alan-wake posts

It's been a long wait to see what Alan Wake has been doing with himself. The writer first appeared to us in the press at E3 2005 in the game of the same name. That demo, at the ATI booth, has been the only live demonstration shown to the public . . . until this week, that is. Now four years later we got to see yet another live demo of the game (this time at publisher Microsoft's booth) and we think that the four year wait might actually be worth it.

Developer Remedy wanted to mess with the heads of gamers as Alan Wake has to deal with the fact that his supernatual-themed book is coming to life all around him in a Pacific Northwest town. He also has to deal with the kidnapping of his wife Alice by folks who want the manuscript for this new novel. The only problem? Alan doesn't even remember writing anything about it.

Microsoft's E3 2009 press event had members of Remedy on stage as they gave a live demo of Alan Wake. It was the first live public footage that was shown from the game since it was first announced at E3 2005 (yep, four years ago). It was announced that the game will be coming sometime in the spring of 2010.

The footage showed writer Alan Wake exploring the forest area of Bright Falls and dealing with a lot of supernatural threats; from invisible hands throwing objects like cars to strange people-like things that seem to look like ghostd but a lot scarier. The graphics look solid, especially in terms of lighting and the use of light and dark to create a creepy experience.

E3 2009 is getting closer and closer. And with the countdown continuing so do the rumors of what will be revealed at the show. One such rumor-filled source is a Twitter account called Game Fork who has been updating with info on what will be revealed at Microsoft's pre-E3 event on June 1

According to the page, you can expect to see Remedy's four-years-in-the-making action-adventure game Alan Wake come out of its full stealth mode at Microsoft's E3 event. Also due for a full reveal, according to Game Fork, is All Points Bulletin, the long-in-development urban action MMO from developer Real Time Worlds. Assassin's Creed 2, BioShock 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction are also planned to be shown in some form at the event. If this source happens to be on the ball, Microsoft's E3 press conference should be of interest to PC gamers as well.

[Via Gamespot]

Developer Remedy is now closing in on four years since it first revealed its plans for Alan Wake and since then little to no info or media has been released (although the developer did release a new trailer and screenshots last October). Now a new YouTube video has been released which supposedly shows off actual gameplay from the long awaited thriller-action title.

The video supposedly comes from an upcoming GDC 2009 presentation and is taken via the patent-pending "Shaky Cam" off a monitor. So the quality of the footage is, well, bleh. It doesn't help that the footage itself is on the boring side with the player character simply walking through a forest area and ending up at a lake-side shed. One interesting thing is that the viewpoint is third-person, which is something that the developers haven't talked about. Again, take this footage with a big grain of...well, you know.

Update: Looks like we and other web sites got suckered into this one (but we were also skeptical this was the real deal anyway). Videogaming247.com has posted word from Remedy that this footage is not from Alan Wake. In fact it comes from a canceled game from UK based Kuju called Redwood Falls according to this NEOGaf post.

In the last days of 2008 we posted up an extensive multi-part preview of many of the games we though might be released for the PC in 2009 (with a few that might not make it until after the year is over). However it's one thing to post up such a preview feature. It's quite another to go through that huge list of games and pick which ones we want to play the most.

That's exactly what we did, though. Out of the over 100 game titles listed in our preview we picked our top 10 titles that we are the most excited to play in 2009. This time we picked games that we are fairly sure will be out by the end of this year although, as usual, delays can and usually do happen. So what are the games we picked and which is number 1 on our list? We are giving away our number 10 pick above.

Click on the image above to continue reading our top 10 most anticipated PC games of 2009.

Yesterday we started our look at the PC games of 2009 with a ton of various upcoming action and FPS titles. But there are so many of these type of games due out in the next 12 months that we had to split that preview up into two parts. This entry not only contains a number of traditional action titles but also has some fighting games and flying action game titles as well.

Check back on Monday as we will next take a look at the various strategy-RTS based games due out in the next year.

Click on the picture above to read more on the 2009 PC Game Preview: Action-FPS Titles Part 2

No, your eyes do not deceive you. After a long period of silence, Alan Wake is back with fresh screenshots and a new cinematic trailer. It doesn't save the game from potentially becoming vaporware, or a new Duke Nukem Forever-esque joke, but it still provides some hope that the thriller/suspense game will still see the light of day.

Download HD Alan Wake Cinematic Trailer (155 MB)

It's been a long, long time but developer Remedy has finally updated the official web site for their long awaited mystery-adventure game Alan Wake. While there's actually no new info on the game itself there are some brand new screenshots posted on the site (which we have reproduced here)

The new screenshots definitely show some improvements in visuals over the last screenshots that were released over two years ago but they still retain that X-Files/Twin Peaks influence in the game's art design and themes. In a post on the game's official message boards, Remedy states the screenshots were taken from the PC version of the game in 1080p resolution but cut down to 720p for posting on the web site.

The web site also has the much promised trailer that was first shown in Remedy's native Finland before showings of the Max Payne movie. Unfortunately as of this writing the trailer cannot be viewed or downloaded from the site (too much traffic perhaps?) We hope to have a local version of the trailer available for all of you to download soon. In the meantime the release date for Alan Wake is still "when it's done"

Anyone who had hopes that the film adaptation of Remedy's Max Payne action game series would break the usual "crappy video game movie" formula is likely to be disappointed yet again. The film has apparently been kept from viewing by the nations movie critics until the last possible minute by its studio Twentieth Century Fox (it's due in theaters Friday) but some early reviews are not encouraging.

The Hollywood Reporter's review says the film is more style and substance, saying, "For lovers of cinema, however, the title reads "Maximum Pain.'" Variety's review is a little more charitable but ultimately says, "it's not nearly as much fun as actually playing the game." Aint It Cool News is especially harsh on the movie, saying, 'The damn thing's 85 minutes and you swear you've been in there for about two and a half hours by the time it's over. "

It's been over three years since the first announcement about Alan Wake, the action-adventure thriller game from developer Remedy. You would think that they would have a lot to say about the game by now but a new Q&A over at 1Up.com with its writer Sam Lake says little that is new about the title

Lake states, "Alan Wake remains true to the original vision of the game, but we are still fine-tuning different elements, making sure that this will be a best possible realization of that vision." He does say that the game is structured like a season 1 DVD of a TV show with separate episodes, cliffhanger endings and a supporting cast around the title character. We can expect to see a new trailer for the game in the next few days as Remedy created a new one for the Finnish theatrical release of the Max Payne movie.