The beard tech in Alan Wake 2 is borderline inconceivable. Chasing ever-increasing realism may be the great folly(icle) of the games industry, but by god is it captivating in the hands of a studio like Remedy. With Control and now Alan Wake 2, Remedy has made some stunning games. It was hard not to be entranced during the 30 minute demo of Alan Wake 2 I saw during Summer Game Fest, as newly introduced FBI agent Saga Anderson goes searching through storm-battered woods and finds Wake, who's been mysteriously missing—and apparently growing the perfect beard—for 13 years.
Remedy is always playing with new tech, and for Alan Wake 2 that meant refactoring its in-house engine to stream in data in an instant. It was a necessary change to let players enter Saga's "mind place" at the press of a button—a cabin players can walk around in and puzzle through the game's core mystery.
