Gamescom Opening Night Live may have kicked off the event, but Wednesday marked the first full day of the convention.
Yesterday, members of the press were invited into the show, allowing them to cover the upcoming games and events ahead of the doors being officially opened to all today. As things got up to speed, we saw the first interviews and previews being posted, with more to come as the week develops.
Below is an online wrap-up of Day #1 of Gamescom 2023:
Gamescom Opening Night Live
Before we delve into Wednesday, if you missed any of the livestream from the previous day, you can rewatch the on-stage interview with a transcript (HERE), and you can catch the trailer below.
Previews
Over the course of the first day, we saw the first previews being posted of the forty-minute hands-off demo. So far, all previews have been incredibly positive about the footage.
IGN. IGN posted Simon Cardy's preview, which described the experience as "smart, engrossing, and consistently odd". He later expanded to say on Twitter, that "nobody else quite does it like Remedy." You can read Simon's post, HERE!
The Loadout. Sam Comrie from The Loadout was equally as positive in his review, "Alan Wake 2 preview – I never want to leave The Dark Place, actually". In the introduction, Sam writes, that "having witnessed the enthralling abyss that is The Dark Place, it brings me immense joy to say Remedy Entertainment could well have another magnum opus on its hands with Alan Wake 2." You can read the full article on The Loadout, HERE!
The Loadout. Sam Comrie from The Loadout was equally as positive in his review, "Alan Wake 2 preview – I never want to leave The Dark Place, actually". In the introduction, Sam writes, that "having witnessed the enthralling abyss that is The Dark Place, it brings me immense joy to say Remedy Entertainment could well have another magnum opus on its hands with Alan Wake 2." You can read the full article on The Loadout, HERE!
GameSpot. Finally, we have Tamoor Hussain and Lucy James from GameSpot, who took an in-depth look at "What Alan Wake 2 Borrows from Control". In their preview, they talk about Alan's plot board, comparisons to the studio's previous work and the Dark Place, describing what they saw as "incredibly promising". You can listen to their thoughts, HERE or below!
Interviews
We also heard from Kyle Rowley (Game Director) and Sam Lake (Creative Director and Lead Writer on Alan Wake 2) in the first set of interviews.
Nick Romano from Entertainment Weekly talks to Sam in a deep dive into the trailer shown during Gamescom Opening Night Live. In the discussion, the writer talks about the return of live-action, the Dark Place as a metaphor, and the neighbour of the beast. Read the interview, HERE!
Nick Romano from Entertainment Weekly talks to Sam in a deep dive into the trailer shown during Gamescom Opening Night Live. In the discussion, the writer talks about the return of live-action, the Dark Place as a metaphor, and the neighbour of the beast. Read the interview, HERE!
Ed Smith's (PCGamesN) interview with Kyle and Sam brings up the topic of the Remedy Connected Universe and the desire to work again with actors from their previous games. The answer has sparked a lot of discussion on the Remedy Discord server! You can read the interview, HERE!
Yesterday afternoon, Sam joined the Gamescom studio sofa to talk more about Alan Wake 2, exploring how the game differs from its predecessor, his horror movie inspirations, and the need for comedy in horror. You can watch it on the IGN YouTube Channel, HERE or check it out below!
The Final Casey
As people went in to see the demo, they were greeted by posters promoting a series of fictional movies, inspired by Alan Wake's Alex Casey series.
Posters include "Cold Casey", "Worst Casey", "Murder Casey", and "Closed Casey", all featuring incredibly nerdy puns.
Fortunately, you don't need to be at Gamescom to check them out, with fellow nerd, Ash, sharing photographs of each on Twitter.
Giggling and kicking my feet thinking about the 40 mins of Alan Wake 2 I saw today, but the real star of the show was the Alex Casey poster collection decorating the venue 💀 the @SamLakeRMD cinematic universe continues to deliver pic.twitter.com/gkt8pCsgzJ
— human ash @ Gamescom (@ashmillman) August 23, 2023
More for your Casey files!! Secret "Final Casey" poster beguiled me so much that I forgot to take a picture of it, but here's the rest of the collection otherwise x pic.twitter.com/Da7U8T0UTG
— human ash @ Gamescom (@ashmillman) August 23, 2023
Nvidia's New Tech & Giveaway
At Gamescom, Nvidia revealed their DLSS 3.5, a brand new version of their GPU tool that will enhance ray tracing in games by using Ray Reconstruction. Fingers crossed, the update should work with any RTX graphics card, or at least the Ray Reconstructions will. Alongside their announcement, they put Alan Wake and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty in the spotlight with RTX on and off comparisons. You can learn more at GamesRadar+, HERE!
To celebrate its announcement, Nvidia are giving away a special GeForce RTX 4090, which will arrive with a custom Alan Wake 2 backplate. Check out the details below:
We’re giving away a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with a one-of-a-kind @AlanWake custom backplate, launching 10/27 with full ray tracing + NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 ⚡
— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) August 23, 2023
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