Alan Wake

[capncnut]

I've been looking forward to this new 360 horror game for a while now but there doesn't seem to be much information on it. From what I understand, it is supposed to be a Silent Hill meets Saints Row type thing with a vast environment for the player to walk and drive around in. Other than the emphasis on 'darkness and light', that's pretty much all I know. Some of the screenshots I've seen look pretty damn good and I've got a hunch that this game will rock major balls. Anyone know anything I don't?

[Danny]

some stuff here.

http://forum.homepageofthedead.com/showthread.php?t=1082&highlight=alan+wake

[Cody]

thread already made i see

[Danny]

i dont know how i keep remembering em, but at least i didnt make a smarmy search button comment this time;)

[capncnut]

Thanks for sparing me the smarmy search engine comment, I only see the point in checking out recent posts and I really can't be arsed to traipse back through countless threads to respond to old news. Wow, the screenshots in this game are phenomenal. The locations in Alan Wake are nothing short of breathtaking. Still not as much info as I'd like but hey, this game has been shrouded in mystery since it's initial announcement so I'm not too bummed about it. I can't wait for this, I really think it's gonna give Silent Hill 2 a run for its money in the atmosphere stakes. Cheers Hellz.

By the way, you seem to be 'in the know' with this stuff. I want solid gaming information and IGN is the only one that seems to do it for me. I was wondering if you could recommend something better?

[Cody]

Alot of people think SH2 sucked, I liked it

[Danny]

yeah the alan wake site has a forum were the fans can talk to remedy and ask questions, and they get answers to all of em except "why isnt there a max payne 3?":D

http://www.alanwake.com/screenshots.html this leads to the forums but damn those screenshots make oblivion and dead rising look like toy story.

oh and yeah silent hill2 is the finest horror game ever made.

[capncnut]

Coolio, cheers man. :)

[MikePizzoff]

This screen shots are making me drool. Holy shiv.

[Danny]

i think thats what everyone said, it even looks better than games like bioshock i think, cant wait for it.:cool:

[capncnut]

Dug something up from GameSpot.


X06: Alan Wake Updated Impressions

We check in with Remedy for an update on the upcoming Xbox 360 title from X06. By Ricardo Torres, GameSpot.

BARCELONA, Spain--We haven't heard much on Alan Wake since the moody title debuted at Microsoft's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. The game is named after its main character, a troubled writer coping with the loss of his girlfriend. At today's behind-closed-doors meeting with Finnish developer Remedy at X06, we found out what's going on with the unique psychological action thriller.

The demo was led by Remedy's creative director and Alan Wake's lead writer, who traded off speaking during the demo. The pair reiterated Alan Wake's action thriller approach and laid out the game's premise. You'll play as Alan Wake, a writer who's going through a rough patch. It seems his fairy-tale life took a bizarre turn when, after meeting the perfect woman and writing a best-selling novel, his special lady disappears in circumstances similar to those seen in his book, and he's wracked by insomnia. We expect he should have been a touch concerned upon realizing that his novel almost wrote itself (courtesy of the voices in his head), but hey, sometimes you just need to roll with those creative surges of energy, right? At any rate, he's hit hard by the disappearance and heads out to a clinic near the slightly too picturesque town of Bright Falls where, wouldn't you know it, he starts having odd visions of his lady and finding that someone is writing in his journal. Creepy? Yes. Good setup for a psychological action thriller? Totally.

The demo showed a bit of the game's intro off, which began with an eerie array of images, as logos drifted in and out of view, and then panned to a dramatic zoom of Alan hanging out on a mountain top. The view from his vantage point offered a stunning showcase of the area around Bright Falls. The game is re-creating a 10x10 kilometer slice of the Pacific Northwest, which should offer plenty of places for you to explore.

Once the impact of the opening passed, the demo shifted to gameplay and showed off how you'll be getting around and interacting with folks. The basic structure of the game is modeled after a season of a TV series. The episodic structure is being used to support multiple endings in the game and let each episode be broken up into different parts to complement the game's storytelling style.

The demo showed one of the early missions in the game and found our troubled lead starting to explore his surroundings. The game's interface is being kept simple, with a task bar in the lower left-hand corner of the screen displaying your current mission in handwritten font. For the demo, Alan was tasked with going to a mountainside cabin. Alan spoke with a gas station employee and got a key before heading out to the cabin, which was near the charmingly named Cauldron Lake (we're sure it's a fun, happy place). As Alan drove, his inner monologue served as commentary on his situation--a gameplay element that occurred several times in the demo. Not long after he starts his drive to the cabin, Alan encounters a hitchhiker who he picks up (we'll say right now we're a little concerned that Alan might not be the brightest lead character we've ever seen in a video game). During the drive, the situation takes a turn for the creepy, as Alan chats up his passenger with a fun fact: The events taking place are reminiscent of a hitchhiker scene in Alan's book where the fictional hitchhiker is killed. A little later in the ride the pair come across a car wreck. While Alan leaves the car to check out the busted vehicle, a truck zips by and hits his car head on, apparently killing the hitchhiker. A few disoriented moments later, Alan drops like a sack of potatoes.

Unfortunately, unconsciousness isn't the pleasant break from harsh reality you'd think, as Alan must deal with disturbing imagery that ends with what appears to be his lady beckoning him to wake up. When Alan wakes, he finds himself sprawled on the road where he dropped holding a gun and a flashlight. Fortunately, the cabin is nearby, and he heads over to it via a rickety rope bridge. As he nears the cabin, the view changes to a cinematic that shows something wicked coming Alan's way. Just what the mysterious, invisible creature is remains unclear, but if you're thinking it's bad, then you're probably right. The demo ended with Alan encountering what appears to be the hitchhiker on the rope bridge, which served as a snappy cliff-hanger to the experience.

The visuals in the game are looking very sharp, thanks to a cracking level of detail. The environments shown off in the demo featured crisp detail that the Remedy boys took pride in showing off, as they adjusted the time of day and tweaked environmental effects such as wind and fog. The game is set to feature high dynamic range lighting that was shown to good effect as time of day and weather conditions changed. At one point, Alan entered a garage at night with all manner of light sources casting shadows every which way, which was mightily impressive. To really sell the environment's dynamic nature, the team created a tornado that ripped through a house near where Alan was standing and showed all the particle effects it stirred up as it tore into a house. Just as impressive were the character models, which were still a work in progress. However, they looked amazing due in no small part to Remedy's desire to create the most realistic-looking characters it could drop into the gorgeous, but disturbing, playground of the game world.

The audio added a lot to the demo thanks to the speakers set out around the room. The incidental music had some bite to it and helped sell the game's atmosphere. The voice acting was so-so, but we expect it will see some refinement as game development continues.

Based on what we saw, Alan Wake is looking like a promising original title from Remedy that's attempting a lot of interesting ideas. The story and the episodic nature of how it's structured is something we're very curious to see play out. What little we've seen of the game's presentation has a very good feel and seems to be striking the right balance between something you watch and something you play. Look for more on Alan Wake as it becomes available.

Sounds like it's coming on nicely. :)

[MinionZombie]

Ooooooh ... the excitement I'm feeling for this game is the same level as a kid bustin' for a slash who's clutching their winky in desperation as they dance around on the spot. :lol:

Hopefully by the time this comes out I'll have some f*cking money so I can buy a 360 finally, that console has been tickling my bell ever since it came out! :mad::eek:

The Max Payne games rocked cock, so I'm sure Alan Wake is going to similarly batter balls.

[capncnut]

Ooooooh ... the excitement I'm feeling for this game is the same level as a kid bustin' for a slash who's clutching their winky in desperation as they dance around on the spot. :lol:

Summed up perfectly. :lol:

[Danny]

i seriously cant decide which i want more, this or bioshock, i hear theres gonna be tons of max payne references in there and stuff like ads in the stores for videos of address unknown, i think itll play like max payne with a bit of ghosthunter thrown in but set in a big sandbox area that puts oblivions graphics to shame.

[MinionZombie]

pfft, you're kiddin' me, with Alan Wake coming you have to choose? ALAN WAKE damnit! It's the only choice, or I'll set a rabid badger on you.

I'd love to play it, and Address Unknown would have made a really cool spin off tv show or animated film produced/written by the Max Payne guys, it certainly looked rather good in Max Payne 2, I'd actually stand around and watch the tv when it was on. :D

Hopefully Alan Wake has as much stuff you can blow up/shoot up/knock down and so forth as you did in MP2, then add in a shedload of nods, winks, homages and then a splash of interactive culture (TV shows, radio etc) and you've got an awesome friggin' game right there. The graphics look stunning.

I remember I was playing Max Payne 2 a while back and my Mum came in and had a gander and was surprised at how life like it was, she was actually stunned - as was I when I first laid eyes on it, and the cool thing is, bar the odd bit here and there, MP2 is still a fantastic looking game.

Those photo textures they use are a stroke of genius.

[capncnut]

pfft, you're kiddin' me, with Alan Wake coming you have to choose? ALAN WAKE damnit! It's the only choice, or I'll set a rabid badger on you.

I don't know about that MZ, maybe you need to see the trailer again. Bioshock a very tasty looking game indeed.

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[Danny]

damn man, wake looks awesomebut dont knock bioshock, the whole idea of a undersea 50's civilisation thats gone horribly wrong sounds like a kickass fps horror, plus its sorta a sequel to system shock 2, what more do you want?

[MinionZombie]

What more do I want?

I WANT ALAN WAKE TO SHINE HIS GLORIOUS TORCH IN MY EYES FROM THE DARKNESS ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN VISTA!!! :lol:

Damn, will have to get my laptop down to check out them thar vids, this computer hates youtube...

Capn - yeah the video looks rockin' for Bioshock, but it looks more like pre-rendered than in-game, which seems to be more and more and more the case with game trailers these days.

Bioshock looks rather spiffing ... but I'd still prefer the shiny lighted magnificence of Alan Wake's throbbing torch ... err!! ... no throbbing, just torch! :D

[capncnut]

Just found a high quality version of the Alan Wake trailer.

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Here's something else you've probably already seen. :D

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[MikePizzoff]

I've never seen that second video, Capn. Those graphics and physics are completely mind-blowing. I don't care how long they delay this game because I know that whenever it comes out it'll have been well worth the wait for them to make it better.

[bassman]

Jebush! That's crazy. I would definitely get it.....

[capncnut]

The thing that really impresses with Alan Wake is the driving. You try speeding through a ghost town at night with only one headlight working. :elol:

Yeah, this game is f**king BOUGHT!

[Chaos]

I can't wait for this one!

[MikePizzoff]

I can't wait for this one!

*ahem* It's 360 exclusive. :D

[Terran]

*ahem* It's 360 exclusive. :D

Hes said several times he owns all three systems I think

[Danny]

woah, i know graphics dont make the game but this even puts half life 2 to shame, definetly a candidate for 2007game of the year.

[capncnut]

Yeah I know Hellz, it's proper ridiculous. If this handles as good as it looks, we could have a 10/10 360 classic on our hands. It's hard to imagine survival horror being any better than Silent Hill 2 but even the most diehard of SH fanboys cannot deny this piece of eye candy. I predict massive queues at midnight on release.

[MinionZombie]

When is the game finally released?

I'm gonna have to step up my 360 fund efforts this year methinks! I simply cannot allow my life to go by without Alan Wake in my hands ... err ... that wasn't supposed to sound that gay. :lol:

[capncnut]

Technically we should be playing Alan Wake NOW but methinks this will be a Summer 07 release. Unfortunately the developers are keeping ultra-schtum on this one so details will always be sketchy and spoken from tight lips (ooh er, missus :D).

On the plus side, you got plenty o' time to get that 360 fundraiser going!

[MinionZombie]

Ah well that's good, for me anyway, for you lot with 360s and waiting for it, it sucks, but for me it's okay. :lol:

Speaking of keeping schtum, don't you just hate that sh*t? It's like with GTA4, it's coming out in 10 months and we know absolutely nothing about it. Is GTA4 even the title, is it just a working title, what's the game even about, what does it look like?! We know nothing!

Grrrrr...damn people for keeping their lips tight! ;) :mad:

[capncnut]

GTAIV is definitely the title but as for where it's set or who the hero is, I'm afraid we will all have to wait... but not for long! Peter Moore (Microsoft VP) recently announced that there was gonna be some AMAZING news concerning GTAIV arriving very soon so keep 'em peeled. :shifty:

[bassman]

Ah well that's good, for me anyway, for you lot with 360s and waiting for it, it sucks, but for me it's okay. :lol:

Speaking of keeping schtum, don't you just hate that sh*t? It's like with GTA4, it's coming out in 10 months and we know absolutely nothing about it. Is GTA4 even the title, is it just a working title, what's the game even about, what does it look like?! We know nothing!

Grrrrr...damn people for keeping their lips tight! ;) :mad:

I heard something about it being titled "GTA: Sin City". Now, whether or not that is a reliable source, I don't know. Probably BS though.:D

I imagine they'll either make a new city or go back to the numbers now that they've used up the city names from the first game(Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas).

[MinionZombie]

I still think it should be set in the 1970s so you can get that retro vibe like they had with Vice City (which I think is the best GTA game there has ever been). Just think - flares, disco, John Holmes style porno industry ala Boogie Nights - and a whole bunch of other stuff, including a funky-ass soundtrack.

I duno, I just think maybe it's too soon for another "present day" GTA, as GTA3 is set in about 2001, so we're only six years later ... how many jokes can they make?

Hopefully the soundtrack will be more Vice City than GTA3/San Andreas...

Irrespective of when it's set, it'll still be awesome, they'll just have to convince me a bit more if it's gonna be another modern day one, cos I just feel the 1970s is sitting there primed and ready to be jizzed on by GTA...

[capncnut]

The link below is to a picture of Peter Moore bragging about GTAIV onstage. After he dissed Sony's 'rubber duck' tech demo, he said the following:

"Some people do rubber ducks, but some people do tattoos!"

http://www.grandtheftauto.fr/imgs/news/2006/05/006.jpg

So indeed, GTAIV appears to be the title.