Alan Wake 2 Update 13 Adds New Game+

Remedy has just released a new update for Alan Wake 2, and with the new Title Update 13, the game now has a New Game+ Mode as well as a full batch of new patch notes for you to pour over. Obviously, the new game+ mode is the biggest inclusion here, but there’s also a wealth of performance improvements and bug fixes too!

The New Game+ Mode is certainly welcome and allows for more play time, but also adds a new ending to the game, new Nightmare difficulty levels, and even new Manuscript pages and video content. You’ll now also be able to keep videos, charms and upgrades that you’ve unlocked.

To get the update, simply let the game auto-update before you play, and you’re ready to rock! You can get Alan Wake 2 on EGS here.

Alan Wake 2 Patch 13 Release Notes

New Game Plus mode

• New ending
• New Nightmare difficulty level
• New Manuscript pages and video content
• Retain all unlocked videos, Charms and upgrades
  NOTE: To access the New Game Plus mode, a completed playthrough of Alan Wake 2 is required. In New Game Plus, you will find the unlocked weapons in the first available shoebox for the character.

Performance

• Improved overall quality of the occlusion culling algorithm, improving GPU performance especially on locations with a lot of geometry.
• The performance upgrade is most visible in the PlayStation 5 Quality mode, where (incredibly) there are up to 1.8ms improvements. Cauldron Lake should be coughing less.
• Optimized HUD UI content setup so rendering the HUD takes less time. This brings between ~0.5-0.7ms improvements to performance.
• A few selected tweaks and optimizations for path tracing and rendering.
• Improved streaming by removing occasional 10 – 100ms stalls that mostly affected Xbox Series platforms.
• Reduced memory usage by 16 MB on all platforms.
• [PC] Slightly improved performance on by removing some error diagnostics instrumentation.

Tutorials

• Changed when some Tutorials appear in the Tutorials menu.
• Added a timeout to the Tutorial about Fadeouts.
• Players can now slow down to walking speed while a Tutorial is open.
• Tutorial messages are not slowing down player movement speed anymore.
• If tutorials are disabled, the player won’t be locked in the diorama when the first investigation clue gathering tutorial would take place…

Stability

• Fixed several infuriating Lua script errors that made the game more stable and less unpredictable.
• Fixed a hang on Xbox that could occur when attempting to suspend the application during launch.
• Fixed audio middleware crash on Xbox Series platforms.
• Fixed a rare crash that could happen during streaming.

Visuals

• Somewhat reduced specular aliasing (“shimmering”) on shiny surfaces with a new algorithm.
• Improved Trailer Park cinematic lighting.
• Improved shadow quality inside the Valhalla Nursing Home to respect the elderly even more.
• Flashlight shadows are now prioritized to avoid a blocky look in locations featuring heavy dynamic lights usage.
• Fixed (or ruined, depending on your view) the “chameleon chair” visible in front of the sauna. It’s not changing color anymore
• Fixed LODs on the hotdog stand.
• Fixed a variety of broken or ugly LODs.
• Fixed incorrect rendering culling mode on leaf and coffee pot materials to prevent path tracing issues.
• Fixed broken materials on the garage building in downtown Bright Falls raising property value.
• [PC] Improved quality for low ray-tracing preset, fixing flickering fireflies on character’s faces during cinematics.

Audio & localization

• Improved overall audio quality on PlayStation 5.
• Fixed lip sync being off during the cinematic where Saga and Casey arrive at Cauldron Lake.
• Localization fixes for agent Estevez audio lines.
• Additional fixes for localized subtitles.