Review: Alan Wake (360)

I can tell you two things right here about Alan Wake. One, that this isn’t quite the game you might have expected it to be. And two, that what we have been given is a mostly fitting reward after five long years of waiting; an alluring adventure which although doesn’t quite reach the bar set by the likes of Silent Hill or perhaps Resident Evil 4, is a firmly solid attempt at crafting a new kind of exemplary survival horror.

Alan Wake may have started out as a free-roaming action thriller, with the emphasis firmly on the thriller part, but its final appearance as a far more straightforward action game isn’t to be looked down upon. Remedy have provided a title with incredible atmosphere, an intriguing storyline that keeps you guessing, and a lovely looking playground in the form of Bright Falls, all of which envelops you as you try to fend off numerous amounts of ‘Taken’ along your travels.

The action is tightly focused, and most of all, edges just enough on the right side of being fast-paced without feeling too much like a shooter, and instead more like an tense psychological ride into chaos. That said, the experience isn’t quite perfect, and there are times in which the game would benefit more from you actually driving forward the story through investigation and discovery, rather than scripted point to point moments. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that Alan Wake is as tightly controlled and linear as Resident Evil, because it really isn’t, and often allows you to wonder off the beaten track into the foreboding wilderness in search of that next vital manuscript.


Interestingly, the story and narrative structure is presented in a similar style to an episodic TV show with a defined beginning and end to each episode. Each one starts with an opening cinematic recapping past events, or an introduction the first time you play the game, although there is no mock credits sequence which is a little disappointing, and would have made the TV show effect much more convincing. Whichever way you look at this, it definitely makes a change from the ‘end of chapter’ and ‘score tally’ used in most survival horror games.

Cut-scenes are pretty short for the most part, and are mainly used to gel together the other forms of storytelling keeping that TV show feel consistent throughout the game. The vast majority of the narrative is driven forward by the use of in game dialogue, and the many pages of manuscript left lying around Bright Falls. These pieces of manuscript reveal interesting snippets of backstory surrounding the ‘Taken’ and the town of Bright Falls, whilst also describing key occurrences which happen in the game. Sometimes you will find a page that blatantly describes an event that is only moments away from happening, taking any feeling of surprise and significantly reducing the amount of fast-hitting tension you’d otherwise be presented with.


Alan will himself also sound off one of his many monologues during his time spent in Bright Falls, mostly speaking out on his thoughts and innermost fears as you explore the shadowy landscape so beautiful but foreboding in nature. Like with the manuscripts, Alan has a tendency to describe the obvious. A lot of the time he will simply describe just what is happening in front of him, rather than shed light on what he thinks might be going on. Towards the end of the game, his little mobile soapbox moments actually begin to feed the player deeper into the story and the twists that it provides. It goes from a vaguely pointless inclusion, into an essential part of driving forward the experience.

Thankfully, there is a reason for both the initially obvious dialogue choices, and some of the seemingly pointless manuscript pages – it’s not quite as well thought out as you might think, but the continuing script and storyline is rather cleaver overall, revealing that it isn’t just trying to state the obvious for lack of originality, but instead attempting to direct the player down various paths and conclusions. Everything that might at first feel quickly rushed in, serves a deliberate purpose. And later on in the game those revelations start coming thick and fast.

To this end, some of the writing and voice acting is a little contrived, and in rare occasions pretty hoaky overall. Regardless, it can be totally captivating at times, and never falls into the artsy and often-pretentious trap that Heavy Rain went down. At the same time some of the game’s big reveals aren’t perhaps as psychologically cleaver as you’d hoped them to be, feel a little bit dialled back for the sake of presenting the player with another large action sequence, and of course the inevitable sequel.


No sooner after Mr Wake and his wife have touched down in Bright Falls and made their way to a quaint secluded cabin retreat, the wife mysteriously goes missing, and Alan finds himself bruised and battered in the middle of the forest with no recollection of what happened. Strange events and occurrences begin to happen, and people with a thick black mist surrounding them start attacking you. A mysterious voice calls your name, and a bright light shines out drawing you ever closer to its source. All the while a sinking feeling hits your gut and shivers run down your spine, as you reluctantly take the first steps into a world about be turned upside down.

There are two parts to the actual gameplay featured in Alan Wake, two individual elements of the experience that are intricately linked together, but at first seemingly at odds with each other. You have the fresh and sedated daylight sections, in which the bulk of the main story progression and characterisation occurs; and the night time scenarios in which most of your time will be spent, fending off scores of ‘Taken’, and avoiding a range of deadly supernatural presences.

At first the hellish events that occur at night are largely unseen by the people of Bright Falls, with the odd disappearance or two being the only evidence to show something’s gone awry. But as you delve further into battle with the dark forces at work, and become closer to finding your wife, the events in one world begin to radically affect the other, with the ‘dark presence’ ultimately taking hold of the entire town, providing you with a series of spectacular set-piece events.


The ‘dark presence’, which manifests itself as a veil of black fog, can take over both living and inanimate objects, called the ‘Taken’, presenting you with a danger beyond possessed townsfolk and into the realm of the insane. Light is your most important weapon against this evil force, with you having to use it to burn away the foggy shroud before you can either kill the people behind it, or extinguish the control the ‘presence’ has over lifeless objects.

Your arsenal initially consists of just a pistol and a lowly torch, but as you make your way through the town facing increasing amounts of ‘Taken’, you are given everything from high-powered industrial torches, to flash bangs and flare guns to take down your adversaries. The left trigger controls your torch, and pushing it down gives off an intensely bright light that helps burn away the ‘Taken’ more quickly, but at the expense of battery life. It is possible to aim the torch at enemies by gently holding down the trigger, allowing the initially weak light source to impact their progression before using your firearms to shoot them down.


High-powered torches weaken enemies more quickly, also using more batter power; flares instantly remove all traces of the fog allowing you to focus on immediately gunning down the people underneath before they get to you; flashbangs explode and destroy all enemies in the blast radius instantly, as does the powerful flare gun, which all help greatly in battling off the various supernatural sources at work when surrounded by them.

The more powerful the items, the more battery power they use. However, along with the inclusion of several torch upgrades, you’ll also find longer lasting lithium batteries, which give off a stronger blast of focused light, and faster power regeneration abilities.

Better guns can also be picked up as you make your way through the game, with several types of shotgun, and a powerful hunting rifle, which can kill most ‘Taken’ in a single shot. Ammo is in fairly short supply, and the game often sets up encounters with scores of enemies requiring you to leave that trigger happy persona at home and conserve the ammo you have, using a range of guns, flares, flashbangs, and the environmental light sources in order to stay alive.


The first half of the game is largely based around slowly giving access to all the tools you’ll need to battle the ever-increasing strength of the ‘Taken’ as it sifts through Bright Falls. Sadly, after the first two or three hours of play, the game starts going through the motions of constantly surrounding you with enemies, and having you deal with them by routinely cycling between, and using, various weapon types and well-timed evasive techniques.

About halfway through, this familiarity begins to fade, and as the game pushes further towards its conclusion, starts to up the ante, with large and particularly intense set pieces steadily growing as you reach the end of the game. These become somewhat ridiculous in nature, taking a fairly believable supernatural horror and turning it into a bombastic struggle for survival. During these latter parts of the game, you’ll once again be forced to battle everything from possessed construction vehicles, to roofing structures, along with what looks like the bulk of the now ‘Taken’ townspeople.

Perhaps this was a step too far, as although stunning to look at and exciting to play, these parts are also the most frustrating in the game. It is also at this point that some of the game’s rather cleaver narrative choices betray itself, with some of the big reveals being somewhat of a let down compared to the mysteries they provided. The lure of DLC and continuing story means that Remedy are content to almost use this first instalment as an opening episode as such, delivering what looks like a conclusion (at this point I haven’t quite finished the game) but at the same time leaving other questions left unanswered.


One thing that is so exceptionally good about the whole experience is that one more go factor that Alan has. Every time I sat down to play a short one or two-hour session, I was hooked for nearly double that before having to drag myself away from the controller. It’s a sign of truly engrossing game design and masterful atmosphere creation, all of which leaves you wanting more until the end of chapter cut scene finally plays out.

Alan Wake’s biggest success however, isn’t the incredibly polished gameplay mechanics - repetition aside there’s very little to complain about - but instead the ability to create a deeply dark and disturbing atmosphere in which to completely immerse the player. With shadows crawling all over the surrounding environment; the rustling wind blowing through the tress; and the eerie mist flowing throughout the air, the game’s night time sections are utterly gripping, and often veer on edge of your seat territory.

It’s this atmosphere, and suspenseful nature, which is really Alan’s talking point. Many people speak about immersion, about disconnecting the player from reality and into the game world. And at times, this is exactly what Alan Wake does, combining cleaver storytelling and visceral action-packed gameplay to form a largely compelling, if not slightly cheesy ride into psychological madness and supernatural chaos.


Beyond the impressive graphics, solid gameplay, and mixed storytelling devices, Alan Wake is a mostly sublime experience. Not quite as refined or perfectly scripted as it should have been after five years of work. But nevertheless, a highly promising first outing for a franchise that has enough potential to really turn into something awe inspiringly good. Remedy aren’t too far away from that point, and whatever issues I have with Mr Wake, I was utterly gripped whilst playing the game, not wanting to put the controller down even in the most frustrating of situations.

Alan Wake may be at heart, a Stephen King inspired Resident Evil, a title that clearly wears its influences on its sleeve, and one that isn’t afraid to still feel like a traditional videogame. It isn’t quite as revolutionary as I’d first hoped, and in that respect the question that bubbles around in my head – does it really need to be? – Is a hard one to answer, as all throughout my time in Bright Falls, I was almost completely hooked every step of the way.

The tense atmosphere, partially original narrative approach, and exciting action sequences highlight just some of the things that Remedy’s five-year opus does so well. But they also highlight a realm of missed opportunities and a conscious decision to tow the more traditional gameplay line, a line that could have been broken down, thus creating a true masterpiece rather than just a extremely entertaining, and often excellent experience.

VERDICT: 8/10

Tech Analysis: Alan Wake

I will warn you now, that this tech analysis for Alan Wake is an incredibly long and in-depth affair. With Remedy’s latest there is so much going on, and individual parts which make up the overall look and feel of the game, that after you’ve covered one thing, you’ve also just discovered another.

So, rather than skimp over the little details which might actually have a pretty large impact in he overall scheme of things, what we’ve done, is to try and deliver the most comprehensive look at the tech present in making up the world of Bright Falls, one of this years most defining visual achievements.

Usually it’s Sony’s PS3 exclusives that garner such attention and technical praise, often delving deep into the hardware to deliver an visual experience that on so many technical levels is almost unmatched by most other titles on competing platforms – PC of course excluded, but that’s a given really. Microsoft on the other hand, have a machine with a comprehensive set of development tools that are so much more traditional and easier to get to grips with what Sony have provided for the PS3, that in most cases developers are quite happy to think inside the established box when it comes to crafting that show-stopping visual showcase expected for current-generation games.

However, some developers such are beginning to break out of that cycle, creating a graphical experience which rivals that of Uncharted 2, Killzone 2 and God Of War 3. Both Bungie with Halo Reach, and Remedy with Alan Wake, are pushing the envelope of what is possible on MS’s machine, showing gamers and developers that what is possible in a PS3 custom-made approach title is also possible on the 360.

Last week we took an in-depth look at Halo Reach, casting our critical eye over the overall workings of the tech. Today IQGamer looks closely at Remedy’s Alan Wake, a game no stranger to controversy or our very own tech analysis, in which for this feature, we will be finally evaluating the tile whilst also attempting to fully uncover the truth behind that 540p rendering resolution.

Alan Wake, to cut away any lingering doubts or speculation does indeed render in 960x540 resolution, which is then upscaled by the 360 to form a final 720p image. Not all aspects of the game are rendered in this sub-HD resolution – with some effects actually being closer towards 720p – and the game does use an impressive 4x multi-sampling anti-aliasing at all times, a side effect of which is not only a clear reduction of jagged lines but also a much cleaner upscale.

The result of rendering in 540p isn’t quite as bad as what you might expect, with fine detail still being present, and the soft look of the game actually appearing quite clean and clear compared to some other sub-HD games. No doubt that the use of 4xMSAA actually helps in reducing any upscaling artefacts, whilst keeping the image relatively clean in the process. Softness, as obvious as it is, is the by-product of this, but its inclusion actually helps in creating the creepy atmosphere found in the game, along with the shadowy and foggy night time visuals all feeding a real sense of immersion.


It’s pretty clear from the screenshot above just how good Alan Wake looks for a game that is decidedly more sub-HD than many others on the market. But why did Remedy opt for using such a low resolution so late in the development cycle? And what happened to claims of rendering in 720p with 4xMSAA?

Well, you only have to look at last years gameplay footage in order to find out, which does indeed render in full 720p whilst sporting 4x multi-sampling anti-aliasing. Before this, Alan Wake was rendering at the standard 720p with 2xMSAA, in addition to having full resolution particle and transparency (framebuffer) effects. However the game suffered from constant screen-tearing and drops in framerate, no doubt as the engine struggle to cope with the game’s intense bandwidth requirements

It is pretty obvious that Alan Wake as a game is extremely bandwidth heavy, rendering all those fog, mist, smoke, and transparent particle effects. Transparencies are littered all over the game’s fictional town of Bright Falls, and the engine unsurprisingly was struggling to cope.

Originally Remedy simply decided to change from rendering full resolution effects to instead using half-res alpha-to-coverage effects (A2C), thus saving some bandwidth needed to keep performance up. However, A2C has the unfortunate side effect of giving all transparencies that use it an unsightly screen door effect. The only solution is to effectively up the level of anti-aliasing to 4xMSAA in order to blend away the A2C into the rest of the scene.

Despite these changes it’s clear that the game still suffered from severe performance issues, with tearing once again being at the forefront of those. In an interview the developers stated that the screen tear would be part and parcel of the experience, a sign that maybe they where having trouble in keeping things running smoothly. In light of all this, it seems that in order to claw back performance they finally opted to render in a sub-HD resolution to give them a smooth 30fps update and very little screen tear, whilst still having all the benefits of 4xMSAA improving the overall image quality (IQ).

In the end the use of A2C does very little to damage the overall look of the game. Alan’s hair for example (see below screenshot), is using it with very little in the way of noticeable side effects, though if you look closely you can indeed see some of the dithered nature of the A2C at work. The 4xMSAA manages to prevent any noticeable upscaling effects from being visible, and the soft look provided by the lower resolution isn’t particularly intrusive.


There’s not doubt that the game would look much sharper as a result of rendering at 720p over the current 540p framebuffer, however it is likely that many of the outstanding graphical effects and small visual touches would have to have been sacrificed in order to keep performance levels up. With this in mind it’s much better to have a smoother, graphically more impressive game as a whole, than to have a clearer albeit simpler one instead.

Resolution and framebuffer issues out of the way, the rest of Alan Wake’s engine is just as interesting, and serves as a clear technical benchmark for many 360 developers to follow.

The stable framerate for one is a pretty exceptional achievement. Alan Wake maintains a rock solid 30fps ninety-nine percent of the time, with the game instead opting for screen tearing in situations where the engine is struggling to keep a steady hold on things. As a result the game basically never drops frames at all, and when it does, the drop is so insignificant that it is barely even noticeable at all. The downside is that the tearing can get pretty messy at times, covering the image right in the centre of the screen where it is most noticeable.

Thankfully, these situations aren’t too common place, with most of the tearing smoothly appearing for a split second or so, before vanishing as quickly as it came. It should be pointed out though, that the game does tear regularly, although it isn’t at all intrusive in these smaller amounts.

Adding to the stable framerate is the games use of camera-based motion blur, which helps to create that smooth look and feel that the game has throughout. The motion blur is very subtle, never at all intrusive, instead being an organic part of the camera movement. Its implementation is just another part of the artistic flair that is running through every aspect of the game’s visual make up. The screenshot below shows the effect in action, though it seldom has that much of a dramatic impact on the game in motion.


What is surprising, is that the engine in Alan Wake is running at a almost constantly solid 30fps with a high level of dynamic visual effects - from fog, smoke, and particles - whilst also capable of delivering incredible draw distances without dramatically paring back the visual through the use of an aggressive LOD system. The game is full of sprawling vistas, from dense forests to towering mountains, and all of it is largely reachable, with the player travelling between these iconic places many times.

Perhaps, it is for this reason that the game engine has had sacrifices in other areas. Both the framebuffer, alpha effects, and textures have been downgraded by using a lower resolution, as to has parts of the game’s lighting and shadow system.

Originally Alan Wake was going to be a fully-fledged open world action horror, in which the player would be investigating the various paranormal and supernatural occurrences whist trying to find wife Alice and fend off scores of ‘The Taken’. In much of the final game you can clearly see the original open world nature of its design, with large organic multiple paths to take, long draw distances, and the ability to backtrack, go off the beaten path, before heading to you next destination.

The engine used in the final game is still highly optimised for such an experience, so despite the change to a more linear and controlled affair, the engine still has to draw vast distances in high quality, whilst also having to render all those alpha effects, shaders and textures, and keep up framerate at the same time. It’s like having a version of GTA or Just Cause with Uncharted 2 levels of graphical polish, something which is beyond any of the current gen consoles.

A good example can be seen below, in which the game renders detailed scenery for miles for many miles away from the player, with no additional visual effects hiding the incredible draw distances that the engine is capable of.


Texture detail is reasonably high, although the actual textures themselves appear to be of very low resolution. Up close any detail begins to break up, and from a distance they look clean, but at the same time a little blurry. The quality overall is very good, given the game’s 540p framebuffer and various effects that the engine is pushing around on screen, it’s just a shame that much to the intricate details get so broken up in close range, or blended away when at a distance. Nevertheless there are times in which the combination of artistic flair and attention to detail really show of the textute work.

In term s of filtering it’s not entirely clear what is going on in Alan Wake. Assessing levels of texture filtering by eye is always a difficult proposition, however it is possible to make so well placed judgements as to what is happening.

At times texture detail is visible for a good 16 feet or so into the distance before becoming blurry, whilst in other scenarios texture fidelity is lost just a few feet away from Alan himself. In these later scenes, it would appear that the game is perhaps using bilinear filtering (BF) at best, although that would fail to explain the clarity in other scenes. Instead, my best guess is that Remedy are actually using a combination of anisotropic (AF) and bilinear filtering for the textures, alternating between large amounts of AF and BF combined, to very little AF with no BF at all.

You could call this a ‘filtering bias’ with some scenes getting more filtering that others. But at the same time witn all the fog, mist and other effects going on at night, it is hard to make a solid judgement call on this. At the very least TF is definitely present, with small levels of AF in parts.


Unmistakably though, the use of high levels of visual effects such as volumetric fog, smoke, particles, and the impressively accurate dynamic lighting and shadowing system, is what puts Alan Wake above so many other titles available on either the 360 or the PS3. It’s these effects that work so well with the A2C and 4xMSAA that any hit in pure sharpness taken away by the 540p resolution isn’t on many occasions all that apparent. Especially in night time scenes in which all the visual effects come together, with loads of moving elements on screen pretty much most of the time.

The fog, shadows, light, foliage and physics based objects are cast their own shadows, some simply being pre-baked shadow maps, other being fully dynamic reacting to a multitude of light sources and environmental objects. The fog for example, interacts with the game’s lighting, with light shining through it, moving over the trees and the foliage, casting shadows for most objects in its path.

A hazy mist is also present during the environments at dusk and at night, which both reacts with light along with blending into the black fog which appears as ‘The Taken’ arrives, creating an ambience that adds to the tension felt throughout the experience.

Some of these effects do appear to be rendering at a lower resolution than the rest of the game. The fog in particular is pretty low res, which tends to blur everything in its path, obscuring detail and almost warping the game world. The blur doesn’t impact too much on the overall graphical feel that Remedy is going for, and at times actually benefits it. Sadly when the fog makes its way to cleaner areas, such as town buildings or remote gas stations, the blur effect is more noticeable, and less impressive.


For shadowing the game uses a combination of high and low resolution shadows, both static (pre-baked) and dynamic. The ones used in doors are most noticeably low res, as are some of the dynamic shadows cast by the players touch as they explore Bright Falls. However in outside areas, in which there is so many other effects going on, it’s incredibly hard to notice the odd poor quality shadow.

The games lighting also helps to back the mixture of shadow quality and various other visual effects. Light given off by the players touch casts shadows from objects all around the environment, as do flares and flashbangs, which dynamically change the surrounding shadows. This is perhaps the most impressive thing in Alan Wake’s graphics engine, the uniformity between light and shadow, the dynamic interaction between both, and how this helps create a beautifully organic look to the visuals on offer.

It is safe to say that the quality of these effects on offer in Alan Wake is perhaps some of the best we’ve seen in any console or PC title to date. Resolution issues aside, the consistency and quality seen here is a pretty impressive feat, given the constraints the developers have had to work with and the many issues faced along the way.


Overall the tech behind Alan Wake is extremely impressive. The game is at times combining several different transparency heavy effects together, along with a fully dynamic lighting and shadowing system, whilst maintaining incredibly high draw distances at a near perfect 30fps.

Certainly, things have been sacrificed in order to achieve this level of visual performance, but those sacrifices haven’t damaged the game in any significant way. In fact, most of the issues caused by the low resolution effects and 540p rendering resolution are barely noticeable during most of your time spent in Bright Falls, which is spent in a surreal world of darkness. This darkness helps hide much of the game’s graphical shortcomings, blending them in, and actually increasing the level of immersion to be found all through Mr Wake’s adventure.

Remedy, like with all the most highly talented developers, have shown just how to work in and around any limitations of the current platform they are developing for, making concessions in certain areas, whilst scaling back in others to ensure that the whole visual make up is as polished as it is balanced.

Alan Wake in this regard, represents exactly the right design choices made for the game at hand. Generating atmosphere to completely embody the player is paramount to the experience, and is something that the developers have achieved with the underlying engine behind the game. It isn’t always about getting all the elements together in the most technically advanced way possible. But instead, about making sure that each of the individual pieces fit together succinctly, and not just as separate visual standpoints in which to admire.

In conclusion, there’s no doubt that Remedy have achieved exactly what they have set out to do with Alan Wake, creating a game which is as gripping as it is visually alluring. For all the use of high-end tech that is powering the game, it is the carefully and often cleverly crafted nature of the art design which makes the package such a success. And whilst it may not have all the high definition goodness of Sony’s Uncharted 2, it more than matches it in sheer technical brilliance and pure artistic direction.

Tech Report: Alan Wake Not Rendered In HD

Earlier this week we sighted Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake as one of our top five technically accomplished games for 2010, a position backed up by the game’s impressive use of dynamic lighting, particle and transparency effects, whilst of course having 4x multisampling anti-aliasing adding to the already impressive technical prowess held the title.

However, that statement is looking partially shaky, particularly because the game has now been confirmed to no longer be running 720p high definition, but instead in an unimpressive sub-HD resolution, actually lower than what some standard definition DVDs are presented in.

Yesterday, some direct feed screenshots were released by Dutch site Videogameszone believed to be from a compressed video source, and showing the game as having a 547p resolution (960x547 to be exact). However, the screenshots in question show scenes not actually in the compressed video they were believed to have come from, instead originating from what looks like compressed framebuffer grabs directly from an Xbox 360 console.



Earlier today, these screenshots were properly identified as compressed framebuffer grabs from an actual 360, and have also been confirmed to be rendering at 960x540, and then upscaled to the full 1280x720 standard HD resolution.

So the question is, why is the game’s resolution so low, and why did Remedy change it from rendering in their originally intended 720p?

Well, it may just come down to their use of A2C for certain transparencies and their need to use 4xMSAA in order to make them look good. According to Remedy the use of 4xMSAA is vital for decent ‘alpha blending’ of the A2C transparency effects, which is required to reduce texture shimmering and transparency dithering caused by using A2C instead of the more traditional, and bandwidth heavy ‘alpha coverage’.

“We like 4xAA. Due to the alpha-to-coverage feature on the Xbox 360 GPU, it's one of the key reasons we can render a lot of "alpha test" foliage like trees and bushes without them starting to shimmer or dither (as alpha-to-coverage with 4xAA effectively gives us 5 samples of alpha "blend" without actually using alpha blend).”


In addition to this, using a lower resolution like 540p allows the developers to continue to use 4xMSAA along with all the intensive framebuffer effects, and geometry hungry tessellation features which usually put a strain on rendering performance, not to mention bandwidth (tessellation excluded). And since the game was already suffering from bouts of terrible screen tearing, it could have looked like the best possible choice in order to secure relatively decent performance from the game engine in demanding scenarios. After all, having the screen tear does less for reducing image quality than a constantly fluctuating framerate, although somewhat more distracting to some people, myself included.

Essentially, rendering at 960x540 with 4xMSAA would allow then to gain a lot of performance back from when they were still rendering in 720p with either 2xMSAA or 4x. This way they could ensure a smooth 30fps update most of the time whilst reducing overall screen tearing, although recent videos confirmed to be using this new rendering resolution still have a lot of tearing going on.

By using 4x anti-aliasing Remedy have reduced the jagged look associated with sub-HD resolution upscaling, and instead provided the game with a much smoother, blended appearance. Sharpness however, is lost as a result, and although some have said that this new blurrier look adds extra atmosphere to the game, it also makes a large dent in overall image quality. Certainly, compared to the clean looking 720p direct-feed screenshots of the past, these recent sub-HD ones make the game look much less impressive in stills. Hopefully in motion, and using the uncompressed video output of the 360 console, they won’t look quite so poor.

IQGamer will be taking a closer look at the technology used in Alan Wake around the time of the game’s release. Until then we shall keep you fully updated on this story, and shed light on more details as soon as we know about them.

The original 960x547 resolution was first discovered by MazingerDUDE on NeoGAF late last night, and the final 960x540 resolution was confirmed by Quaz51 earlier this evening.

IQGamer's Top 5 Tech Titles For 2010

Over the next couple of months this generation is set to witness another wave of technically proficient and defining titles, following on from last year’s Uncharted 2, this year’s God Of War 3, and Crysis, from a few years back. It’s for this reason that IQGamer has presented you with our top five titles to look out for on a technical level. Games which potentially, will not only push the barriers of what is possible on their respective platforms, but that will also showcase the perfect blend of art and technology fused together for outstanding graphical excellence. Some of these of course will transcend that notion, being as relevant for their gameplay as well as their graphics.

1: Alan Wake

Remedy Entertainment’s unique take of the survival horror genre has been in development for six long years, and in that time scarcely anything has been seen of the title. The recent trailers however, have shown that those six years could well be worth the wait, with an eerie, Stephen King meets Silent Hill style approach to the mood and atmosphere, and a action focused, episodic style of gameplay which looks set to bring freshness to a somewhat worn out genre. Visually, the game looks like being the poster boy for lighting for the 360, with some of the most impressive dynamic lighting seen outside of PS3’s God Of War 3, whilst also providing a range of post process filters, and some amazing texture work.



2: Halo Reach

Microsoft’s 360 exclusive sets to re-write the rulebook of just what is possible on their white box of tricks in the eyes of rabid PS3 fanboys. In reality the 360 has always been capable of such graphical feats, but having a title display them all at the same time is a welcome sign that developers are finally trying to seriously push the machine. ‘Reach’ is one of the first titles to be pushing up too 40 lights sources on-screen at once, from the glow given off from firing your Plasma rife, to the reflections shining off the surrounding lights. In addition, a healthy use of normal-mapping combined with improved texture detail, gives far more depth to the various surfaces found in the game, whilst a higher rendering resolution and trillinear filtering brings up the image quality significantly from Halo 3 and ODST.

There’s more of course, but for now why not check out the impressive gameplay video below, which showcases exactly what we mean.



3: The Last Guardian

More of an artistic inclusion that a purely technical one, but a game nevertheless that has the potential to truly blend artistic beauty with awe-inspiring technical brilliance. We’ve already seen the wonderfully smooth and completely natural looking animation from earlier trailers, which by far moved me in a way most games routinely fail to do, ‘feeling’ alive rather than just looking like it. A mixture of detailed texture work, painted textures, hand drawn inspired main character model, and lovely HDR lighting effects combined with ‘that’ animation make this one to look out for. More intriguing though, will be the bond between the boy and the creature, and the unique gamplay mechanics it could bring to the table. This is easily one of the most exciting titles for us at IQGamer, regardless of any technical merit that might be bestowed upon it.



4: Lost Planet 2

Capcom’s sequel to the 2006 hit is looking every bit as sweet as the first game, with bigger and badder enemies, huge screen-filling bosses, and some of the best particle effects we’ve seen so far on both PS3 and 360. More detailed texturing, improved lighting, better filtering and an overall higher image quality is just some of the things this sequel brings to the table. The first game however, introduced us to much of this anyway, so it will be far more interesting to see how the co-op campaign works out, and how the collecting of alien residue is still required for survival. Despite not being high on many people’s hype list it is right up there on our radar, and we’ll be sure to be taking a long hard look at the game upon its release.



5: Crisis 2

Maybe this one should be higher up on the list but you will find out why not in just a moment. The first game is still, by a long way, the most technically accomplished game ever made. If you have the PC to run it Crysis will push around on ‘enthusiast’ settings pretty much every graphical effect buzzword known to man. And at 1080p 60fps for a short while, if you’re lucky. ‘Crysis 2’ is attempting to do exactly the same thing but with a strong focus on consoles this time around.

The game already seems to be implementing ambient occlusion, along with simulated god-rays, dynamic lighting, volumetric effects and various specular and refraction techniques also. Not too mention particle effects and an impressive real-tie physics system. Sadly, it all currently looks rather poor when shown in high definition on the consoles, with low resolution textures, bilinear filtering, no anti-aliasing, and slightly sub 720p rendering res. These two screenshots here and here show what were talking about, whilst the vid below shows how impressive it can look in motion.



So there you have it, IQGamer’s top five technically advanced titles to look forward to. All of those are definitely no-brainers in terms of graphical might and technology, but some of them might also genuinely take their respective genre’s in altogether different directions, doing for gameplay what others have done for graphics. Or maybe, some will in fact do both, proving we have lots of power and imagination left to be gleamed from the current batch of consoles. Either way you can expect us to be providing our flagship tech analysis on at least three of those above five titles, and most likely full reviews for all of them too.

Lastly, you might be wondering why there aren’t any Wii titles on that list. Well, seeing as it IS a list of the most technically advanced titles coming to consoles, we didn’t think something that can push Nintendo’s little white slab to its limits quite justifies a place amongst titles running and competing on superior hardware. Artistically speaking, both Metroid Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are certainly candidates for the race of ‘best visuals’, just not in the overall technical sense. Although, you cannot deny that both games are technically beautiful, working in and around the constraints of the aging Wii hardware.