* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Friday, October 3, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Technology

Review: ‘Alan Wake II’ Is Far Darker Than Its Predecessor—and Perfects the Horror Genre

November 4, 2023
in Technology
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Alan Wake II begins with a man stumbling naked through the woods at night. He has just emerged from a lake, mud clinging to his back, and his body a deathly blue that blends with the thick shadows of the forest. Whispered words and groans sound in his ears as he runs, sudden flashes of a screaming face explode before his eyes like fireworks, and homicidal figures in deer masks appear from the murk to threaten him. Very soon this man will be dead and splayed on a picnic table, a pair of FBI agents examining his rigid corpse for clues to the motivation behind his murder and the ritual defilement of his body.

As an opening, it’s a strong statement of intent for a horror game—especially one that serves as a sequel to a far tamer predecessor released 13 years earlier.

Remedy Entertainment, headquartered in Espoo, Finland, has incorporated horror into its work from its first story-focused game, 2001’s Max Payne. (Its debut, a 1996 top-down car combat game called Death Rally, is an outlier in its catalog). A gleeful homage to hardboiled detective stories and Hong Kong action cinema, Payne was also the story of a man whose descent into a New York City criminal underworld is precipitated by a well-worn trope, the murder of the titular protagonist’s wife and infant daughter, centered with a depth of horror and wrenching sadness far rawer than a studio less interested in humanity would have employed. Payne regularly falls into nightmares that abstract the murders into surreal, playable mazes. He traverses an abyss whose exit can only be found by following trails of blood and a baby’s cries and is lost within a labyrinth of queasily distended nursery-wallpapered hallways. The audience is reminded, between hours of gunfights, that Payne’s mind is dominated by a terrifying grief whenever he’s given a respite from danger.

Remedy’s following games—Max Payne 2, the first Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control—all contained similar elements that showed Remedy’s artistic preoccupation with horror. The games acknowledged that terror and foreboding are an appropriate lens by which to portray dramatic moments of enormous import to its characters. It wasn’t until the creation of the recently released Alan Wake II, though, that the studio made a game entirely set within the genre.

In an interview with WIRED, Sam Lake, Remedy’s creative director and a frequent actor in its games, says that “it felt great” to finally make a full-on horror game after decades of telling stories where horror has appeared “naturally as part of the story” but wasn’t the entire focus of the game.

The first Alan Wake riffed on Stephen King and Twin Peaks to tell the story of Alan Wake, a successful but creatively frustrated New York-based crime novelist who heads to the Pacific Northwest with his wife in an attempt to overcome writer’s block. His wife soon goes missing, and he finds himself searching for her through a dreamlike version of the region where he’s hunted by shadowy figures, the difference between reality and fiction become unclear, and his words alter the world around him. Though the first Alan Wake was presented through a lightly frightening lens, Lake says that the game was, from Remedy’s point of view, intended as an action-adventure and not outright horror.

Now, many years later, Alan Wake II leans completely into the dread and fear that colored the margins of its predecessor. In part, this shift in genre was afforded by cultural changes, in the video game industry and in film and TV—namely, the increased success of mainstream horror film and TV in the time between the first and second game.

“One thing I always felt in the original Alan Wake that was a bit of a struggle, maybe, is that it ended up being Teen-rated [13 and up],” Lake says. Though the team always knew that it was working within the limitations of that age range, Lake explains that “some compromises were made” in telling the story.

“And it’s really interesting,” he adds. “We did some market research afterward and, at least then, the data we got back was that the game would have maybe done even better if it had been Mature-rated [17 and up] instead of Teen-rated.”

The gore in several of Alan Wake II’s scenes is definitely increased (in fidelity and sheer quantity) from the first game, but the greater freedom afforded by the change in genre is also evident in other, more important ways. 2010’s Alan Wake saw the protagonist struggle between the dichotomy of light and dark, both literally (shadowy enemies, for instance, are weakened by exposure to light) and through the metaphorical battle between Alan’s self-loathing and better nature, the presence of evil and good that he experiences and offers to the world.

The tonal darkness in the first game was more implied than shown, however, with a serial killer whose vile actions are never explicitly demonstrated and characters describing a fear that the player, romping through the coastal woods, doesn’t entirely share. Because of this, looking to horror aesthetics for a continuation of the same story—especially one that picks up from a point of despair for its protagonist—makes a lot of sense.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Wired – https://www.wired.com/review/alan-wake-ii-review/

Tags: ‘AlanReviewtechnology
Previous Post

19 Practical Gift Ideas for New Parents and Their Babies

Next Post

Best Fitting T-Shirts for Men (According to a Savile Row Tailor)

Bhagwat rings ‘warning bell’ on Himalayas, ecology threats – Times of India

Bhagwat rings ‘warning bell’ on Himalayas, ecology threats – Times of India

October 3, 2025
117-Year-Old Woman’s Diet Could Help Us All Live Longer – ScienceAlert

117-Year-Old Woman’s Diet Could Help Us All Live Longer – ScienceAlert

October 3, 2025
The Best Time to Eat Breakfast, Backed by Science—and Why It Matters More Than You Think – Real Simple

The Ideal Time to Eat Breakfast: Surprising Science-Backed Reasons Why It Matters

October 3, 2025
Lifestyle and stress erode heart health advantage in long-term US immigrants – News-Medical

Lifestyle and stress erode heart health advantage in long-term US immigrants – News-Medical

October 3, 2025
Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions Deploys RIO Security Solutions – TipRanks

Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions Unveils Game-Changing RIO Security Innovations

October 3, 2025
Top-12 NFL running games: Which teams are helping our RBs score fantasy football points this season? – Yahoo Sports

Top-12 NFL running games: Which teams are helping our RBs score fantasy football points this season? – Yahoo Sports

October 3, 2025
FIRST LOOK: Official match ball of FIFA World Cup ‘26 – Yahoo Sports

Get an Exclusive First Look at the Official Match Ball of FIFA World Cup 2026!

October 3, 2025
Arts economy grows, but funding lags on Long Island – Long Island Business News

Long Island’s Arts Economy Thrives Despite Ongoing Funding Challenges

October 3, 2025
Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

October 3, 2025
HIV pioneer Dr. William Valenti retires, leaving lasting impact on health community – 13wham.com

HIV Pioneer Dr. William Valenti Retires, Leaving an Enduring Impact on the Health Community

October 3, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (849)
  • Economy (869)
  • Entertainment (21,743)
  • General (17,386)
  • Health (9,912)
  • Lifestyle (882)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (871)
  • Politics (880)
  • Science (16,080)
  • Sports (21,370)
  • Technology (15,852)
  • World (852)

Recent News

Bhagwat rings ‘warning bell’ on Himalayas, ecology threats – Times of India

Bhagwat rings ‘warning bell’ on Himalayas, ecology threats – Times of India

October 3, 2025
117-Year-Old Woman’s Diet Could Help Us All Live Longer – ScienceAlert

117-Year-Old Woman’s Diet Could Help Us All Live Longer – ScienceAlert

October 3, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version