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Why Robin Makes Batman Better Maybe it’s just me, but the word “cock” gets plenty of action in this instalment of Ben Croshaw’s Zero Punctuation. I suppose Alone in the Dark and man parts just go together. Seeing as the word is not often associated with excellence, you shouldn’t have any trouble guessing what Croshaw thought of Eden Games’ survival horror title. Oh, and Atari gets smacked around as well.
Zero Punctuation: Alone in the Dark [The Escapist]
Alone in the Dark’s got a pretty great physics engine! Everything breaks like it should, everything burns like it should…everything, that is, except this car. It’s a little tougher than you’d expect in real life. And when the going gets tough, the tough…use the Benny Hill theme to take the piss.
Back in 1992, Infogrames delivered unto PC gamers one of the scariest experiences they’d encountered to date in the form of Alone in the Dark, the first 3D survival horror game. I myself spent many a night playing the original title, guiding Edward Carnby through that haunted Louisiana mansion, scared out of my mind but unable to pull myself away, like a nightmare you can’t wake up from.
Sixteen years and three lackluster sequels later, Infogrames subsidiary Atari and developer Eden Games attempt to breath new life (and new death) into the series with an all-new Alone in the Dark, featuring a strangely displaced Edward Carnby in a modern-day setting. New setting, new gameplay, and terrifying new enemies, none of which are more terrifying than your average game critic.
To say that I’ve personally paid little attention to Atari’s resuscitation of Alone In The Dark would be an understatement. But with a trailer this oddball, featuring some curiously out of place stunt drivin’ and an off the beaten path soundtrack — what, no nu metal? — I’m morbidly curious, despite the early poor reviews and current hubbub. Sure, it’s a grey and brown mess that looks far too much like a Silent Hill B-side, but it has flying lamprey demons versus helicopters. This could be a disaster of delicious proportions.
This week, the following events took place: 1. We got a bunch of tips telling us that the Xbox 360 version of Alone in the Dark had turned up on BitTorrent sites. 2. Scandinavian games site GameReactor were one of the first to review Alone in the Dark. They gave it 3/10. Ouch. However, they then promptly pulled the review, and accusations of shady dealings were levelled against the site by Atari, who said that press copies had only been sent out the day before (the review has since been reinstated, and the 3/10 stands). Odd, seeing as many other European publications also had reviews go live this week, but whatever. 3. German site 4Players reviews the game. Gives it 68%. Then is threatened with legal action by Atari because, yes, Atari had no idea how the site got a copy of the game.
It looks like Alone in the Dark is going to make some pretty interesting use of the Wii remote and nunchuk, I mean besides letting people drive and beat people with them. This sort of adventure game seems like the perfect fit for that… if it actually works.
And no word on when it will actually arrive. In an interview with VideoGamer.com, Nour Polloni of developer Eden Games says the game is “not performing as well on PS3 as we hope it is in terms of frame rate,” and they’re holding back the title in order to give PS3 players their money’s worth.
“We didn’t want it to come out and have less of an experience for the PS3 gamer,” Polloni said. “We wanted to tweak that up and make sure they get the best experience on PS3 as much as possible.”
Alone in the Dark for PS3 will be the same content as the 360 and PC versions but will still be “worth the wait.” Those two consoles plus the PS2 and Wii versions will drop on June 24.
And, interestingly, he got real cagey about multiplayer possibilities in this franchise.
GameVideos has an interview up with Phil Harrison about the upcoming Alone in the Dark game. He doesn’t really shed a whole lotta new light on the game, which is fine because the included in-game videos do plenty of that. If you watch through the entire interview you’ll get a look at the game’s new DVD menu interface, how the game uses items and weapons together, some nice cut-scenes and a bit of the puzzles. It’s definitely worth a watch for fans of Alone in the Dark. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the franchise from back in the day. Even though this game looks pretty slick, I’m still worried it won’t live up to my memories of playing the game back in the early 90s.
Someone at Eden Games has a thing for Keanu Reeves, don’t you think? It’s as if they buffed him up, renamed him Edward Carnby and plastered his face all over the European Limited Edition for Alone In The Dark for the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. He’s on the cover of the Official Soundtrack CD, the Making Of DVD, and splashed throughout the pages of the bound art book. Hell, they’ve even included a figurine of Neo Carby for you to play bullet-time with in the bathtub. It’s all wrapped up in a rather nifty looking box that will completely fail to fit on the shelf with the rest of your game collection, securing it a cherry spot above your mantle. All I can say is whoa…I hope we get something similar stateside. Not to sure about the game but I love having boxes of Limited Edition stuff lying around. galleryPost('aitd422', 3, '');
