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Alan Wake, Another Game to 'Blur the Line' Between Movies and Video Games

If the PS3 has one, for the sake of originality, the Xbox 360 must have one too

Jan 28, 2010 08:27 GMT  ·  By
What do you do when you're in the dark, and the demons come for you?
   What do you do when you're in the dark, and the demons come for you?

Video games and movies are starting to become closer and closer to one another, and not just through tie-ins and spin-offs. While there are plenty of movies based on video games and vice versa, some are taking a new approach to the symbiotic relationship between the two. If the movie DOOM had a first-person shooter sequence (which was quite delicious to be honest,) titles have been trying for some time now to become more and more of a cinematic experience. BioWare's last two released games are a perfect example of that, with both Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 coming very close to a full-blown theatrical experience.

And while the developers of the PlayStation 3 exclusive Heavy Rain said pretty much the same thing, Microsoft believes that its PC and Xbox 360 game, Alan Wake, will "blur the lines between video gaming and television." Microsoft also assures us that the long-awaited game is still on track for its spring release. "Alan Wake is on track from a development standpoint and will play an important role in our Spring 2010 game portfolio," Laura Disney, the product marketing manager, says, adding that the title's developer, Remedy, has "really polished the game over the last few months."

What we've seen so far from Alan "Wait" is, besides the repeated delays, that the game is a third-person survival horror, in which while firearms are included, they are not, by far, the most efficient weapons. In good horror tradition, unlike Resident Evil 5, the footage we've seen so far from Alan Wake takes place mostly at night, in a pitch-black, remote mountain setting, where the player fends off a rather large number of assailants with light, keeping the photophobics away with a flashlight, more than with the revolver and shotgun.

"The time Remedy has spent on Alan Wake is indicative of the final result players can expect to see. The storyline will run as a driving factor throughout the game, creating an atmosphere that captivates the player in a way that many straight-out horror games do not," Disney adds. "Alan Wake will blur the lines between video gaming and television, and play on the strengths of both to create something truly compelling."