GTA IV just isn’t my bag. I know they’ve improved the controls, polished the visuals, added multiplayer and great physics and procedural animations, but all the sappy sim stuff they threw in for SA and have kept in for this is just too extreme for my liking. It’s taken what was originally an arcadey top-down action shooter to a third-person, free-form action shooter to some sort of sim/RPG/third-person shooter where it sounds like you spend more time shooting pool with imaginary friends or watching your character’s TV through your PC screen than actually pushing the plot. Like one of my friends observed, it’s taken the gangster simulation to mundane levels of realism instead of diluting all the best bits into a larger-than-life experience.

I really liked what Remedy did with Max Payne so I’m confident they can do something good. As long as it has heart and steers well clear of being a friend sim, I’m interested.

P.S. Read less previews. It’ll do you the world of good! ;)

Ah yes, as every Vista PC is a beast. More like “Microsoft said we had to”.

Initially A.Wake did look just like Silent Hill in a realistic open-world setting (pseudo GTA I guess), but it could potentially be so much more. Can not wait. They pretty much haven’t hyped this game at all, cliffski.

@Max: The only thing they really share with those damn “Darkseekers” is that they detest/ are hurt by light. Aside from that they seem entirely different. In one of the A.Wake trailers, at the very end, you see what is chasing him. I know that video is around somewhere in better definition, but YouTube nearest at hand.

Also, this game is coming to Vista PC and Xbox 360 only.

Niiiiiiice water. Imagine a Silent Hill in that engine …

*Their showcase machine is a Quad Core 7900GTX
http://www.brightfalls.net/alan-wake-faq/#s1q03

Alan Wake development is going fine! The game has been under works all this years. I already knew that we wont see Alan Wake in 2008, but we will in 2009, and it will be one hell of a game!

To bad It’s vista exclusive tho.

GTA IV is good, but aside from the obvious next gen graphics and improved combat, and of course the excellent multiplayer, it’s pretty much the same game as the previous 3 GTA’s. In fact if anything, in terms of content, I personally think the game seems to have taken a big step backwards from GTA: San Andreas, which still remains my favourite GTA.

So despite all the hype surrounding GTA IV I don’t see why any other developers of open world games should be that worried by its success to be honest. Unless of course they are just going for a straight GTA clone, but Alan Wake and Prototype sound quite different enough to standout on their own to avoid the GTA comparisons.