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Review: Alan Wake
Alan Wake begins with a quote by Stephen King: "Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear." The line is spoken by the protagonist, novelist Alan Wake, and it's hard to imagine a more appropriate opening. It's a game spent in search of explanations, answers to the puzzling questions put forth by its narrative. It's a very simple, effective hook -- an author's horror thriller is coming to life. The twist? He doesn't remember writing it. It's a great setup, but, as any writer well knows, it's the follow-through that's important. Without something to keep the reader engaged (or player, in this case), a story is doomed. As someone who has eagerly anticipated Alan Wake since its announcement nearly five years ago, I can say -- with some relief, if I'm being honest -- that Alan Wake will hook you to the end. %Gallery-64691%
Bright Falls director Phillip Van explains how to create a fictional town
Since last week's release of the first two episodes of "Bright Falls," the six-part prequel to Alan Wake, we've been feverishly wondering how a live action video game tie-in could be so ... non-abysmal. To find the cause of this phenomenon, we went straight to the source: the series' co-writer and director, Phillip Van. Check out our interview with Van just past the jump to learn about the thematic inspirations and environmental tribulations that went into the creation of "Bright Falls."
Buy Alan Wake new, get first 'game add-on' free
Apparently EA's Project Ten Dollar has had an influence on other publishers, as Microsoft announced that new purchases of Alan Wake will come with a "token code card" allowing for the free download of the first game add-on (said to be coming "later this year"). The Bright Falls Bonus Pack was also detailed, with participating retailers divvying out Avatar gear (the 'I Am Awake' t-shirt) and a Bright Falls Xbox Live theme to those of you who pre-order (the Avatar shirt and Dashboard theme also come with the Limited Collector's Edition). And yeah, in fairness, Alan Wake isn't the first MGS-published title to get an incentivized new purchase plan (Gears of War 2 says hello), but it's certainly been some time since we last saw Microsoft employ the business model. No price has been set or release date given for the first bit of content, but we'll assuredly find out soon enough, as Alan Wake is set to arrive at retail in just a few more weeks on May 18.
PSA: Alan Wake prequel 'Bright Falls' available now
As promised, the first two episodes of Alan Wake's live-action prequel, titled "Bright Falls," became available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers earlier this morning. However, though Microsoft said we shouldn't expect to see the videos anywhere else for a couple of days, the New York Times managed to get its hands on the series' first two installments. They're on the newspaper's website right now, and they are weird as hell. If you're short on time, we suggest you at least get to the "Happy Birthday" scene in the first episode. Watching it is like staring into the inky, black eye of madness.
Live-action Alan Wake prequel premieres on Xbox Live April 25
If Alan Wake's TV show-like presentation isn't, well, enough like a TV show for you, here's some good news: next week, the first episode in a six-part live-action Alan Wake series will be available on Xbox Live. Bright Falls, shot on location in Oregon, acts as a prequel to the events in the game -- which hopefully means that at least some weirdness was taking place in the game's location before the arrival of Mr. Wake. Otherwise, we'll be watching six episodes about a really pleasant town. Allaying the concern we just expressed, Microsoft promises that the series "evokes the same ghostly chills as 'Twin Peaks' did when it premiered 20 years ago this month." The first two episodes will be available for Xbox Live Gold members on April 25, for everyone else on Xbox Live on April 26, and on brightfalls.com on April 27, with one new episode releasing each week until May 17's two-part finale. That date happens to be one day before the Xbox 360 game's release date, at which point you'll get to see the rest of the story in the game -- and the short story included with the collector's edition.
Interview: Matias Myllyrinne on breathing life into Alan Wake
Founded in 1995, Remedy Entertainment is set to celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, along with the launch of its fourth game, Alan Wake. In contrast with many of the industry's studios, which are comfortable with putting out a new game every two years (if not more frequently), this Finnish game developer can't be rushed to completion. "Remedy is not a game factory," its website tells those looking for employment. The company's managing director, Matias Myllyrinne, wouldn't have it any other way. "You know, this is a labor of love, at least for us," he told Joystiq during an interview at the Game Developers Conference, held last month in San Francisco. After we discussed the game's technology, its cinematic aspirations and its carefully picked cast of actors, it became evident that Alan Wake -- despite lacking "buckets and buckets of blood" -- has a heart, transplanted from the people who made it. "It's almost like you need to see it through, for your own kind of well-being as a creative team," Myllyrinne said. Also, there definitely won't be an Alan Wake musical, so forget about it.
Interview: Remedy's Oskari 'Ozz' Hakkinen on Alan Wake
After five long years of development, Remedy Entertainment is weeks away from delivering on one of the "most anticipated titles of 2010." Alan Wake's long journey comes to an end on May 18 (in North America) and the Finnish developer is in full "promo" mode -- when it isn't partying it up, that is. During a press stop in Toronto, Joystiq pressed Remedy's head of franchise development Oskari 'Ozz' Häkkinen on the hard-hitting questions: How much like a homeless Vin Diesel does the new Max Payne look, and when can players expect Alan Wake Wars to ship? We also grabbed a few tidbits about Alan Wake's New York City flashback, dreams of Alan Wake 2 and more on Wake's planned DLC. If that kind of stuff is important to you. %Gallery-64691%
Remedy celebrates completed Alan Wake with new trailer, party
Here's something, at one point, we thought we'd never write: Alan Wake has passed Microsoft certification and is on track to release May 18. The news comes via Alan Wake's community forums, where community manager Pete Papadopoulos posted some pictures of the developers celebrating and opening up a bottle of champagne they bought during development, specifically for this occasion. Who knew they even made champagne back then? Jesting aside, there's some exciting new footage of Alan Wake -- including a rundown of its setting and combat -- just after the break. Source - Remedy celebrates Alan Wake passing certification Source - "Building the Thriller" trailer
Alan Wake scribbles down new May 14 release in Europe
Alan Wake's bizarro world seeps into ours as Europe's release date for the action thriller moves up a week to May 14. Whenever Europe gets a game release before the rest of the planet, it always compels us to check with the mice on the natural state of life, the universe and everything. The North American and Japanese releases remain May 18 and 27, respectively. After launch, Alan Wake will receive DLC episodes before the end of the year that should -- fans willing -- build a cozy, covered bridge to further adventures. %Gallery-64691% [Via @RemedyAlerts]
Consider Alan Wake's DLC a 'Christmas Special'
Like Remedy Entertainment told us back in March, Alan Wake's poorly lit world will be getting a few DLC "episodes" this year. What we didn't know, however, was how said episodes would fold into the game's narrative arc -- but head of franchise development Oskari Hakkinen recently shed some light on them in a recent interview with Edge (via CVG), saying, "We've thought of DLC, which will be more of a bridge between season one and season two, should this first part be a success." Hakkinen is referring to the first, yet to be released Alan Wake as "season one," banking on the interest in the first game to produce a sequel (or "second season") with DLC episodes set to bridge the narrative between the two "seasons." He also likens it to a "Christmas special," adding that it "will give you a different perspective on the stuff you've played in season one." If our past with Christmas specials is any indication of what we can expect from this DLC, we're just as excited as you are.
April Fools: Alan Wake Wars
Throw another gag on the April Fools' Day fire, Remedy has entered the fray. Up for offer is Alan Wake Wars, a game that takes the taut, suspenseful bent of Alan Wake and tosses on a layer of real-time strategy. The game contains 17 maps, 24 unit types and a staggering 18 tech trees. Lots of different units are showcased in the video, including local militia, trucks and, our favorite, deadly lumberjacks. Honestly, as "real time psychological film noir action love story" games go, Alan Wake Wars looks to be on top of the pack. Check out the trailer after the break.
Perfect Dark, Alan Wake items now in Avatar Marketplace
Your virtual closet of Avatar wear just got some new styles, as Perfect Dark and Alan Wake gear is now available in the Avatar Marketplace. You can peruse the usual -- shirts, pants, helmets and outfits -- or if props is more your thing, there's a variety to choose from. "Elvis" you can see above, but there's also a flare, some pages of a manuscript or even an Alan Wake book. Like, a book that says Alan Wake on it that your Avatar looks at. Head into the Avatar Marketplace to see all of the new stuff. Source -- Perfect Dark Avatar gear on Xbox Live [Xbox.com] Source -- Alan Wake Avatar gear on Xbox Live [Xbox.com] [Via Destructoid]
Alan Wake: several DLC episodes this year, second 'season' dependent on audience
As revealed during this year's Consumer Electronics Show, tormented writer Alan Wake will continue his dimly lit journey in the form of post-launch downloadable episodes. After the internally episodic thriller hits shelves on May 18, Remedy Entertainment will expand it with at least two episodes in 2010. The scope of subsequent episodes and the duration of DLC support will hinge on the audience, of course, but Remedy managing director Matias Myllyrinne envisions a substantial engagement. "I think it'll depend a lot on the audience, but certainly we want to -- if we're successful -- we want to do a large 'Season 2,' if you will, at some point," he said in an interview with Joystiq. "Right now, I'm not allowed to say what we're doing exactly this year. But we're going to have more than one episode come out this year." Once the full game is complete and the team has a chance to gauge acceptance and feedback, Remedy Entertainment will shed some more light on its plans. We'll share ours with you right now: Expect to see the full Matias Myllyrinne interview on Joystiq later this week.
Fun facts about Alan Wake's facial animation
CaptiveMotion has announced that it has completed work on the facial animation for Alan Wake. The company provided facial capture services for the developers at Remedy to use in the upcoming thriller. One of the more intriguing aspects of the announcement is that the facial capturing done by CaptiveMotion was actually done separately from the full body motion capture used in the game, which was completed six months prior. As a result, CaptiveMotion had to "present the data in a fashion that Remedy could easily integrate it into their pipeline." The capture technology itself is called Embody, which allows up to 1,600 markers to be mapped on a single motion capture actor. See it in action in the (somewhat bizarre) video after the break.
Alan Wake rated Teen, five minutes of footage illuminated
New footage of Remedy's upcoming mystery thriller Alan Wake has found its way online, showcasing some of the demonic thoughts scrawled on paper by the game's title character. Five minutes of footage found at French site GameBlog.fr (posted after the break) showcases some gorgeous environments and some of the action we experienced at Microsoft's X10. Considering half of the Joystiq staff wasn't even born yet when the game was first announced*, we're just happy to help Alan Wake figure out what's happening in the small mid-western town of Bright Falls. But we're not expecting a gruesome adventure, as the ESRB has rated Alan Wake T for Teen. We can't blame Alan: when you're fighting for your life you need as many gamers as you can get on your side. *Okay, not really.
Hands-on: Alan Wake
During last week's X10 event in San Francisco, I previewed the latest build of Remedy's third-person supernatural action-thriller, Alan Wake. The scene I played takes place later in the game (as opposed to the beginning), so any chance of getting wrapped up in the mystery of the over-arching storyline was not happening; not to mention the demo was relatively short and, oh, the fact that I was preoccupied by the axe-wielding maniac chasing me. A representative gave me a brief recap of the preceding circumstances (I won't spoil it for you) that had landed protagonist Alan Wake in the specific location of the demo level, where the scene kicked off with a "Previously on Alan Wake ... " montage -- like we'd seen before at E3 2009 -- but most of it made little sense out of context. The only thing I was sure of was that I needed to escape from the car I'd just crashed after swerving to avoid someone in the road (who, of course, vanished when Wake looked in his rear-view). After I climbed out, Wake's voice-over cued me to head through the woods to reach a gas station for help. That's when things started to get really weird. %Gallery-85310%
Interview: Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne on Alan Wake
X10 was a special day for Remedy's long-in-development Alan Wake: the release date was announced at last, officially bringing the psychological thriller within a few months of release. On this occasion, Matias Myllyrinne, managing director of Remedy, shared his thoughts with Joystiq about episodic gaming, the inevitabillity of digital distribution, and high-profile competition. Joystiq: It was announced earlier that there would be episodes of Alan Wake. Matias Myllyrinne: It was just announced in CES by Robbie Bach. Did you guys take a look at the experiment with Fable 2? That was surprising. What are your thoughts on that? I think it's interesting to see how those new forms of enjoying entertainment -- how to distribute that, and get through to people in the way they want to enjoy it. I think it'll be really cool to see what happens with the Fable episodic delivery stuff. I think the jury's still out on how people want to consume media such as games. I think it's also an evolving thing, as well. If you think back to music, it's not that long ago that we all bought CDs. That changed. I thought it would happen like in two years, but it actually took more like seven for the music industry to shift and tilt. %Gallery-85310%
X10: The Recap Post
.nounderline a { text-decoration: none; } Microsoft's X10 press event has come and gone, and with it came a stack of Xbox-related news, trailers, screenshots and more. It was so much content, we nearly broke the Internet! Alright, that's probably inaccurate but we have to assume we were close. In case you missed anything, we've wrapped it all up and have it here for you in one tidy, little package. Alan Wake | Dead Rising 2 | Fable III | Final Fantasy XIII | Halo: Reach Left 4 Dead 2 | Modern Warfare 2 | Splinter Cell: Conviction | XBLA Block Party %Gallery-85281%
Report: Microsoft says Alan Wake skipping PC release
According to gaming news site Strategy Informer, Microsoft finally dismissed the possibility of a PC port for Remedy's upcoming episodic thriller, Alan Wake. An unnamed Microsoft representative reportedly told Informer, "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. 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." We've contacted Microsoft to get our own first-hand confirmation of the report. We'll also try to find out why Alan Wake is so afraid of being "intimate." It's like ... just let us in, man. %Gallery-85310%
Still awake? Alan Wake screens from X10 light up your evening
click for our gallery, unless you're s-s-s-scared You didn't think the X10 news was over, did you? Alan Wake, as you know, is always fashionably late to the party, and these latest screens are just another example of that fact. In them we get another quick glimpse at the havoc occurring in the small town of Bright Falls. Alan Wake is scheduled to hit Stateside on May 18, in multiple flavors.%Gallery-85310%
