official Alan Wake (PC/X360)

[smiff]

I bought this the other day, after waiting for it since it was announced way back when.

I'm on Episode 4 at the mo, and I'm loving it - but, it has flaws.

Graphically it's brilliant - the dodgy lipsyncing has been covered, but im not really bothered about that.

• I hate how it feels linear - you're given this stunning world around you, and you can only go to certain areas at certain times. A more free-roam aspect would have been better.
• The combat is shocking - yes it looks amazing, but it's repetitive and boring. Enemy, flashlight, whoosh, shoot. Repeat.
• Then the enemies, you can be walking through a forest when all of a sudden one of the taken appears in front of you, you start to zap it with your flashlight and another runs up to you from behind - whilst that one hits you another three join in and you just have to run away to get some space. A bit annoying.
• I love how it feels like a tv show though - I wish at times I could just put the controller down and let the episode play out. They could have gone a step further though, and removed the hud and added ads. I'm being pedantic.
• The battle (would you call it that?) at the
  Anderson brothers stage

  , was one of the best moments I've had in a game in ages. Loved that.

If it were me, I would have got rid of a lot of what i've done and just open up all of Bright Falls, so you can find clues to find sarah etc - then see what you come across along the way.

Now to finish it....

[neoadorable]

to me the funniest part is how the reviews and some people made this appear like a short affair. on the hard setting, episode three took four hours to complete, and i've already sunk a good eights hours in this total - having just finished episode three, mind you. this is not a short game to me.

EDIT: but the graphics are not amazing, that's another i don't get people saying. it looks good but you can tell this generation is about a year removed starting to really overstay its welcome. the screen tearing is especially noticable in the lodge level.

[Jan Veteran]

I bought this the other day, after waiting for it since it was announced way back when.

I'm on Episode 4 at the mo, and I'm loving it - but, it has flaws.

Graphically it's brilliant - the dodgy lipsyncing has been covered, but im not really bothered about that.

• I hate how it feels linear - you're given this stunning world around you, and you can only go to certain areas at certain times. A more free-roam aspect would have been better.
• The combat is shocking - yes it looks amazing, but it's repetitive and boring. Enemy, flashlight, whoosh, shoot. Repeat.
• Then the enemies, you can be walking through a forest when all of a sudden one of the taken appears in front of you, you start to zap it with your flashlight and another runs up to you from behind - whilst that one hits you another three join in and you just have to run away to get some space. A bit annoying.
• I love how it feels like a tv show though - I wish at times I could just put the controller down and let the episode play out. They could have gone a step further though, and removed the hud and added ads. I'm being pedantic.
• The battle (would you call it that?) at the
  Anderson brothers stage

  , was one of the best moments I've had in a game in ages. Loved that.

If it were me, I would have got rid of a lot of what i've done and just open up all of Bright Falls, so you can find clues to find sarah etc - then see what you come across along the way.

Now to finish it....

Pretty much all of this, that fight was amazing Also hand combat would be great and more explosions

[George P Global Moderator]

Pretty much all of this, that fight was amazing Also hand combat would be great and more explosions

Seeing as how 2 more DLC packs are on the way who knows what changes they do for those? It should be interesting either way.

[smiff]

Completed it last night. What the hell was that all about?, was trying to be too clever and just ended up a confusing mess with stuff all over the place.

Don't know whether to keep hold of it for the dlc, or just trade it for Red Dead Redemption.

[Trong]

Pretty much all of this, that fight was amazing Also hand combat would be great and more explosions

I don't think hand to hand combat would work since we can't even touch anything else taken by the dark presence without taking damage.

[mattmatik]

I haven't played since starting Red Dead Redemption (it is that good) but it sounds like Remedy has good plans to keep the game lasting, including updates for graphics (kind of strange). I would wait and at least see what the first DLC brings.

[Hedon]

Can anyone confirm if head shots are of any benefit?

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I have been trying my best to avoid playing this & Red Dead in favour of studying (it's not working so well :p).

But after my last exam tomorrow I can't wait to get stuck into this game.

[mluu510]

Alan Wake is a great a game, but far from being the best game of 2010. There were a couple of flaws that kept it from becoming number one. I thought the game was too repetitive, had terrible video quality, and an odd episodic presentation.

You spend majority of the time exploring the forest at night and fighting the locals of Bright Fall who are taken over by the Dark Presence. Once in a while you encounter possessed birds and objects. That's about all the variety of enemy you'll encounter; 3 types. It's pretty sad that the game developer's imagination didn't stretch any further than this. The Dark Presence could have taken over other animals that roam the forest; e.g. deer, bears, wolves, bats, or even trees. The lack of unique enemies made every pass through the woods felt similar, thus repetitive.

Another major issue that I had with game was the cut scenes. I felt Remedy did an excellent job masking the loading sequence with cinematic cut scenes but the video quality was absolutely horrendous! The video looked blurry and extremely low resolution. I have read from Digital Foundry that the actually game content only takes up 2.41GB of data on a DVD-DL disc. That leaves 3.74GB allocated for about 80 minutes of cinematic sequences. That's plenty of space for crisp 720p video. They must have used some lousy video codec to compress these videos which is a real shame because it takes away from the game's experience. What bugs me the most is why Remedy Studio (owned by Microsoft) didn?t used Microsoft's excellent VC-1 codec to encode these videos? This burning question is killing me to this day.

I thought it was absolutely pointless to present the game in an episodic format because it didn't provide any enhancement to the story telling. Each episode is about one to two hour of game play. Depending on your skill level and play style, it may be less. After a level completion, you are presented with an ending cinematic, then credit roll. At this point, most people would just press "skip" to pass through the ending credit music and load the next episode. Unless you have terrible short term memory, the recap at the beginning is absolutely unnecessary. I don't need a refresher on what just happened 30 minutes ago in the game. They could of saves resources and production time if the game wasn't split into episodes. Games such as Left for Dead used the episodic route because each episode has different premise and story line. The one in Alan Wake was just poorly implemented.

Of course, these flaws don?t break the game. In fact, it?s a fantastic game! I am just disappointed that Remedy Studio, who had about half a decade to develop this game, released a product that feels less polished than Uncharted 2 or God of War 3.

[DigitalE]

Can anyone confirm if head shots are of any benefit?

I'm pretty sure they are. I got quite a few one-shot kills with the pistol when aiming for the head.

[George P Global Moderator]

My copy still hasn't arrived in the mail. This is so lame right now. I should've had it days ago.

[smiff]

Can anyone confirm if head shots are of any benefit?

yep, my best method was to walk around with the torchlight at head level, then as soon as one of the taken was spotted, quick boost and shotgun to the face. Dead.

Have there been any details released about this DLC?

[Hedon]

yep, my best method was to walk around with the torchlight at head level, then as soon as one of the taken was spotted, quick boost and shotgun to the face. Dead.

Have there been any details released about this DLC?

Thanks. I tried some of the headshot/light to the head, and indeed, it's faster to drop them. Still getting through this game and have a long ways to go. Game is F'ing epic.

[George P Global Moderator]

Finally got my copy yesterday and played a bit last night. I'm a bit into episode 2. I can't believe those who say this game is short, did they just run through it ignoring all the stuff there is? I've taken my time and listened to the radio chats, character chats, stuff on the tV etc. It all ads up so it's best not to miss those. Also, nice Max Payne touch at the start of ep2. The soundtrack for this game should be great as well from the looks of things.

[ViperAFK]

Alan Wake is a great a game, but far from being the best game of 2010. There were a couple of flaws that kept it from becoming number one. I thought the game was too repetitive, had terrible video quality, and an odd episodic presentation.

You spend majority of the time exploring the forest at night and fighting the locals of Bright Fall who are taken over by the Dark Presence. Once in a while you encounter possessed birds and objects. That's about all the variety of enemy you'll encounter; 3 types. It's pretty sad that the game developer's imagination didn't stretch any further than this. The Dark Presence could have taken over other animals that roam the forest; e.g. deer, bears, wolves, bats, or even trees. The lack of unique enemies made every pass through the woods felt similar, thus repetitive.

Another major issue that I had with game was the cut scenes. I felt Remedy did an excellent job masking the loading sequence with cinematic cut scenes but the video quality was absolutely horrendous! The video looked blurry and extremely low resolution. I have read from Digital Foundry that the actually game content only takes up 2.41GB of data on a DVD-DL disc. That leaves 3.74GB allocated for about 80 minutes of cinematic sequences. That's plenty of space for crisp 720p video. They must have used some lousy video codec to compress these videos which is a real shame because it takes away from the game's experience. What bugs me the most is why Remedy Studio (owned by Microsoft) didn?t used Microsoft's excellent VC-1 codec to encode these videos? This burning question is killing me to this day.

I thought it was absolutely pointless to present the game in an episodic format because it didn't provide any enhancement to the story telling. Each episode is about one to two hour of game play. Depending on your skill level and play style, it may be less. After a level completion, you are presented with an ending cinematic, then credit roll. At this point, most people would just press "skip" to pass through the ending credit music and load the next episode. Unless you have terrible short term memory, the recap at the beginning is absolutely unnecessary. I don't need a refresher on what just happened 30 minutes ago in the game. They could of saves resources and production time if the game wasn't split into episodes. Games such as Left for Dead used the episodic route because each episode has different premise and story line. The one in Alan Wake was just poorly implemented.

Of course, these flaws don?t break the game. In fact, it?s a fantastic game! I am just disappointed that Remedy Studio, who had about half a decade to develop this game, released a product that feels less polished than Uncharted 2 or God of War 3.

The episodic presentation was one of my favorite things about the game.

[neoadorable]

GP, you and me both dude, this is not a short game. just finished it last night and i'd say that took like 15 hours easy on normal difficulty. this is not a short game, and overall it's a very memorable and unique experience. i'll miss the woods, will have to hold off on replaying to let nostalgia value build. the ending was just right for me. left me wanting more and expecting the additional content, and it was just on the right side of weird without giving in to obvious exposition. however, old Alan Wake has some issues so i'd say this is an 8.5/10 all told.

[George P Global Moderator]

GP, you and me both dude, this is not a short game. just finished it last night and i'd say that took like 15 hours easy on normal difficulty. this is not a short game, and overall it's a very memorable and unique experience. i'll miss the woods, will have to hold off on replaying to let nostalgia value build. the ending was just right for me. left me wanting more and expecting the additional content, and it was just on the right side of weird without giving in to obvious exposition. however, old Alan Wake has some issues so i'd say this is an 8.5/10 all told.

I'm not done quite yet, I'm on my way to the power plant. That said, I dunno how many hours I've done, but I've taken it slow looking for things like the coffee thermus and manuscript pages. I've missed a few (not counting the ones you can only get on Nightmare), watched any TV shows I ran into, listened to any radio shows I found, and also looked for the hidden boxs with extra stuff etc. If all you do is run through it from point A to B and skip all the little things then yeah, it'll probably be short, but why do that? Why miss out on all the extra story elements you get through TV/Radio/manuscripts etc?

[metal_dragen Veteran]

Red Dead Redemption has torn me away from AW for the time being. I'm somewhere in the middle of Episode 3. Personally, I really like the episodic style of the game. It breaks down nicely for 1-2 hour sessions and makes sense for the story - you have to think of it like a TV show given its influences in stuff like Twin Peaks.

More bad news for my AW play time is that my copy of Alpha Protocol is waiting for me at the UPS office...

[George P Global Moderator]

Oh man, I dunno about Alpha Protocol, good luck with that one. :p

[Massiveterra]

The episodic presentation was one of my favorite things about the game.

Same here. I could only play this game 2 hours or less at a time, so the end of each episode is always a good time for me to put down the controller.

If episodic DLC for games is written like this, I would gladly pay $10/episode. The story is intriguing enough, and the cliffhangers make me yearn for more. That's why I enjoy shows like Lost and Dexter.

If a game is released for six 2.5-3 hour episodes, that's $60 total, which is completely justified because that's $60 paid over a span of a year or more.

I really think this game would have been more successful if they released it as DLC over the span of a year.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) Reviews Alan Wake

And I have to say once again I believe he is spot on.

[George P Global Moderator]

Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) Reviews Alan Wake

And I have to say once again I believe he is spot on.

I don't agree much. The combat isn't like that at all really. There are a number of enemies that don't go down with just two shots, and you can't just flash them with the light and keep backing up since they'll always flank you. Talk about downplaying things. The naration is also nothing like he makes it out to be, exagirate much? I love how each review is a plug for his novel. Anyone read that or bother to? It'd be pretty damn ironic if it's not worth the paper it's printed on. I'd like a review of it. :laugh:

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I don't agree much. The combat isn't like that at all really. There are a number of enemies that don't go down with just two shots, and you can't just flash them with the light and keep backing up since they'll always flank you. Talk about downplaying things. The naration is also nothing like he makes it out to be, exagirate much? I love how each review is a plug for his novel. Anyone read that or bother to? It'd be pretty damn ironic if it's not worth the paper it's printed on. I'd like a review of it. :laugh:

I found the combat to be pretty much exactly what he said. Except the bigger guys took 4 shots (or 2 when using the shotgun). Also I thought the narration is literally exactly as he said, especially when reading the manuscript pages.

Oh well different strokes fro different folks.

[Hedon]

I'm not done quite yet, I'm on my way to the power plant. That said, I dunno how many hours I've done, but I've taken it slow looking for things like the coffee thermus and manuscript pages. I've missed a few (not counting the ones you can only get on Nightmare), watched any TV shows I ran into, listened to any radio shows I found, and also looked for the hidden boxs with extra stuff etc. If all you do is run through it from point A to B and skip all the little things then yeah, it'll probably be short, but why do that? Why miss out on all the extra story elements you get through TV/Radio/manuscripts etc?

Well stated. It's taking me about 2.5-3 hours per episode. With the pages, the treasure boxes, coffee thermos', listening to the entire length of each radio broadcast, watching each TV show to the end, exploring all the nooks and crannies...and absorbing the atmosphere, this will be an 18 hour game first time through at least.

Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) Reviews Alan Wake

And I have to say once again I believe he is spot on.

I found the combat to be pretty much exactly what he said. Except the bigger guys took 4 shots (or 2 when using the shotgun). Also I thought the narration is literally exactly as he said, especially when reading the manuscript pages.

Oh well different strokes fro different folks.

Just watched it. I have to say, he couldn't be any further from the mark. I can't even remember a single enemy going down with only 2 shots, even with a headshot and flashlight on them. If they did, it was far and few between. The ones that die the fastest for me are the ones that get nailed by my flare.

Narration is probably the best this gen as well.