Author: Nabeel Burney

Alan Wakes Up

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It had been a long time since we last saw something of Alan Wake; two and half years ago we saw a tech demonstration at an Intel conference, and at the end of last year we saw a brief cinematic trailer. But over the four years that we’ve known about the game, there had been scant information as to what exactly it is. Finnish developer Remedy called it a ‘psychological action thriller’, which told us nothing about the kind of gameplay it entailed. What little else we could tell from the screenshots was that it was set in a picturesque, mountainous settlement and that it had a hefty graphical engine powering it.

However, this morning at Microsoft’s eventful E3 ’09 conference, Remedy finally brought us up to speed on the game and conveyed the essence of the gameplay all in one fell swoop. And it was the highlight of the jam-packed show. Stage demo footage embedded after the jump.

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Dear Esther

Nabeel Burney 2 Comments

Note: A review of the Dear Esther 2012 remake can be read right here!

You find yourself standing on a pier, jutting out from a silent shore with only a small house in sight, a rocky mountain looming behind in the mist. You appear to be on an island, deadly quiet and devoid of life except for a lone seagull fleeing at the sound of your step. Venturing forth into the house you discover an abandoned shack with only boxes lying about, and on the walls a curious set of chalked symbols. Setting off on the path behind the house you make your way up the mountain in an attempt to make sense of this desolate place.

Dear Esther,
the gulls do not land here anymore. I’ve noticed that this year they seem to shun the place. Maybe it’s the depletion of the fishing stock driving them away. Perhaps it’s me.

Dear Esther is an interactive first-person adventure. Based on the Source engine popularised by Half-Life 2, it is a free mod that requires the game to run. Created by British games researcher Dan Pinchbeck under the development moniker thechineseroom, the mod is described as an interactive narrative that “puts traditional game technologies to new use”. Essentially the player has one action available to them, and that is to move around and explore the island. The narrative arrives in the form of the atmospheric visuals and sound, and short spoken fragments of story that are triggered at various spots on your journey. The narrator reads out extracts from a letter addressed to someone called Esther, and relates his attempts to follow in the footsteps of a man arriving to the island before him. Throughout his monologue he alludes to his experiences as well as those of other characters, all seemingly related in some way. The accounts sometimes appear literal but at other times feel more metaphorical and nebulous in their meaning.

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Return to Rapture This November

Nabeel Burney 1 Comment

A release date for BioShock 2 has been announced: October 30th for international territories and November 3rd for North America. During Take-Two’s second-quarter results call yesterday the platforms were still not confirmed, however community site Cult of Rapture lists the PC, 360 and PS3.

A plethora of previews of the game have been going up online in the past month, most of which have been listed at the community site. Tom Francis of PC Gamer UK summarises the press demonstration best in his article which originally appeared in the magazine.

However we finally have the chance to see the very same presentation described in the previews for ourselves. One of the first major trailers for the original BioShock was Hunting the Big Daddy, and it was the first time the game was truly represented and demonstrated in terms of its gameplay mechanics and environments. True to tradition, 2K Marin have presented the full demo of BioShock 2, entitled Hunting the Big Sister. The video demonstration includes all the footage made available earlier during the first unveiling of the game, as well as some scenes previously unseen. The various magazine and online previews referred to a scene at the end of the demo where the Big Sister interrupted the player’s endeavours and attacked, and only now do we get to see this first-hand.

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Modern Warfare 2 Full Trailer

Nabeel Burney 1 Comment

Finally, after teasers and teasers of teasers, we have a full trailer for Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2. The 2-minute cinematic montage features a voice-over by Imran Zakhaev, one of the main villains of the first game. A number of different scenes flash by, some of which were previously glimpsed in the earlier snippets like the snowmobile chase and underwater diving. But new scenarios have been revealed such as an urban terrorist assault and a breathtaking escape sequence from a castle. The game looks to be as dramatic and thrillsome as the previous game, and I’m probably going to stop watching video trailers so as to avoid visual spoilers. There are some things you just want to experience, and Infinity Ward proved that with every single high point of the first Modern Warfare.

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