"Alan Wake"-Catch All

Felt like this game needs some love.

IMAGE(http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/C63C4CDC-0C61-4E0F-B458-C1C41DC6149A/0/boxaWake2.jpg)

In this long-awaited exclusive Xbox 360™ title, fill the shoes of one Alan Wake, a man who makes his living from the terror of others as a best-selling suspense novelist. Trapped in the deceptively peaceful Washington town of Bright Falls, where he came to escape the trauma of losing his fiancée, Alan must piece together a mystery to prevent himself from being trapped inside a nightmarish world forever.

An intense psychological thriller from Remedy, the creators of Max Payne, Alan Wake looks to raise the bar for future games, creating a true cinematic experience. Explore an expansive world filled with missions, unique puzzles, intense combat, and horrifying enemies. Dig into a twisting and multi-layered story filled with suspense, engaging characters, and shocking revelations.

* Episodic content: The mission-based structure of Alan Wake creates an episodic narrative similar to the very best of dramatic television. As the episodes progress, gameplay evolves to introduce new elements and characters, drawing the player deeper into the experience.
* Realistic environment: Experience an immersive reality like never before, as weather and light changes affect gameplay. Explore every aspect of a hyper-detailed Pacific Northwest town as you look for the truth behind the horror around you.
* Massive world: Explore and roam free in an open environment as you investigate the mysteries of Bright Falls. Pay close attention to detail as you look for clues scattered through the town.
* Brutal combat: As night falls, creatures begin to attack, and the longer Alan spends in Bright Falls, the longer the nights get. His enemies seem to draw their power from the darkness, and light soon becomes his greatest ally. Combine use of light with more conventional weapons to drive back the forces that hide in the dark.

Official Website

IMAGE(http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/Modesx/Wake_pow_720p.png)IMAGE(http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/Modesx/Wake_visitorcenter_720p.png)IMAGE(http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/Modesx/Wake_lodging_720p.png)

I'm in. I <3 Remedy.

This is one of too few games that seems to have an intriguing story. For example, I'm loving Persona 4, but I feel like I'm having to overlook the story because it is so goofy. Maybe that's just a JRPG thing. Anyway, I'm very excited for this. It also looks like it may have some of the scary that was missing from RE5.

As I've said elsewhere, this reminds me very strongly of the new Alone in the Dark. As such, I'm completely onboard with this one.

Podunk wrote:

I'm in. I <3 Remedy.

Yes! When's it coming out? I'll need to go on media black-out on this one...

Count me as one of the excited for this. There really hasn't been very much info on this until now, but I have to say that it's really looking fantastic. The combat looks interesting and I love the Remedy style of it. Kind of a Max Payne meets Resident Evil 4 stuck in Silent Hill. The gameplay videos released definitely look promising and I can't wait until this is finally released so I can have it in my hands. Between this and Splinter Cell Conviction, it really shows what some extra time for polish can really do to a game.

Something in this reminds me much of Fatal Frame. Not a bad thing.

Nightmare wrote:
Podunk wrote:

I'm in. I <3 Remedy.

Yes! When's it coming out? I'll need to go on media black-out on this one...

It was a "when it's done" type thing for a long time, keeping true to Remedy's connection with 3D Realms. I think they're scared now that 3DR crashed and burned, because they've finally come out and said Spring 2010.

Try to avoid super big images in the first post of a catch-all, it kind of messes with formatting.

I predicted Alan Wake would be out this year, but I'm happy to be wrong if it means they're really going to stick the landing. Looking damn fine now that they're clearly making a game out of it.

Certis wrote:

Try to avoid super big images in the first post of a catch-all, it kind of messes with formatting.

I predicted Alan Wake would be out this year, but I'm happy to be wrong if it means they're really going to stick the landing. Looking damn fine now that they're clearly making a game out of it.

Fixed it hope that's a bit better...Yeah I am pretty happy with the way it's looking should be a fun and scary game to go through.

exclusive Xbox 360™ title

Ass.

This is the first time I'd read it'd be 360 exclusive.

Edit: Okay, this thread seems to indicate that by "exclusive", they just mean "among consoles." Bloody Microsoft abusing the English language for their own nefarious marketing purposes.

I don't know about this.

For all it's cracked up to be, that trailer sure did make it look like just another over-the-shoulder, 3rd person, action title, albeit with some good atmosphere.

And that trailer, talk about "on the nose" dialog! Ugh. Game writers need to learn that phrase, and then avoid it - AT ALL COSTS.

"This may sound insane, but my horror story is coming to life!"

Really?

Of course it's insane. That's part of the story, and yes, you're right - it does sound insane! You don't need to state it.

Show it. Show, show, show. Don't tell. Show. And if you do tell, don't spell it out; your audience is not {ableist slur}.

That entire monologue sounding like something written by a first year creative writing student, but then again, so did Max Payne. But alas, MP was like a decade ago, and I would have thought that the writers would have matured since then.

I think this premise simply reinforces how inane the writing is in most video games. Alan Wake is supposed to be a writer, and I good writer would never talk the way that character is talking. Listen to the way good authors talk. Check out some speeches from Joe R. Lansdale, or Rudy Rucker, heck, even Steven King and listen to the way they talk. This is how Alan Wake should be sounding: intelligent, creative, and insightful.

Anyhow, all this is to say that I am disappointed that I've been waiting for so long for this, a simple mix of Max Payne, Silent Hill, and Alone in the Dark.

Hopefully there is more to it than that...

If it comes to PC, then I have no doubt I'll buy it.

Yeah, but Max Payne had bad monologues for a reason. It was sort of a mixed parody of old detective movies and comic books. The narration in Alan Wake sounds more like an author reading his book aloud, which makes sense given the plot and setting. It's cheesy, but that may be what they're going for.

Switchbreak wrote:

they've finally come out and said Spring 2010.

So we need a catch-all for this game a year in advance? Wake me up when it comes out.

But in the game, Wake is supposed to be a successful author, and if he is then in order for the character to be believable at all, his writing/monologuing has to be good; he has to be well spoken and insightful. If he is reading his book aloud, then it is a book that I would never, ever want to read - and one that probably wouldn't have been published.

Have Wake be a video game developer, and make his game come to life. Write what you know, right?

I'm tired of the parody excuse used in games to get away with bad writing and conventions.

If games want to be taken seriously, and Alan Wake most definitely does ( I don't see an evidence of this being a parody in lines with Max Payne), than they need to up the ante and get some good writing, including better prose.

For instance, the film Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang was a pseudo-parody of noir conventions, but its dialog was fantastic. So was The Big Lebowski - and that movie is wonderfully written. Dialog in the noir/hardboiled genre is already self-referential and ultra styalized to the point of near-parody, do we need to take it another level?

Being a parody or a satire is no excuse for bad writing. It's just lazy, and the dialog displayed in that trailer was lazy to the nth degree.

It's a case of too little, too late.

I love good fiction. I read ~80 books a year. I'm just waiting for the time when games embrace better writing in terms of narrative and prose. I had hopes that Alan Wake might be that game - but alas, I doubt it is.

Still keeping hope alive, though.

Which Alan Wake catch all thread number is this anyway? It's the 360s version of DNF.

Nosferatu wrote:

Which Alan Wake catch all thread number is this anyway? It's the 360s version of DNF.

Only one I could find?? Its a 360 exclusive also.

Six wrote:

Its a 360 exclusive also.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Edit: Okay, this thread seems to indicate that by "exclusive", they just mean "among consoles." Bloody Microsoft abusing the English language for their own nefarious marketing purposes.

I think you're inferring a bit too much from a couple of lines in a trailer, D_Davis. Yeah, Sam Lake is no Elmore Leonard or Raymond Chandler, and I hardly think that Alan Wake is going to set a new high point in game writing. But even so, it's a little ridiculous to think it will be completely awful just based on what little that trailer showed.

Chalk it up to anticipation. Too little, too late.

But I still hope it turns out to be more than what that trailer showed.

D_Davis wrote:

Chalk it up to anticipation. Too little, too late.

But I still hope it turns out to be more than what that trailer showed.

I still have hopes for it, but I've taken it off my radar because of the yearly bumps. Until then, I bid it farewell

adam.greenbrier wrote:

As I've said elsewhere, this reminds me very strongly of the new Alone in the Dark. As such, I'm completely onboard with this one.

There's definitely a strong Alone in the Dark vibe. As such, I'll be avoiding it like it's a made of radiation.

So is this pretty clearly only going to be X-Box 360? PC Gamer here curious if anyone believes there's much of a chance it'll ever be open for my perusal.

demonbox wrote:

So is this pretty clearly only going to be X-Box 360? PC Gamer here curious if anyone believes there's much of a chance it'll ever be open for my perusal.

It was one of the first announced games in the Games For Windows program, all signs point to it still coming out for PC. Microsoft tends to use the word "exclusive" to mean "not on PS3."

Cool, though I hope I don't have to actually use Games for Windows. I'd hate to admit that it exists-- kind of the same position Microsoft seems to take about Games for Windows.

Thanks.

i am probably going to pick this up when it comes out in 2015. I loved the max payne games and i like the look of what i have seen so far. Maybe i just like cheese.

demonbox wrote:

Cool, though I hope I don't have to actually use Games for Windows. I'd hate to admit that it exists-- kind of the same position Microsoft seems to take about Games for Windows.

Thanks.

"Games For Windows" is just branding. I think you mean GFW Live, which is the actual online system used for tracking accounts, matchmaking, achievements, DLC purchases, etc.

I'm really looking forward to the game, and liked what I saw in the E3 gameplay video. I really like the atmosphere they're going for - creepy and dark without (well from what was shown anyway) going overboard into horror/freakshow Silent Hill territory. Personally I dug the way the story is presented as episodic, almost like you're playing an episode of a weekly creepy TV show.

CHUD.com has a near-final-build preview write-up. It has some spoilery things, but it looks spoilery in the demo sense.

I'm pretty jazzed about this, myself -- and I think this might fulfill some of the promise that Alone in the Dark failed to deliver on.

Don't worry PC gamers. Microsoft has decided to spare you from playing this game on your platform of choice because its a better experience on 360. I'm so glad they saved me from an awful experience.

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 realised 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.

Right your love letters below!