Recommended Posts

Whatever. This thread has now turned into an absolute joke IMO. I am a grown 35 man and I am lying about the fact it took me only 2 shots for the "normal" taken and 4-6 for the harder ones? Okay sure. Whatever you say. Why would I do that and what would it possibly serve? I have stated already I liked the game, I just felt it was extremely repetitive, and guess what, a huge part of the repetitiveness for me was the combat never felt challenging.

Again, I played it on DEFAULT settings. So this is truly the last time I will state this, go ahead and call it BS, I have NO reason to lie, I mean over a stupid video game are you serious? Maybe it is because I always went for headshots, maybe this is one game I just "got it" and figured out the formula for perfect combat right away, but I am not lying, and I am insulted to be accused of doing such, so I just give up on this thread. Enjoy yourselves.

How ****ed off would you be if you were Remedy and played Dark Carnival on Left 4 Dead 2 which came out half a year before Alan Wake?

Why would they be? AW and L4D aren't really the same game. Sure you have to "survive" but that's the case with everything. Remedy has a much more story driven concept going compared to L4D which is just, what? A tacked on generic plot for the sake of having something?

Whatever. This thread has now turned into an absolute joke IMO. I am a grown 35 man and I am lying about the fact it took me only 2 shots for the "normal" taken and 4-6 for the harder ones? Okay sure. Whatever you say. Why would I do that and what would it possibly serve? I have stated already I liked the game, I just felt it was extremely repetitive, and guess what, a huge part of the repetitiveness for me was the combat never felt challenging.

Again, I played it on DEFAULT settings. So this is truly the last time I will state this, go ahead and call it BS, I have NO reason to lie, I mean over a stupid video game are you serious? Maybe it is because I always went for headshots, maybe this is one game I just "got it" and figured out the formula for perfect combat right away, but I am not lying, and I am insulted to be accused of doing such, so I just give up on this thread. Enjoy yourselves.

Having a quick read through the last 2 pages I think this whole misunderstanding is based on what difficulty people played on.

There are 3 difficulty levels, 2 of which (normal and hard) are available at the start and then the 'nightmare' difficulty which unlocks after one playthrough. I played on the middle (hard) and from what I experienced there were 4 types of enemy:

1) Really fast guys with small blades who would take 2 shots of the pistol

2) Middle enemies with small axes (the ones who throw them too) who would take 3 shots of the pistol

3) Big lumberjacks/Chainsaw guys who would take 5 shots of the pistol

4) The 'special' possessed people from the story who would take est. 10-12 shots from the pistol

I guess these numbers would be lower if played on normal and not hard, and then higher again on nightmare. This is also not taking into account headshots, so you can see how numbers can vary a lot depending on difficulty, shot placement and weapon (not going into shots from other weapons but you get the point).

So you're all right :)

All that aside, I loved the game on the whole. I found ep.3 to drag on too far and almost relieved when it ended but the other 5 ep's were pretty much spot on for me. Really looking forward to the DLC and hopefully full blown sequel!

PS. Try http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=3669 for a great discussion on the ending/whole story theories on Alan Wake. :)

Having a quick read through the last 2 pages I think this whole misunderstanding is based on what difficulty people played on.

There are 3 difficulty levels, 2 of which (normal and hard) are available at the start and then the 'nightmare' difficulty which unlocks after one playthrough. I played on the middle (hard) and from what I experienced there were 4 types of enemy:

1) Really fast guys with small blades who would take 2 shots of the pistol

2) Middle enemies with small axes (the ones who throw them too) who would take 3 shots of the pistol

3) Big lumberjacks/Chainsaw guys who would take 5 shots of the pistol

4) The 'special' possessed people from the story who would take est. 10-12 shots from the pistol

I guess these numbers would be lower if played on normal and not hard, and then higher again on nightmare. This is also not taking into account headshots, so you can see how numbers can vary a lot depending on difficulty, shot placement and weapon (not going into shots from other weapons but you get the point).

So you're all right :)

All that aside, I loved the game on the whole. I found ep.3 to drag on too far and almost relieved when it ended but the other 5 ep's were pretty much spot on for me. Really looking forward to the DLC and hopefully full blown sequel!

PS. Try http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=3669 for a great discussion on the ending/whole story theories on Alan Wake. :)

You're pretty spot on, I wasn't denying that some enemies die in 2 shots, my point was countering the obviously typical overexagerated "review" from Yahtzee which was pretty much way off for the sake of being funny. Saying that "every" enemy goes down in 2 shots is wrong! Also saying that enemies just freeze when hit with the light is also wrong! So how anyone can say his "review" is spot on is laughible.

Thanks for the link, it'd be interesting to see what some think about the ending and the meaning behind the final words.

Why would they be? AW and L4D aren't really the same game. Sure you have to "survive" but that's the case with everything. Remedy has a much more story driven concept going compared to L4D which is just, what? A tacked on generic plot for the sake of having something?

you obviously haven't played Alan Wake then

Everything about the

Concert Horde Fight

is exactly the same.

compared to L4D which is just, what? A tacked on generic plot for the sake of having something?

The story is more subtle in L4D2. The plot devices are everywhere it's just not as patronising as say, gears which basically tells you what to think and what you're expected to feel.

you obviously haven't played Alan Wake then

Everything about the

Concert Horde Fight

is exactly the same.

Now that's stupid, few posts ago I just said I beat the game. And you want to single out one event in the whole game and say it's spot on? Yeah, great, ok.

On another note this has been posted.

New short LA video.

The story is more subtle in L4D2. The plot devices are everywhere it's just not as patronising as say, gears which basically tells you what to think and what you're expected to feel.

That's basically the same as what I'm saying. Subtle is the same as not being deep or heavy if you will. It just tosses out some things, and you take it for what it is, nothing more nothing less. l4d is more about multiplayer mass zombile killing till you make it to the end of the level. As with multiplayer games in general I just find the whole thing boring. I like for a deeper story than something generic that lets me play online.

Now that's stupid, few posts ago I just said I beat the game. And you want to single out one event in the whole game and say it's spot on? Yeah, great, ok.

Sorry I didn't bother reading a few posts above mine.

And when did I ever say both games were similar? I said "How ****ed off would you be if you were Remedy and played Dark Carnival on Left 4 Dead 2 which came out half a year before Alan Wake? "

Cuz yeah, both parts were pretty spot on.

Maybe it would have been more appropriate if I said "obviously you haven't played Left4Dead 2"

That's a hard one cuz at first I'd play until I finished an episode which was 2hr's , maybe 2.5hrs and then call it a night. I was playing late so I had to get some sleep as well, played till around 1am or so each time. I'd say between 12 and 14hrs. I did miss a few things, like 10 or so manuscript pages, maybe more if you count the ones you can only find in nightmare mode. Missed 1 tv and 1 radio show as well, damnit! And I forget how many hidden boxes I missed to, *sigh*. And I was looking left and right to! :laugh:

My videos of the Manuscript Pages Locations and Coffee Thermos Locations are on YouTube over at http://youtube.com/steve0384 which will help you out.

I have already captured the rest of the locations for other items such as the TV's and Radio's. I have just been busy with other things but will go ahead and edit/render them the rest of the weekend as I have sometime. Then get those uploaded too, you will see them on my channel. If you need any help though, there are great communities out there that can help you too or you can PM me.

for the record, the only ones being called liars in this thread have been the people saying the game isn't easy and the taken can't generally be dispatched in two shots. it wasn't the other way around, unless you count someone disagreeing with you as calling you a liar. the two are not the same. what i said is that there's members here ridiculously going out of their way to argue over how bad a game this is, like the SDF will send them a Christmas bonus or something. you don't see me posting on the Heavy Rain thread, cause i only played that one for like thirty minutes. what do i know? and even if i thought it was the worst game ever released i wouldn't crusade over it.

as for the topic of debate, what i found was that the final taken sometimes is made artifically weaker for dramatic effect, so that the last slow-mo shot of an encounter is of a taken getting disintegrated. those did seem faster and easier to dispose of. i also had the sneaking suspicion that the more taken ganged up on Wake, the harder they became in terms of HP available to them. in other words, they gained a horde bonus of sorts. that could just be me, though.

My videos of the Manuscript Pages Locations and Coffee Thermos Locations are on YouTube over at http://youtube.com/steve0384 which will help you out.

I have already captured the rest of the locations for other items such as the TV's and Radio's. I have just been busy with other things but will go ahead and edit/render them the rest of the weekend as I have sometime. Then get those uploaded too, you will see them on my channel. If you need any help though, there are great communities out there that can help you too or you can PM me.

Nice! Thanks for the heads up and the vids. One quick question before I start a 2nd playthrough though. Do the manuscript pages and coffee thermos' that I found the first time show up again or just the ones I missed the first time? I'm thinking the later, but just to be sure I'll ask.

^^^

Remedy calls third DLC pack for Alan Wake a ?misunderstanding?

It?s a misunderstanding: Matias is talking about ?The Writer,? our second DLC pack, when he says there?ll be a further one out this year, not about a third pack. Apparently they thought he was talking about a completely new DLC thing.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/06/05/remedy-calls-third-dlc-pack-for-alan-wake-a-misunderstanding/

Has it been confirmed that the story will conclude in the DLCs?

They haven't said anything about that, or the details, well there's some small tidbits about the DLC packs but now how it ties to the game story itself. And they'll never say, best to keep it a secret, if you want to know just wait for someone to play and tell us or go ahead and get it yourself.

Didn't read through the entire thread yet but have we posted our theories about the story yet? Would it be better to post a new Alan Wake theories with spoilers thread?

There hasn't been any story related posts yet so you haven't missed any. If someone wants to make a new thread just for that or we could just spoiler tag any ideas you have, this also works.

Nice! Thanks for the heads up and the vids. One quick question before I start a 2nd playthrough though. Do the manuscript pages and coffee thermos' that I found the first time show up again or just the ones I missed the first time? I'm thinking the later, but just to be sure I'll ask.

Yes, the manuscript pages, coffee thermoses and everything else that you collected will be counted as collected on your next playthrough.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • @Sayan...I have defended you at various points as I hope you know. This headline however is utter trash...shame on you sir!
    • An actual cosmic "Eye of Sauron" had been looking straight at us all along by Sayan Sen Image by Kovin P. Vasquez via Pexels | Not representative An international team of researchers has solved a long-standing mystery surrounding a distant blazar known as PKS 1424+240, helping explain why it produces some of the brightest high-energy gamma rays and cosmic neutrinos ever observed despite appearing to have a relatively slow-moving jet. The findings were published on June 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters. The study addresses a broader challenge in astrophysics: understanding how extreme cosmic objects accelerate particles to very high energies and produce very high-energy (VHE) photons and neutrinos. PKS 1424+240 is located billions of light-years from Earth. It has attracted attention for years because it is both a powerful source of VHE gamma rays and the brightest known neutrino-emitting blazar in the sky, according to observations by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. It is also associated with one of the strongest peaks in IceCube's nine-year neutrino sky map A blazar is a type of active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole that pulls in surrounding matter and launches jets of plasma moving close to the speed of light. What makes blazars unique is their orientation. One of their jets points almost directly toward Earth, making them appear exceptionally bright across the electromagnetic spectrum and allowing scientists to study some of the most extreme physical processes in the Universe. The scientists exclaimed it's like the 'Eye of Sauron' in deep space. Usually, the brightest gamma-ray-emitting blazars are expected to have jets that appear to move very quickly. However, radio observations of PKS 1424+240 suggested that its jet was moving much more slowly, creating a contradiction that became part of a long-running problem known as the "Doppler factor crisis." To investigate, researchers analyzed 15 years of observations from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a network of 10 radio antennas spread across the continental United States, Hawaii and St. Croix. Using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), astronomers combine signals from widely separated radio telescopes to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope capable of revealing extremely fine details. The team combined 42 polarization-sensitive radio images collected between 2009 and 2025, creating a much deeper and more detailed view of the jet than had previously been possible. The observations were carried out as part of MOJAVE (Monitoring Of Jets in Active galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments), a long-running program that studies the brightness, polarization and magnetic field structures of jets produced by active galaxies. The project aims to better understand how activity near supermassive black holes is linked to high-energy radiation and neutrino emission. “When we reconstructed the image, it looked absolutely stunning,” said Yuri Kovalev, lead author of the study and Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded MuSES project at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. “We have never seen anything quite like it — a near-perfect toroidal magnetic field with a jet, pointing straight at us.” The image revealed an unusual geometry. The researchers found that Earth lies almost directly in line with the jet, with a viewing angle of less than 0.6 degrees. In simple terms, astronomers are looking almost straight down the jet. This turned out to be the key to the mystery. Because the jet is aimed almost directly at Earth, a relativistic effect called Doppler boosting dramatically increases its apparent brightness. The study found that this effect boosts the emission by a factor of about 30 while also making the jet appear slower than it actually is. “This alignment causes a boost in brightness by a factor of 30 or more,” said Jack Livingston, a co-author at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. “At the same time, the jet appears to move slowly due to projection effects — a classic optical illusion.” The nearly head-on view also gave scientists a rare look at the jet's magnetic field. Using polarized radio signals, they detected a clear toroidal, or doughnut-shaped, magnetic field component. The observations suggest the jet carries an electric current and that its magnetic field helps launch, shape and stabilize the flow of plasma. Researchers believe this magnetic structure may also play a key role in accelerating particles to energies high enough to produce both gamma rays and neutrinos. “Solving this puzzle confirms that active galactic nuclei with supermassive black holes are not only powerful accelerators of electrons, but also of protons — the origin of the observed high-energy neutrinos,” Kovalev said. The research was conducted under the MuSES (Multi-messenger Studies of Energetic Sources) project, which investigates how active galactic nuclei accelerate particles and generate different cosmic signals, including light and neutrinos. Scientists say understanding how protons are accelerated and linked to neutrino production remains one of the major unanswered questions in astrophysics. The findings help explain why some blazars can appear to have slow jets while still producing extremely bright high-energy emissions. More broadly, the study strengthens the link between relativistic jets, magnetic fields, gamma rays and high-energy neutrinos. Researchers say the results provide new clues about how some of the Universe's most powerful natural particle accelerators work and offer important insights for multimessenger astronomy, which combines different types of cosmic signals to study extreme events in space. Source: European Research Council, EDP Sciences This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
    • Gotenks98 is right... Outlook (new) is absolute trash. Doesn't Mozilla have an Enterprise Version of Firebird?
    • Microsoft Weekly: Surface Laptop Ultra, Windows 11 context menus, Build 2026 recap, and more by Taras Buria This week's news recap is here, with Microsoft announcing the new Surface Laptop Ultra, fresh chips from NVIDIA for Windows on ARM, a no-build week, fixes for Windows 11's context menus, gaming news, reviews, and more. Quick links: Windows 10 and 11 Windows Insider Program Updates are available Reviews are in Gaming news Great deals to check Windows 11 and Windows 10 Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions. At Computex 2026, together with NVIDIA, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, its most powerful laptop to date, powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark processor. Details about this computer are currently scarce, as Microsoft has only revealed certain parts of its specs. So far, we know that the computer has a 15-inch mini-LED display, a rich set of ports, a powerful processor, and all-day battery life. It also comes with a new wallpaper, which you can already download here in full resolution. The Surface Laptop Studio is not the only NVIDIA-powered Surface, which Microsoft unveiled this week. At Build 2026, the company also debuted the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, an odd-shaped desktop with a 20-core NVIDIA Grace CPU and an NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores and fifth-generation Tensor Cores with FP4 precision, connected via the NVIDIA NVLink-C2C chip-to-chip interconnect for high performance. According to Microsoft, it can run models with up to 120 billion parameters locally without relying on cloud GPU infrastructure. These two new Surface devices are likely to cost quite a lot, and for those who need a more affordable device, Microsoft is preparing the next-gen Qualcomm-powered Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. This week, details about these two devices leaked in plenty of detail. Other announcements at Build 2026 include the following: Microsoft unveils new security tools for IT admins and developers building AI products Microsoft announces Scout, an OpenClaw-powered personal agent for enterprise customers Microsoft unveils MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning and MAI-Code-1 coding models Microsoft announced a new Windows 11 native command-line utility Microsoft unveils Majorana 2 quantum chip, accelerating commercial timeline to 2029 Microsoft believes that AI agents will eventually replace apps through Project Solara Microsoft introduces Web IQ, a Bing-powered search system built for AI agents Last week, Microsoft released a new Experimental build, which introduced a major Start menu upgrade. It now lets you toggle off specific parts of the menu without affecting other features, resize the menu, and hide additional UI elements. We published a closer look here, so if you want to know what Microsoft is cooking without enrolling in the Insider program and installing unstable builds, check it out. Speaking of new features, many users are very annoyed about the way Microsoft delivers them. Recently, a frustrated user shared their experience with gradual rollouts, and even Microsoft engineers admitted there is a flaw in the system that prevents new features from applying properly. One of those new features includes the ability to uninstall AI models in Windows 11 with a single click. Windows 11 is finally getting fixes for its slow context menus. Marcus Ash from Microsoft confirmed that the company is working on fixing Windows 11's context menus. Reworked context menus are going to be faster, simpler by default, and "configurable to what you use most." According to Marcus, Microsoft will share more details soon. Windows Insider Program Windows 11 preview builds, released last week, are now available for download as standalone ISO files. These days, Microsoft regularly pushes new images, allowing users to clean-install its recent Windows 11 preview builds faster and easier. If you want to try the latest Windows 11 features without jumping through the Windows Update hoops, get those new images here. Sadly, Microsoft did not release new Windows 11 preview builds this week. Come back next time. Updates are available This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties. Microsoft is preparing new features for Teams. Later this month, the messenger will receive a new download manager with auto-dismissing notifications, reducing clutter and making the overall experience less annoying when dealing with downloads. Mozilla released Firefox 151.0.3, a new bug-fixing update for the browser. It is a small release, which fixes problems with pasting into text fields and the oversized VPN button on the toolbar. The update is now available for all users in the Release channel. Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting: VS Code 1.123 introduces massive upgrades for persistent AI developer workflows Microsoft OneDrive is getting a simple yet much-needed feature Microsoft faces heat after quietly blocking promised Office features on Apple systems Microsoft resumes forced Copilot app installation on some Windows PCs Browser vendors pen an open letter to Microsoft, saying "enough is enough" Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week: AMD Radeon Software 26.6.1 with optimizations for F1 25: 2026 Season, World of Tanks: HEAT, and various bug fixes. Reviews are in Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week Steven Parker dropped more mini PC reviews this week. GEEKOM Air12 2026 Edition is a low-power, affordable computer with an Intel Tiger Lake Pentium Gold processor, up to 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage, costing just $349. It is light, quiet, energy efficient, and has modern ports on the front. However, the front-facing USB Type-C is data-only, and there are some quirks with the computer's memory, so check out the full review. The AMD RX 9070 GRE has been released worldwide, and we published a benchmark review comparing this powerful graphics card to the RX 9070 XT, 7800 XT, the NVIDIA RTX 5070, and RTX 4070. It has solid, balanced performance, plenty of RAM, and low temperatures, but watch out for mediocre ray tracing performance and not the best efficiency. Also, we reviewed the Cuktech 10 Ultra, a compact, high-power charger with four ports and a big display full of various stats. This tiny charger can pull nearly 120W and spread that power according to each connected device's needs. It also comes with a high-quality 240W cable, three power modes, and retractable prongs. The best part? It is quite affordable, just make sure you have an outlet placed in the right spot to benefit from the built-in display. On the gaming side Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more. Do you remember the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft's first handheld console designed in partnership with ASUS? This week, ASUS revealed a new version of the device to celebrate twenty years of its Republic of Gamers brand. The new ROG Xbox Ally X20 features an OLED display, a transforming D-Pad, TMR sticks, and other changes. However, the chip inside the console is still the same. Forza Horizon 6 launched last month to critical acclaim, but the game will soon have a new rival made by those who used to work on Forza Horizon titles. Mike Brown from Maverick Games announced Clutch, an upcoming racing game with a story-driven campaign, deep car customization, and rich multiplayer. The game is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 in Spring 2027. The next update for Minecraft now has a release date. This week, Mojang announced that Chaos Cubed will be available on June 16, 2026. In addition, Mojang published a teaser of the next Minecraft movie. A Minecraft Movie Squared has now been confirmed for a release somewhere in 2027. NVIDIA GeForce Now is getting 18 new games in June. Those include Jurassic World Evolution 3, Fatekeeper, GOALS, Gothic 1 Remake, NTE: Neverness to Everness, and more. If you are a Game Pass subscriber, you can also get new games soon: Persona 5 Royal, Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, and more are coming to the service this month. Sumer Game Fest 2026 happened this week, where we saw plenty of new games, including Alien Isolation 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3, Gen Atlas from the Shadow of the Colossus creator, a new Cuphead game in 8-bit style, a new expansion for Mafia: The Old Country, and more. Finally, here are this week's Weekend PC Game Deals, full of discounts and the latest freebies from the Epic Games Store. Other gaming news includes the following: God of War Laufey announced, introducing Kratos' wife as the new protagonist Ori studio's No Rest for the Wicked 1.0 release and console plans announced Microsoft launches Godot Sample to streamline Xbox PC game development on the engine Great deals to check Every week, we cover many deals on different hardware and software. The following discounts are still available, so check them out. You might find something you want or need. Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe - $389.99 | 39% off Sonos Sub 4 - Wireless Subwoofer - $759 | 16% off Logitech MX Creative Console - $159.99 | 20% off This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      X-No-file earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • One Month Later
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      JKR earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      moog19 went up a rank
      Rookie
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      510
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      273
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      75
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      71
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      68
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!