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Perfect Dark, Alan Wake items now in Avatar Marketplace

by David Hinkle { Mar 18th 2010 at 6:15PM }

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

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Mar 15th 2010 at 12:30PM }

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

by Richard Mitchell { Feb 26th 2010 at 3:15PM }

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.

Continued →

Alan Wake rated Teen, five minutes of footage illuminated

by Xav de Matos { Feb 18th 2010 at 5:00PM }

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.

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Hands-on: Alan Wake

by Randy Nelson { Feb 18th 2010 at 1:46PM }

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: Alan Wake (X10)

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Interview: Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne on Alan Wake

by JC Fletcher { Feb 15th 2010 at 11:45AM }

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: Alan Wake (X10)

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X10: The Recap Post

by Xav de Matos { Feb 12th 2010 at 6:00PM }

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.

Gallery: Joystiq live at Microsoft's X10 event in San Francisco

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Report: Microsoft says Alan Wake skipping PC release

by Griffin McElroy { Feb 12th 2010 at 5:00PM }

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: Alan Wake (X10)

Still awake? Alan Wake screens from X10 light up your evening

by Xav de Matos { Feb 12th 2010 at 2:46AM }

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: Alan Wake (X10)

Alan Wake flashlight-tagging U.S. store shelves May 18

by Griffin McElroy { Feb 11th 2010 at 5:03PM }

One of the more substantial pieces of news from Microsoft's X10 megaton clusterbomb: A release date for Remedy's psychological thriller Alan Wake has been announced. The game's seemingly endless development cycle will finally terminate on May 18, when the game lands in US retail outlets. Our friends overseas won't have to wait much longer than that to get their Wake on -- it's being released in Europe on May 21.

In addition, X10 brought word of the game's attractive pre-order bonuses, which include "exclusive content such as avatar gear, an Xbox LIVE theme, and a 'making of' video." We're not sure we want to deck out our Xbox 360's background with shadowy monsters. We're big fans of our current, non-terrifying theme.

Microsoft also released product shots of the Limited Collector's Edition (pictured above), as previously detailed on retailer sites. No additional information was provided, but we assume the limited edition release will also hit retail on May 18.

Alan Wake gets new trailer for X10

by Justin McElroy { Feb 11th 2010 at 4:30PM }

Can you feel it? After all the delays and waiting, can you feel how close Alan Wake is? If the reality of the situation hasn't fully sunken in yet, we've got a new trailer after the break, slated to be shown during today's X10 festivities.

As for the trailer itself, it looks pretty good, right? Not a ton of gameplay, but it certainly rams home the creepiness and the importance of light in combat. Here's hoping we get some more details when the trailer is shown for real later today.

Alan Wake Limited Collector's Edition spotted on retailer sites with May 25 date [update]

by JC Fletcher { Feb 11th 2010 at 3:51PM }

Retailers have started listing a Limited Collector's Edition of Alan Wake, possibly in advance of an official announcement later today at Microsoft's X10 event. Both Best Buy and Wal-Mart have listings for the item, with an $80 price tag and a May 25 release date.

Wal-Mart's listing actually includes the image seen here, and details the contents of the set: a linen case "designed to resemble a hardcover book" (is this game a book or a TV show?), a 144-page book with a story written by Alan Wake and FBI dossiers included, a soundtrack disc, a token for the first DLC pack, and a disc with an Xbox Live theme and avatar.

Update: Microsoft has officially dated Alan Wake for release on May 18 and confirmed the Limited Collector's Edition.

Gallery: Alan Wake

[Via VG247]

Remedy: Alan Wake demo unlikely

by Richard Mitchell { Jan 20th 2010 at 7:00PM }

During an online community Q&A session held earlier this week, Remedy's Mika Reini dashed hopes for an Alan Wake demo before the game's launch. When asked whether or not the game would see a pre-release demo, Reini replied, "Demo before the launch, most likely not." Of course, that doesn't rule out the possibility of demo after the game's release, though Reini didn't imply that one was in the works.

Reini also responded to a question regarding whether or not we'll see an Alan Wake collector's edition. He wouldn't confirm if a collector's edition is in the cards, and opted instead to cheekily suggest people keep an eye on the official Alan Wake forum. If Remedy isn't working on a collector's edition, allow us to make a suggestion: Just throw a high-powered flashlight in with the game. Bam, instant collector's edition -- and one that would really mess with the people who bought the Modern Warfare 2 special edition.

[Via VG247]

Wake up early for Alan Wake Q&A next Wednesday

by Ben Gilbert { Jan 15th 2010 at 4:00PM }

Okay, okay -- for some of you, 2PM GMT isn't exactly "bright and early," but for us, it's 9AM, so bear with us for a moment here. As announced by Alan Wake's community manager on the game's forum, next Wednesday at 2PM GMT fans will get a chance to ask questions to their heart's desire of the team behind the game at Remedy Entertainment.

As the Q&A will be taking place via IRC (no, we're not kidding), the announcement suggests heading to the web-based client for those of you not familiar with the no-we-can't-believe-people-are-still-using-it chat program. Between now and then, we suggest working on your question list, as the community man also notes the chat will be moderated and only "relevant questions (i.e. questions that haven't been answered already)" will be answered. Get crackin', gumshoes!

Gallery: Alan Wake

Alan Wake will stay up late with post-launch DLC 'episodes'

by Randy Nelson { Jan 6th 2010 at 11:28PM }

Remedy's Xbox 360-exclusive Alan Wake, described as "the TV show Lost, as written by Stephen King, and filmed by David Lynch," by Microsoft Entertainment & Devices head Robbie Bach will -- much like Fable II -- be expanded upon via additional downloadable episodes. Bach made the announcement concerning the long-in-development title during the company's CES 2010 keynote this evening, saying, "story-driven like a TV series, Alan Wake will be told in episodes with even more episodes available on Xbox Live after its launch this year."

Let's just hope Remedy isn't taking cues from The Sopranos when deciding how long it will be between the release of the game's episodes.