The gaming blogosphere has been absolutely abuzz over the past few days over reports that Remedy's psychological thriller Alan Wake has been picked up by Microsoft and will be published exclusively on the Xbox 360 and PC. This story isn't odd because it's untrue, it's odd because we've known about it for months.

While Microsoft announced a publishing deal with Finland's Remedy Entertainment back at E3 2006, the relationship is getting a new focus now thanks to an article in Finland's Helsingin Sanomat. While there's nothing really newsworthy in the article, it does take an interesting look at the challenges of an American company working with a Finnish developer. But that headline doesn't really pop, so we'll follow the lead of our blogging brethren and hype up some news that was already old six months ago. Hooray!

TVG reports that US Official Xbox Magazine has published news of further Alan Wake delays. According to the publication, Remedy's psychological thriller has been pushed back to 2008.

The first details about Alan Wake surfaced back in April 2005 when Remedy revealed it was working on a new title for PC and "next generation" consoles. Since that time, Microsoft has secured exclusive-console rights to the game.

Some of the most anticipated upcoming games for the Xbox 360 and PC weren't playable on the X06 show floor but were shown off by the developers in behind-closed-doors demos. Here's some quickie descriptions of the demos and some thoughts on what was shown:

• Alan Wake: Developer Remedy shared lots of new information about this "psychological action thriller" (a term used by the developers to describe the game multiple times). The story, told rather clunkily through some Max Payne-style exposition, revolves around Wake, a writer who finds his life begins to mimic his best-selling novel. Grappling with insomnia in a rest clinic in the Pacific Northwest, he finds the line between his waking life and his nightmares begins to blur. The most striking feature graphically is the dynamic lighting, which casts soft shadows and glistens beautifully off everything from the trees to the water. The demo also showed off environmental effects with a quickly gathering storm that cast everything in eerie, somber tones. The demo ended with a thrilling chase by a glowing entity that took out all the electrical lights as it approached. Definitely one to watch for.
  
• BioShock - Following up on the demo shown at E3, Irrational showed off a new area which again showed off the game's beautifully dark underwater environments. The developers emphasized the importance of using improvised attacks and abilities like teleportation against the lumbering, suited "Big Daddy" and the "Little Sister" he jealously protects. They also stressed the importance of moral choices in shaping the game experience -- as the demo fades out, our protagonist is busy deciding whether or not to beat a little girl with a wrench. Best moment: using telekenesis to throw a teddy bear into a fire and then using the flaming bear to set an enemy on fire. The demonstrator said they hope to "redefine the first-person shooter" and it looks like they just might.
  
• Mass Effect - The game looks as pretty as ever, with convincing character animation and facial expressions, especially during the branching conversations. The developers showed off how the game map spans from a galaxy-sized Milky Way view down to individual planets, and mentioned that two separate players will likely take completely different paths through the game. A quick boss battle showed how squad placement commands can be used to set up a cross fire that emphasizes each character's particular abilities. Shows promise but the full scope was hard to gauge from the demo.
  

While we were unfortunately unable to fly you all to Barcelona to attend Micosoft's X06 conference, we would like to share our X06-related bounty with one lucky Joystiq reader. The person who sends in the most amusing .jpg format edit of the above picture to joyswag [dot] submissions [at] gmail [dot] com will take home the following goodies given out at the conference:

• An Alan Wake flashlight
• An Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures comic book from Dark Horse
• Three limited edition pieces of art from Mass Effect

All entries are due by midnight Eastern time on Sunday, Oct. 1, so put down those outstretched arms and get cracking.

Microsoft has released a series of new Alan Wake screenshots, but did not accompany the images with new game details. Since scooping up exclusivity rights several months ago in a deal with Remedy, Microsoft has remained decidedly tight-lipped about this promising psychological thriller.

A short teaser was aired at E3 and new images have continued to trickle out in small batches, but we still know next to nothing about Alan Wake's gameplay -- and for that matter, when we can expect its arrival.