The Vanishing of Ethan Carter: "weird fiction horror" from former Bulletstorm devs

The Astronaut - a small Warsaw-based indie studio made up of ex-People Can Fly developers - have announced their first game: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Inspired by weird horror stories and macabre fiction of the early 20th century, the game's announcement post highlights words like "immersive storytelling," "exploration," and "discovery," which should give you some idea as to the tone. Astronaut have also released a teaser trailer so enigmatic that it may as well be called Old Man Pokes a Burning Teddy Bear.

The game's description provides more solid details about the plot. "As a detective with the supernatural ability to visualize scenes of lethal crimes, you investigate the kidnapping of a young boy, hoping to save him before it's too late. The investigation leads you to a beautiful mountain area, where you come across a severely mutilated body of one of the kidnappers."

"Using both your paranormal skill and modern detective tools you discover the mystery behind the trail of corpses in the valley, the roots of an ancient force ruling the area, and the fate of the kidnapped boy."

Probably going to contain less dick jokes than Bulletstorm then. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is being made with Unreal Engine 3, and is due out on PC at some point this year.

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.