Alan Wake (360)

[David]

So I basically decided to buy this game on a whim yesterday because I was bored and to celebrate the end of exams on Monday. I played the first chapter and a bit last night, and my first impressions are good.

First of all, it looks really, really, good. Not quite up there with Uncharted 2 or Crysis or something like that, but the lighting is amazing, and really helps to create a foreboding atmosphere. Secondly, it's actually pretty well written for a video game, with decent dialogue and a seemingly good story (Although I hope it doesn't go the way I'm guessing it might, would be unbelievably stupid).

I've not really been scared so far, but it's definitely more foreboding and jumpy than Resident Evil 4 or 5 were. The gunplay sort of plays like those games as well, except Alan moves around a hell of a lot easier, and the guns laser sight are replaced with you shining a torch on the enemies instead (They don't like light, see).

It does have some kinda annoying product placement though. Every battery in the game, no matter where you find it, is made by fucking Energizer, and Alan's phone is Verizon, and they make a point of showing you that logo.

[Hendo]

Has anyone else picked this up? I'm kinda tempted.

[HandsomeDead]

I'm in no rush to get it but I hope to.

In fact I know nothing about this game and I'm gonna keep it that way. The only thing I read is an article in GTM but I started to read it and 20 mins later I was none the wiser about it...

[David]

It really is very good. Think Resident Evil 4 crossed with Twin Peaks. Very well written it is too. Very cinematic. At the end of each chapter you get a nice cinematic and some cool music. The twists come thick and fast too.

I'd say it's definitely worth it, but maybe wait a month or two until it's cheaper? It is a good game, but I get the impression it's not very long.

[illdog]

Curse another golden release period. A few people on my FL are playing this and i really want it, and Read Dead, and the Lost Planet 2 advert is working its media magic on me but i still have Moster Hunter Tri to play and Pokemon Soulsilver but i havent finished Dirt 2 yet and im halfway through my second playthrough of Wet and i havent even thought about Heavy Rain but Prince of Persia is on its way and i have to pick up Band Hero from the Post Office...

[David]

Yeah, the advertising in this game is slightly ridiculous. I just got to a point where I could turn on a TV, and guess what I was presented with?

ADVERTS. FUCKING LITERAL TV ADS. THE FUCK? Ads for Verizon and Ford and shit.

To make it worse, you actually get an achievement for doing it, which says 'you've checked out some important messages'. It's a great game and all, but that is going a bit too far.

[Hendo]

Went round to a mate's earlier and he'd bought this for me as a present!

Installing now, can't wait to have adverts thrust in my face.

[TopGunKnacker]

at leasts the ads arent mandatory. remedy used all their resources making this game, those ads probably got the game to release

[Hendo]

Yeah, to be fair Remedy are one of the few that can get away with stuff like that due to the small team and the feeling that they're working for themselves as much as to pay the bills.

I wasn't kidding though - I was genuinely looking forward to seeing the product placement to see how it was handled. It's not actually been that bad so far, I can tell the batteries are Energiser but there's been nothing thrown in me face as yet.

I've finished Episode 1 and first impressions are really strong - the voice acting is pretty good, the writing ok but the mood and feel of the whole thing is brilliant. Such a great style and the graphical effects on the light and mist is amazing at times. I've actually had moments that have made me jump which doesn't happen very often for me, sometimes out of nothing - you get used to the enemies creeping up on you and occasionally I'll spin the camera as I'm walking and the shadows of the foreground will whizz past and you think, "Did something move back there?". It could just be me or it could be intentional.

The music and sound is quality too, and whole TV series presentation. I'm sure I heard a Nick Cave song on the radio, it sounded like Nick Cave doing Tom Waits. Also "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison is a great touch.

Only negative so far is that some of the CG models in the cutscenes aren't quite pulling their weight. His wife, especially looks like an old hag and the animation on the face is dodgy.

On the plus side, my OCD light is flashing like a motherfucker.

[Hendo]

Been balls deep in this since Sunday, just finished episode 5, must be somewhere near the end.

It's brilliant, and the story looks like it's getting even more mind-bending at the same time as making sense.

I'm pretty sure that the guy who does the voice for Wake's manager is the same as Vinny in Max Payne 2 and there's definitely some sound effects that have carried across, like when you try and open a door that is stuck.

[Hendo]

It's a shame but if you play it, it does feel like a cult classic rather than a massive mainstream game.

[TopGunKnacker]

i played a bit at a mates and it seems good, but i couldnt help but feel it wouldve been much better if theyd kept the sandbox aspect. if this had sold well, maybe they couldve gone balls to the wall with the next one but now its up in the air whether therell even be a next one!

[illdog]

Alan Wake updated to 1250 with 'The Signal' DLC.

In preparation for the release of Alan Wake's first piece of downloadable content, The Signal, Alan Wake's achievement list has been updated to 1250 points.

The Signal will come with 8 achievements worth 250 points and will have you powering through the DLC without reloading the game or restarting a checkpoint, collecting more random objects and various other Signal related antics.

The details on The Signal are few and far-between at the moment and aside from the release date and price, little else is known. All we can go on is the words of Oskari Häkkinen who said, "The game add-ons aren't telling more of the story, so to speak. It'll give you a different perspective on the things you've done on season one and then trying to set you up for the possible things you're going to do in season two."

The Signal is available on July 27th for 560 Microsoft Points or free, if you bought the game new.

From TrueAchievements.

[Hendo]

My code for The Signal got emailed to me, haven't got very far but it's pretty good. Very hard though.

It takes place directly after the end of the proper game and some places and scenes are re-done in it but in a more twisted fashion.

Don't watch this if you don't want the end of the proper game spoiled:

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[Sly Reflex]

Right, I finished this game today and now I am here to talk about it. I am aware that a few of you have not played, so it will be spoilered. Please don't click it if you intend on playing, because it really would spoil your experience.

Well, wasn't that quite special? I thought the start was a bit weak when I experienced it, but it in fact was just putting everything under my nose and me being a dumb fuck not realising it. It is very much like those films and games where the second play through sees you slapping your head for not noticing the bleeding obvious. In fact, the writing in this was probably one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of playing, in some cases even better than than stuff on tv and film. The incidental conversation that happen in between Wake, his friends and Bright Falls residents are excellent, much more direct, they really fill in the feelings you have for some characters. Never do they break the mood or do anything other than what they are supposed to do, even the stooge of the game Barry isn't so over the top that he would break immersion. The voice acting in this game bar one possession scene is probably one of, if not the best I have witnessed. I am glad it didn't end up with it all being a dream at the end too, that would have been seriously lame. I was rather treated to a bittersweet ending where Wake sacrificed himself in order to free his wife. I don't think I can think of any games that end on such an ending.

Now, I buggered up and didn't start reading any of the pages that get littered around the place until about chapter 3, which spoilt it a little for me. When I did start reading them though, well, that's when the suspense went through the roof. I knew things were coming, and I knew these things were going to be bad because of the way Wake reads them, but the anticipation of waiting for these acts to happen in game was the equivalent of someone telling you they were going to slap your face, but not tell you when. You are basically on edge all the time, which hasn't happened to me since playing Fatal Frame on the original Xbox. Think of the way the radio in Silent Hill used to stutter static whenever a threat came near, the feeling of the heart in the mouth and the hairs on the back of your neck raised. It's like that. All the time. Sometimes the act which is speaks of in the pages of Wakes book isn't as bad as he puts it out to be, when the thing happens you have a slight sigh of relief that releases the pressure valve on your imagination that was going into over drive. Then there are situation that don't sound that bad until you get to see them, which for me tended to include pretty much everything with the birds.

There was a moments when playing Fatal Frame and Silent Hill 2 where you witness something that made your stomach clench, the hairs on the back of you neck and head spike up like a cat puffing itself up in a fight. There are a few occasion I get this feeling while not playing games, one of which is the possibility of getting into a fight and the other having a very near miss while driving. Those moments of "Fuck fuck fuck fuckkkkk!" are replicated here to a T. Dead Space got lauded for how it made people jump and generally be scared, for me it did nothing. The scares he are much more of a literal sense, sure things are going to jump out at you and they will make you jump in the same sense on how Dead Space did, but for this the only time you are truly safe is in the light. There are times where I was down to 2 bullets a few times because I got lost in the woods, the Taken were a relentless force that I could never vanquish, they came in droves. The only option was to run and hope I could get into the light before they got the best of Alan. The constant though of "How much further until a safe spot arrives?", the sight of a lamp lit draws you like a moth, you start to ease of the panic when you realise you are nearly home, then the bloody bulb pops and it's back to square one. This rivals the occasions you come across a generator that must be started to create you a safe spot, the valuable seconds you put into pulling the starter leaving you vulnerable and susceptible to attack. It is the same panic that the old tank controls of Resident Evil portray, only with much more finesse this time around. Same goes for the reload system too, it is designed to make you panic, you frantically bashing the reload button to make Alan shove each shell into its chosen gun. All design decisions that feed this panic style driven gameplay get a thumbs up from me.

The game isn't without its problems. The ad placement wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be, until I saw a TV that was in the middle of escaping the Cauldron Lake Lodge, a really intense bit of game where suddenly you are watching really pedestrian adverts, they really could have found a better place for those. Sometimes through no fault of your own Alan will become snagged on bits of scenery and then beaten to a pulp because of this reason. The graphics are a bit weak as well, I think if it had been released a few years ago people would have been blown away by the graphics, but because of the prolonged development it sort of got caught up in the wheels of progression, other games absolutely flatten it in the graphics department. The big spotlight torch you use is so bright that it makes it impossible to view the secret messages daubed on the walls, which seems a bit foolish to me, it isn't easy enough to spot these at the best of times, not at least when your own light bleaches the message out. I actually think that's it for problems.

Kudos go out for the lighting in this game, I think we are truly on the cusp of games been able to 'do' light, dark and water. Alan Wake is probably the best showcase of what you can do with light in a game, I hope other game developers are taking note. Also kudos for having vehicle sections that are not utterly broken or shit. Shouts to the collectables that actually had something to do, the manuscripts, TV shows and radio stations had me stood for a few minutes listening what they had to say, they reminded me of the tapes on Bioshock, there was actually a reason to collect them outside of just putting them there because you could slap an achievement on them and make the game longer. Of course there are the flasks which I picked up while playing, but they were not as important. I guess 3 out of 4 collectables having something of interest is good going though. The music in this game was also fantastic, obviously a lot of thought went into the choices, every single one of them fit into the Alan Wake jigsaw as it should have done.

So to sum it up, I thought it was excellent. If you have not played it yet, go do it now.

Something that rose to my attention is that I have watched a lot of horror films over the years, and read some horror books and played some horror games. Horror films don't really do it for me now, I am thinking that horror might have found a new medium to scare the shit out of people if done right. It seems that on celluloid very few people can make something that is truly scary now, the passive nature of them seems to take away the intentions of what the director wants to portray. With books and games your imagination and participation bridges that gap, it's that well needed link that you need to truly make your heart pound.

[Hendo]

I thought the start was a bit weak when I experienced it, but it in fact was just putting everything under my nose and me being a dumb fuck not realising it. It is very much like those films and games where the second play through sees you slapping your head for not noticing the bleeding obvious. In fact, the writing in this was probably one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of playing, in some cases even better than than stuff on tv and film.

I disagree on some of the writing - some of it is quite badly done, like where Alan sees a huge flock of birds in the distance and he says, "Hmmm, birds", or when Alan and his wife are in their apartment together, the lights go out and she starts freaking out calling for him, when she's right next to him, acting like she doesn't know where he is.

I'm curious which bits you were talking about at the start, "being a dumb fuck not realising it". There's still bits about the story I don't understand, like the diver's suit guy, he's the writer from the '70's. Why is he talking to Alan while in the spirit form of a diver's suit? Did Alan write him into his story or did the other guy write Alan into his?

[Sly Reflex]

It's paradoxical. Thomas Zane wrote the clicker into the story back before Alan even grew up, he used to use it to click the monsters away. However, because Wake is writing the story in the week that passes under the control of the Taken version of Barbara Jagger, it could be that Wake is the creator of Zane. However you look at it, Zanes last page of the book is Wakes first page of the book. It's the old light vs dark story, with Zane being the light and Jagger (who happened to drown in the lake and get written into reality again by Zane, this time been a dark version of which Zane removes the heart from once he realises it is a Taken) The reason for the diving suit is that the writer lived is that Zane lived on the island home that was sunk by the volcano, Divers Isle was its name because the writer was also a prolific diver, maybe he went to see the darkness that resided in the bottom of the lake?

The stuff that is right under your nose at the start begins with the tutorial. The guiding light that tells you how things are and how to deal with them deals with them in a past tense, hinting that the person you are taking guidance has been through it all before. He reads a poem or a passage from a book that is heavily past tense, all 'I've done" and I've been". There are other part near the start that you can read that show Zane in his diving suit in the pictures scattered around. When you talk to the Viking rocker dudes, they call Alan Tom, which given that they know what is going on and have done for quite some time makes a lot of sense, these guys will have seen the original light vs dark stuff and recognise what Wake is there for. It is later told that Alan's father left when he was young, so maybe Zane is Alan's dad? That would explain why the clicker would have passed onto him through his mother. The other thing that I can remember is The lamp lady who is scared for Alan to walk down the passage into the dark. Seems pretty insignificant at the time, but you learn all about her eventually. It isn't like there are no clues at the start, if I went back I could probably pick more up now I know what I am looking for.

[David]

OK, so I tried to play the signal a little while back, and it was ridiculously hard for some reason. I was a little tired at the time, but I was just constantly dying and switched it off and never went back to it. Shame, as I really enjoyed the game over all.

[hinn888]

Alan Wake's Second (And Final) DLC Coming in October

Written Monday, September 27, 2010 By Richard Walker

Get ready to 'end the nightmare' in Alan Wake (until the second game hopefully arrives), as second and final DLC entitled 'The Writer' is set to arrvive in just a couple of weeks.

Every question needs an answer apparently, and The Writer aims to deliver just that - answers! So, can we expect a satisfying conclusion to Alan Wake after the disappointment of The Signal? Or are we going to be made to wait until the sequel?

All will be revealed when Alan Wake's The Writer DLC arrives on the Xbox Live Marketplace from October 12th, for 560 Microsoft Points, with a few new cheevos no doubt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6i0t1uT8cE&feature=player_embedded

[TopGunKnacker]

bought this for a tenner off amazon, rather enjoyed it. i thought the story was a bit bob in places but always suitably mysterious to go along with that quite brilliant spooky aesthetic. i agree the writing could be pretty rubbish in places too, like all the stephen king references that broke the stmosphere for no real payoff. writing was good sometimes too thouh, some of the comedy stuff was great. like the fbi fellow calling you with different writers name all the time and the disc jockey fellow shouting 'judas priest' as he hits the ground to avoid some bullets

i still feel like this heavily misses its open world roots though. wouldve been a much more enjoyable game if you could explore for yourself, and get to know the towns people. youve got all these small town folk, and i just feel like idve actually given a shit they were being taken if there had been some relaxed free-roam character development a la deadly premonition. idve been all STUCKY!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! THE BASTARDS GOT STUCKY!!!!!!! GO INTO THE LIGHT MY DEAR FRIEND.. *sobs*

instead of 'who the fuck is stucky, die bland enemy'

its well worth a tenner, not full price tackle for me though.