Action-horror sequel Alan Wake 2 showed up to last night’s Gamescom festivities with a cryptic trailer (below) that showed the studio’s signature Lynchian mystery, an upside-down New York, and some interesting live-action scenes. But references to Remedy’s past games have been the big conversation driver, especially since the studio is building up a “Remedy Connected Universe.” Creative director Sam Lake has now clarified that time-bending shooter Quantum Break and the Max Payne games aren’t cool enough to join the Remedy-verse, while also breaking down their approach to these shared-world games.
]]>After making their name with Max Payne's joyous gun bonanzas, Remedy Entertainment now seem pretty over guns but can never quite hang up their holsters. I've been playing Quantum Break since it arrived on PC Game Pass, and I'm finding their oft-forgotten time-bending shooter is yet another modern Remedy game full of boring gunfights even as it gives you supernatural powers that could replace guns. Their apparent disinterest in gunfights is especially felt in a game so into telling a story that it ends chapters with TV-length live-action episodes starring actual Lance Reddick. Looking back over their past games, agh, as much as I want spooky investigations, I can't get excited about their next, Alan Wake 2.
]]>After a few weeks in time limbo, Quantum Break has returned to storefronts on PC and Xbox. Publisher Microsoft had said “some licences that expired” were to blame for its removal from Game Pass (for consoles), which was probably the same reason it was pulled from storefronts too. It’s now rewound the clocks, available to buy, and as a nice bonus, it’s joined PC Game Pass for the first time since it was previously only available on the console version of the service.
]]>Jack Joyce has run out of time, or steam, both work! Remedy’s time-bending Quantum Break - part superpowered shooter, part live-action TV show - has been delisted on Steam and The Microsoft Store. The game’s Steam page is still up, but it’s no longer available for purchase on PC or Xbox consoles. Publisher Microsoft had already confirmed the game would be “temporarily” removed from Game Pass (for console, it was never on the PC version) due to licensing issues, although there was no word on a removal from storefronts.
]]>April is the time for foolish jokes, seasonal showers, and World Rat Day. But another month also means another batch of Game Pass leavers. This time we wave goodbye to summertime fishing escapades and cold treks through frozen wildlands - truly mirroring April’s zig-zagging weather.
]]>Welcome back, gentle human bean, to another year of PC gaming thrills, spills and ambient anxiety about the correct deployment of the term 'roguelite' here on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. As our beleaguered forms struggle to cope with the sudden shift away from Chocolate Oranges for breakfast, now is the time for our time-lost minds to reflect upon how we occupied ourselves over the past ten days.
To wit: what videogames did we play, when time, relatives, bloating and demanding pets allowed?
]]>I had all the characteristics of a blogger — frayed jeans, opinions, laptop, tea — but my depersonalisation was so intense, had gone so deep, that my normal ability to compile charts had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating top ten articles, a rough resemblance of a best-sellers list, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning.
And yet.
]]>Quantum Break [official site] has finally received a proper PC release via Steam (although sadly only Steam so far), rather than the ridiculous Windows Store. (A store that hides where it installs games on your PC, which isn't something you'll want with a 70GB game!) I've played it through for the very first time this week, and can tell you wot I think of this time travelling multimedia caper.
]]>Quantum Break [official site], the latest from Max Payne folk Remedy, was a Windows 10 store exclusive on PC, and thus cruelly sent to die a miserable death. However, it has just been exhumed from its Microsoftian grave, and will receive a Steam release next month. Can the heavily-mo-capped, time-twisting story-shooter possibly live a second life at this stage?
]]>I'm hearing mostly bad things about Rememdy's Quantum Break [official site], not least of which is that the reliably unreliable Windows Store (in many ways the child of Games For Windows Live) is preventing our reviewer from getting into the damn thing. Remedy's approach to pirated copies of the game makes me want to like it, though.
Re-using a technique seen in Alan Wake on PC, if Quantum Break decides you're running a pirated copy, it sticks a skull'n'crossbones-adorned eyepatch onto lead character Jack Joyce. Rather than a punishment, this seems rather a comic touch, seems appealingly at odds with what is otherwise rather a dour affair.
]]>Max Payne and Alan Wake folks Remedy have enjoyed making little television shows and cartoons to run in the background of their games, stories which mirror or contrast with what's going on in the main story. With their next shooter, they're taking those cinematic dreams bigger. Quantum Break [official site] features full live-action episodes telling half of the game's story with a cast including actors you may know from such fine TV shows as The Wire, Queer as Folk, and Animorphs. And, er, to see those episodes you'll need to be online to stream the videos. It's baffling.
]]>Remedy (Max Payne, Alan Wake) have been making gorgeous, violent games about angry-sad men for years now. When they announced their latest, Quantum Break [official site], it was revealed as an Xbox One exclusive. Moments ago, they announced that the time-troubling action game will also be coming to PCs. As long as those PCs are running Windows 10. There's a proper trailer below, along with a newly released live action thing.
]]>
