This is great news to those who are anticipating this game, and should silence all the doubters. What do you guys think? Please, no fanboyism ok. :)
How is the game structured?
The story of Alan Wake is made up like a continuing season of a TV series, consisting episodes where the story unfolds as the player completes missions. Some of the episodes end up in a ****c cliffhanger, while others are calmer, concentrating on character development and Alan's past. Although you can play the game in one-episode portions, that isn't Remedy's ultimate goal. "We want to give the game an irresistible 'one more episode' atmosphere" lead designer Petri Järvilehto says.
The plot of Alan Wake is tied in episodes, but the game world isn't. You can move freely around Bright Falls and the surrounding nature without any urgency. There is much to explore in the huge environment and by talking to the residents you might discover unexpected secrets. "However, Alan Wake isn't a Bioware RPG" Järvilehto clarifies. "The storytelling doesn't advance if the player wonders aimlessly around the woods."
What is the gameplay like?
"Alan Wake is more tightly character-driven and story-oriented. Meaning that the player's goals and missions are closely focused around Alan Wake and his story. Also, the setting, the tone and the game being an action thriller all set it clearly apart from the GTA games." - Sam Lake
"Intense cinematic action is something that we love to do, and Alan Wake features tense combat gameplay as well, but all things considered the game has a lot more emphasis on adventure and exploration that what Max Payne did." - Petri Järvilehto
"Driving is an integral part of the game" - Petri Järvilehto
Will there be wildlife in the game?
Yes.
Max Payne has bullet-time, what will Alan Wake have?
"We believe that our approach with Alan Wake will provide the players with a new take with the combat ****and gameplay. We're not revealing any details yet though." - Sam Lake
"The combat is not purely about gunplay. The use of light plays an important role in the combat, and different light sources provide new gameplay angles there." - Petri Järvilehto
The fight scenes in the game emphasize on quality and uniqueness, not quantity. "Even the risk of having to get involved in a fight has to feel suspenseful" says Petri Järvilehto. "One of our biggest challenges has been to try and turn a fighting encounter that lasts only for a couple of seconds into something that feels thrilling even after a minute."
Alan Wake is a free-roaming game, will there be parts of the map to unlock?
"We'll open more of the game world as the game progresses. The area is so large, that we want the players to become familiar with a smaller subset of the world, before we introduce new locations and new areas." - Sam Lake
Are there alternate methods to completing the missions?
"The basic idea with the free-roaming world is that we give the player goals, and then the player can go about achieving those goals in the way he chooses." - Sam Lake
How does light have an effect on gameplay?
Light will weaken or hurt Wake's enemies, and creatively taking advantage of any and all light sources within Alan Wake's grim world ought to be one of the interesting aspects of play.
It's not that simple however, as Alan is hypersensitive to light since he was born. "The events fall under one big shadow from the beginning: the dilemma of what is real and what is merely a nightmarish figment of Alan Wake's imagination" says Lake.
"A setting sun doesn't bode well for Alan Wake" says writer Lake. "During nightfall the player has to either equip himself properly or look for shelter."
Are there any loading times?
No. Utilising multiple cores, the game will seamlessly generate vast areas of the game world for the graphics card to render.Remedy
In short, the game is structured kinda like GTA, where the game is open world, free to explore, but the story missions are more semi-linear like GTA, with episode structure like Alone in the Dark.
LINKY
Yeah I know another sticky -HarlockJC
New Media Content!!
"Alan Wake is the REAL DEAL" - IGN
Alan Wake Daytime Gameplay
Alan Wake Darkness Rising Gameplay
Alan Wake Follow My Light Gameplay
Alan Wake is OPEN WORLD :D
Alan Wake to sport 4xAA!! and more!
We like 4xAA. Due to the alpha-to-coverage feature on the Xbox 360 GPU, it's one of the key reasons we can render a lot of "alpha test" foliage like trees and bushes without them starting to shimmer or dither (as alpha-to-coverage with 4xAA effectively gives us 5 samples of alpha "blend" without actually using alpha blend). Of course that leads into a lot of interesting ways how to get the the other "standard" z-buffer based rendering schemes to not alias, but let's not get into that discussion right now.Remedy
Linky
The game is locked to 30 FPS (well, except menus, manuscript pages, etc which run at 60 FPS). All cinematics are guaranteed to run 30 FPS (as we actually background load the next location, in case there's a location change). If you saw video tearing in the published press material, it's 99% due to video sync issues (E.g, PAL video cams or 59.97 Hz vs. 60.00 Hz screen update).
While playing Alan Wake on a Xbox 360, if the game framerate drops below 30 FPS we resort to screen tearing (same idea as Gears of War uses).
We're right now just fixing bugs and making sure nowhere in the game would the framerate never dip below 30 FPS. I know there's still a few heavy locations in the game where we resort to dipping below 30 FPS, but we're working very very hard to get all those solved.Remedy
Linky
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