Alan Wake

[Vgfian]

Click to view video.

This was announced years ago, and is finally coming out.
From the makers of Max Payne.

EDIT:

*Facepalm*

Could someone please move this to the xbox forum? I screwed it up, and put it here by accident.

[the Octopus]

Moved.

I remember the first trailers for this, I'm a bit surprised it was delayed so long.

[Vgfian]

Has anyone actually played this yet?...

[Demonicus Prime]

I don't think it's out.

[Vgfian]

Nope, spring 2010. :/

[Valigarmander]

MEGA BUMP

Alan Wake Shipping May 18, New Trailer Released

Alan Wake, the "psychological action thriller" from Max Payne developer Remedy, will release on May 18 in North America and May 21 in Europe. No, your eyes do not deceive you. This is not a hallucination. After five long years of development, Alan Wake actually has a release date. And what's more, Remedy also released a new trailer showing off some awesome cinematic and gameplay footage.

We've previously seen indications that Alan Wake would likely be released in May, but now everyone who's been looking forward to this game for the last five frickin' years can finally find solace in knowing it'll definitely be available soon. If you want to make super-sure, you can pre-order it at select retailers and also get a Bright Falls Bonus Pack, which includes Alan Wake-style Avatar gear, an XBL theme, and a making-of video.

If you're the collector type, there will also be a special limited edition of Alan Wake, which comes with a bonus disc of behind-the-scenes footage, in-game commentary and hints by the folks at Remedy, a soundtrack, and a bonus book called "The Alan Wake Files." All of this will, of course, come in a grandiose hardcover package. No price for the limited edition was given.

Check out the exciting trailer above, and then continue carrying on with your life as you have been the last five years until May 18. It's only three more months -- we can make it. We can do this together.

[the Octopus]

Bee tee dubs the whole Bright Falls thing is totally like wut there was a movie Darkness Falls. This is very reminiscent of it, although it might be a takeoff of something else.

Other than that, looks pretty effing tight. Any chance there'll be a PC version? Who's publishing? Ah, I guess the PC version was cancelled?

Anyway, the plot is also severely reminiscent of the film In the Mouth of Madness. I'm a fan of that film, so it's not a huge deal, but it's also kind of like hey get your own ideas.

[Valigarmander]

PC Version of Alan Wake Officially Scrapped

There was a lot of hedging last year about whether Alan Wake -- originally announced as a PC title over five years ago -- would end up being an Xbox 360 exclusive instead. Last we heard Remedy left the decision to Microsoft, and following the game's showing at their X10 event earlier this week, Microsoft has confirmed the decision is in: no PC release after all.

"Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen," explained a Microsoft spokesperson to Strategy Informer (via Eurogamer). "We ultimately realized that the most compelling way to experience 'Alan Wake' was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive. Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform."

Alan Wake, which follows a mystery writer who decides to finish his latest novel in the sleepy town of Bright Falls only to find his nightmarish story becoming real -- will once and for all be releasing in North America on May 18. But sadly for PC gamers, if they want to be terrified about writing on their platform of choice, it looks like the only option now is to do it the old fashioned way and go to college.

lol

[Robotazy]

o shi-

[the Octopus]

I play PC games on a projector screen you idiots, that's a BS reason and you know it.

[Valigarmander]

Alan Wake Preview for the Xbox 360 from 1UP.com

You can make a pretty convincing argument that Alan Wake is nothing like Uncharted 2. It's a horror game, for one thing -- though I think the developers prefer the term "thriller." One title takes itself very seriously; the other less so. One also relies heavily on light/dark gameplay mechanics (which are absent in the other), and takes place in a completely different location than the other.

But when I got my hands on the game at a Microsoft press event last week, I found myself noticing a lot of similarities. Just enough, in fact, to make a preview out of them -- even though I doubt most were intentional on the part of the developers; and I don't mean to start any PS3/360 system war comparisons between the two. I just came away from my playtime thinking that the two felt oddly similar, so here's what I noted:

The Obvious

I figure I might as well start here, so this article doesn't sound too much like a conspiracy theory. Let's go with the obvious: Both are story-focused third-person shooters where you shoot a lot, but where you also spend time exploring and finding your way around environments. Both feature supernatural elements as a big mystery for players, though that's not the focus of what you do moment-to-moment. And both -- at least, based on the 30 minutes or so I played of Alan Wake -- seem to share very similar pacing: where one second you'll be walking-and-talking, the next you'll be in a busy gunfight, and the next you'll be figuring out how to make your way through the environment. Both games also play up the everyman concept, where you're a regular guy thrown into this situation. And I know I'm stretching this a bit, but I have to get it out of the way: in one case the guy happens to be named Nathan Drake, and in the other he happens to be named Alan Wake.

In the overall scheme of things, this is a pretty small detail, but it's also the one that made the comparison click in my head. I figure it's also worth noting that the main character animation is fairly similar in both games -- especially when it's designed to make you feel like an everyman, such as when you stumble when walking between uneven surfaces, duck when moving out of the way of an attack, or get tossed around when the environment changes up on you, which leads to the next point...

Scripted Events

If you've been following Alan Wake coverage, chances are you've seen a bunch of these before -- the E3 demonstration was filled with them -- but to further my point, the game likes to mess with the main character and throw him off balance. This could be from ramming tractors into the sides of buildings, shifting the camera angle for dramatic moments where you have to run out the side of a house while it's being torn apart and leap to safety, and so on. This again plays into the everyman concept, and gives off those bursts of adrenaline that Uncharted has as the world falls apart around you.

Playful Dialogue

Maybe I hadn't been paying close enough attention, but one thing I wasn't expecting from Alan Wake that I noticed at the press event was how the game goes for laughs, and includes a lot of chatter between Wake and his allies in-between combat. At one point, I noticed Wake was talking with his friend/literary agent Barry Wheeler -- who seems designed as the comic foil -- and Wheeler started talking about the Christmas lights he had wrapped around himself to fend off enemies (who are afraid of light); at which point he then compared the enemies to vampires afraid of garlic. Now, from what I've heard, the voice acting isn't as well done as what you'll find in Uncharted, but the approach and balance between combat and chit-chat seems similar.

How It's Not Uncharted

Anyway, for those interested in impressions that don't have to do with Uncharted comparisons, I like the game a lot -- the design choice of always pointing players towards wherever they see light in the environment makes it easy to figure out where you need to go without seeing a giant arrow on the screen, and the pacing seems great. I like the combat too -- it's satisfying to have to point your flashlight at an enemy to make it killable before shooting to take it out. Though, given that it takes a few shots to clear out most enemies, I'm curious to see how well the combat holds up when more than three or four of them appear on the screen at the same time. I suppose that's where the strategies of using flares and lights in the environment come into play.

Visually, the game seems to hide some of its low quality textures in the dark and behind motion blur effects, so it'll be interesting to see if the daytime scenes (which I only got a brief glimpse of) look as good as those at night. But it's really all down to the story at this point -- I wasn't able to play enough to get a good sense of it, but given the way the developers talk about the game and the way the gameplay works, the story seems to be what will make the game work or not. And with that, I'm off to go think up more Uncharted comparisons.

I wish they'd stop making so many interesting-sounding games at a time when I have no money and a list of games that have already been released and need to catch up on.