Deadly Premonition

Deadly Premonition, known as Red Seeds Profile in Japan, is a survival horror video game developed by Access Games and published by Ignition Entertainment for the Xbox 360. It was released in North America on February 23, 2010 and in Japan on March 11, 2010. The PlayStation 3 version was released only in Japan on the same date.

Plot
The game gives the player control of a FBI agent named Francis York Morgan who is investigating the murder of a young woman, Anna Graham, near the fictional American town of Greenvale (Which is in Washington, as can be seen from the cars license plates). Upon arriving in the town York is greeted by town sheriff George Woodman and his deputy Emily Wyatt, who brief him on the murder and lead him to the crime scene. York generates considerable friction with his dismissive attitude toward the locals, bizarre demeanor, and tendency to interrupt conversations to deliver asides to "Zach", an alternate personality congruent with the player. Over the course of his investigation, York has opportunities to touch the lives of many of the town's colorful personalities and intervene in their personal crises, often brought on by the sudden and brutal murder in their midst, to earn rewards and further his understanding of the case. As he unearths more and more mysteries and the killer continues to roam, the town's dark past slowly comes to light.

Gameplay
Deadly Premonition is an open-world survival horror game which gives the player the freedom to explore the town of Greenvale and choose events and activities to participate in, alongside mandatory sequences which advance the game's overall story. York is controlled from an over-the-shoulder perspective similar to that found in Resident Evil 4; similarly, he must stop moving in order to aim and fire his laser-sighted weapons. York may explore the environs on foot, or use one of a variety of cars to travel long distances at speed. These cars must be maintained, as they consume fuel, which York must purchase, and accumulate damage which will render them useless unless York pays for their repair. York himself must also be maintained, as he requires food and sleep at regular intervals. He must also shave and change his clothes periodically or his hygiene-related scores will suffer.

The game has a day-night cycle which operates in 1/3 real time; one game day takes 8 real-world hours to elapse during free exploration. Time frequently skips ahead in response to story events, and York can accelerate its passage by smoking cigarettes. Places of business and entertainment venues in Greenvale have specific hours of operation and must be visited at the proper time to enter them and make use of their services. The inhabitants also have their own schedules, and will travel around town as they go about their business. They are labeled with onscreen indicators so that they may be tailed in vehicles, and York can peep through the windows of many buildings to observe their activities. If York engages them at the right place and time of day, they can offer him sidequests to perform for additional rewards. There is also a dynamic weather system, in which adverse weather occurs at random and will change conditions in the town, necessitating the use of headlights or windshield wipers when driving. In addition to sidequests, scattered throughout the town are a set of trading cards which can be collected while exploring.

The game also contains numerous survival horror combat sequences, in which York must defeat otherwordly enemies while trapped in certain locations. Enemies can approach by walking or by a quick teleportation maneuver, and will engage York with hand-to-hand attacks if they reach him. Some enemies are armed with melee weapons, guns, or other types of weapon. During these sequences, York's primary objective is to investigate crimes which took place there in the recent past; collecting photos of pieces of evidence will allow him to "profile" the scene and reconstruct the events that took place with his deductive skills.

Development
Although the game was first announced as a multi-platform release under the name Rainy Woods during the Tokyo Game Show 2007, several gaming websites noted that the title shared strong similarities with the American television serial drama Twin Peaks. The comparison eventually led the developers to change the artistic direction of the game to have less similarity to the television series, effectively pushing back its release sometime during "mid to late 2009, maybe even 2010" according to a representative during July 2008. All of the voice acting used for Rainy Woods had to be rerecorded to accommodate the new elements and the revised protagonist.

Voice acting for the protagonist, FBI Special Agent Francis Morgan, was provided by Jeff Kramer whose previous work includes Seaman for the Sega Dreamcast.

Release
On November 10, 2009, Ignition Entertainment announced Deadly Premonition would be receiving a North American release in early 2010 as an Xbox 360 exclusive. It was further specified that the game would retail within budget range, starting off through entertainment software retails for $19.99 in the United States.

A European release for the Xbox 360 version has been confirmed, with Rising Star Games having picked up the game's rights to release in October 29. The game has been confirmed to be released with all subtitles translated to English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Deadly Premonition has not been refused classification in Australia, but Rising Star games have said they have no intent on releasing it there.

Reception
Deadly Premonition has received wildly mixed reviews from critics with some praise directed at its entertaining story and criticism directed at its spotty production values; it received a 65.28% from Game Rankings and a 66 from Metacritic. Gamasutra released data that Deadly Premonition led sales of Xbox 360 games on Amazon.com for the week of April 9, 2010.

Many reviewers criticized the game's controls, sound effects, and visual quality. IGN's Erik Brudvig called Deadly Premonition, "Awful in nearly every way", and criticized every aspect of the game, especially its bad production values and lackluster controls. Eurogamer's Chris Schilling noticed that the soundtrack seemed out of place during many scenes, with serious scenes often containing a light-hearted jazz track. GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd noted that the visuals contained many low-resolution textures.

Among the negatives, the game received a partially ironic cult following. The game' story and characters were widely praised by critics, and many reviewers drew comparisons to the Twin Peaks television series. Destructoid's Jim Sterling gave the game a perfect score on the site's scale, and called it a "beautiful trainwreck". GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd stated that the story's unpredictability was the game's greatest strength. Despite his criticism, Schilling of Eurogamer though noted that the characters in the town were fascinating in their oddness. 1UP.com's Frank Cifaldi praised the game as being an example of the kind of quality interactive storytelling that only a video game could provide. X-Play gave it 4/5 stars, and named it one of the "Top 10 Games of 2010... So Far" in June, 2010.