Back during E3, I cited Alan Wake as my favorite game shown at the Microsoft press conference, almost entirely because of its atmosphere. I loved the lighting, the fire effects, and the way the world fell apart in front of the player. But I was the first to admit I didn't know much beyond the surface level concept of an author in a horror game in the "Pacific Northwest" (also known as Ray Barnholt country) whose nightmares may or may not be coming true.

So I tracked down developer Remedy's managing director, Matias Myllyrinne, and head of franchise development, Oskari Häkkinen, to get more specific about the game's structure and features that weren't shown in the E3 demo.

1UP: You mentioned before the interview that you want the game to have a lot of cliffhangers. How does that tie into the structure -- will we see the "previously on" and "tonight on" recap scenes [from the E3 demo] in the game itself?

Matias Myllrinne: We have a lot of pop culture references in there -- some call them clichés; we like to think of them as classics. And really, a TV series format fits for the storytelling, the stylization, and the pacing of the story, so those cliffhangers are an integral part of the narrative. We use storytelling methods from TV such as, as you already mentioned, "previously on" or "in tonight's episode," and then we foreshadow something that's about to happen.

And it also helps us to remind the player of relevant story material because the story arcs are fairly long and there's a complex story. That way we can pull out certain things and accentuate those, like "remember, by the way this happened," or "this was what really happened"...and it opens things up a bit more.

Oskari Hakkinen: I was just going to say that it really gives the opportunity for those gamers that don't play every day, to put the controller down and not play for three or four days. And when they pick up the controller again, they can hit the "previously on" to remember where they were and continue their mission.

MM: But that being said, I hope that they sit on their couch and they just, kind of, do what I do with Lost: "just one more episode, just one more episode."

1UP: Do you call them "episodes?"

MM: Yes. We're really thinking of this game as "Season 1."

1UP: I've heard some people compare the game to Alone in the Dark, and the episodic structure ties into that as well. Do you worry about or embrace that comparison?

MM: We really... we don't really look at other games that much for our source of inspiration. I think we borrow from other forms of popular culture. We look at films, music, books... so a TV series works out well. Twin Peaks has been a favorite. So if you look at the location you can see that kind of quaint, small town with deep, dark secrets underneath. Or even the Gilmore Girls. I mean, it's a very different kind of story -- but the location is similar -- so we pull from other forms of entertainment. And clearly a writer whose work is coming true is a classic as well.

1UP: I've also heard that the game originally featured an open world and now it doesn't. Can you talk about why that changed?

MM: We have a huge wide-open...space, so in that sense the areas are huge. But we wanted to control the pacing of the storytelling in a more structured way. We found that to build a thrill ride for the gamer it was much, much better to do it in a linear experience as opposed to an open world experience. We had a version of the game that was totally open world, and we played around with that, and we just weren't getting the kind of dramatic impact that we wanted since we didn't control everything.

OH: The thing in a story for us is that it's really [important] to give that story-driven experience, but the player will never feel like they're being pulled by strings, and there are lots of exploration opportunities -- the paths they take are very wide, and there's a lot [to find for those who] explore. So they'll never feel like they're being pulled by a string or running down a tube.

1UP: When the game shifted from an open world to a more linear game, was there anything else that changed along with that?

MM: No. I think we're very close to the core of what we set out to do, which was to tell a compelling psychological thriller and also to have an awesome use of light in gameplay. So, I think those are very close to what we set out to do. Of course, we iterated and iterated and polished and then tried different things -- it's just the way we work. We craft things from the ground up very carefully. When gamers put their hard-earned money down, hopefully they're having an awesome action experience.

1UP: Is there a day/night cycle?

MM: Yes. So the day/night cycle was a part of our simulation. We control the time of day to get as much drama out of each situation as possible, and the amount of light has gameplay significance... So as the world slides further and further into night, darkness becomes the thing to avoid.

OH: Light's a combat tool for the player; it's also a safe-haven, and we have various different ways to use light sources. For instance, [you can use] the headlamps of a car, or you might need to man a turret or start a generator, for instance, to create yourself a safe-haven. Or use, for instance, a hand flare to create yourself a momentary safe-haven. Many, many, many clever forms of light.

1UP: Will ammo often be scarce in these situations?

OH: At times.

MM: You don't want to frustrate the player with inventory management, but sometimes it's nice to kind of turn the tables and to make sure that, you know, maybe you're in a bad situation where you don't necessarily have all the resources at your disposal. It becomes more about outsmarting your enemies as opposed to outgunning them. Alan Wake is very much an everyman -- he looks like a young Harrison Ford character who was pushed into an extreme situation.

OH: Wake believes that he can will his light source. When he's in a state of panic or fear and his friends have been taken, he doesn't really understand it. He's an everyman, but inside his state of panic or fear, he believes he can will his light source to burn brighter and thus burn away the darkness quicker. Is it all in his head or is it reality? That's up to the player to decide.

MM: And a lot of the story and the fiction revolves around subjective versus objective. Is it really happening or is it all in his head? We kind of play with that. It's an interesting theme.

1UP: Will there be many puzzles that tie in with that, or is the game mostly action?

MM: We have a good diversity of different kinds of things for the player to do. There will be certain minigames...but in terms of puzzles, nothing that would be too frustrating for the gamer, nothing too complex. I think there's a lot of talk that there will be "problem solving." We hope that kind of emerges naturally because light is such a clear gameplay element -- like, if you need to position lamps, for example, to provide cover for yourself, or you need to start a generator and before you start the generator you need to go through [a specific path of lights]. But it should all emerge naturally out of the world as opposed to being bolted on after the fact.

OH: As Matias said, I see it as a form of puzzle -- to really use the light sources around you cleverly, whether it is moving a light source to create a protective barrier from this dark presence that's trying to attack you [or something else]. So that in itself is a puzzle, I think.

1UP: What about backtracking? Is it pretty much a straightforward game?

MM: We have some...because we control the day-and-night cycle, we might have a location that, say, isn't in the daytime [the second time you see it]. Maybe you've spoken to other non-player-characters near it or something like that and we want to place the player there when it's dark and it's stormy outside. And that's actually a very powerful tool because we've now made the player more vulnerable, but they also know the location. So we'll have some of that, but mostly, the kind of empty-level backtracking where you look for the key to open the lock -- that's not really a Remedy thing. We try to cut out the pieces of the game that aren't rewarding and to leave the really good parts in.

OH: You have an opportunity during the daytime, as well, to meet the working locals and get to know the town of Bright Falls. But there are going to be some dream and nightmare scenes, so you might backtrack in your memory, perhaps.

God of War III is undoubtedly one of the PlayStation 3's biggest and most anticipated titles. Gamers have been waiting for a couple years now to see how Kratos' story ends, and fortunately we won't have to wait too much longer as it'll be out in March 2010. Yes, we have to wait until next year, but it's only nine months away.

Anywho, the build that was on display (and fully playable) actually seems to be identical to what we saw of God of War III back in February. You should read that article for the full details on the content, but as a quick recap it involves fighting a chimera (and ripping off one of its horns and stabbing it in the head), jumping on a Cyclops and "steering" it and getting it to kill other baddies, and finally teasing a face-off with a Titan.

While the content was the same, just being able to get my hands on the game and taking it through its paces was awesome. I'm a big fan of the franchise (I gave the second game a 9.7 after all) so for me the team has a big task ahead of them.

Fortunately it seems like they've got everything nailed down right. Kratos feels identical to how he did before in terms of moves, but it actually felt like he had a little more weight to him. This is quite possibly simply because of the massive graphical upgrade, but I thought he felt a little more solid and "realistic", if that's an applicable description.

One thing that I thought was pretty cool is that the bigger enemies seem to have a little more variety to them than they did in the first two games. The chimera, for instance, changes its attacks based on what you've done to it. So at the start of the fight, he'll try to get you with his tail. Once you take that off, he'll stand up and try to smack you, and once you pummel him some more, he'll get down on all fours and try to charge at you from a distance.

The game has undergone a massive lighting rewrite since the last time we saw it, resulting in smoother and more natural lighting. Technical speak aside, Kratos looks even more detailed than before and the whole thing is starting to look stunning at this point.

Jeff had mentioned this is in preview from February, but one thing that has changed is that the quick-time event button prompts no longer appear in the center of the screen. Instead, they show up on the corresponding side of the screen (so Circle is on the right of the screen, X is at the bottom, etc.). This was slightly confusing at first, but once I realized what was going on then I thought it actually worked much better than before. You can pay greater attention to what's going on as you no longer need to "read" the buttons, but instead just pay attention to their placement. It's a relatively small change in the grand scheme of things, but it's a good one.

I really dig what I played. I suppose that's not too surprising that I'm a big fan of the franchise, but the fact that the game holds up to my expectations so far is very good. God of War III is due out in March of 2010, so we'll definitely have more on it soon.

We check out the new Halo 3 multiplayer maps exclusive to ODST owners and then hunker down against waves of the Covenant in a new Firefight map.

As Microsoft and Bungie release more information on Halo 3: ODST, it’s become clear that this upcoming shooter is neither a sequel nor an expansion. Rather, it’s a combination of new and familiar that doesn’t fit very neatly into either definition. You’ll find a new cooperative mode called Firefight and a full-fledged single-player campaign that dives into unexplored territory from Halo 3’s storyline, but the competitive multiplayer component is both identical to and compatible with its predecessor Halo 3. However, one major piece that pushes ODST deeper into “all-new” territory is the inclusion of three exclusive multiplayer maps that regular old Halo 3 players won’t be able to download anytime soon. We traveled to Bungie this week to get a hands-on run through all three of these maps and to take a quick look at a brand-new setting in the Firefight mode.


First, here's a primer for those unfamiliar with ODST’s unique packaging. The aforementioned campaign and Firefight modes will come on one disc, while the competitive multiplayer comes on a separate disc within the same box. It’s the same exact Halo 3 multiplayer fans have been playing for nearly two years now, but with every downloadable map pack ever released for the game on the disc. And, of course, there’s also the trio of exclusive maps known as Heretic, Citadel, and Longshore.

We’ll start with Heretic. This one is the resident re-creation of the bunch because it’s closely based on Midship from Halo 2. Midship, as you’ll recall, is a smallish, circular map with a wide-open space in the middle and a number of sprawling ramps leading up to perches that flank the outside walls. Bungie reps were quick to note that it’s a much more faithful re-imagining than the update from Lockout to Blackout. They described it as being not quite “pixel perfect,” but close enough that all those strategies from the second game will still work here. The inclusion of Halo 3 equipment, such as the bubble shield, adds a new layer of gameplay though, as anyone who’s trying to hold the middle area during a game of King of the Hill while plasma grenades rain down from every direction can attest.

Next on the list is Citadel. According to Bungie, the inspiration for this map comes directly from the studio’s voracious fan base. The Halo 3 community has been clamoring for a small, symmetrical arena-style map for quite some time now, and Citadel is designed to be just that. It’s somewhat of an oval-shaped map inspired from a citadel environment from the Halo 3 campaign, with a fairly open space in the middle and continuous paths around the outside that include both a ground level and second level. It’s a very straightforward map that keeps the focus directly on the players and the action while keeping things fast and frantic. In Oddball, picking up the skull is akin to asking for instant death because there’s nowhere to hide, but in multi-Capture the Flag, there’s enough space between sides that you can score somewhat easily but still keep good enough sightlines on the enemy to play solid defense.

Citadel is a small, symmetrical arena-style map with no escaping from the action.

The third and largest of these maps is Longshore. It’s a marked departure from the other maps, with an asymmetrical layout and dynamic elements not unlike a map along the lines of Zanzibar. Longshore is set on a rusty shipping facility on the docks of New Mombasa and takes place under a hazy early morning or late afternoon sun. All over the place are touches that add to that industrial feeling, with such scenery as forklifts, dinghies, and fake logos for a humorous seafood company called “Fronk’s” plastered all over the walls. This map definitely has the most real-world feel of the three locales. In fact, you can practically smell the sea while playing it.

Longshore is a map that seems best suited for one-flag Capture-the-Flag matches, with an attacking team base, a defending team base, and a large storage facility in between housing such things as shipping crates and a freezer room. The defending team has its work cut out for it with a number of entrance routes to the flag at the top of its building. There’s a wide ramp way off to the side that offers attackers a direct route but little cover; a series of narrow ramps running through the inside of the building that promote intense, close-quarters combat; and a sky bridge that extends from the neutral area in the middle right on top of the flag that can be unlocked when the attacking team switches on a console deep inside the defending team’s base. The latter route changes the battle dramatically, as the defending team suddenly has to deal with attackers coming from below and above. By default, Longshore also comes with a Ghost vehicle, but it’s more useful as a weapon for running over enemies than as a means of transportation because there aren’t any long stretches.

In addition to checking out the new multiplayer maps, we spent some time with the Firefight mode. If you've read our previous impressions of Firefight, you'll know that it's a Halo-themed take on a recently popular co-op mode in games where a small team of survivors are holed up in one location while wave after wave of increasingly powerful enemies come rushing in after them. You've seen similar modes in Left 4 Dead and Gears of War 2, and that's something Bungie reps were perfectly willing to admit. They were quick to point out that the basics of Firefight are nothing new, but it is new to Halo, and Bungie has taken care to put its own distinct stamp on the experience.

Longshore is a big, one-sided map set on a rusty shipping yard.

One big difference in Firefight is the inclusion of skulls, or game-affecting power-ups, that enhance the power of your enemies to add an extra layer of difficulty as you progress deeper into the waves. The first skull is called "tough luck" and gives your enemies an adept ability to dodge from your grenades; the second is "catch" and causes enemies to hurl grenades at you far more than they often would; and the third is "black eye," which only lets you replenish stamina when you melee attack an enemy, rather than have it replenish on its own as usual. If you make it through an entire set (which is made of three rounds of five waves each), you can unlock a bonus round, which turns on every single skull in the game and lets you try to survive for 60 seconds in order to add to your overall points total. Sadly, we only lasted a few seconds in the bonus round--those skulls make the game awfully tough.

We've previously talked about the Security Zone and Alpha Site maps for Firefight, but this time, we got to play in a new area called Crater (Night). As the title suggests, this map takes place under a nighttime sky in an urban locale from ODST's single-player campaign. You and your squad start on the top of a large stairway, with another set on the other side of the map and a large, low courtyard in the middle that gives the map its craterlike feel. The nighttime setting gives you a good chance to use the visor mode, which is a secondary vision activated with the X button that brightens your screen and adds a color-specific outlines over enemies and friendlies. On the daytime map, visor mode simply washes out your screen and renders everything far too bright to see (a bit like staring at the sun), but here, it proves an invaluable tool for registering distant enemies cloaked in darkness.

Crater (Night) is a new Firefight map set under cover of darkness. Visor mode is highly recommended.

All in all, the Firefight mode was a lot of fun. It strikes a great balance between the familiar brand of fast-paced Halo action and a few fresh elements. These include the option to play as non-Spartan characters who are both more fallible in battle and more prone to trash-talking; new weaponry, such as the silenced submachine gun; and the new strategies that come with staying put in one spot rather than charging across an entire level. You can expect to see ODST released on September 22.

Australia, August 13, 2009 - Splinter Cell: Conviction was far and away one of the highlights of E3, and is definitely one of our most anticipated games of the next six to nine months. We recently had the chance to go hands-on with the E3 2009 demo. You've all seen that level, so instead of going through it blow by blow, we thought we'd tell you how the various mechanics in the game feel to actually use, and how much impact the many new visual flourishes have. Read on…

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The Brutal Interrogation

The interrogation scene at the beginning of the demo, in which Sam smashes his interviewee's face into sinks, urinals, toilet doors and mirrors, is not quite as interactive as you'd expect. There are only a handful of objects that you can actually utilise, which, while disappointing in some ways (and possibly not how such scenes will play out in the final game), is fair enough. Why smash someone's head into a boring old wall or a garbage can, after all, when you could use it to shatter a porcelain urinal, True Lies-style? The system isn't dynamic - you basically move from one object to another until your interrogation guinea pig has given up the information you need. The order in which you do things does have an impact, however. Finish up on the mirror and the game name will be projected onto it, whereas that won't happen if you, say, finish on the toilet door. What, you didn't want your game's name projected on a toilet door? Okay yeah, that makes sense.


In all, this scene isn't really about gameplay. It's basically an interactive - and very cinematic - cutscene. It establishes that Sam can be brutal when need be, and sets the scene for the gameplay to come. There's no way to fail or for the arms dealer you're interrogating to put up a fight. He's there simply to have his head caved in then give up information. Thanks guy!

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Mark and Execute Does Not Dumb Things Down

You've probably all seen the 'mark and execute' system in action, but that's in the hands of people who know what they're doing. For a dev team member demoing the game, it's the work of a moment to hang from a pipe on the ceiling, tag two enemies then drop down on a third to perform a stealth kill, thereby earning the ability to automatically execute the other two with quick precise shots to the head.

For the new player, however, the delicate ballet of death to be played out is less obvious. You need to scope out every situation and think tactically before you act. The ability to mark and execute is a reward for a hand to hand kill, not something that you have at your disposal at all times. Thus, you're always on the lookout for that first melee kill that you can parlay into executions. It's really a very elegant system and feels great to get right. Tagging enemies from under a door before busting in and snuffing them out with a shotgun is just as satisfying – if not more so - as the alternative: opening the door then taking cover and popping out to do your dirty work. And it's certainly more stylish and ruthlessly efficient. You can also mark other things in the environment. Mark a light to drop the room into darkness as part of your execution or mark a chandelier to drop it onto the heads of enemies.

Inevitably, however, things will go awry, so it's a good thing you can still fall back on good old fashioned cover-based gunplay… which we did… on several occasions.

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Agility & Ability

Sam has never been short on physical abilities. This is the man, after all, who is perpetually lurking above corridors with his feet wedged against opposite walls, waiting for unsuspecting victims to stroll by underneath. In Conviction his level of agility is familiar, but robust. We're talking about climbing up many walls, shimmying along window ledges (nothing like hanging outside a window and marking the people inside, or grabbing someone inside to pull them out to their death), diving through windows and into a hang, climbing pipes, dropping onto victims from above, using enemy weapons, utilising cover and engaging in some very sharp hand to hand. Phew! Oh, and using enemies as human shields. And that's just what we got a chance to play with in this one mission demo.


While Sam doesn't start out this game stocked with gadgets (he and Echelon broke up, you see), he quickly improvises, snapping off a mirror from a car as he passes, allowing him to use the glass to peer under doors to scope out what lies ahead. This is simple to use – just focus on the bottom of the door and select the option to peer under. Just make sure you're not looking a little higher, because then you'll open the door... which is what we did. Thankfully, you've got plenty of options to evade the guards and turn the situation around.

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Style and Substance Go Together

This game is all about immersion, and to that end Ubisoft has implemented a number of very cool systems to keep you immersed, while simultaneously clued in as to what's going on. The first is the way the colour bleeds from the world when you're hidden/unseen. You may be lurking in a shadow or clambering across a pipe on the ceiling, but rather than having an artificial hud element that you'd then need to glance at, and that would be an imposition on the game world, this system works both functionally and aesthetically.

The second is the doppelganger system. If you're spotted by an enemy then drop out of sight and move away, a stationary shadow person will be left where you were, marking your last known location. This way you're clued in as to where the enemy thinks you may be, and can use that to your advantage. He's not going to just go up to it and start scratching his head, of course, but he'll use that as a reference point and you can too, to try and outmanoeuvre him.

Speaking of AI, the enemies were tuned to be very forgiving in the demo – while they used cover, created cover by knocking over desks and aggressively pursued you, evading them was straightforward, as was earning mark and executes. The team has stated that things will get much more challenging as the game progresses, with much smarter enemies and scenarios that are much harder to wrangle mark and executes from.


The last immersive element to discuss is the way storytelling is handled in Conviction. Forget cutscenes and flashbacks – in this game when you learn a new piece of information or Sam thinks of something that happened in his past, full motion video is projected up onto a nearby wall – reflecting that this is what Sam is thinking of as he moves through the world. It's very slick. As is the way the game also projects up text to clue you in on locations. You'd think it would snap you out of the reality of the world, but the reality is it does the opposite, working a little like some kind of spy-vision; a reflection of Sam's intense focus.

In fact, all these systems are in place so that you're always in the world – not staring a huds, cutscenes or menus. It really does make a difference, and adds a huge amount to your engagement in the game.

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So. Conviction. Just as much fun to play as it has been to watch. More fun, really. Sam is a total predator now - it's still a balance between stealth and action, but he's never felt so efficient and so skilled. We can't wait to see more.

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