Alone In The Dark Site Launch - Spooky!
"They said Central Park was for people...they lied."
Alone In The Dark fans, get your sweet candy asses over to CentralDark.com to find out what's going on in Central Park and to dip your sweet candy toes into the pool of creepy facts and teasers that Eden Games and Atari have crafted. It's one of the best product sites I've visited in recent memory, and builds a very real sense of tension and apprehension using what seem to be factual conspiracy theory-type facts about New York's Central Park - the setting of the game. It's like an ARG without all the legwork.
Some bits: the topsoil originally used to transform the Manhattan swamp into Central Park has been revealed, through soil analysis, not to have come from New Jersey as originally thought. In fact, it didn't even come from America. Whycome?
Who built the tunnel network beneath Central Park that was once used for the Manhattan Project of 1853? (Yup, 1853. Believe it? I have horse you might want to buy...)
Get your paranoia on, or make the jump for more info.
PRESS RELEASE
THEY SAID CENTRAL PARK WAS FOR THE PEOPLE... THEY LIED.
- Alone in the Dark Official Website at CentralDark.Com Exposes Shadowy Mysteries and Conspiracies Of Central Park -
LYON, FRANCE – 7 February 2008 – Atari today announced the launch of the official website of forthcoming action survival game Alone in the Dark, featuring a series of fascinating and intriguing facts, legends and stories which reveal the myriad strange and unexplained happenings which have dogged the history of New York’s magnificent municipal parkland, Central Park. Visitors to the site at www.CentralDark.com will begin a journey into the murky past of New York’s backyard and see how the park’s chequered history has influenced and inspired the production of Alone in the Dark.
With new facts, park lore and more scheduled every Thursday up to launch of the game in May, visitors can already learn a great deal of incongruous information gathered by a group of amateur researchers and drawn from historical documentation, newspapers and the work of scholars. Facts suggest there’s more than meets the eye behind the design and perfect preservation of this enormous parkland in the city that never sleeps. The implication is that considerably different motives were at work than just the desire to create a grand public parkland for the people of New York. Here’s just a taste of the questions posed:
In a city with debts of $4.8 Billion, who has the power to ensure that Central Park’s $528 Billion of prime Manhattan real estate has remained completely untouched since its creation?
What were the suspected political motivations behind the complete decimation of Seneca village, Manhattan’s first African American community, during the park’s construction?
Why was the topsoil that was used to construct Central Park not from New Jersey as recorded, and according to micro-chemical analysis not even from America?
Who built the existing tunnel network under the park that was used for Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project of 1853 that led to the creation of the atomic bomb?
Featuring a gripping story, design inspired by contemporary TV action dramas, and original gameplay based on real world rules physics, Eden Games’ action survival opus Alone in the Dark is scheduled for release in May 2008 for Xbox 360, PC, Wii and PlayStation 2, with the PlayStation 3 version following later in 2008.
-ends-
For specialist press enquiries please contact Lee Kirton lee.kirton@atari.com. For consumer press enquiries please contact Roxana Etemad Roxana.etemad@atari.com.
About Eden Games
The second largest game development studio in France, Eden Games has achieved international recognition through the creation of games including V-Rally 1, 2 and 3, Need For Speed: Porsche, Kya: Dark Lineage and Titeuf. Base in Lyon, France, Eden Games is a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA.
About Infogrames Entertainment and Atari
Infogrames Entertainment (IESA) is listed on the Paris Euronext stock exchange (ISIN code: FR-0000052573) and has two principal subsidiaries: Atari Europe, a privately-held company, and Atari, Inc., a United States corporation listed on NASDAQ (ATAR).
The Atari Group is an international producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software for all market segments and in all existing game formats (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony) and on CD-ROM for PC. Its games are sold in more than 60 countries.
The Atari Group’s extensive catalogue of popular games is based on original franchises (Alone in the Dark, V-Rally, Test Drive, etc.) and international licenses (Dragon Ball Z, Dungeons & Dragons, etc.).
For more information: http://www.atari.com
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 7 February 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: alone in the dark, atari, central park, centraldark, eden games
OMG he looks Christian Slater-y. That's terrifying.
Yeah, it's like Slater had a baby with Keanu Reeves.
Goodness, how Alone in the Dark has changed.
While I haven't tried this game yet (given that it is in pre-production), I wish that the developers of future AitD games would return to the 1920s Cthulhu-Mythoi inspired setting (or even establish an alternate future where 1920s style reigns, a la Batman and Superman's art deco decor).