Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Developer Diaries February 10, 2012

The first and second developer diaries for Alan Wake’s American Nightmare have been posted up by Remedy.  In this roundtable discussion by Ozz, Matias, and Sam Lake, they talk about how the style of this game differs from the previous one, and what you can expect with the new game.

Hearing them talk about the new inspiration for the games is quite interesting because it makes one wonder if they will change the inspration again for any further Alan Wake games, and where will that inspriation come from.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is coming Feb 22nd, 2012 exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Achievements and Avatar Awards February 5, 2012

Here is the list of achievements for the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.  Since this is being released through XBLA there will be 12 achievements worth a total of 200 achievement points.

• Escape (10 Points) – Escape the Taken At the Motel.
• Rewrite (10 Points) – Rewrite Reality for the First Time.
• Cool It (20 Points) – Make Sure Dr. Meadows can take another look at the skies.
• Happy Ending (25 Points) Rewrite reality for the last time.
• Glorious Dawn (10 Points) – Survive untill dawn in any Arcade Mode level.
• Poetry in Motion (25 Points) – Get a six-minute survivor streak and over 100,000 points in an Arcade Level
• Enter the Nightmare (10 Points) – Unlock all of the Nightmare Mode Arcade levels.
• Skill Beats Gun (10 Points) – Survive an Arcade level using nothing but the flashlight and handheld flares.
• Survivor (30 Points) – Get 70,000 points in any Nightmare Arcade Level.
• Split Splat! (15 Points) – Take out two Splitter Spawns with a single shot.
• One Day I’ll Buy a Stapler (20 Points) – Find all the Manuscript Pages.
• Pile ‘Em High (20 Points) – Defeat 2,000 Taken.

Oh and there are also three awesome looking avatar awards unlocked with the game.

• American Nightmare Hoodie – Meet Emma
• Night Springs T-Shirt – Unlock the first Nightmare Arcade challenge.
• Old Gods of Asgard T-Shirt – Complete the game.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is coming February 22nd, 2012 exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade.  Price will be 1200 Microsoft Points.

Alan Wake PC Release Date and Price February 2, 2012

In the words of Remedy, Alan Wake is coming home to PCs this month, and along with that announcement has come the game’s price.  So many PC users have waited years for this day to come, and now I have all the information that they’re looking for.

The release price will be $29.99US which will include the full game plus the game’s DLC episodes and $34.99 for the LCE, which didn’t have any details about it included with the announcement.

You can check out the full details of the PC release announcement here.

Alan Wake PC is coming February 16th, 2012 through Steam.  Other downloadable retail channels may follow.

Steam Mobile App Now Open to All February 1, 2012

The Steam Mobile app for iOS and Android has been taken out of beta and is now open to access for all Steam users.

In the application you will be able to edit your friends list, chat, and read Steam news.  The application allows access to the Steam games catalog and with it you can view your Steam wishlist or purchase new games.

The program is out now for free download.  A Steam account is required, but is also free to register.  Any Steam users using the app for the first time will need to authenticate their login through your e-mail so make sure that is up to date.

Insomniac Finished With Resistance Games January 28, 2012

Ladies and gentlemen, Ted Price.

So that’s it folks, the end of a gaming era is here.  The three PS3 Resistance games, as well as the Resistance property itself was all created by Insomniac Studios, and now they’re making it official that Resistance 3 was the final game in the Resistance series that they will be working on.  The property is in the hands of Sony and currently Nihilistic, who is developing a new handheld Resistance game for the Sony Vita.

I know this had made news in the past few days, but I wasn’t willing to post it up here unless there was some sort of official confirmation about it.  When this was posted it met my requirements of “official confirmation”.  As far as I’m concerned, Insomniac is the reason why so many people picked up a Playstation 3 at launch, and I still consider the original Resistance: Fall of Man to have some of the best multiplayer on the PS3.

Good luck to Insomniac with all their future game developments.  They are really good at their jobs.  Here, here.

Alan Wake PC Release Date and System Requirements January 27, 2012

The PC release of Alan Wake is getting closer and closer.  Here are the final system requirements for the game.

OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7

PROCESSOR:A dual core processor is required:

• AMD: Athlon X2 2.8GHz
• Intel: Core 2 Duo 2GHz

MEMORY: 2 GB

HARD DRIVE: 8 GB

VIDEO CARD:DirectX 10 compatible or later with 512MB RAM

• AMD: ATI Radeon 3650, 4450, 5550, 6450 or higher (per series)
• NVIDIA: GeForce 8600GT, 9500GT, GT120, GT430, GT520 (per series)

SOUND CARD: DirectX 9.0c compatible

INPUT: Mouse and keyboard, Xbox360 controller also supported

The game will be downloadable through Steam, and you can expect it to take full advantage of Steam’s features.  It will not support the Games for Windows platform.  However, there are some pretty sweet features that the PC game will have.  A cool little PC feature is you will be able to play Alan Wake on multiple monitors, perfect for extreme widescreen aficionados.  It is also compatible with Nvidia’s 3D technology, but is very resource demanding, you’ll need a top of the line GPU to take full advantage of it.

Alan Wake is Coming February, 2012 to PC.  Both DLC episodes will be also released alongside the game.

Steam Mobile App Released January 27, 2012

Valve has done quite a suprising thing and released their own Steam application for iOS and Android.  With it, Steam users will be able to access their friends list, read news and chat while on the go.

I wasn’t expecting Valve to do this, but it does make sense.  The fact is that Microsoft has already released a similiar program worldwide to allow mobile access to Xbox Live, and Sony has also released a similiar application for the Playstation Network (although it has not come to North America yet).  Valve obviously intends to continue to extend Steam accessibility past the PC.  We’ve already seen them release console games that have Steam connectivity (Portal 2 for the PS3) and it looks like this is the next volley to continue that expansion.

However, don’t expect to be able to use the program just by downloading it.  Valve is currently not accepting all users into testing this app right now, but if you want a chance at joining this program in beta testing, you will need to have a Steam account and download the program to your mobile device of choice.  Once you log into the app for the first time you will need to verify your device by e-mail, and Valve will add your account to the list of possible beta testers.

You can grab the iOS version here and the Android version here.

The Darkness II Launch Trailer and System Requirements January 26, 2012

2KGames has released a pretty bad-assed CGI launch trailer for The Darkness II, which, while is completely pre-rendered, captures the feel of the game quite well.  You can clearly see the extent of the powers of the Darkness and what emotional baggage Jackie is bringing with him this time around.

The Darkness II is coming Feb 7th, 2012 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.  Here are the PC system requirements.

Minimum:

• OS:Windows XP/Vista/7
• Processor:Intel Core 2 @ 2GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
• Memory:1.5GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space:10GB
• Video Card:256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 / ATI Radeon HD 2600
• Sound:DirectX Compatible
• Additional: Requires installation of Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable, DirectX and nVidia PhysX version 9.11.1107 (included with download)

Recommended:

• OS:Windows XP/Vista/7
• Processor:2.4 GHz Quad Core processor
• Memory:2GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space:10GB
• Video Card:512+ MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
• Sound:DirectX Compatible
• Additional: Requires installation of Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable, DirectX and nVidia PhysX version 9.11.1107 (included with download)

The PC version of the game will require STEAM.  If you want to check out how the game runs on your PC before its released, you can download a playable demo through the STEAM marketplace free of charge.

If you’re interested in knowing more about The Darkness II, 2K Games will be streaming the first hour of the game here at 4PM PST today.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Release Date January 24, 2012

Major Nelson has officially announced the release details for Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, as well as a few other games that will be released next month through Xbox Live Arcade.

There’s been a lot of buzz about the game since it’s preview at this year’s Consumer Electronic’s Show.  All the gameplay of Alan Wake returns.  The game will also feature both licensed music and new music exclusive to the game, including a brand new single by The Old Gods of Asgard (who sound eerily similar to Poets of the Fall, wink wink).  The game’s storyline promises a four hour campaign storyline and a separate game mode called Fight ‘Till Dawn, where you’ll have to defend yourself against respawning enemies until the sun rises.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, developed by Remedy, the creators of Alan Wake and Max Payne, will be released February 22nd, 2012 exclusive to the Xbox Live Arcade.  The final cost of the game will be 1200 Microsoft Points or $15US.  Since this is an Xbox Live Arcade release, there will be a free demo/trial version of the game released alongside the full version.