Took them long enough

Alan Wake fans rejoice! Earlier today, it was announced that Alan Wake is going to be adapted into a television series with Sam Lake, the original creator heavily involved in the production of the live-action series as its executive producer. Peter Calloway (Cloak & Dagger, Legion) will be the showrunner of the series, while Remedy Entertainment and Contradiction Films will be involved in the production of the ser?ies. Lake is currently working on a pitch and will be shopping it to various networks in October, so we may not have to wait long before we hear more news about the series. 

Alan Wake earned a massive cult following when it originally launched in May of 2010 and fans have been clamoring for a sequel ever seen. They got a spin-off in American Nightmare, but that was about it. There were plans to make a sequel to the game, but those quickly fell through. And before anyone asks about what the TV show will be about, it's planning on adapting the entire game, but if the show proves to be a hit, Lake is adamant about using his script for Alan Wake 2 for future seasons. 

The message is pretty clear. If you want Alan Wake 2, watch the show, if and when it airs. The only aspect about this that concerns me is the production company, Contradiction Films. They haven't done that much besides Mortal Kombat: Legacy and the two Dead Rising movies, which I had never heard about until writing this because they were on Crackle. Is Crackle even still a thing? Regardless, most of their output seems pretty mundane, but hopefully they can do justice to Alan Wake and Sam Lake's precious baby. 

Peter Calloway To Adapt 'Alan Wake' For Telev?ision [Variety]

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Hopefully it's Alan Wake 2

It's been a few years since Quantum Break came out, so obviously Remedy has been hard at work on something. We already knew the developer was making the single-player portion of the free-to-play shooter CrossFire 2, but what of its untitled seventh project, P7? Acco??rding to a recent financial statement for 2017, Remedy has stated the game is ta?rgeting a 2019 release date.

The very dry report states, "Our other game project, project P7 that is being done with 505 Games S.p.A., proceeded from the pre-production phase to the production phase at the beginning of the period under review. The development of the game has progres??sed according to our plans. P7 is expected to be releas??ed during 2019."

That doesn't mean this is a guaranteed date, but with this news, I'm sure we'll see something of the title at E3 this year. I'm hoping we can finally get the long awaited Alan Wake 2, but this may end up being an ori?ginal IP (which wouldn't be bad at all). What is very intriguing is the final paragraph of the statement, whic?h reveals another project is in the works.

"One of the projects is the company’s own game brand codenamed P7," reads the report, "in which the company’s own financing plays a significant role. At the same time, the company will launch a third game project." Maybe that is the Alan Wake continuation we've all been dying for. It could also be Quantum Break 2, though I'm not sure Remedy has the money t??o create that on its own.

Whatever the case, 2018 is going? to be a very produ?ctive year for the studio. I've enjoyed all of its games and am always eager to see what Sam Lake comes up with, so I hope everything can go without a hitch.

Remedy’s P7 To Launch in 20??19; A New Game Project Will Be Started Thi??s Year [WCCFTech]

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Alan Slept

It seems that Remedy's Alan Wake won't be available for purchase much longer. Announced over on the Remedy forums, the team will be pulling the original game from sale due to the music license expiring. This will affect both PC and 360 versions as well as physical copies and digital ones. American Nightmare was a??ble to get re-licensed, so that game will remain (for now).

If you've always fancied getting the game, Remedy will be holding a sale on Steam from tomorrow (May 13) until May 15. The game will be 90% off (making it roughly $3), so you really won't have much reason to say no. American Nightmare will also be on sale to push peo?ple ??to get into the series.

I definitely enjoyed Alan Wake when I played it. With Remedy seemingly losing the rights to Max Payne, Alan felt like a proper continuation of the dark comedy they started with Max. It also had similar controls and even featured the voice of everyone's favorite pill popping, depressive murder machine (James McCaffrey). It was just plain good.

Alan Wake Sunset Sale 13.-15.5.2017 [Remedy Community]

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Plus Alan Wake franchise is 90% off

DmC: Devil May Cry is 40% off for Steam's weekend deal. You have until June 3 to score the game at $29.99. Plus, the same discount is applied to all three downloadable content offerings. Vergil's Downfall, the story expansion starring Dante's brother, will cost you $5?.39. The costume pack is running $2.39, and the weapon bundle is g?oing for $1.19.

You have until June 3 to score the Alan Wake franchise for 90% off too. For $4, you can own Alan Wake, Alan Wake Collector's Edition Extras, and Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

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In this new promotional video for Alan Wake's American Nightmare,? the villainous Mr. Scratch presents a slideshow of critic responses to the game, replying to them and adding his own commentary. Our very own Maurice Tan is even called out in the first slide, his comments driving Scratch to an almost uncharacteristically humble reaction.

I still have not made the time to finish the campaign in American Nightmare. It's one of those games where you can quite clearly see how the game's mechanics could be made considerably deeper and that kinda bummed me out a bit. It's still fun, though, and I'm probably going to try to make an effort this coming weekend to polish it o?ff.

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While the rest of you were off rabblerousing this President's Day, I was perfectly content to stay home the whole weekend knowing that I had five boxes of Girl Scout cookies and a fresh download of Alan Wake's American Nightmare waiting for me.

Remedy's latest installment in the Alan Wake f??ranchise hits Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 MS points today, but is it even worth that? More importantly, will you be able to appreciate it if you haven't played the first? The answers to these questions and more await you in the?? video above!

[Editor's note: This is the first solo review I've done for Destructoid, so any constructive criticism you have is appreciated so long as it does not concern my breasts.]

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Ask any fan why they like Alan Wake, and you'll hear different stories. Some will talk about how they enjoyed the Stephen King, Twin Peaks, and Lost inspired storyline and setting. Others will laud the tense experience on the Hard and Nightmare difficulties, or the use of music. None of them will try to convince you that Alan Wake was by any means a perfect game but, ?more than anything, they will all tell you how much they want another tit??le.

Enter Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Remedy's continuation of the beleaguere??d writer's story and an effort to ??capture a wider audience through its Xbox Live Arcade release.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Released: February 22, 2012
MSRP: 1200 Microsoft Points ($15)

Following the events of Alan Wake's finale and the novelist's subsequent dark adventures in The Signal and The Writer, Alan has made his way back to yet another piece of Ame?ricana: desert-ridden Arizona. During his absense, Alan's dark half Mr. Scratch has been running amok in the "real world" and continues to grow ever more powerful.

Tonight, it??'s time to put an end to his rule of malice. Tonight, evil lurks in Night Springs.

American Nightmare follows the structure of an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, inspired by the supernatural and science fiction pulp action genre, as Alan tries to piece together a final solution to rid the world of Mr. Scratch. From a roadside diner and motel, to a mountain observatory and a drive-in, Remedy has once again tried to portray an easily identifiable world within a world and succeeded. Environments are somewhat more open than the largely confined areas seen in Alan Wake, and ??finding m??anuscript pages, which now also unlock better weapons, encourages exploration.

Before long, you start to notice that there are far more missing manuscript pages than you can find in a level, even when sweeping it extensively. There's a simple reason for this, and it's not one that everyone is going to like: American Nightmare's story mode makes you retread the same levels multiple times before i?ts conclusion.

Each time, enemy encounters become more challenging, new types of enemies are introduced, and new collectibles can be found. Different and new paths through the levels also present themselves, although this difference can be marginal at best. There's a story-related reason for returning to this familiar ground and the characters who inhabit these levels add to the intrigue somewhat. Even though you won't just be doing the same thing multiple times in a row, it can become a bit too familiar before the journey is over.

Thankfully, this repeated journey is an enjoyable one. I seem to be one of the few people who didn't have any problems with the controls and combat in Alan Wake, but combat is def?initely a bit tighter this time around. Largely due to the new weapons a?nd the faster regeneration speed of the flashlight -- which also renders the use of batteries mostly obsolete -- you'll find yourself lighting up and blasting Taken without too much trouble.

A few new insectoid and raven classes of Taken may prove to be troublesome if you have existing phobias; hell, you might even develop a few new ones along the way. Some other new enemies include a Taken that launches darkness grenades at you, the Splitter who splits into two smaller versions if you focus your beam on him, and a The Hills Have Eyes type of mutated hillbilly giant who wields a buzz saw. Some of these new enemies don't exactly fit in the darkness-infested altered reality of the original Alan Wake, but Alan is trapped in a Night Springs story (the fictional Twilight Zone-style show in the Wake univer??se), so it's easy enough to overlook in favor of improvements on the gameplay.

Although American Nightmare is billed to be accessible to new players, it's still largely tailored to fans of the original game. Manuscript pages fill gaps for those new to the Alan Wake universe, but this self-contained spin-off story still picks up some time after the last "special feature" piece of downloadable content, The Writer, and many allusions to the original can be found in radio shows, cutscenes, and TV viewings. You don't need to be an Alan Wake veteran to enjoy it, but it most defini??tely helps.

Since Alan is supposed to be trapped inside an episode of Night Springs (or is he?), TV sets will no longer show you the little Night Springs episodes when you turn them on. Instead, you'll find Mr. Scratch talking to you through the magic of live action video. Mr. Scratch is brilliant as a Alan's psychopathic alter ego made flesh, and serves as one of the more believable and memorable examples of a purely evil videogame antagonist in recent history. He is Wake's version of George Stark in Stephen King's The Dark Half, a tale alluded to often in American Nightmare. These little videos also add a lot of character to create a more tangible opponent -- something Alan Wake was missing -- and what Mr. Scratch is lacking in mystery compared to the Dark Presence in the original gam?e, he more than makes up for with sheer evil.

Besides the new story and updated combat, a conceptually brilliant mechanic sees the light of day in American Nightmare. Alan can now reshape reality by recreating a setting to match his manuscript pages, which triggers an event that was not supposed to happen according to Mr. Scratch's plans. For the first time since you were able to turn words into objects by shining your flashlight onto them in Alan Wake and its DLC, you finally get to put your often hinted??-at powers to work and really play as the creative artist who can wield the power of creation to combat the Dark Presence's influences. As innovative and ambitious as the mechanic sounds, however, it's sadly underused and underdeveloped.

Instead of being able to actually be creative with this weapon of creativity, altering reality through the process of exerting free will and breaking the chain of predetermination, you end up following a streamlined design. The act of reshaping reality is as simple as walking to markers on your map to press a button, until a setting is deemed complete enough to allow you to progress. It's a shame, since the first time you see the results of your reality-reshaping actions alongside a booming soundtrack, your mind is overwhelmed with the sheer possibilities of such a mechanic within the Alan Wake universe. The second time you do it, it's a case of déjà vu. The third time, it's Groundhog Day. Since American Nightmare acts as both a continuation of the story and a self-contained spin-off experiment, this is definitely one of the key aspects we'll want to see further explored in the future of the franchise. Given the limitations of a downloadable title, it's understandable that Remedy didn't take this all the way, but it fits the Wake universe so perfectly that just a taste o??f it is simply not enough.

Through your repeated journey, you'll meet characters with whom you can interact a bit more than before. The voice acting of the second character you'll meet is cringeworthy, as is her mindboggling insistance on holding her arms in creepily peculiar position that is as robotic as her voice. While you are talking to these characters, you're free to walk around a bit as you go through the motions of a conversation, leading to a lot of cases of jumping around and aiming your gun at their faces while you're telling them not to be afraid. Still, American Nightmare manages to make a hipster girl sexy against all odds, so it deserves credit for tha??t.

What criticisms one can raise against American Nightmare's story mode tend to vanish while playing the game's third act, as increasingly tense combat encounters are accompanied by rock music and ramp up the pacing to the finale. It's during this last act that all the elements of gameplay, visuals, and music start to fully work together, and it's only then that you finally reach a state of perfect flow while playing it. Even the matter of going through the same levels is eventually forgiven as everything falls into place -- it's almost the complete opposite of the third act in any Stephen King storyline. Moreover, the title looks and feels like a full-fledged title. While it's not quite as long as Alan Wake was, it??'s equally as satisfying most console shooters' campaigns. By the time you finish it, you have to remind yourself that it'??s "only" an XBLA title.

The story mode is worth the price of admission alone and it's a no-brainer for Wake fans to pick it up just to see more of their favorite hero, but American Nightmare also offers a new "Arcade Action" mode called Fight Till Dawn. More like Mercenaries and less like a Horde mode, this is where you'll improve on the combat skills you may have honed while beating the harder difficulties of the original game. Five levels give you ten minutes to blast through as many w??aves as possible for the highest score. Every time you shoot or dodge an enemy, your multiplier bar increases. Get hit, and you lose all your multiplier progress.

It's a frantic mode that forces you to never get hit if you want to compete on the leaderboards, and one that you'll quickly find yourself playing for an hour here and there. Even though the new weapons feel like overkill for Wake veterans in the story mode, their relative strengths and weaknesses come to fruition in this Arcade mode. It also highlights?? the occasional dysfunction of your dodge move, unfortunately. This dodge move is key to maintaining and increasing your multiplier during large group encounters, but can also be a bit fickle about working as advertised. Occasionally it will let you down like a childhood friend during times of crisis when you thought you could count on it. After putting a couple of days into Arcade mode, you will learn to work around it, turning the dodge move into a somewhat flaccid extension of your virtual persona, like a numb arm you flail around as a last resort against an oppresive foe of darkness.

Once you've performed well enough in the standard five levels, you can unlock their Nightmare difficulty versions that start you out at a different location on the map, and mixes up weapon and ammo locations. Any player who doesn't get enough of a challenge from the story mode will get his ass kicked in these Ni??ghtmare levels. The levels are far darker, there is only one escape zone of light to regenerate your health, and waves keep spawning regardless of your progression. It's no small feat to survive one of these levels, let alone reach a high score, and despite the odd annoying Taken grenadier who can regularly hit you out of the blue thanks to the lack of a proper grenade indicator, this is by far one of the tensest experiences you'll find on the Xbox 360's entire digital platform.

Arcade mode is a very welcome addition overall, especially since most of American Nightmare is lacking in the mystery and brooding atmosphere that Alan Wake had plenty of. The renewed focus on better combat and high octane action empowers Mr. Wake beyond th?e weak and shaken physical and mental survivalist of the original. Then again, Alan has already fought his fears and claimed victory over a smoke monster, his irrational Ego, and a thousand Taken, so he is ready to kick some ass this time around. Having said that, anyone who claims there is no tension to be found at all has simply never played any of the Arcade mode levels on Nightmare.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is as close to a full console title as we've seen on Xbox Live Arcade to date. Its story mode is fun foray into the twisted universe of Alan Wake, even if some of what's going on won't always make complete sense to any but the most dedicated of fans. Remedy has admirably tackled the repetitive nature of the campaign in order to get the most out of the the content they had, although it does start to wear thin at the midway point. Thankfully, a strong final act and a ridiculously addictive Arcade mode more t??han make up for it.

For the hardcore Alan Wake fans, there is a lot to love in this new title. You can enjoy it fully without knowing about everything that happened in the original, the DLC special features, and the expanded universe from the Limited Edition book, but you are most definitely rewarde??d for having stuck with Alan in his past adven??tures.

If anything, my main gripe with American Nightmare is that it shows Remedy can take the Alan Wake series to places that could blow us away if someone would just give them the resources to create another full retail title, yet we are only allowed glimpses of various mechanics and experiments in their downloadable titles to date. If that makes you think it's not worth playing, think again. Alan Wake's American Nightmare i??s a worthwhile expansion to the novelis?t's saga and one that you'll come back to time and time again, quite literally until the break of dawn.

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With Alan Wake's American Nightmare almost upon us, it's time for a mood-setting launch trailer. Fitting voice-over work, plenty of ?slow-mo dodges, and a pack of oversized spiders -- yeah, this is pretty good.

The game may not be the full sequel some of us still desperately crave, but I feel like Remedy has made the transi?tion from full retail product to downloadable title a relatively smooth one. At least, it looks?? that way from the media I've seen.

I was hoping we could compete in a series of events "inspired by" (i.e., stolen from) American Gladiators to determine who got to review American Nightmare on Destructoid, but no such luck. Maurice snatched that sucker? up instantly. It's not fair -- the dude never sleeps!

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In this latest developer diary for Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the gang at Remedy describe the origins of Alan Wake's evil alter-ego, Mr. Scratch. Born out of the legend of Alan Wake's arrival and subsequent disappearance in ??Bright Falls, he's a straight-up boogeyman with a sense of humor I can appreciate.

Remedy also talks up the game's arcade mode, which I had a chance to check out ?at CES. With only one more week left until release, my excitement level has pretty muc?h peaked now. Bring it.

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This developer diary for Alan Wake's American Nightmare is pretty informat?ive, so you'll at least enjoy that. But I got just as much enjoyment out of watching the strange happenings in the back?ground of the video. What the hell?! If that's the Remedy' offices, remind me never to go there alone.

The dev diary gets into how thi?s game is different from the other series titles, touching on how they approached the storyline and gameplay.  You'll also want to check out the new screenshots in our gallery below. 

Wake fans, are you prepared for the nightmare?

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Microsoft is about to launch the Xbox Live Arcade House Party event in just a few weeks. I guess they thought it might be helpful to actually tell people when the individual games will be releasing because we got?? this shiny press release from them containing that very information.

The titles will be dripping out, one per week, starting on February 15th with Warp++ (800 MSP), followed by Alan Wake's American Nightmare (1200 MSP) on the 22nd. Then it's the long awaited arrival of arena-based shooter, Nexuiz (800 MSP), on Leap Day and the event caps off with the even longer awaited arrival of Ubisoft's I Am Alive (1200 MSP) on March 6th.

It's a great lineup and I'm pretty sure I'?ll be snagging at least three of these. What about you?

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I was a big fan of Remedy's Alan Wake. But one of the less thri?lling aspects was the combat, which never really evolves much throughout the game and begins to feel a little like a chore the longer you go. My solu?tion to this was to simply play on nightmare difficulty, where you spend far more time fleeing from enemies than actively trying to stop them and that kept the excitement level up.

With Alan Wake's American Nightmare, coming soon to Xbox Live Arcade as part of Microsoft's House Party promotion, this should not be a problem. Remedy has taken the criticism leveled at the original game's combat and made that a priority, bringing ne??w enemies, new weapons and a whole lot more challenge with it.

Today at CES, I had the chance to check out the game's arcade mode which pits Alan against waves of increasingly dangerous enemies which he must stave off until dawn. The stage I played was set in a graveyard and a pretty large one at that. Weapons are scattered around the environment along with the occasio??nal safe haven, lit areas underneath lamps which will provide temporary respite and refill Alan's health before flickering out.

The combat system follows the same pattern as before. Enemies are protected by darkness which must be burned off using a flashlight before they are rendered vulnerable to attack. Gamers already familiar with Alan Wake are in for a surprise or two, though, as new enemy types will require you to switch up tactics. The gre??nadie??r, for example, keeps his distance and uses explosives to ruin Alan's day.

Even more insidious are the Splitters. These enemies aren't coated in darkness at all and can be immediately killed. But if you focus your flashlight on them, they'll mu?ltiply and become even more?? of a pain in the ass. Toss one or two of those into a group of regular enemies and it's very easy to wind up with an uncontrollable mob on your hands.

The combat is also more frantic than ever. Enemies are much more aggressive and the pace of the game is very quick. Even as an experienced player, American Nightmare ripped me a new one and neither of my two attempts to survive?? the ten minute round met with success.

That's a good thing and I expect that the end result is going to be one hell of a good time to ?play. Remedy couldn't give us a firm date on when we'll get to play the game in its full glory, as Microsoft has yet to reveal the order in which the House Party titles will hit XBLA (natch). All I can do ??is expect to be shining a light in the darkness sometime in late February or early March.

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A trailer detailing this year's Xbox Live Arcade House Party promotion has shown up on Xbox.com. Something tells me this wasn't supposed to happen quite yet, but we'll certainly ta?ke the information from said video. The games for 2012 are a mixed bunch:

• Alan Wake's American Nightmare
• Warp
• Nexuiz
• I Am Alive

Prices and dates weren't mentioned, though the weekly roll out of these games will likely occur in February, if last year's House Party is anything to go by. It was looking like Nexuiz and I Am Alive would never see t?he light of day??. Here's hoping for the best -- that usually isn't a good sign.

Alan Wake's Ameri?can Nightmare, I Am Alive part of XBLA's 'House Party 2012' [Joystiq]

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Alan Wake's American Nightmare sounds like a good time, and this newly an??nounced arcade mode sounds like an even better time.

The "Fight till Dawn" mode of AWAN has Wake stuck? in a battle where he has to survive a full night of enemy attacks, working toward a high score as you do your best to survive until dawn. Remedy promises new enemies, so it's good that you'll be able to pick up and use old and new weapons along the way. Armed with unlockable weapons, I'm sure you'll?? put up a good fight, but you'll have to catch a breather or two, so the mode's safe havens will come in handy. And online leaderboards will show all of XBLA how bad you were about watching your ass out in the dark forest. Sounds like a blast.

In related news, we have something closer to a solid release date. Remedy says that the game will be released in middle of the fir?st quarter of 2012.

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By now, most of us know about the long and challenging path that Remedy traveled in order to see the fruition of the original Alan Wake. Spanning five years of development, the psychological action thriller was not only one of 2010's best titles, but it helped invigorate a seemingly dyi??ng genre.

What made Alan Wake such a compelling experience was Remedy's creative story-telling prowess. For all intent and purposes, they delivered a narrative that merged the best parts of Stephen King, Lost, and Twin Peaks into a sleek vi??deogame package. But while the atmosphere was some of the most memorable of this generation, the game's clunky combat left much to be desir??ed.

Enter Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: Remedy
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Release: 2012

If the original Alan Wake was the perfect accumulation of the psychological thriller, American Nightmare hopes to do the same for fans of pulp-action. Inspired by the likes of Quentin Tarantino and films such as From Dusk Till Dawn, Alan Wake's latest decent into madness turns the action up to eleven while still maintaining&n?bsp; Remedy's penchant for atmospheric storytelling.

Taking place in the Arizona desert town of Night Springs, fans of Alan Wake might remember its name from the Twilight Zone-esque program that co?uld be watched throughout the original. See early in Wake's career, that talented author lent his skills to writing a few of the show's episodes. And now, not only does W??ake find himself trapped in this strange town, but also reliving the events of his past work.

To make matters even worse, Wake's evil doppelganger (called Mr. Scratch) is tormenting him, leaving behind video messages, while on the hunt for his wife Alice. Similar to the first game, these videos are portrayed with live actors -- capturing that Sega CD era FMV vibe. The only scene I witnessed was expertly done and strangely enough, made the supernatural serial killer extremely likable. Hopefully, there are a good amount of these scene in American Nightmare, as they?? are by far the highlight of th??e narrative.

American Nightmare's story has all the fixings -- from the limited amount I was shown -- to satisfy the staunchest of fans. My only complaint with the delivery of the story was in the somewhat stiff character performance that took place between Wake and the woman seen below. Similar to the first Mass Effect, ??each character just stood in place, fairly motionless, as they talked to each other about all the strange occurrences going o??n. I'm optimistic if this will be addressed, but thankfully everything else, especially the combat, is animated beautifully.

Speaking of the combat, the action in American Nightmare is faster, more frantic, and even more intense than its predecessor. The compelling light versus dark mechanic is back, but has been greatly improved upon to hopefully a?ttract a wider range of players. New exotic weapon types, wilder enemies -- with even more aggressive behaviors -- and a more dynamic and destructible world help create a thrilling pulp-action environment.

My favorite of the new weapons, by far, is the nail gun. Similar to an SMG, it quickly rips through foes and offers a decent amount of "rounds" per clip. With more sinister enemy types -- such as ones that continue to split into smaller and faster beings -- having a ?weapon that can spray a lot of ammo rapidly comes in quite handy when things get hectic. For the more careful shot, there is also the crossbow which hurts enemies even without the aid? of light. It's slow to reload, but packs one mean punch.

While the eyes-on demo I witnessed was clearly built to showcase the games improved combat, there's still a balance created for fans of the original. For starters, the folks at Remedy made it clear that there is plenty of optional story content -- extra dialog amongst NPCs, manuscript pages, and radio programs -- for those looking to connect the dots to Wake's endeavors in Bright Falls. Music, as well, also still plays a big part in American Nightmare, with licensed track??s -- like Kasabian's Club Foot -- supp??orting some of the game's most suspenseful moments.

Perhaps the biggest addition to American Nightmare and the one that makes it much more suited for the XBLA experience, is the game's "Fight Till Dawn" mode. Similar to Gears of War's Horde Mode, this arcade-action fest has Wake fighting waves of enemies, with limited res??ources, hoping to survive 10 minutes to make it safely into dawn. It's not just surviving though that's important, a?s setting a high score, on  the modes leader boards is ultimately the task at hand.

I was able to go hands-on with the game's cemetery map -- one of five available maps at launch -- during my preview. Similar to the story mode, this map exuded a great sense of fear throughout. With the difficulty of each wave building as the time wound down, managing resources while fending off each attacking horde proved as stressful as challenging. While not scary per se, this mode still was just as nerve racking as I remember some of the most tense parts of the original Alan Wake. In the? end, I made it thr?ough to dawn, but my cowardly skills were highlighted by my measly two-star rating.

Remedy promised tons of unlockable rewards for Fight Till Dawn mode and they hadn't ruled out the possibility for mor??e maps in the future. But for those who find the five maps easy, there is also a Nightmare mode that, while not shown, should give even the most diehard acti??on gamer a run for their money.

It's kind of funny, when American Nightmare was ??first created it actually started off strictly as an arcade action game, Remedy told me. They had this new world of weapons and of monsters with a greatly enhanced combat mechanic, but no real setting to call home. Thankfully, the rich idea of Night Springs fit perfectly into place. As excited as I am to blast enemies away in Fight Till Dawn mode, an Alan Wake experience is just not complete without a story to completel??y mess with my head. Hopefully, the wait isn't too long this time around,as I think that just might make my head explode,

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Described by Xbox World as being "significantly bigger than any episode of the original game," Alan Wake's American Nightmare will have a hub? structure to its locales. Fans of Wake have, apparently, taken his disappearance and?? supposed return to mean that he is the killer Mr. Scratch.

Given my love of Candyman, I can dig it. American Nightmare is said to fill in the story gap for Alice and Barry, and introduce powerful weapons -- rifles, a nailgun, and a crossbow, to name a few. Since enemy tactics aren't the same as before, we'll probably need the ?extra firepower.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare: First details [CVG]

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It looks like Alan Wake's next outing is taking a turn for the... well, sh*t's gone crazy. Alan Wake's American Nightmare  finds our literary hero pitted against his doppelgange??r Mr. Scratch to keep ??the world from going to hell. 

Consider me intrigued. 

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