Hey, if you think the title is obtuse, read this, taken from www.theastronauts.com:

"Inspired by the weird fiction stories and other tales of macabre of the early 20th century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game to be played at night, alone, and in headphones. It's coming to PC in 2013."

I mean, what in the actual..? The teaser isn't much help either. It's some old guy poking a fire with a stick, during what appears to be the early hours of the afternoon, possibly as early as the late morning. There's some gorgeous sunshine filtering through the leaves and...why does he need a fire during such bright daylight? I mean, the tree suggests it's an early Autumn and all, but the setting is clearly warm enough that a fire shouldn't be needed. I think. Then there's the raven motif that dominates most of the video. From their press release type thing, which is all professional like, with quotes and stuff (their own words) the Astronauts have told us the game is about a Detective with the supernatural ability to visualise the scene of a crime. Which oddly puts me in mind of the protagonist from Dostoyevsky classic Crime and Punishment. I know that's mid 1800s and had no supernatural element, but that was the first thing that came to mind. Possibly because he (the protagonist, not Dostoyevsky) was also depicted as an older, somewhat infirm, gentlemen with an ability to read into things that unnerved most of his peers. But enough about Porfiry Petrovich.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter also boasts Unreal 3 assets, which have certainly been put to good use in the teaser if nothing else, as well as "exciting new technology" which they promise to reveal in the coming months. How all of this will help our, as yet unnamed, hero from tracking down the titular Ethan, a young boy who has been kidnapped and, it seems, has some crucial role to play in the affairs of an ancient force that rules the area. Well, that's anyone's guess. All I can say is that I am well and truly intrigued. Not to mention pleasantly shocked that the promised release date is inside of the current year. Something of this apparent scope, I would expect, should take quite some time to realise. So, either these ex People Can Fly (seriously, these are some of the best studio names on the planet) people have been working their arses off already, or they're just insane people who never sleep. I'm kinda' leaning towards the latter, they are Polish after all. Whatever the deal, you can read the full press release right here which includes a screenshot...of the opening scene from the teaser above. Aren't they spoiling us? So please, go have a gander at both, then join us in the comments below to help unravel this extremely enigmatic news and junk. 'Cause, you know, we're all professional like, with comments and everything.