Video Games
Latest ‘Alan Wake 2’ Gameplay Clip Sees Wake Encounter an Old Friend [Watch]
IGN continues to drop more Alan Wake 2 clips, with the latest 5-minute gameplay footage seeing Alan Wake meeting up with an old friend.
The clip sees takes place in The Dark Place, a nightmare version of New York, where Alan is currently trapped. He’s not alone, as Alan finds a familiar face in the jacket-wearing, paisley tie-sporting detective Alex Casey, the hero from Wake’s successful crime book series.
Despite being voiced by James McCaffrey and sharing the likeness of Remedy Entertainment’s Creative Director Sam Lake, Alex Casey is not Max Payne (though Max will be getting a revival soon). According to Lake, this version of Casey is “more over-the-top hardboiled” than before. Lake notes that this version of Casey is drawing from the same inspirations and his love for noir as Max Payne did, right down to an outfit “reminiscent of Brad Pitt’s character in the neo-noir film, Se7en.”
The gameplay clip is not all talking, as Alan does end up having to navigate the darkened alleyways of The Dark Place, with mysterious shadow figures passing by until he’s forced to engage in combat.
Originally scheduled for release next month, Alan Wake 2 will now be coming out on October 27th for PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series.
Video Games
Bloody Body Horror Revealed in ‘Stellar Blade: Blood Rain’, Currently in Development [Trailer]
Shift Up has shifted things dramatically from 2024’s action-adventure game Stellar Blade, offering up a body horror bonanza in the newly announced sequel, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. The sequel is currently early in development, but if the trailer is any indication, players will be in for plenty of body horror.
Continuing the story from the original Stellar Blade, Blood Rain will star a new protagonist named Eve. Earth has been abandoned, and what is left of humanity has fled to a Colony in outer space.
Shift Up had mentioned during a Q&A following its latest earnings presentation last month that development on Blood Rain (which was still unannounced at the time) was progressing smoothly, and was on track to meet their targeted quality standards.
Shift Up stated that with this new title it would be transitioning to a first-party service model, effectively moving away from the restrictions the game experienced with original publisher Sony, which had the game under an exclusivity agreement for the PlayStation 5. “This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the Stellar Blade IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively.”
Whether this means that Xbox Players will finally be able to play the original game (or its sequel) is still not clear. Meanwhile, Stellar Blade is reportedly being ported to the Nintendo Switch 2, but no official confirmation has been made.