Alone in the Dark producer shows Wii controls and gameplay
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Apr 28th 2008 at 12:30PM }
After the break we've embedded footage of Loppin playing the game (he starts around 1:57). A nice touch: by moving the Wiimote and nunchuk away from each other in a "coat opening motion" players can view Carnby's inventory, which he conveniently keeps inside his coat. And if anyone is feeling super ambitious and wants to translate, be our guest.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jansperus @ Apr 28th 2008 12:37PM
Le grille? What the hell is that?
GatorSax2010 @ Apr 28th 2008 12:47PM
+1 for Simpsons reference.
knowthyself @ Apr 28th 2008 12:56PM
Awesome simpsons reference ansperus lol.
bearmedal @ Apr 28th 2008 1:03PM
I vaguely remember that. Which episode is it from?
Markez (MKWii 4339-2878-5120) @ Apr 28th 2008 1:40PM
He's trying to put a grill together and it comes out thoroughly messed up. Then some people mistake it for art and Homer becomes an artist.
Jansperus @ Apr 28th 2008 12:40PM
Also, is it a mere coincidence that Loppin and Carnby look EXACTLY the same? Anyway, the Wii graphics don't look too bad on this one. All you other Wii developers should be ashamed of yourselves!
BooKahKee @ Apr 28th 2008 6:02PM
I knew I wasn't the only one who thought so! Definitely shares a resemblance to the main character.
Jansperus @ Apr 28th 2008 9:12PM
Wow! I love your name!
D_Average @ Apr 28th 2008 12:41PM
Opening the coat is a nice touch, but its missing one thing......."Whaddayabuyin?"
Kewlrats @ Apr 28th 2008 1:32PM
My friend, you have just helped me decide on my new ring tone.
Kururugi Suzaku @ Apr 28th 2008 1:26PM
Whaddayasellin?
Martez @ Apr 28th 2008 3:01PM
I'll buy it at a high price!
rikimaru @ Apr 28th 2008 3:12PM
HEhehehe... THANKYOU!
Jhongerkong @ Apr 28th 2008 4:11PM
You spoony bard!
....wait a minute
Sidepocket @ Apr 28th 2008 1:06PM
Finally someone else than GoNintendo picked up my news subscription.
Yea, that video alone made my hype for this game be "hmmm, interesting but Wii version most likely suck" to "OMFG I MUST BY THIS GAME DAY ONE BRING SPECIAL EDITION TO USA!"
Plus, I am afraid my PC will be unable to run the Games for Windows edition.
alan @ Apr 28th 2008 12:59PM
those wii graphics are actually great
MariosInferno @ Apr 28th 2008 1:03PM
Yeah...I thought they looked solid also.
Looks like they're putting some genuine effort into the Wii version. Assuming that's true, I sure hope it pays off in the form of sales.
tjlenz @ Apr 28th 2008 1:05PM
I think most of the footage is from the 360 version, apart from when he is actually playing. Take a look at the first helicopter part, the button prompt at the bottom of the screen looks like it refers to the 360 'A' button. Unless there is a new green button on the Wii that I'm missing.
Gbogdan @ Apr 28th 2008 1:17PM
Yeah, I agree. The stuff they show before and after he is playing looks to be 360/PS3. I thought it was wii at first as well and was wondering how the hell it looked like that.
Jhongerkong @ Apr 28th 2008 4:14PM
The gc's A button is green...
playwhutyalike @ Apr 28th 2008 7:26PM
The controls don't look broken either. A future purchase maybe?
Maxwell Ash @ Apr 28th 2008 12:59PM
Alone in the Dark Wii: Now with flasher control. Show enemies your penis!
Drago Dracini @ Apr 28th 2008 3:18PM
damn you beat me to it... ;p
t_m @ Apr 28th 2008 3:44PM
chaude cafe au lait?
Markez (MKWii 4339-2878-5120) @ Apr 28th 2008 1:01PM
This game looks pretty rad. I noticed they have a driving sequence where you use the wiimote and nunchuk like your grabbing a steering wheel? I thought they did that in one of the earlier COD games on Wii? Heard that didn't go too well...
amart @ Apr 28th 2008 1:02PM
Too bad its not RE5 on the wii :P
Co @ Apr 28th 2008 1:27PM
Don't worry. That's coming soon. 25 million in sales worldwide and growing is too hard to ignore.
LAWL @ Apr 28th 2008 1:45PM
Bad for us,good for them.
Noshino @ Apr 28th 2008 5:03PM
"Don't worry. That's coming soon. 25 million in sales worldwide and growing is too hard to ignore."
I guess that's why SE ignored the DS and released Crisis Core for PSP....
Sidepocket @ Apr 28th 2008 11:25PM
@ Noshino
1) Everything that is Final Fantasy 7 in video game form is owned by Sony.
2) Square-Enix locked development before either the PSP or DS systems were out.
SyChO-421 @ Apr 28th 2008 1:03PM
Controls and graphics look quite good!
I would consider this version Vs the 360.
---
I'm guessing most of you didn't understand a word that he said?
Don't feel to bad, I'm a french Canadian and his "French" accent is hard for me to understand also! :P
hehehehe!
Nicholas Sulikowski @ Apr 28th 2008 1:13PM
Ho crap....ok third parties don't have any excuses anymore. Make games look like that!
WiNG @ Apr 28th 2008 1:09PM
I'm writing a translation, done in 5 minutes.
gLitterbug @ Apr 28th 2008 1:16PM
What the hell? This looks actually much better than I anticipated. So far nothing much on the Wii Version was shown and I assumed it'd be a really awful port that just relied on name association sales.
If they get the controls feeling right and focus on that it might be a pretty good substitute for (most probably) not getting the whole dynamic liquid with sticky tape and fire stuff. Although I guess we'll all miss the sticky tape. Who wouldn't.
ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Apr 28th 2008 1:20PM
The wii version looks awesome. He said that the entire game is going to be on the Wii and PS2 versions.
I don't have time to translate all of it right now, but he's basically saying that the whole deal about Alone in the Dark is its immersiveness, and the Wii REALLY allows him to do it.
He's able to pull out his left/right weapons individually and to store them in his coat through movements, and to really look into his inventory, he just opens his coat with a parting movement. And well, you swing the wiimote in the appropriate direction to get the main character swinging.
There are some concessions they had to make, such as the material bursting into flames: instead of having it be done dynamically, they had to script it. So, instead of lighting a chair with your lighter, you'd have to carry a chair and put it in a fire source (there will be a bunch of them in the game). Other sacrifice is that you can't truly rotate the object you're holding around you, you're just going to swing it in front of you.
I think that pretty much covers what he said.
WiNG @ Apr 28th 2008 1:21PM
Damn I missed the point about the scripting. I'm sure I fucked up a lot but oh well. This is the Internet.
WiNG @ Apr 28th 2008 1:20PM
My French is not that good but here it goes:
For anyone who knows the general story of AITD, the story is the same, the scenario is the same, and for the PS2 and Wii versions, what we had to do was figure out how to adapt the game for a “next gen” experience. So we're talking about dynamic fire, interactive physics, but overall just how to adapt the game to the PS2 to have almost all the same features as the Wii version, to really push the strengths of the systems.
We'll talk more about it later, but obviously the vast majority of the other difference for the Wii version is the controller, of course. How could we use the Wiimote/nunchuck perfectly for this game?
[He says something like, in this game, it's not just “press some button to open your inventory” but something much more dynamic and...]
If I want to pull out a flashlight, I just move like this and.. just like that I can put it back. On the other side I can pull out the pistol, and just as quick as I can take it out, right back in. I can pull out both at once, and even go in first person mode. You can view objects easier this way, survey everything. And now we put them back and, if I want to check out the other objects I have, I make the same movement as before but with both hands now.
And looking down I can see what objects are there, whether or not I want to take them out, and no... nothing, so I close my jacket. Voila!
But yeah, moving on, looking at the objects we have here, there's stuff to heal you, and herre's a spray can, a lighter. And you can grab both to make them interact with one another. So holding this item here, and just moving my hands together I can use the lighter to make a flamethrower just like that. Then I'll just put them away.
But, when working with larger things like chairs, trashcans, etc... you just grab it like this, and make the same motion you want to in the game. So, I have this can, if I want to do a right attack with it, just swing from the right. Same for left attack or an overhead attack. And a lot of objects let you interact with the environment, break doors, smash stuff, etc.
And, damn, wrong item, here we go, with the gun, as you know, the controls are super accurate. With the wiimote you just aim, and you can even tilt the gun as you'd like. And if you want to reload, there's none of that “hit a button to reload” or shooting offscreen, but you turn the gun like in real life and just... eject the clip. Easy as that. And there's one level of zoom, for more accuracy and more sensitivity.
[I can't hear what he's saying over the music here, but I think he says you can get headshots if you aim well]
But if you find an item, like this chair, you can just smash the monster with it. These attacks are really powerful and you can easily drop the item, umm this button here. And now you can see, using the lighter and spray can, I can light the monster on fire
Now in the car, well, look, you can even interact with the sun visor here. Let's just see if there's anything behind it... no. We can check the glove compartment also, but nothing here either. Now, we don't have a key so we're going to hotwire the car. And, just like in real life, I 'm going to make this motion. And holding the wiimote like this, I grab the wires and manipulate them carefully. Not this one, let's see if this works. I've found the right combination, and the car starts.
Now that we can drive, it's the same, just like real life, I grab the wheel with both hands. Turning left and right, the game responds just like I'm driving. [loud music, can't hear what he's saying]
Obviously there's stuff that could be done on the 360 that can't be done here. So instead we can take part of that experience, not the same level, but still, we can work with that. So no, we can't do all the next gen effects, wood splintering, etc, no. But, but! With this version we can do something else, we can remove the barriers between the game and the player's experience and bring them into it. We can make their own motions the controls. And now when you grab a chair, you can put it in a fire, and when it's on fire, swing to hit the monsters. But the “next gen” systems you can't have that feeling of smacking a monster with a burning chair, they can't do that. So with the version you can just take big swings, left right, right left, and overhead smash, that's the kind of control we're talking about.
gLitterbug @ Apr 28th 2008 1:30PM
Thanks for the translation, seems to make sense.
I really really hope this turns out well. And if it does, I guess everyone wishes there was actually a Wii + Xbox/PS3 combo, that would unite the strong points of each release for maximum awesome. Less so the graphics than all the sticky tape and dynamically splintering wood.
nanu @ Apr 28th 2008 1:41PM
I'm translating as I'm watching:
In general, the story is the same, the scenario is the same, although a few adaptations had to be made. Obviously a challenge for the Wii version was how to include all the very next-gen elements such as dynamic fire and movable objects with the resources of the Wii and PS2 which are obviously a lot less powerful. So all of these features are in the Wii version, however they were properly adapted to the hardware.
And of course another important thing for the Wii is the controls that we've done. The wiimote and nunchaku work perfectly for this game. (Translator note: Ya, we'll see if that's true when it comes out on retail... :/)
The main focus was on immersion, so whenever you want to interact with something you don't just push a button (He mumbled different examples really quickly... French is my second language so I didn't really catch what he said there). Edward Carnby, to open up his jacket, you go like this. *performs jacket opening motion with wiimote and nunchaku*
If I want to pull out my flashlight, I do like Carnby and I put my hand in my vest to pull it out, now I put it back. Same thing for my gun, I pull it out, and I put it back. Afterwards I can pull out both of them if I want, and go into this view (he meant first person)
we can look at different things and objects, your flashlight points where you point your remote.
Now I'll put them both back in, and like I said earlier we perform this motion to open the vest, and now I look at what's inside and see if there's anything that I'm in the mood to use. No, so I can close the vest.
(The guy basically just goes on like this until one part of the video): In the 360 version we had a level but it couldn't be done in the Wii version. So instead we had to cut it up into small segments and then you do it all but in smaller segments. That was one of the compromises that had to be done.
As for fire, which works dynamically in the 360 version, where it burns differently on different materials, we were unable to do this. So instead what we did is that if there's a fire in a hallway for instance, it will move closer to you, but it'll be scripted instead. We can't have a fire and apply it to any random object. But we still have different fire sources and you can still pick up a wooden chair and light it on fire and use it for different things.
Another thing which he ahd to take out is that on the 360 version, you can pick up an object and move it all around your body (he means the whole thing where you move the analog stick to move an object around your head). Instead, you use the wiimote to perform large hits either from left-to-right, right-to-left, or from top-to-bottom. (he demonstrated himself doing that in the video and it appeared to work nicely)
-END
StarFoxA @ Apr 28th 2008 1:49PM
Wow, amazing Wii graphics.
Optimus Prime @ Apr 28th 2008 2:07PM
Y A W N
NATO_Duke @ Apr 28th 2008 2:39PM
I think you are largely alone there. It looks like a pretty damn nice wii game to me. The graphics are pleasing and the use of the controls doesn't look as annoying as I would have expected in that genre.
syrik zero @ Apr 28th 2008 2:40PM
Finally a game that looks about as good (maybe better) as Resident Evil 4, Gamecube version, on the Wii.
Martez @ Apr 28th 2008 3:06PM
Wow, I wasn't expecting this from the Wii version. I believe I will buy this.
Jihem @ Apr 28th 2008 4:19PM
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to say that the french website is not jeuxfrance, but jeuxvideo.com. I somenone at Joystiq could correct that on the news, it would be great ! Thanks
Ibere @ Apr 28th 2008 4:30PM
What's with the hellicopter? I thought AITD games was set in the 50 or something...
Ben @ Apr 28th 2008 6:47PM
Umm, there's been helicopters since the late 1930's... look it up.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter
Toasty @ Apr 28th 2008 4:44PM
The motion controls look awesome, but are cause for worry. They can really enhance the game when done to exacting specifications, but in a game that relies on them this much, the slightest touchiness can ruin the experience. He's probably had a lot of practice, so maybe he just handles the Ouimote really well...still, I'm hoping for the best.
Nox @ Apr 28th 2008 6:14PM
This video has peaked my interest alot, if the graphics are up to RE4 standard I will take this version over the 360 easily.
Ben @ Apr 28th 2008 6:53PM
Sadly, those screens are from the 360 version... want proof? Look at the fire and the shadows and everything in the opening scenes, then look at it again when he's actually playing. No nice shadows, no brilliant lighting, no fancy anything (although I shouldn't say no fancy anything... you really can't see it that well). The only chance those videos are from the Wii or PS2 version is if they're cutscenes, but there's button pressing in the part with the helicopter, which probably rules out cutscene.
I'm not saying the Wii version will look like crap, but it's not going to look that good, probably not even as good as RE4.