No.1 -- There are more vehicles than you'd expect
If you've been paying attention, you won't be surprised to hear you'll be able to drive vehicles in Alan Wake -- that's been established for years. But according to Remedy lead writer Sam Lake, there will be quite a few of these in the game. Expect helicopters, boats, and "other types of vehicles and machines perhaps not traditionally used in games." Lake clarifies, though, that not all of these will be under the player's direct control, so sometimes you'll ride along while someone else drives, and sometimes you'll be attacked by enemy-controlled contraptions.
No.2 -- Bugs make the best features
As mentioned above, at many points in the game, the mysterious power known as the "darkness" will take over vehicles and use them as weapons against players. But that wasn't the plan all along. "Early on in the project, we had a physics-related bug in the game, and certain objects would start shaking violently and would kill you if you stepped too close," says Lake. "It was scary, and that's how the concept of objects being possessed by darkness was born."
No.3 -- Wake got married mid-development
As you can see in the video below, Alan Wake -- the character -- has gone through quite a few changes over the course of the game's development. One of the most notable of these is that his love interest, Alice, actually transformed from his girlfriend into his wife at one point. Lake explains: "Right from the start we wanted Alan Wake to be somebody people could relate to, not a stereotypical tough guy or a commando. We wanted him to be a capable everyman that, in an extreme situation, rises to the occasion, adapting to the insanity that surrounds him as the events of his latest book, a thriller novel he cannot even remember writing are coming true before his very eyes. Naturally, some of the details about his background have evolved along the way. When we first started, Alice was his girlfriend. The project took a couple of years, so they had time to get married along the way."
No.4 -- The hoods are gone
If you look closely at the evolution video above, you'll see hooded men chasing Alan Wake in one of the game's early trailers. But in the most recent footage of the game, they've remained out of sight while Wake has fought against somewhat more human looking foes. According to Lake, there's no big secret here -- the hooded men were simply early versions of the "Taken" enemies in the game. So, much like Wake's fauxhawk and brightly-colored shirt, they don't look like they'll make a return in the finished game.
No.5 -- This one's a spoiler...
...but it's also kind of awesome, so I had to include it. It turns out that in Alan Wake's past, he "made a career of writing bestselling crime thrillers set in New York City where the protagonist was a hardboiled cop," says Lake. This was in response to a question about easter eggs in the game that might refer to Remedy's previous franchise Max Payne, so it's pretty easy to see what Lake's talking about here. The most interesting part of this, however, is that players will actually get to take control of a flashback sequence during that timeframe. Anyone want to guess if the concept of his-stories-are-coming-to-life-around-him might carry over for this segment as well?
Max Payne is going to be in alan wake awesome
