadian Beaumont ('Beaumont' was formerly the top-level trim of Chevy II-based Acadian), and in 1966 Beaumont became its own marque. The Beaumont-badged Chevelles were in production in Canada until 1969.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Even after the 1965 Autopact (and Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement that replaced it in 1988) the practice of building Pontiac-badged Chevrolets for sale at Canadian dealers continued until the brand was discontinued in 2010. Such cars include the Astre (based on the Vega), the Acadian (based on the Chevette), the Sunburst (based on the Spectrum), the Firefly (based on the Sprint), the Tempest (based on the Corsica), the Sunrunner (based on the Tracker), the Pursuit (based on the Cobalt; later badged as the "G5 Pursuit" and simply "G5"), and the Wave (based on the Aveo; later badged the "G3 Wave" and "G3").


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Pontiac engineer Clayton Leach designed the stamped steel valvetrain rocker arm, a simplified and reliable alternative to a bearing-equipped rocker. This design was subsequently picked up by nearly every OHV engine manufacturer at one point or another.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Pontiac began work on a V8 configuration in 1946. This was initially intended to be an L-head engine, and 8 experimental units were built and extensively tested by the end of the 1940s. But testing comparisons to the OHV Oldsmobile V8 revealed the L-head could not compete performance-wise. So, in addition to building a new Pontiac Engineering building in 1949–1951, the decision to re-direct the V8 to an OHV design delayed its introduction until the 1953 model year, however, the Buick division was introducing its new engine (Nail valve V-8) in 1953 and asked the corporation to hold back or delay Pontiac's V8 introduction until the 1955 model year which it did.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: In mid-1956, Pontiac introduced a higher-powered version of its V8. Among other things, this version of the engine was equipped with a high-performance racing camshaft and dual 4-barrel carburetors. This was the first in a series of NASCAR-ready pre- Super-Duty V8 engines and introduced the long line of multi-carburetor equipped engines that saw Pontiac become a major player during the muscle car and pony car era of the 1960s. The enlarged 1956 Pontiac V8 found its way into light-duty GMC pickup trucks.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Pontiac's second generation V8 engines shared numerous similarities, allowing many parts to interchange from its advent in 1959 to its discontinuation in 1979. Displacement ranged from . The similarity of the engines (except for the 301 & 265 versions) makes rebuilding these engines relatively easier. This feature also made it possible for Pontiac to develop the modern muscle car, by the relatively simple process of placing its second largest-displacement engine, the into its mid-size car, the Le Mans, making the Pontiac LeMans GTO.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: From their inception in the 1950s until the early 1970s, Pontiac engines were known for their performance. The V8 was the largest and available in most Pontiacs except for the compact-size cars. At the height of the horsepower era, Pontiac engines reached a 390 rated horsepower (SAE gross), though other engines achieved considerably higher outputs in actuality. Federal emissions laws eventually brought the horsepower era to a close and resulted in a steady decline for Pontiac's engines. One holdout to this industry-wide slide was the Super Duty 455 engine of 1973–1974. Available only in the Firebird Formula and Trans Am models, this was rated at net initially but after having issues passing EPA emissions tests, the camshaft was changed to the old RA III cam and with the change, came a net rating. The engine was the pinnacle of Pontiac engine development and was a very strong performer that included a few race-specific features, such as provisions for dry-sump oiling. This engine and its legacy drive the SD Trans Ams and Formulas as one of the more, if not the most, desirable Pontiacs ever produced.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The only non-traditional Pontiac V8 engines were the and the . Produced from 1977 through 1981, these engines had the distinction of being the last V8s produced by Pontiac; GM merged its various brands' engines into one collectively shared group in 1980, entitled General Motors Powertrain. The 301 had a bore and stroke, identical to the vaunted Chevrolet small-block engine and Ford Boss 302 engine.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: Pontiac engines were not available in Canada, however, but were replaced with Chevrolet engines of similar size and power, resulting in such models as the Beaumont SD-396 with a Chevrolet big-block 396 cubic inch V8.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: PMD used Carter 1-barrel carburetors for many years but, by the time of the second generation, the V8 engines had switched mostly to 2-barrel offerings. These also were the basis for the Tri-Power setups on the engines.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: The Tri-Power setup included one center carburetor with idle control and two end carburetors that did not contribute until the throttle was opened more than halfway. This was accomplished two ways, mechanically for the manual transmission models, and via a vacuum switch on the automatics. This went through various permutations as it was only a factory-installed option from 1957 to 1966.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: PMD also had a square-bore 4-barrel at the time, but this was rated at lower power than the Tri-Power. This carburetor was later replaced by the Quadrajet, a spread bore. The term "Spread-bore" signifies the difference in sizes between the primaries and secondaries, using smaller primaries paired with larger secondaries for increased airflow at wider throttle with fuel delivery changes akin to the two-plus-four benefit of Tri-Power but with a single carburetor. The Q jet was not the only thing that gave the top GTO 400" engine and the 428 H-O engines the same horsepower as the 389 and 421. Aside from the displacement advantage, the new engine had redesigned cylinder heads with different valve angles and larger ports. The different valve angles allowed for larger diameter intake and exhaust valves. There have been many tests when a Tri-Power set-up was added to a 400" or 428" engine that they made even more horsepower than a Q-Jet.


title: Pontiac (automobile)

text: By the end of the muscle car era, the Quadrajet setup had become the nearly ubiquitous choice on PMD engines. The Quadrajet design continued until 1990 for Oldsmobile V8 applications, with added computer controls to meet emissions and fuel economy standards.


title: AJ Michalka

text: Amanda Joy Michalka ( ; born April 10, 1991) is an American actress, singer-songwriter, record producer and voice actress who is best known as one half of the musical duo Aly & AJ (briefly 78violet), alongside her older sister Aly Michalka. She has appeared in films such as "The Lovely Bones" (2008), "Secretariat" (2010), "Super 8" (2011), "Grace Unplugged" (2013), "Weepah Way for Now" (2015), and "Support the Girls" (2018). Michalka also starred in the ABC sitcom "The Goldbergs" (2013–present) and its spin-off series "Schooled" (2019–2020). She is also known for voicing a lead role as Catra in the Netflix animated adventure series "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" (2018–2020).


title: AJ Michalka

text: Michalka was born and raised in Torrance, California and is the younger sister of actress and musician Aly Michalka. Her father, Mark, owns a contracting company, and her mother, Carrie, is a musician and performed with the Christian rock band "JC Band". Her parents are divorced. As a little girl, she briefly lived in Seattle and Milwaukee. Both she and her sister attended Mack Elementary. She has played the piano since she was six and started playing the guitar in her early life. She started acting when she was five, mostly in church play productions. She was raised as a Christian and homeschooled for part of her childhood. Michalka was in a number of musical productions at her school in Milwaukee as a young woman.


title: AJ Michalka

text: She plays a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and piano. She was a model for catalogs. In 2006 she made her Disney Channel debut in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Cow Belles", as "Courtney Callum", along with sister Aly, as "Taylor Callum". She has also appeared on shows such as "Oliver Beene", "Six Feet Under", "The Guardian", and "General Hospital". She and her sister appeared in the MTV film "."


title: AJ Michalka

text: In 2009 she was featured in the Peter Jackson film "The Lovely Bones", released widely on January 15, 2010.


title: AJ Michalka

text: From 2009 to 2013 Michalka and her sister performed as the musical duo 78violet. They decided to change its name back to "Aly and AJ" in 2015. She was cast as a recurring character on The CW series "Hellcats" starring Ashley Tisdale and her sister Aly Michalka. The series ran for one season and was cancelled in May 2011.


title: AJ Michalka

text: Michalka appeared in the 2011 film "Super 8", directed by J. J. Abrams. Her first big-screen starring role was as the title character in 2013's "Grace Unplugged".


title: AJ Michalka

text: Since 2013, Michalka has had a recurring role on the ABC sitcom "The Goldbergs" as Lainey Lewis, the best friend of main character Erica Goldberg and one-time girlfriend of Erica's brother, Barry. In May 2015, it was announced that she was promoted to series regular for the show's upcoming third season. She also played the Lainey character in a lead role on the spinoff series "Schooled", which ran for two seasons.


title: AJ Michalka

text: Michalka voices the character Stevonnie in "Steven Universe", a fusion of the protagonist Steven and his best friend Connie. In July 2014, she and her sister filmed an untitled drama in Laurel Canyon, California. The film was directed and written by Aly's husband, Stephen Ringer. Michalka was one of the producers of the film, with her sister and Ringer, and participated in the casting process. In May 2015, it was announced that the film, "Weepah Way for Now", would premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 16, 2015. The film was released on DVD, iTunes, and other streaming platforms in June 2016.


title: ITIL

text: The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of detailed practices for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of business.


title: ITIL

text: ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are neither organization-specific nor technology-specific, but can be applied by an organization toward strategy, delivering value, and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement. There is no formal independent third party compliance assessment available for ITIL compliance in an organization. Certification in ITIL is only available to individuals. Since 2013, ITIL has been owned by AXELOS, a joint venture between Capita and the UK Cabinet Office.


title: ITIL

text: Responding to growing dependence on IT, the UK Government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) in the 1980s developed a set of recommendations designed to standardise IT management practices across government functions, built around a "process model"-based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to W. Edwards Deming and his plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle.


title: Nat Faxon

text: Nathaniel Faxon (born October 11, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. A frequent presence on comedic films and TV series, he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing "The Descendants" (2011) and starred in the Fox comedy series "Ben and Kate" (2012–2013), the FX comedy series "Married" (2014–2015) and voices Elfo in the Netflix adult animated television series "Disenchantment" (2018-). He also co-wrote and co-directed "The Way, Way Back" (2013) and "Downhill" (2020) with writing partner Jim Rash.


title: Nat Faxon

text: Faxon's early years were spent in the seaside community of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, where he attended the Brookwood School. He later graduated from the Holderness School near Plymouth, New Hampshire, and then Hamilton College in 1997.


title: Nat Faxon

text: Faxon is an alumnus of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings, where he began performing in 2001.


title: Nat Faxon

text: Faxon may be best known for his appearances in comedic films such as "Orange County" (2002), "" (2007), "Bad Teacher" (2011), and several Broken Lizard films including "Beerfest" (2006). He co-starred in Darren Star's semi-autobiographical satire "Grosse Pointe" and had recurring roles in several television series such as "The Cleveland Show", "Joey", "Up All Night" and "Reno 911!".


title: Nat Faxon

text: Faxon has been featured in a series of prominent Holiday Inn commercials featuring Joe Buck as well as an ad by Blockbuster. However, he did not get a significant lead role until 2012 when he was cast as the titular Ben in "Ben and Kate", for which he received many positive reviews. Faxon starred alongside Judy Greer in the FX comedy series "Married", which ran for two seasons.


title: Nat Faxon

text: Faxon and writing partner Jim Rash, whom he met while performing at The Groundlings, co-wrote the screenplay for the film "The Descendants", starring George Clooney and directed by Alexander Payne. On February 26, 2012, the screenplay for "The Descendants" won an Oscar, with Faxon, Rash, and Payne all receiving Oscars for their efforts. The duo made their directorial debut with "The Way, Way Back" (2013), based on their original screenplay, and starring Steve Carell, Toni Collette, and Sam Rockwell, among others. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired it for $10 million, and was released domestically to acclaimed reviews that July.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Cyberpunk is a tabletop role-playing game in the dystopian science fiction genre, written by Mike Pondsmith and first published by R. Talsorian Games in 1988. It is typically referred to by its second or fourth edition names, Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red, in order to distinguish it from the cyberpunk genre after which it is named.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: "Cyberpunk" exists within its own fictional timeline, which splits from the real world in 1990. The timeline has been extended with each major edition of the game, from the first edition set in 2013 to Cyberpunk Red set in 2045.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The backstory begins with the USA becoming embroiled in a major conflict in Central America in the 1980s, causing a significant economic collapse ending in a military coup resulting in the European Common Market and Japan as superpowers and the Soviet Union not collapsing. This is coupled with the development of orbital habitats that become independent states and the rise of megacorporations that fight amongst themselves for dominance. Other disasters have included food blights causing disastrous famines, and by the late 1990s, the Middle East is a radioactive desert after a nuclear conflict. Bioengineering, against a backdrop of warfare, has resulted in the rapid development of cybernetic prosthetics and direct human-machine interfaces. With the lack of government and police due to the Central America wars and economic situation, casual violence is endemic. Many also suffer from "technoshock," an inability to cope with a world of synthetic muscle tissue, organic circuits, and designer drugs.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The main location for "Cyberpunk" is the fictional Night City, situated on the west coast of the United States between Los Angeles and San Francisco. With a population of five million, it presents a stratified society of gang warfare, corporate rivalries, and political machinations in which the players must survive.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: A core game mechanic is the concept of Difficulty Values, used to gauge whether a player succeeds or fails at any given task. A player takes the value of their most appropriate character attribute, adds the values of any relevant skills or modifiers, and then finally adds the value of a ten-sided die roll. In order to succeed, they must beat the Difficulty Value assigned to the task by the gamemaster. "Cyberpunk" was one of the first tabletop games to use this concept.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: As cyberpunks, the players embrace body modification, cybertech and bioengineering. They live by four tenets:


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: There are ten key roles, each with their own special abilities. These include charismatic musicians ('rockerboys'), bodyguards and assassins ('solos'), computer hackers ('netrunners'), road warriors ('nomads'), street experts ('fixers'), investigative journalists and reporters ('medias'), mechanics ('techs' or 'techies'), doctors ('medtechs'), corporate executives ('corpos'), and police officers.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: A choice of rules are provided for character creation, either by assigning points to purchase skills or by rolling d10s for a more random outcome. A system called Lifepath is provided to develop each character further, by generating goals, motivations, and events from their past. Finally, they gain money, cyberware, weapons and other equipment, including fashion and lifestyle goods.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Further character development is skill-based rather than level-based; for successful play, players are awarded points to be spent on improving their characters' skill sets.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The combat system is called Friday Night Firefight (FNFF), and emphasizes lethality. Unlike role-playing systems where characters amass hit points as they progress, allowing them to survive higher amounts of combat damage, the amount of damage a character can sustain in "Cyberpunk" does not generally increase as the character develops.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Each round, characters are permitted to take one move action and one other action. There are rules governing the use of autofire, armor, and cover, including specific instructions for using people as shields. Alternative ammunition types for weapons are available, for example a shotgun can be fired with buckshot instead of slugs. Character skills can be used to improve both ranged and melee combat.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Additionally, there are rules covering other forms of damage such as drowning and asphyxiation, electrocution, and being set on fire.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: There are also rules for cybernetic hacking, called Netrunning. When characters "jack in", they can interpret the NET in several different ways, including as a classic "Dungeons & Dragons" maze, or perhaps as a star-filled galaxy.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Netrunners engage in the virtual world with interface plugs, "cyberdecks", and the Interface special ability. Cyberdecks include slots to contain Programs, selected ahead of time by Netrunners to assist in tasks such as evasion, decryption and detection. Combat and other actions in the NET are fast, taking place second-by-second, as opposed to three second combat rounds in the physical world.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The destruction of the global NET in later editions of "Cyberpunk" turns the attention of Netrunners to local private networks. The effect on gameplay is that Netrunning is no longer a remote activity; Netrunners are embedded within their team and, with equipment such as "virtuality goggles," can alternate their actions between both physical and virtual space. Closer integration with other activities was a game design choice to ensure all characters have a part to play during a hacking scene.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Every ten points of Humanity Cost causes the loss of an Empathy point, the character attribute that measures how well they relate to other people.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: An Empathy level of zero represents a complete loss of humanity, a state known as cyberpsychosis; in the case of players, their character becomes a non-player character controlled by the gamemaster.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: "Cyberpunk" was designed by Mike Pondsmith as an attempt to replicate the gritty realism of 1980s cyberpunk science fiction. In particular, Walter Jon Williams' novel "Hardwired" was an inspiration, and Williams helped playtest the game. Another key influence was the film "Blade Runner". Many also assume William Gibson's "Neuromancer" was an influence; however, Pondsmith did not read the novel until a later date. Other sources included the film "Streets of Fire" and the anime "Bubblegum Crisis".


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The original version of "Cyberpunk" was published in 1988 by R. Talsorian Games. The game components of the boxed set consist of a 44-page "Handbook", a 38-page "Sourcebook", a 20-page "Combat Book", four pages of game aids and two ten-sided dice.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: In 1990, R. Talsorian Games released the second edition of the game, titled "Cyberpunk 2020", which featured updated rules for combat, Netrunning, and character generation. The game's timeline was also retconned to accommodate the German reunification in 1990. It was released as a boxed set that contained a 222-page softcover book, and a 24-page reference guide and adventure.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: R. Talsorian Games released two revised versions: "Cyberpunk 2020 version 2.00" (1992), and "Cyberpunk 2020 version 2.01" (1993).


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: A total of 28 rules supplements and sourcebooks, and 6 adventures were also published by R. Talsorian Games between 1993 and 1996. In addition, Atlas Games published twelve adventures under license between 1991 and 1994.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Dream Pod 9 released "Night's Edge" in 1992, taking the "Cyberpunk 2020" setting and adding a horror theme, including vampires and werewolves. Dream Pod 9 published ten other supplements and adventures in this setting between 1992 and 1995.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: An alternate world sourcebook, "Cybergeneration", was published in 1993; it centers around teenagers with unusual, superhuman skills gained from a nanotech virus epidemic. The first version of "Cybergeneration" required the "Cyberpunk 2020" rulebook, but a second version became a standalone game.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: "Cyberpunk V3.0" is set in the 2030s, and was published in 2005. It takes "Cyberpunk" into a transhumanist setting in the aftermath of a fourth Corporate War. The global NET has been corrupted and rendered unusable, as has much hardcopied data, throwing human history into doubt. Six new subcultures have emerged, known as Altcults; one such group are the Edgerunners, successors to the cyberpunks of previous editions.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The third edition uses the Fuzion game system, rather than Interlock. The artwork in the book used photographs of action figures and toys instead of hand-drawn art like in previous editions. Both the change of setting and the artwork within the book received negative criticism.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The fourth edition of "Cyberpunk", titled "Cyberpunk Red", is set in 2045, following the events of "Cyberpunk 2020" and serving as a prequel to the video game "Cyberpunk 2077". The game is set after a fourth Corporate War; however, the events differ from "Cyberpunk V3.0", which is considered to be a separate timeline.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: The "Cyberpunk Red" core rulebook was released in November 2020. It was preceded by the release of a simplified boxed set, known as the "Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit", at Gen Con in August 2019. The core rulebook was delayed from a planned release alongside the "Jumpstart Kit", initially to allow "Cyberpunk Red" game lore to be better aligned with "Cyberpunk 2077", and later due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: R. Talsorian began developing a new "Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit" based on the successful "" anime series, itself based on the "Cyberpunk 2077" video game by CD Projekt Red. The missions will use the existing Cyberpunk RED tabletop roleplaying game engine. The sourcebook began development in response to the popularity of game mods created for the video game. The new set takes place in the 2077 timeline, with R. Talsorian announcing plans to continue making content for the 2045 setting.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: "" is a web anime set in the "Cyberpunk" universe produced by Studio Trigger on Netflix. The anime was first announced in 2020 as a tie-in to "Cyberpunk 2077" and was released in September 2022.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Two different, independent collectible card games have been licensed and produced based on the "Cyberpunk" setting. The first, called "Netrunner", was designed by Richard Garfield, and released by Wizards of the Coast in 1996 (the game has since been re-released as "" but is no longer associated with the "Cyberpunk" universe). The second was called "Cyberpunk CCG", released in 2003, designed by Peter Wacks and published by Social Games.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: "Combat Zone" is a tabletop miniature wargame by R. Talsorian Games and Monster Fight Club, due to be released in 2021.


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: In Issue 37 of "Challenge", Julia Martin commented, "the game has style. While it is a game with some ragged edges, "Cyberpunk" recreates the atmosphere of the literature and movies from which it draws admirably." Martin had issues with the combat system, especially the organization of the rules, some ambiguous rules, and the lack of super-advanced weaponry. She also grumbled about typos, noting, "Quite frankly, I don't think I've seen this many apparently careless, minor errors since Judges Guild went defunct some years ago." She also found the netrunning system far too general. Despite all these problems, she confessed, "I really like this game. It has lots of problems, [...] but it has a great many redeeming points also. [...] The characters and the world view are the heart of Cyberpunk, and they are the best of it." She concluded, "It is a marvelous creature which can be molded into a tremendous campaign by a referee with experience. It is definitely worth the money (and you might even like the combat system). Go check it out."


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: Stewart Wieck reviewed "Cyberpunk" for "White Wolf" #14, rating it 3 overall, and stated that "Cyberpunk is a fine game set in an environment which is very conducive to role-playing."


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: In the May 1989 edition of "Games International" (Issue 5), Paul Mason found the rules disorganized and lacked an index. He also found lots of typos, "the sign of a rushed production." Although Mason found the concept behind the game "quite appealing," he thought that the combat system, which was supposed to be an improvement on the usual non-descriptive hit point system, was too constricted by data tables to be very descriptive. He concluded by giving this game an average rating of 3 out of 5, saying, "All in all, "Cyberpunk" does the job. If you want to run a game in this genre and you want a single source of rules and background, then this game will be adequate to the task [...] It doesn't contain any ideas radically new to rolegaming, however, and so won't be much use to anyone else except inveterate collectors."


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: In the September 1989 edition of "Dragon" (Issue 149), Jim Bambra liked the production values of the original edition, but found many typos in the various books as well as a missing encounter table. Bambra found the setting "does a superb job of capturing the flavor and atmosphere of a disturbingly plausible and realistic future. The development and presentation of the Net is stunning and can be used as a basis for countless numbers of adventures. No other game has succeeded in portraying computer hacking in such a vibrant and absorbing way." He concluded that this was not for everyone: "Gamers brought up on heroic-fantasy or shiny science-fiction games may find the gritty realism of the "Cyberpunk" game not to their liking... To decide if this is the game for you, read a few of the Cyberpunk style novels. If you like them, don’t waste any time — rush out and buy the "Cyberpunk" game. Welcome to life on the edge."


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: In the September 1992 edition of "Dragon" (Issue 185), Allen Varney found "Cyberpunk 2020" just as stylish as its first-edition predecessor, but he found even more typos in this edition than in the first edition. Varney liked the new streamlined combat system, but criticized the duality of modern combat, where "unarmored characters become pools of blood in 10 seconds of combat, but those in flak armor can shrug off submachine-gun fire." Varney also felt that the Netrunning system was much improved, calling the rules system "elegant and original." Varney thought the second edition's biggest flaw was lack of an index, but he also criticized the dichotomy of a system where "you can break into Eurobank and embezzle five million bucks, but you better pay your phone bill on time or you’re in big trouble." He accused the game of being "in the curious position of advocating rebellion, but only in socially acceptable ways." Nonetheless, Varney concluded that "The "Cyberpunk" game’s second edition surpasses its first edition on every count. With its smooth action, 'pure' cyberpunk atmosphere, easily accessible setting, and medium-low complexity, this game tops my list as the field's best route to dark near-future adventure."


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: In a 1996 reader poll undertaken by "Arcane" magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time, "Cyberpunk" was ranked 10th. Editor Paul Pettengale commented: ""Cyberpunk" was the first of the 'straight' cyberpunk RPGs, and is still the best. The difference between cyberpunk and other sci-fi is a matter of style and attitude. Everything about the "Cyberpunk" game, from the background to the rules system, is designed to create this vital atmosphere. "Cyberpunk" is set in an unforgiving world where betrayal and double-crosses are common, trust is hard to find and paranoia is a useful survival trait."


title: Cyberpunk (role-playing game)

text: In November 2020, "Forbes" found "Cyberpunk Red" to be a consistent continuation of the themes from "Cyberpunk 2020". Contributor Rob Wieland praised the system for character generation, stating, "One of the signature elements of the game, lifepaths, went through a great refinement. Lifepath is a chart where players roll to determine elements of their character’s history. It creates lovers, friends, rivals and more for GMs to hang plot hooks on. "Cyberpunk" thrives on the personal connections between characters. Lifepath makes player buy-in easier; players are going to be much more interested in a job given to them by an old flame than a random NPC."


title: Joakim Noah

text: Joakim Simon Noah ( ; born February 25, 1985) is an American-born French-Swedish former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Florida Gators, winning back-to-back NCAA championships in 2006 and 2007. The Chicago Bulls selected Noah with the ninth overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft. Noah is a two-time NBA All-Star and was named to the All-NBA First Team in 2014 when he also was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year. He was also a member of the French national team.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah was born in New York City, to French singer and former world No. 3 tennis player Yannick Noah, winner of the French Open in 1983, and Cécilia Rodhe, Miss Sweden and fourth runner-up at Miss Universe 1978. His grandfather Zacharie Noah was a Cameroonian professional football player, winner of the Coupe de France in 1961. Noah lived in Paris, France from 1988 to 1998 and returned to New York City at age 13.


title: Joakim Noah

text: He played youth basketball with the youth teams of the French club Levallois Sporting Club, in Paris. He played high school basketball for the United Nations International School, Poly Prep Country Day School and The Lawrenceville School.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Noah was listed as the No. 19 power forward and the No. 75 player in the nation in 2004.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida, where he played for coach Billy Donovan's Florida Gators men's basketball team from 2004 to 2007. Noah was a member of Donovan's 2004 recruiting class, a group that included four freshmen who would have a dramatic impact on the Gators basketball program during the next three seasons. During his 2004–05 freshman year, he played 9.4 minutes per game and averaged only 3.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.


title: Joakim Noah

text: During Noah's 2005–06 sophomore year, he was listed as power forward but was moved to center to replace Al Horford, and in that position he led his team in points (14.2 ppg) and blocks (2.4 bpg), while ranking second in rebounds (7.1 rpg) behind teammate Al Horford (7.6 rpg). Almost unknown at the beginning of the season, Noah's projected draft position improved over time. By the end of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, he had declared for the 2006 NBA draft. However, Noah, along with teammates Horford and Corey Brewer, announced at the Gators' national championship celebration that they would return for their junior seasons. Noah and the Florida Gators would go on to repeat as 2006–07 national champions.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah was named the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) of the NCAA Tournament's Minneapolis Regional after leading the Gators over top-seeded Villanova in the final game with 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks. On April 3, 2006, 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game Noah paced the Gators to a 73–57 victory over the UCLA Bruins for the school's first NCAA basketball championship and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. In the final game, he scored 16 points, made 9 rebounds, and blocked a championship game record 6 shots.


title: Joakim Noah

text: The next year after the Gators won the 2006 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, they went forward to the next year with five returning starters. Noah started off the tournament with 17 points and 12 rebounds in 24 minutes of play in a win vs. the Jackson State Tigers. In the second round, Noah scored nine points and had nine rebounds in a win vs. the Purdue Boilermakers. The Purdue game, Butler Bulldogs game, and Ohio State championship game were the only three games he did not have double digit rebounds in the tournament; although he had nine rebounds in two of those games. He had a tournament high, 14 points and 14 rebounds in the Elite Eight in a win vs. the Oregon Ducks. In the championship game vs. the Ohio State Buckeyes, he was in a match-up against the future 2007 NBA Draft number one pick, Greg Oden. Regardless, he was still able to score eight points and grab three rebounds, although getting into foul trouble. He also was perfect from the free throw line, making six shots on six attempts. With the help of Noah on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, the Florida Gators were able to win their second championship in two years.


title: Joakim Noah

text: The Chicago Bulls selected Noah as the ninth overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft. Noah and his teammates at Florida, Corey Brewer and Al Horford, became the highest-picked trio from the same college in the history of the NBA. Horford was chosen third overall by the Atlanta Hawks, and Brewer was chosen seventh overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. On November 6, 2007, Noah made his regular season debut off the bench after missing the first three games with a sprained ankle. He scored 2 points and had 4 rebounds. Noah had a rocky start with his team after being given a suspension by a unanimous vote from his teammates in January 2008.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah averaged 6.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game during the 2008–09 regular season. Noah played a key role in Game 6 of the 2009 Eastern Conference first-round playoff series between the Bulls and the Boston Celtics. In the final minute of the game's third overtime period, with the score tied at 123–123, he stole the ball from Paul Pierce and dribbled down the court (unusual for a center) for a dunk, drawing Pierce's sixth foul in the process. The Bulls went on to win the game 128–127, though they would lose the series in Game 7.


title: Joakim Noah

text: During the 2009–10 season, Noah averaged 10.7 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. He only played 64 games due to injury. The Bulls once again made the playoffs, securing the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. In the playoffs, Noah averaged 14.8 points per game and 13.0 rebounds, but the Bulls lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round in five games.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On October 4, 2010, Noah signed a five-year, $60 million contract extension with the Bulls. On December 15, 2010, the Bulls announced that due to ligament damage in Noah's hand, he would have surgery and miss 8 to 10 weeks. Noah was averaging 14 points and 11.7 rebounds in the 24 games prior to his injury. He returned to action in the 55th game of the season on February 23 after recuperating from right thumb surgery. He scored 7 points and had 16 rebounds in just over 24 minutes. He returned to the inactive list for games 74, 75 and 76.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On February 22, 2012, Noah recorded his first career triple-double with 13 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks. It was the first triple-double by a Bulls center since Artis Gilmore recorded one in 1977.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On December 7, 2012, Noah recorded his career highs of 30 points and 23 rebounds in a win against the Detroit Pistons. On December 18, 2012, he recorded his second ever triple-double, scoring 11 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and providing a career-high-tying 10 assists, in a 100–89 victory over the Boston Celtics. On January 24, 2013, Noah was named as a reserve in the 2013 NBA All-Star Game, representing the Chicago Bulls alongside teammate Luol Deng. He became the Bulls' first All-Star center since Artis Gilmore in 1982. He played 16 minutes in the game, scoring 8 points and collecting 10 rebounds in the East's loss. On February 28, 2013, Noah recorded his third career triple-double, scoring 23 points, collecting 21 rebounds and blocking a career-high 11 shots in Chicago's 93–82 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. In doing so, Noah both tied a franchise record for blocks in a regular season game set by Gilmore on December 20, 1977, and joined Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shawn Bradley, Shaquille O'Neal, and Elvin Hayes as the only players to record a triple-double of 20-20-10 in points, rebounds, and blocks since blocks began being recorded, and the only player among them to do so while shooting 65 percent from the field.


title: Joakim Noah

text: From December 28, 2013 to February 1, 2014, Noah had an 18-game streak of 10 or more rebounds, averaging 13.9 rebounds during that stretch. The streak ended on February 4, 2014 in a game against the Sacramento Kings as Noah was ejected from the game after complaining due to a controversial foul call against him. Noah erupted and verbally abused the referees, resulting in a $15,000 fine from the NBA. On January 30, 2014, Noah was named a reserve in the 2014 NBA All-Star Game for the second time in his career. He played 21 minutes in the game (including the entire fourth quarter) and scored 8 points, collected 5 rebounds and had 5 assists while helping the East to win 163–155. On February 11, 2014, Noah recorded his fourth career triple-double in a 100–85 win against the Atlanta Hawks, finishing the game with 19 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. On February 19, 2014, Joakim accounted for 13 assists in a 94–92 road win against the Toronto Raptors. By doing so, he became the first NBA center with 3 games of 10+ assists in a season since Brad Miller of the Sacramento Kings in 2005–06 and the only center with 13 assists in a game since Vlade Divac in April 1996.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On March 2, 2014, Noah recorded his fifth career triple-double with 13 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists in a 109–90 win over the New York Knicks. Noah's 14 assists was the most ever by a Bulls center, and the most by a center in the NBA since 1986. Three days later, in a 105–94 win over the Detroit Pistons, Noah recorded yet another triple-double finishing the game with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Joakim finished the month of March with 120 assists, the most by an NBA center since Wilt Chamberlain had 155 in March 1968. On April 9, 2014, Noah had 15 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a 102–87 road win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, his fourth triple-double of the season. On April 21, 2014, Noah was awarded the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award for the first time in his career. He is the second Chicago Bull to win the award, after Michael Jordan who won it in the season, he also became the first Frenchman to win the award, the 4th international to win, and the second European overall to win.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On January 27, 2015, Noah had a season-best game with 18 points and 15 rebounds in a 113–111 overtime win over the Golden State Warriors. He finished the season averaging 7.2 points and 9.6 rebounds, his lowest averages since the 2009–10 season.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah lost his starting spot to Nikola Mirotić during the 2015 preseason, coming off the bench in his first 23 consecutive games of the 2015–16 season. Following a quadruple overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons on December 18, starting center Pau Gasol did not travel to New York for the Bulls' December 19 game against the Knicks. In his absence, Noah started in his first game of the season and subsequently scored a season-high 21 points. He also grabbed 10 rebounds in the game, six of them offensive, thus becoming the Bulls' career leader in offensive boards, passing Horace Grant (1,888). On December 23, he was ruled out for two to four weeks because of a slight tear within his sprained left shoulder, an injury he suffered in the Bulls' December 21 game against the Brooklyn Nets. After missing nine consecutive games with the injury, he returned to action on January 11, recording 9 rebounds and 4 assists off the bench in a loss to the Washington Wizards. On January 14, he made just his second start of the season, replacing the injured Pau Gasol. In 38 minutes of action, he recorded 6 points, 16 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 1 block in a 115–111 overtime win over the Philadelphia 76ers. In the next game the following night, Noah re-injured his left shoulder against the Dallas Mavericks. He was subsequently ruled out for four to six months after it was determined that he required surgery to stabilize his left shoulder.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On July 8, 2016, Noah signed a four-year, $72 million contract with his hometown team, the New York Knicks. A questionable contract at the time, it was later labeled "disastrous" and the "worst signing in franchise history". On February 27, 2017, he underwent a left knee arthroscopy to remove a loose body, and was subsequently ruled out for at least three to four weeks. On March 25, 2017, Noah was suspended for 20 games without pay for violating the league's anti-drug policy. Noah, having not played since February 4, was likely to miss the Knicks' final 10 games of the season because of a left knee injury anyway. The suspension carried over into the first 10 games of the 2017–18 season. Noah, unaware of his violation, did not appeal his suspension. On April 12, 2017, it was deemed that Noah required surgery for a left torn rotator cuff and would need four to six months to rehabilitate.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On November 27, 2017, the Knicks activated Noah and gave him his first playing time since February. Noah entered the Knicks' contest against the Portland Trail Blazers in the second quarter and had a three-minute stint, making his only shot attempt and grabbing a rebound. Two days later, he was assigned to the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G League for a one-day stint, playing for Westchester that night in a loss against the Maine Red Claws. In January 2018, Noah went into exile from the Knicks after having a heated verbal altercation with coach Jeff Hornacek. Noah appeared in just seven games during the 2017–18 season, averaging 5.7 minutes off the bench.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On October 13, 2018, the Knicks released Noah via the stretch-provision waiver. Using the stretch provision will allow the Knicks to save $12.6 million in cap space in 2019. Noah, who had $38 million left on his contract, was reluctant to give up any money on the remaining two years of his deal. The delay in waiving him was the Knicks trying to get Noah to give up more money in a buyout.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On December 4, 2018, Noah signed with the Memphis Grizzlies for the remainder of the season. On February 9, 2019, he had season highs of 19 points and 14 rebounds in a 99–90 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. On February 22, 2019, he recorded 22 points (with 12 free throws) and 11 rebounds in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On March 9, 2020, Noah signed a 10-day contract with the Los Angeles Clippers, and signed a multi-year contract on June 28. In early December 2020, Noah was waived by the Clippers.


title: Joakim Noah

text: On October 28, 2021, the Chicago Bulls hosted a "Joakim Noah Night" in honor of Noah, where he was named an ambassador for the team.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah played for the senior French national basketball team, although he could have been eligible for the American or Swedish teams. "The French National team is definitely something that has been in my dreams for a while", he said.


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah made his first appearance for the senior French national team on July 24, 2009, in a friendly match against Austria, in which he scored 16 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Noah then joined the French team at EuroBasket 2011.


title: Joakim Noah

text: He did not join the French Olympic team for the London 2012 Summer Olympics, due to a serious ankle injury that occurred during the 2012 NBA playoffs. Noah said that he needed more time and rehabilitation work before he would be ready to play again.


title: Joakim Noah

text: In 2010, with his mother, an artist, Noah founded the "Noah's Arc Foundation" to help engage children with positive self-expression through arts and sports. The foundation has a special focus on at-risk youth in Chicago. As a registered United Nations non-governmental organization (NGO), in 2015 the Foundation was granted special consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).


title: Joakim Noah

text: Noah began dating Brazilian Victoria's Secret model Lais Ribeiro in July 2018. In September 2019, they became engaged at Burning Man. On July 13, 2022, Noah and Ribiero were married in Trancoso in her native country Brazil.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Alien: Isolation is a 2014 survival horror game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Based on the "Alien" film series, the game is set 15 years after the events of the original 1979 film "Alien", and follows engineer Amanda Ripley, daughter of "Alien" protagonist Ellen Ripley, as she investigates the disappearance of her mother aboard the space station Sevastopol. Once inside, Amanda discovers that the station has fallen into disarray due to an Alien creature on the loose and must find a way to escape. The game emphasizes stealth and survival horror gameplay, requiring the player to avoid, outsmart, and fight enemies with tools such as a motion tracker and flamethrower.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" was designed to resemble the original "Alien" film rather than its more action-oriented 1986 sequel "Aliens", and features a similar lo-fi, 1970s vision of what the future could look like. It runs on an engine built to accommodate the Alien's behaviour and technical aspects such as atmospheric and lighting effects. Creative Assembly intended to make "Alien: Isolation" a third-person game, but used first-person to create a more intense experience. Several downloadable content packs were released, some of which relive scenes from the original film.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" received positive reviews and sold over two million copies by May 2015. Its retro-futuristic art direction, sound design, and artificial intelligence were praised, while its characters and length received some criticism. It appeared in multiple "best of" lists and won several year-end awards, including Best Audio at the 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards and Audio Achievement at the 11th British Academy Games Awards. It saw ports to Linux and OS X in 2015, Nintendo Switch in 2019, then to Android and iOS mobile devices in 2021. It was also added to the Amazon Luna service in 2021.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" is a single-player action-adventure game with an emphasis on stealth and survival horror. The player controls Amanda Ripley from a first-person perspective, and must explore a space station and complete objectives while avoiding, outsmarting, and defeating enemies. Objectives range from activating computers to collecting certain items or reaching a specific area. The player can run, climb ladders, sneak into vents, crouch behind objects to break the line of sight with enemies, and peek over or lean around for a safe view. The player also has the ability to go under tables or inside empty lockers to hide from enemies.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Amanda encounters various enemies throughout the station, including hostile human survivors and androids. The player can either eliminate them or avoid them using stealth or distractions. The main antagonist, an Alien creature, pursues the player throughout. The Alien creature cannot be defeated, requiring the player to use stealth tactics in order to survive. Instead of following a predetermined path, the Alien has the ability to actively investigate disturbances and hunt the player by sight or sound. Along the way, the player can use both a flashlight and a motion tracker to detect the Alien's movements. However, using any of these increases the chance of the Alien finding the player. For example, if the Alien is close enough, it will be attracted by the tracker's sound, forcing the player to use the tracker wisely and remove it as soon as it detects motion. The motion tracker cannot detect enemies when they are not moving and cannot determine if the alien creature is up in the ducts or on ground level.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Although Amanda gains access to a revolver, a shotgun, a bolt gun, a flamethrower, and a stun baton over the course of the game, "Alien: Isolation" emphasizes evasion over direct combat by providing limited ammunition. The player can also craft useful items by collecting schematics and different materials. Items include EMP detonators, noisemakers, molotov cocktails, and pipe bombs; these can help the player deal with enemies. For example, the noisemaker can be used to attract enemies in a particular direction. The Alien is afraid of fire, so using flame weapons forces it to retreat into the station's ventilation system. The player has a limited amount of health which decreases when attacked by enemies; health is restored with medkits, which can be crafted with materials in Amanda's inventory.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: The space station is divided into sections connected by trams and elevators. Some doors require certain actions before entry is allowed; for example, some require a keycard or entry codes, while others need to be hacked or cut open with welding torches. Computer terminals and rewiring stations can be used to access information and trigger actions such as disabling security cameras or manipulating the space station's air-purification mechanism. An automap helps the player navigate the different areas. To save game progress, the player needs to locate a terminal and insert Amanda's access card. If Amanda dies, the player will have to restart from the last saved point. In addition to the campaign mode, "Alien: Isolation" features a special mode, called Survivor Mode, in which the player must complete objectives within a time limit on different challenge maps while being hunted by the Alien.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: In 2137, 15 years after the events of the original "Alien" film, Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, learns that the flight recorder of her mother's ship, the "Nostromo", has been located. The flight recorder was retrieved by the salvage ship "Anesidora", and is being held aboard "Sevastopol", a Seegson Corporation space station orbiting gas giant KG-348 in the Zeta Reticuli star system. Christopher Samuels, a Weyland-Yutani android, offers Ripley a place on the retrieval team so that she can have closure regarding the fate of her missing mother.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Ripley, Samuels, and Weyland-Yutani executive Nina Taylor travel to Sevastopol via the "Torrens", a courier ship, only to find the station damaged and external communications offline. While attempting to spacewalk into Sevastopol, their EVA line is severed by debris, and Ripley is separated from the others and forced to enter the station on her own. While exploring the station, Ripley finds the flight recorder of the "Nostromo", but the data has been corrupted, and also discovers that the station is out of control due to a deadly Alien creature lurking aboard. After regrouping with Samuels and Taylor, Ripley meets the station's Marshal Waits and his deputy Ricardo. Waits explains that the alien was brought onto the station by "Anesidora" captain Henry Marlow, who, after recovering the "Nostromo" flight recorder while salvaging its remains in space, was able to backtrack the Nostromo's path to LV-426 and locate the derelict alien starship, containing within a nest of alien eggs. While inside, Marlow's wife was attacked by a Facehugger and brought aboard Sevastopol for emergency medical treatment, but died after a Chestburster hatched from her. Waits convinces Ripley to contain the Alien inside a remote module of the station, and then eject it into space. Although Ripley is successful, Waits ejects the module with her still inside. Careening into KG-348, Ripley space-jumps back to Sevastopol using a space suit.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Ripley makes her way back to confront Waits, but Ricardo reveals that the station's service androids have abruptly started slaughtering the remaining crew, including Waits. Samuels attempts to interface with the station's artificial intelligence, APOLLO, to cease the rampage. However, the systems' defensive countermeasures kill him shortly after he opens a path for Ripley into APOLLO's control core. There, Ripley discovers that Seegson had been trying to sell off Sevastopol to Weyland-Yutani, who instructed APOLLO to protect the Alien at all costs. Ripley tells APOLLO that the creature is no longer aboard the station and demands it cease all activity, but the system refuses, stating that "scheduled reactor scans are unverified". At the reactor, Ripley discovers a nest with hundreds of Aliens, and initiates a reactor purge to destroy it.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Later, Ripley learns that Taylor was secretly sent to retrieve the Alien from Sevastopol, and that she freed Marlow in exchange for the location of LV-426. However, Marlow double-crosses and takes her hostage aboard the "Anesidora". There, Ripley finally discovers the "Nostromo"s flight recorder, containing a personal message to her from her mother, thus giving her closure. Meanwhile, Marlow attempts to overload the fusion reactor of the "Anesidora" to destroy Sevastopol and ensure that no creatures survive; Taylor kills him in an attempt to stop this, but she herself is killed by an electric discharge, forcing Ripley to escape shortly before the "Anesidora" explodes. The explosion destroys Sevastopol's orbital stabilizers, causing the station to slowly drift into KG-348's atmosphere. Ripley and Ricardo contact the "Torrens" for extraction, but a Facehugger latches on to Ricardo, forcing Ripley to leave him. After making her way outside to help the "Torrens" detach from the station, Ripley is surrounded by Alien creatures and ultimately thrown into the ship by a blast. Aboard the "Torrens", Ripley discovers that another Alien has boarded the ship. When she is cornered in the airlock, she ejects herself and the Alien into space. Adrift in her space suit, Ripley is awakened by a searchlight.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" was developed by Creative Assembly, which is best known for their work on the "Total War" strategy video game series. A game based on the "Alien" series from 20th Century Fox was conceived when Creative Assembly finished "" in 2008, after the publisher, Sega, acquired the rights to develop "Alien" games in December 2006. A six-person team developed the first prototype to pitch the idea, wherein one player would control the alien manually while another would conceal themselves in an environment and try to hide from the creature. The game captured the attention of Sega and the project was eventually approved. Because Creative Assembly had no experience with survival horror games, the company hired people from studios such as Bizarre Creations, Black Rock, Crytek, Ubisoft, and Realtime Worlds for the project. According to director Alistair Hope, the development team grew from "a couple of guys crammed in with the "Total War" team" to a group of 100 people by 2014.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Creative Assembly decided to design the game more in line with Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien" as opposed to James Cameron's more action-oriented 1986 sequel "Aliens". To help the designers authentically recreate the atmosphere of the film, Fox provided them with three terabytes of original production material, including costume photography, concept art, set design, behind the scenes photos, videos, and the film's original sound effect recordings. Artist John Mckellan recalled, "It was a proper gold mine. We saw angles of things we'd never seen before." During the first stage of development, the developers deconstructed the film to find out what made its setting unique. This would allow them to build new environments that were faithful to it. Similarly, the film's original soundtrack was deconstructed so that composers could identify the main cues, which would then be used as templates to extend the soundtrack and fill in the length of the game. The developers also met "Alien" and "Blade Runner" editor Terry Rawlings, who would give them additional insight.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Rather than go for a shiny, high-tech science fiction look, the designers opted to recreate the setting and feel of the original "Alien" film using the work of concept artists Ron Cobb and Mœbius. As a result, the game features a lo-fi, 1970s vision of what the future would look like. For example, it features clunky machinery like phone receivers, monochrome displays, and distorted CRT monitors. To create period authentic distortion on in-game monitors, the developers recorded their in game animations onto VHS and Betamax video recorders, then filmed those sequences playing on an "old curvy portable TV" while adjusting the tracking settings. As digital hacking had not been conceived in the 1970s, the hacking device was built the way it would have been built on the set of the film, and requires players to tune into a computer's signal while selecting icons on its screen. Artist Jon McKellan noted, "We had this rule: If a prop couldn't have been made in '79 with the things that they had around, then we wouldn't make it either."


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Creative Assembly wanted "Alien: Isolation" to have a story that was closely related to the film. As a result, the team decided to explore a story set 15 years after the events of the film which would involve Ellen Ripley's daughter and the "Nostromo"s flight recorder. Writer Will Porter explained that the process of creating a backstory for Amanda was "refreshing" as he felt that she was an overlooked character of the "Alien" universe. Actress Sigourney Weaver agreed to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley to voice small sections because she felt that the story was interesting and true to the film. Along with Weaver, the original "Alien" cast, which includes Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, and Yaphet Kotto, reprised their roles for the separate downloadable content missions, marking the first time they were brought back together since the release of the film. All the characters were created with 3D face scans. A major story rewrite happened around a year before release and leftovers from it were discovered in a console build.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" runs on a proprietary engine that was built from scratch by Creative Assembly. Previously used in "Battle for Asgard", the engine was adapted to accommodate technical aspects such as the atmospheric and lighting effects and the alien's behavioural design. The engine's deferred rendering allowed artists to place "hundreds" of dynamic lights in a scene and achieve great geometric detail. A major toolchain update occurred six months into development. Although the new tools eventually improved workflow, they initially caused major disruptions because previous work had to be discarded or ported into the new tools, taking valuable development time away from the team. The alien was designed to look similar to H. R. Giger's original design, including the skull underneath its semitransparent head. However, the designers did alter its humanoid legs with recurved ones to provide the alien a walk cycle that would hold up to scrutiny during longer encounters with the player. Between 70 and 80 different sets of animation for the alien were created. The alien's artificial intelligence was programmed with a complex set of behavioural designs that slowly unlock as it encounters the player, creating the illusion that the alien learns from each interaction and appropriately adjusts its hunting strategy. As gameplay designer Gary Napper explains, "We needed something that would be different every time you played it. You're going to die a lot, which means restarting a lot, and if the alien was scripted, you'd see the same behaviour. That makes the alien become predictable, and a lot less scary." The save system was inspired by a scene in the film where Captain Dallas uses a key-card to access "Nostromo"s computer, Mother.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: The developers originally planned to add a feature that would allow players to craft weapons, but the idea was ultimately discarded. According to Hope, "We thought about what people would want to do in order to survive. We explored different ideas, and one of them was fashioning weapons to defend yourself. That was quite early on, but then we realised that this game isn't really about pulling the trigger." Another cancelled feature was the alien's iconic acid blood as a game mechanic, which could melt through metal like in the film. Although the feature was reportedly implemented at one point, it was removed because the developers felt it would take the game in a "weird" direction. Although the game is played from a first-person perspective, it was developed for a considerable amount of time in third-person view. The perspective was changed after the team realised that first person changed the gameplay experience significantly. Hope explained that, in third-person view, "Alien: Isolation" would have become "a game about jockeying the camera and looking after your avatar. But in first-person it's you that's being hunted. If you're hiding behind an object and you want to get a better view of your surroundings, you have to move." Development took four years after Creative Assembly pitched the idea to Sega. "Alien: Isolation" was released to manufacturing on 9 September 2014. It is dedicated to Simon Franco, a programmer who died during development.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" was first unveiled on 12 May 2011 when UK government minister Ed Vaizey visited Creative Assembly and revealed on his Twitter account that the studio was hiring for an "Alien" game. Although no gameplay details were confirmed, Sega confirmed that "Isolation" would be released for consoles. Sega boss Mike Hayes said it was "very much a triple-A project. We want this to be a peer to the likes of "Dead Space 2"." Although the game's name was anticipated following a trademark registration in October 2013 and some screenshots leaked in December 2013, "Alien: Isolation" was announced and confirmed for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One with the release of a teaser trailer on 7 January 2014. The fact that Sega's previous "Alien" game, "", received a negative public reaction did not affect Creative Assembly. According to Napper, the vocal reaction from the "Alien" fanbase assured the team that they were building a game the fanbase wanted.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" was presented at E3 2014, where journalists had a chance to play the game. "Polygon" described the demo as effective and terrifying. The game was also playable on the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset that was shown at the show. It was awarded Best VR Game and was nominated for Game of the Show, Best Xbox One Game, Best PlayStation 4 Game, Best PC Game, and Best Action Game at the "IGN"s Best of E3 2014 Awards. At the 2014 Game Critics Awards, it was nominated for Best of Show, Best Console Game, and Best Action/Adventure Game. In August 2014, a cinematic trailer was shown at Gamescom. "Alien: Isolation" was released on 7 October 2014. According to Sega, it had sold more than one million copies worldwide as of January 2015. As of March 2015, "Alien: Isolation" had sold over 2.1 million copies in Europe and the US. It was ported by Feral Interactive to Linux and OS X in late 2015, to Nintendo Switch on 5 December 2019, and to Android and iOS devices on 16 December 2021, and was added to the Amazon Luna service on 14 October 2021.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" supports additional in-game content in the form of downloadable content packs. The first two packs, "Crew Expendable" and "Last Survivor", were made available at the time of release. "Crew Expendable", included in the "Nostromo Edition", relives a scene from "Alien" and involves the player controlling Ripley, Dallas or Parker attempting to flush an alien creature from the "Nostromo"s air vents into the ship's airlock. "Last Survivor", which was originally made available to players who pre-ordered at certain retailers, is set during the film's finale and involves the player controlling Ripley as she tries to activate the "Nostromo"s self-destruct sequence and reach the escape shuttle.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Between October 2014 and March 2015, five additional downloadable content packs were released, expanding the Survivor Mode with new features. A season pass to these five Survivor Mode packs could be purchased before they were released. The first pack, "Corporate Lockdown", was released on 28 October 2014 and includes three new challenge maps where the player must complete certain objectives. The second pack, "Trauma", was released on 2 December 2014 and includes a new character for use in three additional challenge maps. The third pack, "Safe Haven", was released on 13 January 2015 and introduces a new character and a new gameplay mode where the player must complete a series of missions under a time limit. The fourth pack, "Lost Contact", which was released on 10 February 2015, is similar to "Safe Haven", but offers a different playable character and setting. The last pack, "The Trigger", was released on 3 March 2015 and includes three additional challenge maps and a new playable character. A collection featuring the base game and all the downloadable content packs was released for Linux, OS X, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in late 2015.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Critical reception for "Alien: Isolation" was "generally favourable", according to review aggregator Metacritic. Josh Harmon of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" felt that "Alien: Isolation" "succeeds as a genuine effort to capture the spirit of the film franchise in playable form, rather than a lazy attempt to use it as an easy backdrop for a cash-in with an ill-fitting genre." Writing for "GameSpot", Kevin VanOrd praised the tense and frightening gameplay, stating that "when all mechanics are working as intended, alien-evasion is dread distilled into its purest, simplest form." However, he criticised the "trial and error" progression and frustrating distances between save points. Jeff Marchiafava of "Game Informer" stated similar pros, but criticised the story and poor acting from the voice actors.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: The visuals and atmosphere were praised. "Polygon" editor Arthur Gies felt that "Alien: Isolation" is "a beautiful game, full of deep shadows and mystery around every corner," while Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer praised the lighting and unusually compelling environment design. "IGN"s Ryan McCaffrey gave high marks to the retro-futuristic art direction and sound design, writing: "From wisps of smoke that billow out of air vents to clouds of white mist that obscure your vision when you rewire an area's life-support systems in order to aid your stealthy objectives, "Isolation" certainly looks and sounds like a part of the "Alien" universe." Similarly, "PC Gamer" said that the art design sets "Alien: Isolation" apart from the likes of "System Shock" or "Dead Space" and creates a "convincing science-fiction world, with machines and environments that are functional and utilitarian, rather than overtly futuristic."


title: Alien: Isolation

text: The characters were criticised; "Game Informer" stated that "Amanda exhibits little growth or personality, other than concern for her fellow humans and a desire not to die gruesomely," while Blake Peterson of "GameRevolution" noted that none of the characters are fully developed. According to him, "we never spend enough time with them to build the emotional bond necessary for their inevitable deaths to mean anything." GameTrailers said that most of the computer terminals contain unoriginal logs to describe predictable events, but also remarked that reading reports from different computer terminals "grounds Sevastopol in an appreciable way."


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Writing for GamesRadar, David Houghton praised the alien's advanced artificial intelligence, stating that "progress becomes a case of 'if' and 'how', not 'when'. Movement is measured in inches and feet rather than metres, and simply remaining alive becomes more exhilarating than any objective achieved." Peterson praised the gameplay as tense, scary and effective, writing that "Alien: Isolation" is "a solid, incredibly striking example of the [survival horror] genre that uses its first person perspective to greater personalize the horror". "PC Gamer" credited the crafting system for creating "a lot of unexpected depth", allowing players to outsmart enemies in multiple ways. The Survivor Mode was praised by Chris Carter of Destructoid, who felt it offered players different feelings and experiences each time they played it.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Although the gameplay was praised by several reviewers, some found "Isolation" unnecessarily long, repetitive, and unforgiving. In a mixed review, McCaffrey felt that it did not offer many options of survival, requiring players to spend most of their time hiding in lockers "staring at the motion tracker". "Polygon" criticised the overexposure to the alien creature, turning "Alien: Isolation" into an irritating experience. As Gies explained, "Every time I thought I heard the monster, every blip on my motion tracker, was a cause for a tightness in my chest at first. By the 300th time I dived under a table or into a locker, I wasn't scared anymore — I was annoyed." Despite the criticism, "Alien: Isolation" was considered "brave" by "IGN" due to its difficult gameplay, a feature that is uncommon in games with large development costs.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: "Alien: Isolation" received several year-end awards, including "PC Gamer"s Game of the Year 2014, Audio Achievement at the 11th British Academy Games Awards, Best Audio at the 15th Game Developers Choice Awards, and four awards at the 14th National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. It also appeared on several year-end lists of the best games of 2014. It was ranked 1st in "The Daily Telegraph"s the 25 best video games of 2014, 2nd in "Empire"s the 10 Best Games Of The Year, 2nd in "Time"s Top 10 Video Games of 2014, 4th in "The Guardian"s Top 25 Games of 2014, 3rd in Reader's top 50 games of 2014 by Eurogamer, and in "Daily Mirror"s the 10 best games of 2014. In 2015, "Alien: Isolation" was ranked 6th in "Kotaku"s list of the 10 Best Horror Games. In 2018, "The A.V. Club" ranked "Alien: Isolation" as the 5th greatest horror game of all time in a list of 35, while "GamesRadar+" ranked "Alien: Isolation" as the 3rd best horror game of all time out of 20.


title: Alien: Isolation

text: Although Sega said that sales of "Isolation" were weak, Creative Assembly originally considered the possibility of developing a sequel. Later, it was revealed that most of the "Alien: Isolation" design team no longer worked at Creative Assembly, and that the company was working on a first-person tactical shooter based on a new IP. In 2016, a pinball video game adaptation, "Aliens vs. Pinball", was released for the "Zen Pinball 2" and "Pinball FX 2" video games developed by Zen Studios. Two comic book sequels, "Aliens: Resistance" and "Aliens: Rescue", and a novelisation by Keith DeCandido, were released in 2019. A spin-off sequel developed by D3 Go, "Alien: Blackout", was released for mobile devices on 24 January 2019, while a web television series adaptation, "", was released on "IGN" on 28 February 2019.


title: Hungary national football team

text: The Hungary national football team () represents Hungary in men's international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made 9 appearances in the FIFA World Cup and 4 appearances in the European Championship, and plays its home matches at the Puskás Aréna, which opened in November 2019.


title: Hungary national football team

text: Hungary has a respectable football history, having won 3 Olympic titles, finishing runners-up in the 1938 and 1954 World Cups, and third in the 1964 UEFA European Football Championship. Hungary revolutionized the sport in the 1950s, laying the tactical fundamentals of Total Football and dominating international football with the remarkable Golden Team which included legend Ferenc Puskás, one of the top goalscorers of the 20th century, to whom FIFA dedicated its newest award, the Puskás Award. The side of that era has the all-time highest Football Elo Ranking in the world, with 2230 in 1954, and one of the longest undefeated runs in football history, remaining unbeaten in 31 games, spanning over four years including the much heralded Match of the Century.


title: Hungary national football team

text: The Hungarian team faced a severe drought starting from their elimination at the 1986 World Cup, failing to qualify to a major tournament for 30 years and reaching their lowest FIFA ranking (87) in 1996, as well as finishing 6th in their group of the Euro 2008 qualifiers, before qualifying to back-to-back Euros in 2016 and 2020, as well as getting promotion to the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League A.


title: Hungary national football team

text: Although Austria and Hungary were constituent countries of the dual monarchy known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they formed separate football associations and teams around the start of the 20th century.


title: Hungary national football team

text: The national side first appeared at the Summer Olympic Games in 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden. The team had to ask for donations in order to be able to go to the games. Hungary lost 7–0 to England and thus were eliminated.


title: Hungary national football team

text: After the Olympic Games Hungary played two matches against Russia in Moscow. The first match was won 9–0 and the second 12–0, which is still a record for the national side. The top scorer of the two matches was Imre Schlosser who scored seven goals. The beginning of World War I had a deep impact on the thriving Hungarian football. Both the country and the clubs were suffering financial problems. During World War I Hungary played Austria 16 times. In 1919 England claimed the exclusion of the Central Powers (including Hungary) from FIFA. When FIFA refused England's plea, the British (English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish) associations decided to resign from FIFA.