| Alan Wake |
 Alan Wake Alan Wake is a third-person action-adventure psychological horror game developed by Remedy and published by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 on May 18, 2010 (May 14 in Europe, May 20 in Australia, and May 27 in Japan). It was later ported (with help from Nitro) for the PC as both a self-published downloadable title (released via Steam in North America and Australia on February 16, 2012) and a retail title (in Europe by Nordic on March 2, 2012 and in Japan by E-Frontier on March 30, 2012). Stylized as a thriller TV series (with an "episodic" format, complete with plot twists and cliffhangers) in similar vein to the 1990 drama Twin Peaks, the game follows Alan Wake, a best-selling author of thriller novels who is suffering from severe writer's block. Hoping that a vacation will calm his mind, he travels with his beloved wife Alice to the small town of Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. When a series of events causes Alice to mysteriously disappear into the depths of Cauldron Lake, Alan's supposed writing begins to take a deadly life of its own. Using any source of light he can find, Alan must fight those "taken" by the darkness and discover the true nature of the dark presence to save his wife (and the entire town). The game later received two downloadable "special features", which serve as epilogue episodes tying the game's ending with a possible sequel. These episodes ("The Signal", released on July 27, 2010, and "The Writer", released on October 10, 2010) were released for $6.99 each, and were later included in the PC version free-of-charge. The game later received a downloadable spin-off title, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, for the Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade on February 22, 2012) and PC (via Steam on May 22, 2012 in North America and on June 29, 2012 in Europe). Originally a multiplatform title, the game took over five years (since its public announcement in E3 2005) to develop. During that time, the game received a new custom game engine and a Microsoft-partnered exclusivity. PC System Requirements Minimum Recommended OS: Windows XP SP2 Processor: Dual Core 2GHz Intel or 2.8GHz AMD Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: DirectX 10 compatible with 512MB RAM DirectX®: 9.0c Hard Drive: 8 GB HD space Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible OS: Windows 7 Processor: Quad Core 2.66GHz Intel or 3.2GHz AMD Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: DirectX 10 compatible or later with 1GB RAM DirectX®: 10 Hard Drive: 8 GB HD space Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible Price: 29.99 |