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Alan Wake DLC discounted on Xbox Live Marketplace
As part of its ongoing "Countdown to New Year's" promotion, Xbox Live has reduced the prices of both Alan Wake DLC episodes -- The Signal and The Writer -- by more than fifty percent. You can grab the two-part epilogue now at 200 MS Points ($2.50) apiece. If you're going to spend as much as $5 watching a nocturnal, has-been writer trying to escape his own plot twists, you're better off with Alan Wake than M. Night Shyamalan. The tenuously Alan Wake-branded "Rain Coat and Pants" avatar clothing set has also been reduced to 120 MS Points ($1.50), but we'd suggest saving that change for a rainy day instead. Like, when there's actual rain outside.
Alan Wake: The Writer review: Scary scribblenaut
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." This advice from Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes, would prove useful to anyone in the business of storytelling -- anyone but Alan Wake. A sip of reality would do the ill-tempered writer some good, now that he finds himself in a drunk stumble towards the end of a story that began in May. In "The Writer," the final downloadable episode for Alan Wake, developer Remedy faces a problem that creeps in at the climax of any thriller. With the air cleared of mystery, there's much less impetus to march through the forests of Bright Falls in search of obscured answers. Remedy reaches for the carpet now, taking hold of its reality-with-a-twist setting before twisting it some more, until the world hangs upside-down. %Gallery-104826%
Alan Wake 'The Writer' dated October 12th, promises to 'end the nightmare'
Courtesy of the below-embedded trailer for "The Writer" – the purported final piece of Alan Wake DLC – comes the release date and, with it, the end of Alan's journey, both narratively and (for now?) commercially. Come October 12, you'll once again rejoin Alan Wake in his nightmare world, a strange place populated by photosensitive murderers and floating words, and "end the nightmare" as the trailer proclaims. Like "The Signal," the game's first DLC episode, "The Writer" will cost a reasonable 560 Microsoft bucks ($7 Earth bucks) and feature "intense action." After watching the Bright Falls lighthouse explode a bunch of dudes in the trailer, we're going to agree with that assessment.
Report: 'The Writer' is final Alan Wake DLC
Alan Wake's "The Writer" DLC may be the last we see of Mr. Wake in downloadable form, according to Evil Avatar. Remedy head Matias Myllyrinne apparently told the site that The Writer would "conclude things" (Evil Av's words) and, like the last DLC episode, would feature "intense action" (Myllyrinne's words). Remedy has yet to confirm the report as of publishing. Even if the Writer is to be the last DLC for Alan Wake, Remedy has expressed interest in an episodic, digitally distributed release of the full game at some point. Additionally, a recent interview with Remedy resulted in a fuzzy answer to the question of additional Alan Wake DLC beyond The Writer. With any luck, Remedy will paint a clearer explanation soon.
Upcoming Alan Wake DLC features a song by a band you know
We find ourselves in a bit of a precarious situation -- we've always thought the songs that play at the end of Alan Wake's episodes are delightful little treats, so we don't want to forecast the ending track of the game's upcoming DLC chapter, "The Writer." We do know what said track is, though, and we desperately want to tell you. If you don't mind the minor spoiler, continue reading past the jump.
Remedy discusses next Alan Wake DLC, 'The Writer'
Outside of the knowledge that a second episode of DLC for Alan Wake -- titled "The Writer" -- will be coming sometime this fall and that it will cost 560 MS Points ($7), little else is known about the developer's plans for the future of the series. Though head of franchise development Oskari Häkkinen didn't get too specific, he told Eurogamer that the second DLC may not necessarily be the last we see of Mr. Wake on Xbox Live Marketplace. "I can't confirm whether this is going to be the last one or not. There are some things in the pipeline that we're looking at, and we're balancing out how we will move on with this," Häkkinen said. In terms of "The Writer," though, Remedy ... writer Mikko Rautalahti added that gameplay will skew towards the type found in the first DLC ("The Signal"), while level design errs more on the side of fantasy than the first. "You will be seeing a lot more weird stuff. And we've learned quite a bit from making 'The Signal,' and we'll be applying that to 'The Writer' quite a bit," he said. Both Häkkinen and Rautalahti remained relatively tight-lipped on the subject of an Alan Wake sequel, with Häkkinen only allowing, "I don't see any reason why we wouldn't continue with Microsoft with a full-blown sequel for Alan Wake. We definitely want to do it. We have great ideas for it. I can see Mikko here twiddling his thumbs with his ideas for Alan Wake 2. There's certainly a want, and that want is I believe from both sides." He did, however, add, "Right now I can't confirm anything." Given our feelings on the game (and the first DLC), we've got all our fingers and toes crossed for more.
Alan Wake DLC episodes priced at $7 each
Remedy's imperiled author sim, Alan Wake, will be extended in two downloadable episodes later this year, with the first set to launch on July 27th. Entitled "The Signal," the first add-on is available free to players who purchased the game new. We met up with Remedy's Head of Franchise Development, Oskari Hakkinen, and ascertained that the episode -- which should last around 90 minutes -- will cost 560 MS Points ($7) on the Xbox Live Marketplace to those who purchased the game sans shrinkwrap. The second downloadable episode, "The Writer," will also cost 560 MS points ($7). According to Hakkinen, the $10 price seen within Alan Wake's DLC menu was meant to be a placeholder.
Second Alan Wake DLC episode 'The Writer' priced at $10
Stephen Totilo once wrote that game content can exist outside of a game disc, and there's more than a little fun to be had in expansions. They're antithetical to the limitations of physical distribution. In a news story, the reader keeps asking, "What will it cost?" but there can be no explanation ... even though there should be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest and it's what we'll remember complaining about in the end. My name is Ludwig Kietzmann. I'm a blogger ... type thing. The second downloadable episode of Alan Wake will be called "The Writer." The description of the content, which recently popped up in the game's "Downloadable Content" menu, reveals that the tortured author will find himself in "strange circumstances" (surely he must be used to those by now) and must face "one increasingly nightmarish situation after another." According to the listing, the episode will cost 800 Microsoft Points ($10). The first episode, "The Signal," will cost the same when it launches on July 27th, though it's a free download for those who purchased a new copy of Remedy's thriller. You'll find an image and full description of the DLC after the break -- don't venture further if you're sensitive to spoilers.
